克勞迪婭·杜韋/Claudia Duwe
He wasn’t a guy of big words, and he seemed to live entirely in his own world.I remember that during the days he worked with us none of us exactly knew who he was, where he came from or what he was looking for, and afterwards he disappeared.Nobody knew where he had gone, what he was doing or if he had friends or a family to stay with.I guess, we didn’t even know his name—and even if we did, I’ve forgotten it anyway.
Those days were more than hard for all of us.There seemed to be no escape from the greyness of our everyday life which was the only colour that surrounded us.The huge concrete blocks we lived in was grey, the grey of the factory dust, even the colour of our clothes, that once might have been white was grey.It must have been a bright and shining white...and I can’t exactly recall how much time I spent trying to imagine the kind of white it might have been.Since white was the colour of the kind of paradise I so much longed to live in some day, grey left behind nothing more than a bitter taste of emptiness and depression.I can remember how I noticed once, that any other colour must be a symbol for something, a feeling or whatever.Only grey seemed to stand for absolutely nothing.This was the world I lived in, and so did he.
Having our job in the factory was still luxury though, considering the fact that most of us had families to feed.And not long after he started to work there, I would always find him working at the machine next to mine.We’d work for hours next to each other, staying quiet, with our thoughts drifting away to a different place but still aware of our hands doing the same movements over and over again.We were doing that until the bell would ring to end the work for the day.I used to work in a mechanical way, following the same rhythm over and over again, and so did he.But every time I was about to give up, he would lift his head and give me a little smile, as if he could guess my thoughts.I think it was actually his eyes that impressed me most.They were so dark and straight, and though they seem to be hiding anything, I couldn’t get rid of the impression that somehow he must be hiding something.
Since I first saw him, he had always been around, and every time he gave me one of those smiles, he would spread a bit of warmth into my heart, a bit of friendliness.I guess, at the end of the day it must have been him who gave me the strength to go on somehow, just by being there.
Well, to make a long story short, he died only a year after he started working with us.It was a car accident and he didn’t have to suffer very long.I must have been his only friend in town, at least that was what I thought when I went to his funeral.The only person I met there was an old lady, maybe his mother.She told me that he had lost his family just the year before and after that he didn’t speak any more.He hadn’t said a single word.First I didn’t believe her.I just thought that he was a fairly quiet person; besides there was nothing much to say anyway.But suddenly I realized that I couldn’t recall ever having heard his voice at all.Only then did I realize it!
He gave me so much and I knew so little about him.He had been my friend and now I had lost him without having had the chance to give anything back.He had been so strong that he was able to give whatever had happened.
I felt weak in those days.And guilty.But after that I started to care for the people around me, I think I started to live.
他不會說大話，而且似乎完全活在自己的世界裏。還記得他與我們一起工作的日子裏，沒有人確切地知道他是誰，從哪裏來，在尋找什麽，後來他消失了。沒有人知道他去了哪裏，在做什麽，是否有朋友或是否和家人一起。我估計我們甚至連他的名字都不知道——就算是聽說過，也記不起來了。
對我們來說，那些日子遠非艱難可以形容。灰色單調的生活圍繞著我們，仿佛無法擺脫。我們居住的巨大混凝土樓房是灰色的，工廠的塵埃是灰色的，甚至我們的衣服也是灰色的，也許它們原本是白色的，現在變灰了。那一定是一種雪亮的白……我記不清有多少次曾試圖想象那是怎樣一種白色。自從白色成為我夢寐以求的天堂般的色彩，灰色帶給我的就隻有空虛和消沉的味道。我還記得，曾經我是多麽注重色彩，其他任何顏色都一定是某些東西、某種感情或其他什麽東西的象征。而隻有灰色，似乎毫無意義。這就是我和他所生活的世界。
由於我們多數人都要養家糊口，因此能在工廠裏工作已經算是不錯了。他去那兒工作後沒多久，我就發現他總在我旁邊的機器上工作。我們就那樣挨著工作數小時，一言不發，各自的思緒都四處飄**，但是雙手仍能一遍一遍地做著相同的動作，直到結束一天工作的鈴聲響起來。一直以來，我就是這樣機械地在同一節奏下，一遍遍做著同樣的活，他也是一樣。但每當我想要放棄時，他都會抬起頭，給我一個淡淡的笑，仿佛他能猜到我的想法。我想，其實是他的雙眼給我留下了深刻的印象。那雙眼睛是那樣幽黑，那樣率直，盡管似乎掩藏著一些什麽。
自從第一次見到他，他就一直在我的周圍。每次他對我這樣淡淡一笑，就會有一絲溫暖和親切流入我的心田。我認為，每天能堅持到結束，都是他給予的力量讓我堅持在這裏，堅持下去。
好了，長話短說吧，他與我們共事僅僅一年後就死了。在一場車禍中，他沒遭受任何痛苦就死去了。我一定是他在城裏的唯一朋友，至少在參加葬禮時我是這樣想的。葬禮上，我隻見到一位老婦人，或許是他的母親吧。她告訴我，一年前他剛剛失去了家庭，從那以後就不再說話，一個字也沒有說過。起初我不相信。我還以為他不過是個沉默寡言的人，另外也沒什麽可說的。但是突然，我意識到記憶中從未聽到過他的聲音。直到那一刻我才恍然大悟。
他給予我那麽多，而我對他的了解卻如此之少。他曾經是我的朋友，而如今我失去了他，再沒有機會回報。他是那樣的堅強，不管曾經發生了什麽，他依然在付出。
那段日子裏，我感到虛弱和內疚。但從那以後，我開始關心身邊的人，我感覺自己開始了新生。
1.big words
big words是“大話”的意思。
例：His big words were never backed by deeds.他的豪言從未見之於行動。
表示“吹牛”的說法有：boast off；brag about
2.besides，except
besides：除……以外，還有……
except：從整體中除去……
這兩個詞語，漢語可以用“除了”一種形式來表達，但漢語的“除外”既可以指包括，又可以指排除，在這兩種不同的情況下，英語就得分別用兩個介詞來表示：例：1.Two girls went shopping besides Mary.
除了瑪麗還有兩個女孩去購物。
2.Two girls went shopping except Mary.
有兩個女孩去購物(沒有瑪麗)。
1.I can remember how I__________once, that any other colour must be a symbol for something, a feeling or__________.Only grey seemed to stand for__________nothing.This was the world I lived in, and so did he.
2.He gave me so much and I knew__________about him.He had been my friend and now I had lost him without having had the__________to give anything back.He had been so strong that he was able to give__________had happened.