Five years ago, on Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists crashed two airliners into the World Trade Center. Downtown smelled like Coke cans and hair on fire. It was televised live.
五年前，2001年9月11日，恐怖分子以兩架飛機衝撞世界貿易中心，紐約市中心聞起來像可樂罐和頭髮起火。當時電視曾現場直播。
New York City, 2,749 people were killed. About eight million remained. Since that day, the numbers have changed.
在紐約市，有2,749人死亡，約八百萬人還活著。從九一一後，數字不斷變動。
The population grew by more than 134,000 from 2000 to 2005. In that time, 645,416 babies were born and 304,773 people died.
從2000年到2005年，人口至少增加了134,000人；這段期間，有645,416名嬰兒出生，另有304,773人死亡。
The meaning in the math is that today a great many New Yorkers lack firsthand knowledge of the city's critical modern moment.
這些數字意味著，今天很多紐約人對這個城市現代最關鍵的時刻，缺乏第一手認知。
Five years on, New York is a city of newcomers and survivors. And between them runs a line. The line makes for no conflict, no discernible tension; it works a quieter breach.
五年來，紐約是個新住民和存活者的城市，在他們中間有一道線，這道線未製造衝突，也沒有任何可以察覺的緊張情勢，它靜靜製造一道裂痕。
Borne of the routine comings and goings of urban life, of births and deaths, the line divides views of a singular moment. Across the line, consummately familiar events can appear contorted.
在都會生活規律的來來去去、生生死死間，這道裂痕切割了一個獨特時刻的觀點。跨過這條線，原來極端熟悉的事務似被扭曲。
The line's contours emerge in conversations. Ask about the attack, and people will describe a sense of ownership.
這條線的輪廓在言談間浮現。問起這次恐怖攻擊，有人總會提到一種歸屬感。
"You either experienced it firsthand," said Amanda Spielman, 30, a graphic designer from Queens, who was in the city, "or you didn't."
三十歲的平面造型設計師阿曼妲．史皮爾曼當時正在紐約市，她說：「你不是有第一手經驗，就是沒有。」
Others describe that sense differently, but draw the line in the same place.
其他人談起那種感覺時措辭略有出入，但也在同樣的地方劃下那道線。
"I think for the people that seen it on TV, it is more painful than for the people who saw it here," said Paolo Gonzalez, 29, who manages a parking lot under the Brooklyn Bridge and who saw the attack. "For the other people it was real. If you were here, when the buildings came down the only thing you were thinking was, 「Run.」"
廿九歲的波洛．龔薩雷茲在布魯克林橋下管一個停車場，他親眼目擊這次恐怖攻擊。他說：「我想，對那些在電視上看到的人，比在現場目擊的人更痛苦，對其他那些人，那是很真實的，如果你在現場，當摩天大樓塌了，你唯一想到的是：『跑』。」
Across the line, the new arrivals recognize that sense of ownership.
跨過這道線，新來者對那份歸屬感也感同身受。
“I've been told that I could never understand what it was like to be there in New York on Sept. 11,” said Laura Bassett, 27, who moved to the city from North Carolina after 2001. “I hate that five years later, people still debate which bystander is allowed to be more upset, the New Yorker or the American.”
廿七歲的羅拉．巴塞特2001年之後從北卡羅來納州搬到紐約市，她說：「不斷有人告訴我，我永遠不可能明白九一一時在紐約事發現場是什麼滋味。過了五年，我痛恨還有人在辯論，到底哪一種旁觀者更難過：紐約客或美國人。」
The line emerges perhaps most powerfully around the fallen towers, 2.06 acres of concrete known as ground zero. Because of the line, the site is a paradox, an emotional contradiction, a mass grave and a tourist attraction.
這道線在樓塌處周遭或許最明顯，也就是占地2.06英畝的混凝土「歸零地」，由於這道線，這個地點充滿矛盾，情緒對立，是個千人塚，也是觀光景點。
Some people feel so strongly about the place they cannot agree on an arrangement for listing the names of the dead; others feel so strongly about the place that they make sure to visit between Radio City Music Hall and the Statue of Liberty. Between those emotional poles is a middle ground, and the line runs through its center.
有些人對這個地方感覺如此強烈，以致無法同意列出死者名字這種安排，其他人對這個地方感覺也很強烈，他們一定要去無線電音樂城和自由女神像之間觀光。在那些感情的標竿間有個中間地帶，而這道線就從中穿過。
“People who moved to New York, everyone wanted to go down and see it,”said Dede Minor, 51, a real estate broker who was in her office in Midtown on the day of the attack. “For New Yorkers, it was too real.”
五十一歲的迪迪．梅諾是房地產經紀人，九一一恐怖攻擊當天她正在位於中城的辦公室，她說：「新搬到紐約的人，大家都想來看看。對老紐約客，這太真實了。」
Jose Martias, 57, a construction worker who was drinking coffee near the East River when the attack began, said he knew why the newcomers visit the site. “They don’t understand it so they go down there to see the hole. It's an attraction to them, like going to the circus,”he said.
五十七歲的荷西．馬提亞斯是營建工，攻擊發生時，他正在東河附近喝咖啡，他說：「他們無法理解，所以他們去看那個大洞，他們覺得很好奇，像去看馬戲團。」
But across the line there is genuine emotional curiosity, a feeling that people in less cynical times used to call empathy.
但越過這道線，仍有一種真實的好奇情緒，這種感覺，當人們比較不會冷嘲熱諷的時候，稱之為「移情作用」。
"When I went to ground zero, it was the first time I've felt an emotional reaction like that to something I wasn’t a part of. You feel the energy and you could feel the sadness.”said Leah Hamilton, 24, a logistics consultant who moved to Manhattan from Washington State last year.
「當我到歸零地時，第一次對我未曾參與的事有情緒反應，你可以感受到那股能量，也可以感到哀傷，」廿四歲的物流顧問麗亞．漢米頓去年才從華盛頓州搬到曼哈坦。
The line can reach into the future, forging perceptions of New York and its destiny. Some new arrivals speak of the attack as a reason to come to the city. “We felt like there was a lot of energy here,” said Meg Glasser, 26, a student who moved to the East Village from Boston this year. “We wanted to be a part of it in some way.”
這道線可以延伸到未來，形塑對紐約及其命運的看法。有些新來者說，正因這次攻擊才搬到紐約市。廿六歲的梅格．葛拉瑟還是學生，今年才從波士頓搬到東村，她說：「我們覺得這裡充滿能量，我們希望以某種方式成為其中的一部分。」
詞解
terrorists 恐怖分子
World Trade Center 世貿中心
firsthand knowledge 第一手認知
contorted 扭曲
ground zero 歸零地
mass grave 千人塚
empathy 移情作用