海豚學(xué)說話“愛上”女老師 被分開后自殺 英語世界奇聞

　　Of all the weird and wonderful events of the 1960s, few are as strange as an animal experiment that took place on the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1965.

　　上世紀(jì)六十年代的所有奇聞異事中，很少有能比得上1965年發(fā)生在美國維京群島的“海豚戀人”動物實(shí)驗(yàn)事件。

　

　For ten weeks, in a charming villa on the island of St Thomas, overlooking the Caribbean, Dr John C. Lilly, a neurologist, tried to teach a six-year-old dolphin to speak English.

　　在圣托馬斯島的一座可以俯瞰加勒比海的美麗別墅里，約翰·莉莉博士進(jìn)行了一個為期10周的實(shí)驗(yàn)——教一只6歲的海豚說英語。

　　Margaret Howe, an experiment assistant, would live, day and night, with Peter, a bottlenose dolphin. And they would eat, bathe, sleep and play together in complete isolation.

　　實(shí)驗(yàn)助理瑪格麗特·豪和一只名叫彼得的寬吻海豚在與世隔絕的環(huán)境里同吃同住。

　　The water on the first floor of the lab was 22in deep, allowing Margaret to wade and Peter to swim. At night, she lifted herself onto a hanging mattress, protected from Peter’s splashings by a shower curtain. She ate tinned food, so no need for any deliveries. No one was to interrupt their daily routine.

　　實(shí)驗(yàn)室一樓的水有22英寸深，彼得可以在那里游泳，瑪格麗特也可以站在水中。晚上瑪格麗特蓋著浴巾睡在吊床上，免得被彼得弄出的水花濺濕。她只吃罐頭食品，不叫外賣。沒人能打擾她和彼得。

　　What no one predicted is that Peter the dolphin would take it one step further. He he fell in love with Margaret.

　　但沒想到彼得讓他們的關(guān)系更進(jìn)一步——他愛上了瑪格麗特。

　　And next week, after nearly five decades of silence from Margaret Howe, a BBC documentary will tell the whole story.

　　在保持了近50年沉默后，瑪格麗特將在下周的BBC紀(jì)錄片中講述整個故事。

　　And what a rigorous routine it was, from Sunday to Friday, with only Saturdays off for Margaret. She lived her life in a swimming costume — with an extra leotard on colder evenings — and cut her hair to a quarter of an inch long to make her interactions with Peter easier.

　　瑪格麗特一周工作六天，周六休息。為了和彼得更好的交流，她剪了短發(fā)，穿上泳衣，只在寒冷的晚上加上一件緊身衣。

　　Peter was growing keener and keener on winning her attentions, hurling a ball against her shower curtain to get her to play. Increasingly, he only wanted to play ball with her and not on his own.

　　彼得變得越來越熱衷于吸引瑪格麗特的注意。他把球頂向瑪格麗特的浴巾，希望和她一起游戲。隨著時(shí)間流逝，他甚至不再愿意獨(dú)自玩耍。

　　‘I did have a very close encounter with — I can’t even say a dolphin again — Peter.’

　　“我和彼得的關(guān)系非常親密，我甚至不能再叫他海豚。”

　　The problem was that, just at the time Peter and Margaret had begun to hammer out a workable relationship, the experiment ended and the lab was closed.

　　可惜的是，就在他們發(fā)展出超越工作伙伴的關(guān)系之時(shí)，實(shí)驗(yàn)結(jié)束了，實(shí)驗(yàn)室也隨之關(guān)閉。

　　After a few weeks, Margaret received the shocking news that Peter had committed suicide by refusing to breathe, and sinking to the bottom of his tank.

　　幾周后，瑪格麗特接到了噩耗——彼得拒絕呼吸，沉入水底，結(jié)束了自己的生命。

　　Dolphins may not speak English — but, just like humans, they know all about broken hearts. 海豚也許不會說英語，但和人類一樣，它們也會感受心碎的情感。