Keep Your Goals in Sight 莫让目标太遥远

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Keep Your Goals in Sight 莫让目标太遥远

When she looked ahead, Florence Chadwick saw nothing but a solid wall of fog.

佛罗伦斯·查德威克向前方望去，除了绵延无尽的大雾，她什么也看不到。
Her body was numb.

她的身体都麻木了，
She had been swimming for nearly sixteen hours.

她已经游了几乎16个小时，
Already she was the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions.

在那之前，她已经是第一位从两个方向游过英吉利海峡的女子。
Now, at age 34,

现在，她已34岁，
her goal was to become the first woman to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast.

她的目标是要成为第一个从卡达琳纳岛游到加利福尼亚海岸的女子。
On that Fourth of July morning in 1952,

1952年7月4日的清晨，

the sea was like an ice bath

大海就像一个冰浴盆，

and the fog was so dense she could hardly see her support boats.

雾很浓，她甚至看不到救援她的船只。
Sharks cruised toward her lone figure,

鲨鱼游向她孤单的身躯，
only to be driven away by rifle shots.

只能靠来复枪来击退。
Against the frigid grip of the sea,

她迎着冰冷的海水，
she struggled on—hour after hour—

努力向前游，就这样一小时又一小时过去了；
while millions watched on national television.

无数的观众坐在电视机前观看这一情景。

Alongside Florence in one of the boats,

在佛罗伦斯旁边的一艘船里，
her mother and her trainer offered encouragement.

她母亲和她的教练不断地鼓励她，
They told her it wasn’t much farther.

他们告诉她离海岸已经不远了，
But all she could see was fog.

然而除雾以外，她却什么也看不到。
They urged her not to quit.

他们激励她不要放弃，
She never had . . .

她也一直在坚持，
until then.

直到
With only a half mile to go,

距离目的地只有半英里的时候，
she asked to be pulled out.

她却要求，将她拖出水面。 
Still thawing her chilled body several hours later,

几个小时后，她一边暖着身体，
she told a reporter,

一边对着记者说，
"Look, I’m not excusing myself,

听着，我不是为自己找借口，
but if I could have seen land I might have made it."

但如果我能看见陆地的话，我会成功的。
It was not fatigue or even the cold water that defeated her.

然而击败她的不是劳累和冰冷的海水，
It was the fog.

而是雾。
She was unable to see her goal.

因为有雾，她根本看不到自己的目标。

Two months later, she tried again.

两个月后，她又试着游了一次，
This time, despite the same dense fog,

这一次，尽管雾还是那样浓，
she swam with her faith intact

但她始终带着必胜的信念，
and her goal clearly pictured in her mind.

头脑中始终有一个清楚的目标，
She knew that somewhere behind that fog was land

她知道雾后面的某个地方就是陆地，and this time she made it!

这一次她成功了！
Florence Chadwick became the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel,

佛罗伦斯·查德威克最终成为第一个游过卡达琳纳海峡的女子，
eclipsing the men’s record by two hours!

并且以快两个小时的速度打破了男子游过该海峡的记录，这让男子记录黯然失色。