紐約孕婦地鐵尋座記
Chances are, the petite woman hanging onto the pole, barely able to maintain her balance on the swaying No. 7 train, does not have a beer gut.
大多數時候，如果你看到搖搖晃晃的紐約地鐵七號線上有個緊緊抓住把手、幾乎快要摔倒的嬌弱女子，要記得，她那隆起的腹部可不是啤酒肚。
No, ladies and gentlemen, her protruding stomach inches away from your Kindle or iPhone holds part of the future generation of our great city. She's pregnant! So have some pity in these dog days of summer and give up your seats, you lazy bums.
是的，女士們先生們，那個距離你們的Kindle電子書或是iPhone電話幾釐米遠的大肚子裏，裝着的可是我們這個偉大城市未來一代的一分子。她正懷着孕！所以，在這大熱天裏，有點同情心吧，快站起來讓座，懶蟲！
Let's be real: We are all guilty of ignoring the pregnant woman sometimes. I, too, confess to pretending not to see her out of the corner of my eye. I'm napping. I'm engrossed in 'Gone Girl.' I fought hard for this seat, damn it, and someone else will surely get up, right?
讓我們誠實一點吧：我們都有過假裝看不見孕婦的時候。我承認，我也這樣做過，裝作什麼都沒有看見。我在打盹兒，我在專注地看《Gone Girl》。該死，我費了好大勁纔得到這個座位，而且總會有別的人站起來讓座的，對吧？
Ah, the plight of the pregnant.
唉，懷孕的苦惱啊。
Marion Koshy strategizes. The Kew Gardens resident is seven months pregnant. Her commute is long. We're talking more than an hour long, a bus ride to the E train to the 6 train long.
住在丘園小區(Kew Gardens)的馬里昂•科希(Marion Koshy)爲此大費周章。科希是一名34歲的社工，懷孕七個月了。她每天上班路上花費的時間很長。我們一路聊了一個多小時，從乘公交車到換乘E線地鐵，再轉乘地鐵六號線。
She has tried leaving home earlier. She's tried different cars. She's tried taking the local instead of the express. Her secret weapon: eye contact.
她曾試着早點從家裏出發，也試過乘坐其他交通工具，或是避開地鐵快車，只坐慢車。她的祕密武器是：對眼神兒。
'I have this thing where I kind of just peer over the paper and I'll look at the person, but it's as if I'm reading and maybe I'll catch their glance and then hope they'll give me their seat,' said the 34-year-old social worker.
她說，“我的一套辦法是，我會盯着報紙看，然後我看人，不過看起來我還是在看報紙，沒準兒我會和誰對上眼神兒，然後他也許會把座位讓給我。”
It doesn't always work. One day this week, she was standing up reading the paper. The train was crowded. Three men were sitting near her. 'One looked up at me and then looked down again,' she recalled. 'I know he was reading the back of my paper. He didn't say a word.'
這辦法不是總能奏效。曾有一天，她正站着看報紙，地鐵裏很擠，在她邊上坐着三名男性乘客。她回憶當天的情景說，“其中一個擡頭看了我一眼，然後又低下了頭。我知道他正在看我手裏這張報紙的背面。他什麼都沒有說。”
Chivalry, apparently, is dead.
顯然，紳士已死。
'It's kind of like you're a panhandler,' added Ms. Koshy, one of many pregnant woman to make this analogy. 'They pretend like you don't even exist.'
科希接着說，“這感覺就好像你是個乞丐。他們假裝你根本不存在。”很多孕婦都做過同樣的類比。
Ms. Koshy was one of those who refused seats when she first started to show. No, she could stand, thank you very much. Now she'll take it where she can get it, which is about 50% of the time.
和其他一些人一樣，肚子剛開始有點顯的時候，如果有人給她讓座，科希總是婉言謝絕。不用了，她站着沒事兒，非常感激。而如今，只要有空座，她就會坐上去。而能得到空座的概率只有50%左右。
Come on New Yorkers, we can do better than that!
嘿，拜託，紐約人，你們就不能表現得好一點嗎？
Men will explain that you never ask or assume a woman is pregnant. This is true: It's a cardinal sin. But there comes a point when there's no question that a woman is pregnant. This is the point where you simply get up, folks. Don't make a show of it, don't embarrass the poor woman, just get up and motion to the seat.
男士們會爲自己開脫說，你既不能去問一位女性是不是懷孕了，也不該做出這樣的憑空假設。沒錯，這樣做會犯下滔天大錯。不過總有一些時候你能毫無疑問地看出來一位女士的確是懷孕了。諸位，總有一些時候，你要做的只是站起來而已。別大驚小怪的，別讓那位可憐的女士尷尬了，你只需站起來，指指空出來的座位。
Christopher Diamond says he always gets up for the pregnant and he thinks most everyone does so─when they notice. 'A lot of times, people are so immersed in whatever they're reading or playing that they don't notice,' said the 45-year-old Prospect Heights resident. 'Large bellies don't really stand out that much on the subway.'
現年45歲、家住展望高地(Prospect Heights)的克里斯托夫•戴蒙德(Christopher Diamond)說，他看到孕婦總是會站起來讓座，而且他認爲大多數人都是這樣做的──只要他們注意到了。他說，“很多時候，人們太專注於自己手中的書或是遊戲，注意不到周圍的事情。在地鐵上，大肚子其實不是那麼明顯。”
In London, the Transport for London agency doles out officially sanctioned 'Baby on Board' badges to pregnant women. More than 380,000 badges have been requested since the program was launched in 2006, according to an email from a press officer.
在倫敦，倫敦交通局(Transport for London)向孕婦發放印有“寶寶在內”(Baby on Board)字樣的小牌子。根據來自新聞部門官員坎迪斯•瓊斯(Candice Jones)的郵件，自2006年開始推行這個做法後，要求獲得這個小牌子的申請已經超過38萬份。'The badge aims to encourage customers to give up their seats to pregnant women and help mothers-to-be feel more comfortable using the Tube,' wrote Candice Jones.
瓊斯說，“這個小牌子旨在鼓勵人們讓座給孕婦，幫助準媽媽們能夠更舒服地乘坐地鐵。”
New York has the MTA's 'Courtesy is Contagious' announcements, but no one listens to them.
紐約的大都會運輸署(MTA)貼出了“禮貌可以影響他人”(Courtesy is Contagious)的宣傳語，但大家對此都無動於衷。
Pregnant women─past and present─have a lot to say on this topic.
提起這個話題，孕婦們──無論是懷過孕的還是正在孕中的──都有一肚子的話要說。
There is no trend. Some say they always get a seat; others that they rarely do.
沒有什麼趨勢可循。一些人說她們總能得到座位，另一些人則表示她們很少能坐下。
Expecting mothers have different strategies.
準媽媽們各有各的辦法。
Lindsay Reitzes, who gave birth five months ago, used to take the Q train every day and strip down to her lightest layer. 'I always put on a big show when I got on the subway,' said the 33-year-old Park Slope resident. 'I'd take off my jacket and I'd sit there holding my stomach and kind of leaning against the bar looking very tired and exhausted.'
現年33歲的林賽•雷澤斯(Lindsay Reitzes)家住公園坡(Park Slope)，五個月前剛剛生完孩子，懷孕時她天天乘坐Q線地鐵，每次都會放棄自己最後的矜持。她說，“當我上地鐵的時候，我總是把動靜搞得很大。我會脫下外套，然後用手捧着肚子，依着扶手，看上去非常疲憊、筋疲力盡的樣子。”
If no one relented, she would take to shouting out: 'Will someone give up a seat to a very pregnant woman?'
如果沒有人動憐憫心，她會大叫道：“有沒有人願意把座位讓給一個肚子很大的孕婦啊？”
One white woman said men and women of the same race as her were more inclined to offer their seats. Many pregnant women said fellow women are more gracious in offering their seats, and there is always that woman who very loudly tries to publicly shame someone on their behalf to give up a seat.
一位白人女性說，和她同樣膚色的男性和女性更願意給自己讓座。很多孕婦表示，女性同胞在讓座方面更慷慨一些，而且往往是那些女性會試圖大聲地公開羞辱那些不讓座的人。
Danielle Guzman, who is due at the end of the month, said unequivocally it was African-American men who offer up their seats during her daily commute to a job at Wall Street. She is white. Still, she only snags a seat about 25% of the time.
現年42歲、家住公園坡的丹妮爾•古斯曼(Danielle Guzman)本月底即將分娩，她明確表示，在她每天乘地鐵去華爾街上班的途中，給她讓座的是非洲裔美國男性，她本人則是白人。不過她得到座位的概率也只有25%左右。
'I've never had a female ever, of any type, offer me a seat,' said the 42-year-old Park Slope resident. 'I've had women look at me and make eye contact and smile, but then that's it, they go back to whatever they're doing.'
她說，“從來沒有女性給我讓過座，哪個種族的都一樣。曾有女性看着我，用眼神示意微笑，但只是如此而已，然後她們就繼續回去做自己的事情了。”
There have been experiments on this kind of thing. Elizabeth Carey Smith, a graphic designer, kept track of the final four months of her pregnancy and documented the results. Out of 108 crowded train rides, she was offered seats 88 times and men and women were about equally willing to offer up a seat. The Greenpoint resident took a number of trains and found she fared the worst on the G and E.
曾有人就這個問題做過實驗。平面設計師伊麗莎白•凱莉•史密斯(Elizabeth Carey Smith)在她懷孕的最後四個月裏追蹤記錄下了自己的乘車經歷。在她108次乘坐擁擠地鐵的經歷中，被讓座88次，願意讓座的男性和女性比例大致相當。史密斯家住格林波伊恩特(Greenpoint)，要乘坐多趟地鐵，她發現自己在G線和E線上的待遇最糟糕。
New Yorkers, the Midwest transplant concluded, are more considerate than rude.
從美國中西部移居紐約的史密斯因此得出結論，能爲他人考慮的紐約人要多過沒禮貌的紐約人。
I'm still on the fence on whether I think that's true. On Thursday, I rode the train with Ms. Koshy from the Union Turnpike stop in Kew Gardens into Manhattan, about a 30-minute ride. No one offered her a seat when she got on. A woman standing up with her young son frowned.
對此，筆者仍有些懷疑。不久前，我與科希一同從丘園小區的聯合大道(Union Turnpike)地鐵站，乘坐開往曼哈頓的地鐵，全程共30分鐘。當她上車時，沒有人起來讓座。一位帶着年幼兒子站在一邊的女士皺起了眉頭。
'It's very upsetting,' she said. 'I'm from Poland, so it's normal for us to give up a seat… crowd will sneer if you don't.'
她說，“這太讓人不舒服了。我從波蘭來，在我們那裏，讓座是很正常的一件事……如果你不讓座，大家會嘲笑你的。”
Ms. Koshy stood in front of a row of six people. Two men were dozing. One older woman looked her up and down and went back to reading her tabloid. It wasn't until one stop before hers that someone got up and another woman motioned for her to take the seat.
科希站在一排六人座前面。有兩位男士在打盹兒，一位年長的女性上下打量了她一番，然後繼續看手中的小報。直到地鐵行至科希的倒數第二站時，纔有人站起來，另外一位女士向科希示意要她坐下。
On the transfer to the No. 6 train, again there were no seats. An elderly man looked at her and looked down. A few seconds went by.
換乘六號線時，還是沒有座位。一位年長男士上下打量了她一番。幾秒鐘過去了。
'You want to sit down?' asked Harvey Feuerstein, a dapper attorney who would be getting off at the next stop.
衣冠楚楚的律師哈維•福伊爾施泰因(Harvey Feuerstein)問道，“你要坐這裏嗎？”他到下一站下車。
'Thank you,' she said, sitting down with relief.
“謝謝，”科希回答道，坐下來鬆了一口氣。
As he got up, a woman younger than him asked if he would like her seat.
當福伊爾施泰因站起身時，一個比他年輕的女士問他想不想坐在她的座位上。
Perhaps the MTA is onto something with that Courtesy is Contagious line after all.
或許大都會運輸署這句“禮貌可以影響他人”的宣傳語總歸還是有些用處的。
