DOUGLAS, Isle of Man – Halfway down the suburban road that descends Bray Hill, past the traffic lights, between the elementary school and rows of homes with families relaxing in their front yards, there is a barely perceptible bump.
沿著布雷丘而下，在這條郊道的半途，穿過紅綠燈，在一所小學和有幾戶人家在前院休憩的數排房屋之間，路中央有塊幾乎察覺不出的隆起。

Crouching on their 1,000-cubic-centimeter motorcycles, the race leaders hit the bump at 298 kilometers an hour, their machines rearing up like prancing horses before settling back onto the asphalt and continuing down the hill at full throttle, engines shrieking. Near the bottom they pass a 48-kilometers-per-hour speed-limit sign at 315 k.p.h., then sweep out of sight.
伏身於1000cc的機車上，車賽的領先騎士以時速298公里撞上這塊隆起，機車有如騰躍的馬般前輪騰空，再落回柏油路上，全速順坡直下，引擎聲呼嘯而過。接近山腳時，機車以時速315公里，穿越一個速限48公里的標誌，絕塵遠去。

To see the Tourist Trophy, or T.T., races on this idyllically lovely but quirky island in the Irish Sea is to watch men operating at the edge of physics, and of reason.
在愛爾蘭海域這個田園風光旖旎、路況難明的島上觀賞簡稱為T.T.賽的「旅行者大獎賽」，是在欣賞男人挑戰體能與理性的極限。

Daytona, Indianapolis, Le Mans, Monaco, Monza – all are better-known cathedrals of speed and risk. But nowhere are the extremes as great as on the Isle of Man, which has largely resisted a push for stricter safety measures that has all but eliminated true road racing elsewhere. Since the first Tourist Trophy race in 1907, the island has maintained the tradition, the motorcycles tearing through villages and towns on everyday public roads, achieving unimaginable speeds.
就極速與冒險而言，達通納、印地安那波利斯、勒曼、摩納哥、蒙察都是更出名的殿堂，然而沒有一處比曼島更貼近極限。嚴格的安全措施使得其他地方幾乎已無真正的道路賽可言，曼島則悍拒推動這些措施。打從1907年「旅行者大獎賽」首辦以來，曼島即固守傳統，任由機車在平常的公共道路上劃破城鎮的寧靜，飆出超乎想像的速度。

“This is the Super Bowl; this is the big show,” said Mark Miller, a graduate in aeronautical science from Long Beach, California, who was one of two Americans among the 600 riders competing in this year’s T.T. races, held each year in early June.
加州長堤航空科學系的大學畢業生馬克•米勒說：「這就是超級盃；這才是重頭戲。」 T.T.賽每年六月初舉行，米勒為今年600位參賽飆手之一。

But with the tradition has come a grim record of deaths – 224 riders killed over the years in the Tourist Trophy races and another motorcycle event, the Manx Grand Prix, that runs on the same course in late summer. Dozens more deaths have occurred among race marshals, spectators and “civilian” riders who take to the course and try to emulate the racers’ feats.
不過，這個傳統也留下了可怕的死亡紀錄。這些年，共有224人成為「旅行者大獎賽」與另一項機車賽事「曼島大獎賽」的亡魂。「曼島大獎賽」於夏末舉行，奔馳於同一條道路。死者中，有數十人是賽事工作人員、觀眾、或是自行上路一試身手的「素人」飆手。

Despite a toll, and a coroner’s report that identified major failings in track supervision after an accident last year that killed an English rider and two spectators, the Isle of Man clings proudly to the races.
儘管死傷者眾，而且去年一名英格蘭騎士和兩名觀眾在一場意外中喪生後，法醫報告指出賽道監督有重大疏失，曼島依舊以他們的車賽為傲。

Control of the races rests with the island government, which values them as a way to increase tourism; this year, the 35,000 visitors, from all over Europe, spent an estimated 16 million euros. But the days when the races were an economic mainstay are gone, as a boom in banking, financial services and manufacturing has transformed the island, which until only 20 years ago was an outpost of poverty with a declining population.
車賽管不管，全由曼島政府決定，而政府將車賽視為提振觀光之道。今年，來自全歐洲的3萬5000名觀光客，估計在此消費1600萬歐元。不過，以車賽為曼島經濟支柱的年代已成過去，銀行、金融服務、製造業蓬勃發展，帶動該島變遷，而該島直到20年前，還只是個人口漸稀的貧窮離島。

The races’ enduring value these days, apart from the astonishing spectacle, seems to lie in their sustaining influence on the island’s psyche. In the races, many of the 80,000 inhabitants say, they find affirmation of the island’s do-it-my-way tradition. Many of the top riders over the decades have come from Scots-Irish stock, with a tradition, bred by history, of defying imposed authority.
除了令人讚嘆的賽車場面，車賽現今的不朽價值，在於它對島人的心理影響。8萬居民中許多人都說，這些車賽讓他們再度肯定島上「做自己」的傳統。幾十年來，這裡出了不少蘇格蘭─愛爾蘭後裔的頂尖飆手，蘇格蘭─愛爾蘭後裔在歷史的孕育下，習慣於反抗威權。

“Over the decades, the Isle of Man has evolved with the T.T. races, and the races have evolved with the Isle of Man,” said Tony Brown, a businessman and the island’s chief minister. “It’s part of our culture.”
該島的行政首長兼商人唐尼•布朗說：「數十年來，曼島隨著T.T.賽而演變，T.T.賽也隨著曼島而演變。它是我們文化的一部分。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/world/europe/23isle.html
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/23/europe/23isle.php

2008-07-02/聯合報/AA1版/國際運動 王麗娟 原文請見7月1日紐時周報頭版下