He worked himself to death, finally and precisely, at 3:00 A.M. Sunday morning.他终于累死了,The obituary didn’t say that, of course. It said that he died of a coronary thrombosis----I think that was it----but everyone among his friends and acquaintances knew it instantly. He was a perfect Type A, a workaholic, a classic, they said to each other and shook their heads----and thought for five or ten minutes about the way they lived.讣告并没有这么说.讣告说他死于冠桩血栓---应该就是这种病吧----但他所有的朋友和熟人全都立刻就知道他其实是累死的.他是典型的A型血人,典型的工作狂,所谓的精英,他的朋友们一边摇头一边交谈,花上五到十秒钟反省自己的生活方式.This man who worked himself to death finally and precisely at 3:00 A.M. Sunday morning---on his day off---was fifty one years old and a vice-president. He was, however, one of six vice-presidents, and one of three who might conceivably---if the president died or retired soon enough---have moved to the top spot. Phil knew that.那累死在周日凌晨三点---这天是他的假期---的死者今年51岁, 是一家公司的副总裁. 不过,那家公司有六个副总,他是其中三名有望升任总裁----如果老总去世或是及时退休的话--的副总之一, 他很有希望爬到颠峰, 非尔明白这一点.He worked six days a week, five of them until eight or nine at night, during a time when his own company had begun the four-day week for everyone but the executives. He worked like the Important People. He had no outside “extracurricular interests,” unless, of course, you think about a monthly golf game that way. To Phil, it was work. He always ate egg salad sandwiches at his desk. He was, of course, overweight, by 20 or 25 pounds. He thought it was okay, though, because he didn’t smoke.他每周工作六天, 其中五天一直到晚上八点或九点. 这时,公司已开始实行四工作日制, 当然,这不包括行政人员. 非尔和每一个所谓的”重要人物”一样, 没有任何业余爱好, 当然了,每月打一次高尔夫除外.但对非尔来说, 这也是工作.非尔总是坐在办公桌前啃鸡蛋沙拉. 当然了,他体重超标,大概超重20或25磅. 不过非尔觉得那没关系, 因为他从不吸烟.On Saturdays, Phil wore a sports jacket to the office instead of a suit,because it was the weekend.周六时,非尔会把西装换成运动装,因为周末到了.He had a lot of people working for him, maybe sixty, and most of them liked him most of the time. Three of them will be seriously considered for his job. The obituary didn’t mention that.非尔有一大群下属为他工作,估计有六十人吧,大部分的人在大部分的时候都很喜欢他们的上司. 其中三人将角逐非尔现在的位置.讣告也没有提到这一点.But it did list his “survivors” quite accurately. He is survived by his wife, Helen, forty-eight years old, a good woman of no particular marketable skills, who worked in an office before marrying and mothering. She had, according to her daughter, given up to compete with his work years ago, when the children were small. A company friend said, “I know how much you will miss him.” And she answered, “I already have.”不过,讣告明确地提到了他的”未忘人”. 非尔撇下了他的妻子海伦. 她是个好女人, 今年四十八岁, 没有多少经商头脑. 在做妻子和母亲之前,她一直在办公室做一名小职员. 他们的女儿说,母亲多年前就放弃了同父亲的工作竞争, 在孩子们都还很小的时候. 公司一个朋友安慰海伦道:” 我知道你会非常非常想念他.” 海伦答道:” 我已经想念了好多好多年.”“Missing him all these years,” she must have given up part of herself which had cared too much for the man. She would be “wel l taken care of.”“这么多年来,我每天都在想他”, 海伦许会因为过分思念丈夫而失落了自我吧. 她将得到”最好的照料”.His “dearly beloved” eldest of the “dearly beloved” children is a bard-working executive in a manufacturing firm down South. In the day and a half before the funeral, he went around the neighborhood researching his father, asking the neighbors what he was like. They were embarrassed.他”最最亲爱”的长子是南部一家工厂的行政人员, 他同父亲一样卖力地工作.在葬礼的前1.5天, 他走访了很多邻居想要找回他的父亲, 他向邻居们询问父亲的情况. 邻居们感到很尴尬,因为他们对他的父亲几乎一无所知.His second child is a girl, who is twenty-four and newly married. She lives near her mother and they are close, but whenever she was alone with her father, in a car driving somewhere, they had nothing to say to each other.老二是女儿, 今年二十四岁, 最近刚结婚. 她和母亲住得很近,她们亲密无间, 但每每她与父亲独处, 比如坐车去某个地方时, 他们从来都无话可说.The youngest is twenty, a boy, a high-school graduate who has spent the last couple of years, like a lot of his friends, doing enough odd jobs to stay in grass and food. He was the one who tried to grab at his father, and tried to mean enough to him to keep the man at home. He was his father’s favorite. Over the last two years, Phil stayed up nights worrying about the boy.最小的儿子今年二十岁, 高中毕业生, 和他的朋友们一样靠着零零总总的工作赚钱来换取毒品.他确曾努力地想要留住他的父亲, 他确曾尝试过让父亲觉得自己很重要,重要到足以使父亲留在家里. 他是非尔最喜欢的孩子,在过去的两年里, 非尔常常彻夜难眠,为他担心.The boy once sa id, “My father and I only board here.”男孩曾经宣称, “我和爸爸只是寄居在这!”At the funeral, the sixty-year-old company president told the forty-eight-year-old widow that the fifty-one-year-old deceased had meant much to the company and would be missed and would be hard to replace. The widow didn’t look him in the eye. She was afraid he would read her bitterness and ,after all, she would need him to straighten out the finances-the stock options and all that.葬礼上, 六十一岁的公司总裁安慰四十八岁的寡妇说, 那五十一的过世者对公司多么重要, 大家会多么想念他, 找到一个接替他的人将多么困难. 可怜的女人不敢抬头看他, 她怕他看出她是多么地痛苦. 毕竟, 她需要他帮她理清所有财产问题-优先控股权以及诸如此类的事情.Phil was overweight and nervous and worked too hard. If he wasn’t at the office, he was worried about it. Phil was a Type A, a heart-attack natural. You could have picked him out in a minute from a lineup.非尔超重, 神经质, 工作得太玩命. 即使他不在办公室, 他也总是想着公司的事情. 非尔是典型的A型血, 心脏病易患群体. 你花一分钟就能从人潮中轻易地认出他.So when he finally worked himself to death, at precisely 3:00 A.M. Sunday morning, no one was really surprised.所以当他终于在周日凌晨三点累死时, 并没有谁真正大吃一惊.By 5:00 P.M. the afternoon of the funeral, the company president had begun, discreetly of course, with care and taste, to make inquiries about his replacement, one of the three man. He asked around:” who ‘s been working the hardest?”葬礼当天下午,五点后, 公司总裁开始慎重, 仔细, 挑剔地考虑非尔的接班人, 他问那三个职员, “你们谁工作最最卖力呢?”。
