Why I’m Building Libraries Inside Prisons | Reginald Dwayne Betts | TED · TED
Reginald Dwayne Betts在16岁入狱后，通过书籍寻找希望，创办了数百个监狱图书馆。他用个人经历讲述如何在极端环境中发现美好，适合练习听力与理解深层含义。
I ate my first mango in a hole.
我第一次吃的是那种中间有洞的芒果。
What some called a shoe, the box, Ad-Seg, lock up.
有些人将其称为“鞋子”、“盒子”、“广告营销工具”或“锁具”。
But no matter what you call solitary confinement, no one expects it to be where you eat your first mango.
但无论你如何称呼这种单独监禁的形式，没人会想到它竟会成为你第一次品尝芒果的地方。
And me?
那我呢？
I thought the oval-shaped fruit that came with lunch that day was an apple.
我以为那天午餐附带的那种椭圆形水果是苹果。
I've been teaching myself to juggle, to keep from losing my mind.
我一直在自学如何玩杂耍，以此来防止自己失去理智（或：保持清醒）。
Imagining that I could manage my troubles if I could float apples into an orbit of my creation.
想象一下：如果我能把苹果“送入”我所创造的这个“系统”的轨道中，或许就能解决自己的麻烦了。
When I sank my teeth into the unfamiliar, fragrant fruit, juices ran down my fingertips.
当我咬下这种外形陌生、香气扑鼻的水果时，果汁从我的指尖流了下来。
I ate until I chipped a tooth, scraping it along the mango seed.
我一直吃个不停，直到一颗牙齿被弄坏了——那颗牙齿在摩擦芒果籽的过程中被磨损了。
I never saw another mango in prison.
在监狱里，我再也没有见过其他芒果。
And I only learned the name of the fruit when I was home and in my mother's kitchen.
直到我回到家、来到妈妈的厨房，才知道了这种水果的名字。
Before I started juggling, I trashed the mostly rotten apples without a second glance.
在我开始玩杂耍之前，我连看都不看一眼，就把那些大多已经腐烂的苹果全都扔掉了。
Then juggling transformed the apples into my way of escape.
后来，玩杂技让我把那些苹果变成了逃脱的工具（或者说，利用这些苹果来帮助自己逃脱）。
That's how prison taught me that you find what you look for.
监狱让我明白了这样一个道理：你总能找到自己一直在寻找的东西。
Who would expect to hear a story about prison that includes a mango?
谁能想到会听到一个关于监狱的故事，而这个故事里竟然还提到了芒果呢？
I got locked up in 1996.
我于 1996 年被关进了监狱。
I was 16 years old, five-foot-five and 125 pounds.
当时我16岁，身高5英尺5英寸（约1.65米），体重125磅（约57公斤）。
I hadn't won a fight since the second grade.
从二年级开始，我就再也没有赢过任何一场“战斗”（这里指打架或竞争）。
Becoming a brawler overnight wasn't in the cards for me.
对我来说，一夜之间变成一个喜欢打架的人根本不可能的事情。
That's why people often ask me how I survived.
这就是为什么人们经常问我是怎么活下来的。
What if I say, I survived prison because I believed you find what you look for.
如果我说：“我之所以能从监狱中逃脱，是因为我相信人们总能找到自己一直在寻找的东西”，你会怎么想？
Because of what it means to notice the mango.
因为“注意到那个芒果”这件事本身所蕴含的意义。
To commit yourself to the possibility of a miracle, even without a name for the wonder.
即使这种奇迹还没有一个具体的名称，也要相信它发生的可能性。
I should thank my judge.
我应该感谢我的法官。
After I pleaded guilty to carjacking, and he sentenced me to nine years in prison, I was certain that I was going home.
在我承认自己犯有劫车罪之后，法官判我九年监禁；我当时确信自己很快就能回家了。
I waited for him to tell me it was all a dream.
我等着他告诉我这一切都只是个梦。
Then he confirmed my intuition.
然后他证实了我的直觉。
“I don’t have any illusion[s] that sending you to the penitentiary is going to help."
我并不抱有任何幻想，认为把你送进监狱会有什么帮助。
Do you know what the cruelest word in the English language is?
你知道英语中最残酷的单词是什么吗？
The preposition "but."
介词“but”。
The judge said, "But you can go down there and you can make the best of it or not."
法官说：“不过你可以选择去那里，然后尽力利用那里的资源；当然，你也可以选择不去。
I figured the judge was saying that I could choose what I looked for in those cells.
我以为法官的意思是：我可以自己决定在那些细胞中寻找什么（即我可以自行选择观察或分析细胞的具体内容）。
Becoming a computer engineer was now out of the question.
成为一名计算机工程师已经变得不可能了。
Earning a college degree from prison was just as unlikely.
在监狱里获得大学学位，同样是一件几乎不可能的事情。
But because of what the judge said, I thought not only of what I would lose.
但由于法官的那些话，我不仅考虑到了自己会失去什么。
I was 16 years old, planning who I would be when I left.
那时我16岁，正在思考自己离开这个世界后会成为什么样的人。
I've loved books since I was a kid.
从我小时候起，我就非常喜欢读书。
And so on my sentencing day, I told myself that I would be a writer.
就这样，在我的宣判那天，我告诉自己：我一定要成为一名作家。
In a crucible that is prison, I learned to see other people.
在监狱这个“熔炉”般的环境中，我学会了如何去理解他人、如何看待别人。
I remember Star.
我记得《Star》这部作品。