With seven people dead and more than 150 people hospitalized with symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, the Seattle Times devoted the top half of its front page on Dec. 20 to publishing an urgent warning in six languages: Do not burn charcoal or use gasoline generators indoors, and do not use gas ovens to heat your homes.

在一氧化碳中毒症狀造成7人死亡、150多人住院後，「西雅圖時報」12月20日以頭版上半版的版位，以6種語言刊出緊急警告：不要在室內燃燒木炭或使用汽油發電機，也不要開煤氣爐來使家裡變暖。

These are all things people have done here in recent days in a desperate bid to get warm, as 100,000 customers remained without power after last week's severe windstorms, and as winter winds and rain continued their assault on the Northwest.

最近為了取暖，西雅圖居民鋌而走險採取上述這些措施。在上周下了嚴酷的暴風雪後，有100,000名住戶仍然斷電，而冬天冷洌的風雨仍繼續狂掃美國西北部。

The polyglot nature of the Times' front page warnings — in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Somali and Russian — reflects not only the ethnic diversity in the area, but also the fact that people in immigrant communities appear to have been especially struck by the outages and in the attendant wave of carbon monoxide poisonings.

西雅圖時報頭版的警告數種語言並陳，包括英文、西班牙文、中文、越南文、索馬利亞文和俄文，不只反映西雅圖地區種族多元化 ，同時也凸顯一項事實，那就是移民社區的住民似乎首當其衝，受到停電衝擊，及隨之而來的一波一氧化碳中毒潮。

Four members of a Vietnamese family in the Seattle suburb of Burien were found dead in their home, apparently poisoned by fumes from a gasoline-powered generator they had set up in the garage. Two Latino men died in similar incidents.

西雅圖郊區布林一戶越南人一家四口被人發現死於家中，顯然被他們安裝在車庫的汽油發電機外洩的氣體中毒死亡；另外有兩名拉丁裔男子也在類似事故中死亡。

In Kent, another suburb, 42 Somali immigrants in an apartment complex became ill and were taken to a hospital for oxygen treatment after using charcoal grills inside.

在西雅圖另一個郊區康特，42名索馬利亞移民在一幢公寓建築群中，也因在室內用木炭烤肉出現中毒病症，送醫接受氧氣治療。

As carbon-monoxide victims continued to be hospitalized for treatment, David Boardman, executive editor of the Seattle Times, came up with the unusual idea of multiple-language warnings on the front page.

當一氧化碳中毒病患仍住院接受治療時，西雅圖時報總編輯波德曼想出在頭版以多種語言刊出警訊的獨特點子。

"I had a pretty clear sense of what we needed to do," Boardman said. "I had no idea how complicated and difficult it was going to be to pull off."

波德曼說：「我相當清楚，我們應該做些什麼，但要克竟全功，我不知道會有多複雜困難。」

The Times — which was hit by power outages at its printing plant and knocked out of circulation Dec. 15— worked with local health and community officials to translate the warnings, then had to render characters in Chinese and Russian.

西雅圖時報印刷廠受電斷影響，12月15日暫停出報，但該報和當地健保衛生和社區人員合作，翻譯上述警語，還得譯成中文和俄文。

Although many of those the Times wanted to reach weren't regular readers of the paper, Boardman said the idea was "to do something that was loud enough and obvious enough, arresting enough, that it might catch their eyes" if they were out at a store or gas station.

雖然西雅圖時報想傳達這項訊息的對象，多半並非該報長期訂戶，但波德曼說，這項構想是如果這些人正好到雜貨店或加油站，「必須做一件夠響亮、夠醒目、夠引人注意的事，多少能吸引他們的目光。」

The Times also posted the warnings on its website, and provided a link for those with power to print and distribute the messages in neighborhoods across the region.

西雅圖時報也在網站上張貼警訊，同時和全區各鄰里有列印和分發訊息功能者連線。

Boardman said the response to the front page had been "overwhelmingly positive," though he had heard of scattered complaints that people living here should speak and read English and that the newspaper had no business running headlines in other languages.

波德曼說，頭版得到「壓倒性的正面」回響，雖然他也零零星星聽到有人抱怨，住在美國就應該會說、會讀英文，該報沒必要以其他語言登頭版要聞。

"This was a clear call," Boardman said. "We don't want any more people to die from carbon monoxide."

波德曼說：「這是很明確的呼籲，我們不希望有更多人死於一氧化碳中毒。」

（摘譯自「洛杉磯時報」）

《詞解》
carbon monoxide 一氧化碳
charcoal 木炭
gasoline generators 汽油發電機
gas oven 煤氣爐
polyglot 使用數種語言
ethnic diversity 種族多元化
immigrant communities 移民社區
overwhelmingly positive 壓倒性正面