介绍： 1 The perks of being a pirate
当海盗的好处

Speaker：Tom Nash

00:00
Often when I'm out in public, a child will stare at me. And if the child is particularly brave, they'll approach me and ask: "Are you a pirate?" To which I then need to respond, once again, "Yes." I mean, let's be honest: I've got two hooks,...

介绍： 1 The perks of being a pirate
当海盗的好处

Speaker：Tom Nash

00:00
Often when I'm out in public, a child will stare at me. And if the child is particularly brave, they'll approach me and ask: "Are you a pirate?" To which I then need to respond, once again, "Yes." I mean, let's be honest: I've got two hooks, prosthetic legs and a penchant for hard liquor. All I need is an eye-patch and a parrot, and I'm basically there.
当我在公共场所的时候，总会有个小孩盯着我。如果这个小孩比较勇敢，他会走过来问我：“你是海盗吗？”而我就得再一次回答，“没错。” 我是说，大家都知道的：我手装俩钩子，双腿义肢，还嗜好烈酒。再加一个眼罩和一只鹦鹉就齐活了。

00:44 00:37
But I like being a pirate. I find many advantages to having a disability, and I'm not just talking about the money I save on gloves ... or the fantastically legitimate excuse for never having to master chopsticks. I'm talking about real advantages I feel I've gained, having gone through physical adversity.
不过我喜欢当海盗。我发觉残疾也能有许多好处，我指的不仅是可以省下买手套的钱……
或是有不用学用筷子的 极其合理的借口。 我指的是在经受了身体上的患难后，我觉得我真正得到的好处。

01:07 01:00
When I was 19, I contracted a disease that resulted in the loss of both my arms at the elbows, both my legs below the knee, and left enough scars on my face to elicit jealousy in Freddy Krueger. Now, I may never be able to communicate in sign language, but my increased resilience and general ability to problem-solve has been heightened by being forced to think laterally to overcome problems that most people aren't faced with.
在我19岁时，我染上了一种病，使我失去了手肘以下的双臂，膝盖以下的双腿，在我脸上留下的伤疤之多，可以让杀手弗莱迪都嫉妒三分。我也许永远也不能用手语交流了，但我的适应力和解决问题的能力已经得到大幅提高，因为我被迫横向思考，来克服大多数人都不会遇到的问题。

01:36 01:28
One of the first lessons that I learned immediately followed the painful and arduous task of learning how to walk again, but it went on to pay dividends for the rest of my life. It happened when I attempted to step up a curb. Now as rudimentary as this action sounds to most of you, stepping up a curb is somewhat of a challenge for those of us without ankle movement. So I tried stepping up the curb the way I'd always known how, front on, for days on end, with no success, until it became obvious that the time and effort I was investing into this endeavor was clearly disproportionate to the benefit of its outcome.
我最早学会的一课伴随着重新学走路这项痛苦而艰巨的任务，不过我的余生都从中受益。那是在我尝试踏上马路牙子的时候。虽说对于你们中大多数人来说，这动作听起来很基础，但对于我们这些脚踝没法动的人来说，踏上马路牙子算是一种挑战。于是我试图用我熟知的办法，从正面踩上马路牙子，可连续多日的尝试都以失败告终，直到能明显察觉，我投入的时间与努力和它带来的好处根本不成正比。

02:20 02:12
So, I decided to inspect the problem from a different angle. If I couldn't use an ankle joint to achieve the range of motion that I required to mount the curb, I would have to use a different joint, like my hip. So I turned my body perpendicular to the curb and placed my foot up sideways, and I was able to step up immediately. Within five minutes, no staircase was safe from my advances. That very day, I climbed a staircase of three flights, which I was quite impressed with as well, except I realized that I didn't know how to get back down again. That was a long weekend.
所以我决定从另外的角度来审视这个问题。如果我没法用踝关节做出足够幅度的动作来登上马路牙子，我就得用别的的关节，比如我的髋关节。于是我把身体扭成与路边垂直，把我的一只脚侧着放上去，然后我一下子就能踏上去了。五分钟之内，没有楼梯能逃过我前进的步伐。 就在那一天，我一口气爬上了三层楼梯，连我自己都震惊了，然后我发现，我不知道该怎么下楼梯。那可真是个漫长的周末。

03:03 02:55
Now, in my past life as an able-bodied person, I'd been a guitarist. I was alright as a player, but I'd never really taken it further. I'd never really started a band or played live all that much. Nonetheless, music was a great passion of mine, and when I lost my arms, the idea that it may no longer be a part of my life critically challenged my will to keep living. However, the thought that emerged immediately after being discharged from hospital was: "If Ray Charles can play the piano while blind as a bat, let's get to work on a solution for this guitar problem." So, consulting with an engineer, I designed a slide system that would hook into my left hook, and I devised another pick-holder system that would clip into my right hook. Now, if this worked, I would be able to play the guitar open tuned on my lap, like a slide.
在我过去身体还健全时，我曾是个吉他手。我弹得还算可以，不过从没有要更上一层楼。我从没组建过乐队，或是频繁现场演出。但无论如何，音乐是我的一大挚爱，当我失去双臂的时候，想到音乐可能从此与我无缘，我的求生意志便受到了致命打击。但是，在出院之后， 我立刻想到的是：“如果雷·查尔斯（Ray Charles）眼盲得像只蝙蝠也可以弹钢琴，我也可以为这个吉他难题想想办法。” 于是，咨询了一位工程师后，我设计了一个滑音管装置，钩在我的左手钩子上，然后我又设计了一个拨片固定装置，夹在我右手钩子上。如果这样行得通，我就可以把吉他平放在腿上，用开放定弦弹奏，像幻灯片吉他那样。

03:56 03:48
So after weeks of testing and alterations, I finally had the accessories back to play the guitar again, and I was right back where I was before losing my hands -- being issued with noise complaints from my neighbors, obviously.
经过数周的调试和修改之后，我终于有装备可以重新弹吉他了，然后我立刻回到了我失去双手前的状态——那自然是被邻居投诉噪音太大。

04:10 04:02
But this time, I took it further. I started a band with my friends. We wrote songs and recorded them. We even played gigs to real people. Not as many as this. But even though it was a just a tiny step, it was a giant leap from what I'd achieved when I was all in one piece.
不过这次，我又更进一步，和朋友们组建了一支乐队。我们自己写歌、录音，甚至还给真人观众们演出。没像现在那么多人啦。尽管这只是一小步，但和我还完好无缺时的成就相比，这已经是一次巨大的飞跃。