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Bums, hobos and tramps

乞丐、流动工人和流浪汉的区别

According to Wikipedia, a hobo is a “migratory worker or homeless vagabond, especially one who is penniless.”

根据维基百科的解释，hobo是指“流动工人或无家可归的流浪汉，尤其是身无分文的流浪汉。”

Nearly every word in that description inspires in me the wanderlust, a sepia-toned imagination gone wild along the railroad. To others, many in fact, though, the word instead means a bum, a beggar, a poor man in the street. To the untrained eye, indeed a roughed up, tumbling along through town after town type might be thought of as destitute, wanting. But in reality, such is not always certainly the case.

这段描述中的几乎每一个词都激发了我的流浪冲动，一种怀旧的想象沿着铁路狂奔。然而，对其他人来说，其实是对很多人来说，这个词的意思是流浪汉、乞丐、街上流浪的穷人。在行外的人看来，实际上一个举止粗野、在不同城镇中不停颠簸流浪的人可能会被认为是一贫如洗、缺衣少食的。但事实上，情况并非总是如此。

Many wanderers choose to do so in exchange for the riches of coin and purse. Plenty of folks coast-to-coasting this great American landscape would rather throw a thumb in the air or listen to a train squeal them all the way down the line than have enough money to afford the clothes, the cars, the appearances that it takes to continue earning enough money for such endeavors.

许多流浪者选择这样做是为了挣钱养活自己而已。许多在美国这片伟大的土地上流浪的人，宁愿搭便车，或者倾听火车一路呼啸而过，也不愿为了负担得起衣服、汽车和光鲜的外表，而不停地费力赚钱。

Work a little here, travel a little there. Sleep under the stars, or find yourself a friendly couch along the way. Bringing your own tent has never been a bad idea. If you go camping for a weekend in nothing but a tent you’re considered rugged. Do it for a week and folks see you as bad ass. Make it a lifestyle, and suddenly you’re something to cross the street to avoid.

在这儿工作一段时间，然后在那儿旅行一段时间。一路上，要么在灿烂星空下入睡，要么找张不错的长凳就寝。自带帐篷从来都是个不错的主意。如果你周末只在帐篷里露营，你会被认为是能吃苦的。如果这样过一周，人们会认为你是个狠角色。如果把它变成一种生活方式，突然间你就成了过街老鼠。

What is a hobo, though? The unknown, that which is to be distrusted? Or just another human making his way the only way he knows how?

然而，到底hobo是什么人呢？大家不了解的不可信的人？或者只是另一种人，以他知道的唯一的方式前行？

I’ve heard it told that, unlike tramps who rarely lift a finger of labor unless strongly coerced as they travel the world, and unlike bums who neither travel nor toil, hobos are wandering workers. They are migrants, not miscreants.

我听说，hobos不像流浪汉（tramps），因为流浪汉在世界各地旅行时如果没有受到强烈威胁的话，他们是不会干活的；hobos也不像乞丐（bums），因为乞丐既不旅行也不干活。hobos是流浪工人：他们是流动工人，不是恶棍。

Some claim the term comes from an old railroad call, ‘Ho, boy!’, perhaps at a time when accents were closer to the French pronunciation we could imagine a boss calling out to a chiseler or two on a cigarette break, ‘Ho, beaus!’ as he tried to whip them back into laying that track to California. Or perhaps it’s simply because they’re perpetually homeward bound, given that the road is their home and so as long as they keep on traveling, there will be no place like exactly where they already are.

有人声称，这个词来自一个古老的铁路喊声“Ho，boy！”，也许在口音更接近法语发音的时候，我们可以想象一个老板在抽烟间隙对一两个凿工喊道“Ho，beaus！”，他试图让他们重新铺设通往加州的轨道。或者，也许这只是因为他们永远都行走在回家的路上，考虑到铁路就是他们的家，所以只要他们继续前行，就不会有像现在这样的地方了。

Yes, they can be found in dirty clothes working farm jobs and wandering with heavy backpacks down the highways of the world, but they can just as quickly be purposefully moving from one job to the next and blending in with the rest of us. Save for that flicker in their eye that proves they’ve seen a thing or two in their day, and intend to keep the pattern going.

是的，他们可能会被发现穿着脏衣服在农场干活，背着沉重的背包在各地的高速公路上游荡，但他们也可能很快就会有目的地换一份工作，并融入我们当中。除此之外，唯有他们眼中的闪烁，可以证明他们一天中见证过一两件事，并打算继续保持这种生活方式。

【Source】www.wandrlymagazine.com

【Translated by】Spark Liao (廖怀宝)

【Illustration】From Bing

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