Night Watch
1. The story began on a downtown Brooklyn street corner. An elderly man had collapsed while crossing the street, and an ambulance rushed him to Kings County Hospital. There, when he came to now and again, the man repeatedly called for his son.
2. From worn letter found in his pocket, an emergency-room nurse learned that his son was a Marine stationed in North Carolina. It seemed there were no other relatives.
3. Someone at the hospital called the Red Cross office in Brooklyn, and a request for the boy to rush to Brooklyn was sent to the Red Cross director of the North Carolina Marine Corps camp. Because time was short ― the patient was dying ― the Red Cross man and officer set out in a jeep. They found the young man wading through some marshes in a military exercise. He was rushed to the airport in time to catch the one plane that might enable him to reach his dying father.
4. It was mid-evening when the young Marine walked into the entrance lobby of Kings County Hospital. A nurse took the tired, anxious serviceman to the bedside. 5. “Your son is here,” she said to the old man. She had to repeat the words several times before the patient’s eyes opened. The medicine he had been given because of the pain from his heart attack made his eyes weak and he only dimly saw the young man in Marine Corps uniform standing outside the oxygen tent. He reached out his hand. The Marine wrapped his strong fingers around the old man’s limp ones, squeezing a message of love and encouragement. The nurse brought a chair, so the marine could sit by the bed.
6. Nights are long in hospitals, but all through the the night the young Marine sat there in the dimly-lit ward, holding the old man’s hand and offering words of hope and strength. Occasionally, the nurse suggested that the Marine rest for a while. He refused.
7. Whenever the nurse came into the ward, the Marine was there, but he paid no attention to her and the night noises of the hospital ― the clanking of an oxygen tank, the laughter of night-staff members exchanging greetings, the cries and moans and snores of other patients. Now and then she heard him say a few gentle words. The dying man said nothing, only held tightly to his son through most of the night.
8. It was nearly dawn when the patient died. The Marine placed on the bed the lifeless hand he had been holding, and went to tell the nurse. While she did what she had to do, he smoked a cigarette ― his fist since he got to the hospital.
9. Finally, she returned to the nurse’s station. Where he was waiting. She started to offer words of sympathy, but the Marine interrupted her. “Who was that man?” he asked. 10. “He was you father,” she answered, startled.
11. “No, he wasn’t,” the Marine replied. “I never saw him before in my life.” 12. “Why didn’t you say something when I took you to him?” the nurse asked.
13. “I knew immediately there’d been a mistake, but I also knew he needed his son, and his son just wasn’t here. When I realized he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his son, I guessed he really needed me. So I stayed.”
14. With that, the Marine turned and left the hospital. Two days later a message come in from the North Carolina Marine Corps base informing the Brooklyn Red Cross that the real son was on his way to Brooklyn for his father’s funeral. It turned out there had been two Marines with the same name and similar numbers in the camp. Someone in the personnel office had pulled out the wrong 'record.
15. But the wrong Marine had become the right son at the right time. And he proved, in a very human way, that there are people who care what happens to their fellow men.
night watch课文中文翻译
守夜人
这个故事发生在很久以前.但却被重复的说了一遍又一遍。每个人都被这真实故事感动。
一位老人被一辆汽车撞倒，被送往医院，他受了恨严重的伤，并在他几次重新恢复意识的时候，他多次打电话给他的儿子。
没有人知道，他的儿子在哪里。一封肮脏的信在他的口袋里找到了。护士发现得知他的儿子是北卡罗来纳州的士兵。
医院打电话给红十字会办公室去寻找那个年轻人。年轻的士兵马上赶往机场，及时赶上飞机。
当士兵到达医院的时候已经是晚上了。一个护士把他带到老人的床头。 “你的儿子在这里“，她对那老人说。她不得不在老人撑开眼睛前重复的说着。他模糊的看到那年轻人并感觉无比安慰。他伸出他的手，那年轻人牵着老人的手并说着充满希望的话。
年轻士兵彻夜坐床旁边，护士想要替他看守一下，被他拒绝了。 黎明时分，老人去世了。护士开始安慰他，但士兵问她：“那是谁？” “他是你的父亲，”她回答。 “不，他不是。我从未见过他。”
“你为什么不说话，我带你到他这的时候？”
“我知道马上离开那里是一个错误，但是我也知道他需要他的儿子，但他的儿子刚好不在这。我意识到我需要留下，所以我留在这了。”
night watch课文翻译
