Philippe Petit: The Man Who Walked on Air

Welcome back to Learn English with Podcasts. Sarah, imagine two buildings, each one 110 floors high. Between them there is a gap of 130 feet. And a man steps onto a wire and walks across, 411 metres above the street, with no net and no safety rope.欢迎回到 Learn English with Podcasts。Sarah，想象两栋楼，每栋110层高。它们之间有一道130英尺的空隙。然后一个人踩上一根钢索，走了过去，离街面411米，没有网，也没有安全绳。

It is a film, but the film came later. This really happened in New York, on the morning of August 7, 1974. His name was Philippe Petit, and he spent 45 minutes on a wire between the two towers of the World Trade Center.后来确实拍成了电影，但电影是后来的事。这事真的发生过，在纽约，1974年8月7日早上。他叫 Philippe Petit，他在世贸中心双子塔之间的钢索上待了45分钟。

On that morning the clouds were below him. And here is the part that surprises people. He was not a famous circus star. He was twenty-four, French, and mostly self-taught.那天早上云在他脚下。而且有一点很出人意料：他不是什么有名的马戏明星。他24岁，法国人，基本上是自学成才。

The same way you learn anything. Low, and close to the ground. As a teenager he tied ropes between trees near his home and practised on them. He also juggled on the streets of Paris for money.跟学任何东西一样。放低，贴近地面。十几岁时他在家附近的树上绑绳子，就在上面练。他也在巴黎街头耍杂技挣钱。

Exactly. And the idea did not come from an act of courage. It came from a toothache.正是。而且这个主意不是来自什么勇敢的时刻，是来自一次牙疼。

In 1968, when he was eighteen, he was sitting in a dentist's waiting room in Paris. He opened a newspaper and saw a drawing of two towers that did not exist yet. The article said they would be the tallest buildings in the world.1968年，他18岁，坐在巴黎一间牙医诊所的候诊室里。他翻开一份报纸，看见一张画着两栋还不存在的塔楼的图。文章说它们会成为世界最高的建筑。

And he did something I love. He pretended to sneeze, tore the page out of the newspaper, and walked out of the clinic. He kept the toothache for another week. He kept the page for six years.然后他做了一件我很喜欢的事。他假装打喷嚏，把那一页从报纸上撕下来，走出了诊所。他的牙疼又拖了一周。那张纸他留了六年。

And it is the best part. He learned everything about those buildings. He dressed as a journalist and interviewed a man who worked for the Port Authority. He dressed as a construction worker and walked inside. He even flew over the roofs in a helicopter and took photos.而这才是最好的部分。他把那两栋楼了解得一清二楚。他扮成记者，采访了一位港务局的工作人员。他扮成建筑工人，走了进去。他甚至坐直升机飞到楼顶上方拍照。

A small group of friends. One of them, Barry Greenhouse, worked on the 82nd floor of the south tower. He was the man inside. Without him, there is no walk.有几个朋友。其中一个叫 Barry Greenhouse，在南塔82楼工作。他是内应。没有他，就没有这次行走。

Twice. In 1971 he walked between the towers of Notre Dame in Paris. In 1973 he walked between the two pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Both times without permission, and both times the police took him away at the end.两次。1971年他在巴黎圣母院的两座塔之间走过。1973年他在悉尼海港大桥的两座桥塔之间走过。两次都没得到许可，两次结尾都是被警察带走。

Notre Dame is 69 metres tall. The towers were six times higher. And this time the gap between the buildings was not stone. It was open air.巴黎圣母院69米高。双子塔是它的六倍。而且这次两栋楼之间的空隙不是石头，是空空的空气。

A steel cable 250 feet long, one inch thick, about 76 metres. A balancing pole in pieces. Ropes. And a bow and arrow.一根250英尺长、一英寸粗的钢缆，大约76米。一根拆开的平衡杆。几根绳子。还有一副弓箭。

That is how they crossed the gap. They shot an arrow from one roof to the other, and the arrow pulled a thin fishing line behind it. Then the line pulled a stronger rope, and the rope pulled the steel cable.他们就是这样跨过空隙的。从一边楼顶把箭射到另一边，箭后面拖着一根细鱼线。然后鱼线拉粗绳，粗绳拉钢缆。

They had fake passes and work clothes, and the towers were still partly empty. They took the lift to the 110th floor, then carried everything up the stairs.他们有假通行证和工作服，而且当时塔楼还有一部分是空的。他们坐电梯到110层，然后把东西搬上楼梯。

Then the cable became a problem. It was much heavier than they expected, and it slid down too fast. They had to pull it back up by hand, in the dark, for hours.然后钢缆出了问题。它比他们预想的重得多，往下滑得太快。他们只能在黑暗里用手把它拉回来，拉了几个小时。

And they still had to lock it tight at both ends. By the time they finished, the sky was getting light. He had not slept at all.而且他们还得把两端都锁紧。等做完，天已经亮了。他一夜没睡。

At a little past seven, he stepped onto the wire. No harness. Nothing below him but the street.刚过七点，他踩上了钢索。没有安全带。脚下除了街道什么都没有。

He said he was not afraid. He said the wire felt like a road. He took a few steps, and then he stopped being careful and started to perform.他说他不害怕。他说那根钢索感觉像一条路。他走了几步，然后就不再小心，开始表演了。

He knelt on one knee and saluted the city. He sat down. He lay down on the wire. At one point a seagull floated close to him, and he said it looked at him as if to ask, what is this false bird doing in my sky?他单膝跪下，向这座城市敬礼。他坐了下来。他躺在钢索上。有一次一只海鸥飘到他附近，他说那只鸟看着他的样子，像是在问：这只假鸟在我的天空里干什么？

A police officer on the roof felt the same way. He wrote later, and this is my favourite line in the whole story, "You couldn't call him a walker. He was a dancer."楼顶的一位警察也是这个心情。他后来写道——这是整个故事里我最喜欢的一句——"你不能叫他行走者。他是个舞者。"

Waiting at both ends. When they shouted at him to come back, he turned around and walked out to the middle again. One officer said his feet actually left the wire, he was bouncing on it.两端都在等。他们喊他回来的时候，他转过身，又走回中间去了。有位警察说他双脚真的离开了钢索，他在上面弹跳。

45 minutes. He crossed the gap eight times. On the street below, people stopped walking. First a few, then hundreds, then thousands, all looking up at one small figure in the sky.45分钟。他在空隙之间走了八趟。下面的街上，人们停下脚步。先是几个人，然后几百人，然后几千人，全都抬头看天上那个小小的人。

They put handcuffs on him on the roof. Then a psychiatric test, which he passed. Then charges of criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct.他们在楼顶给他戴上手铐。然后是一次精神检查，他通过了。然后是指控：非法闯入和扰乱秩序。

He did. And then the judge did something unexpected. All the charges were dropped, and his punishment was to give one free show for children in Central Park.上了。然后法官做了一件出人意料的事。所有指控都撤销了，他的惩罚是在中央公园给孩子们免费表演一次。

The Port Authority also gave him a free lifetime pass to the top of the south tower. He signed his name on a steel beam up there, next to the empty space he had just walked across.港务局还给了他一张南塔楼顶的终身免费通行证。他在上面一根钢梁上签了名，就在他刚刚走过的那个空档旁边。

Basically, yes.基本上，是的。

That is true. And then one French street performer walked between them, and people started looking up at those two buildings in a different way. For years he called them my towers.确实如此。然后一个法国街头艺人从它们之间走了过去，人们抬头看那两栋楼的方式就变了。有很长一段时间，他管它们叫"我的塔"。

Now he says our towers. The towers are gone. But every August, people still tell this story, and it still sounds impossible. He once explained the whole thing in one line.现在他说"我们的塔"。塔已经不在了。但每年八月，人们还在讲这个故事，它听起来仍然不可能。他曾经用一句话解释过整件事。

"I see three oranges, I have to juggle. I see two towers, I have to walk.""我看见三个橙子，就非得耍起来。我看见两座塔，就非得走过去。"

That is how he told it. Six years of work, one walk, 45 minutes. And a man with a bad tooth, who kept a page from a newspaper because a drawing would not leave him alone.他自己就是这么讲的。六年的准备，一次行走，45分钟。还有一个牙疼的人，留下了一页报纸，因为一张画一直不肯放过他。

Thanks for listening to Learn English with Podcasts. See you in the next episode.感谢收听 Learn English with Podcasts。下期见。