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0Episode: Mount Pelée: The Man the Volcano Could Not Kill
Subtitle: 培雷火山：火山杀不死的男人
Duration: approximately 10 minutes
Level: B1
PubDate: 2026-10-29
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[Mike]: Welcome back to Learn English with Podcasts. Sarah, I have a question for you. If the police lock you in a jail cell, and that jail cell saves your life, is the police officer your friend?
zh:欢迎回到 Learn English with Podcasts。Sarah，我有个问题问你。如果警察把你关进牢房，而这间牢房救了你的命，那这个警察算你的朋友吗？
[Sarah]: That sounds like a riddle. What are you talking about?
zh:这听起来像个谜语。你在说什么？
[Mike]: I'm talking about a man who survived the worst volcanic eruption of the twentieth century. Not because he was lucky. Because he was locked up.
zh:我在说一个从20世纪最严重的火山喷发中活下来的人。不是因为他运气好，而是因为他被关起来了。
[Sarah]: Okay, now I'm listening. Where was this?
zh:好，现在我在听了。这是哪里的事？
[Mike]: A small island in the Caribbean. Martinique. It belonged to France at the time. The town was called Saint-Pierre, and it sat at the foot of a volcano called Mount Pelée.
zh:加勒比海上的一个小岛，马提尼克。当时属于法国。那座城叫圣皮埃尔，就在培雷火山脚下。
[Sarah]: What was the town like before this happened?
zh:在这一切发生之前，那座城是什么样的？
[Mike]: People called it the Paris of the West Indies. It had a theatre, electric streetcars, and a big harbour. Around 28,000 people lived there.
zh:人们管它叫西印度群岛的巴黎。那里有剧院、有轨电车，还有一个大港口。大约两万八千人住在那里。
[Sarah]: That sounds beautiful. And dangerous, if it sits under a volcano.
zh:听起来很美。但如果它就在火山脚下，那也很危险。
[Mike]: The mountain had been quiet for a very long time. Then, in April 1902, it woke up.
zh:这座山安静了很久。然后在1902年4月，它醒了。
[Sarah]: What did people see?
zh:人们看到了什么？
[Mike]: First, small earthquakes. Then ash. Fine grey dust fell on the town almost every day. On May 5, a river of mud and rock came down the mountain and destroyed a sugar factory. Dozens of workers died.
zh:先是很小的地震。然后是火山灰。细细的灰色粉尘几乎每天都落在城里。5月5日，一条泥石流从山上冲下来，毁掉了一家糖厂。几十名工人死了。
[Sarah]: That is a serious warning. So people started to leave?
zh:这是严重的警告。所以人们开始撤离了吗？
[Mike]: Some did. Many did not. And this is the part that makes me angry.
zh:有些人走了。很多人没走。而这正是让我生气的地方。
[Sarah]: Go on.
zh:继续说。
[Mike]: There was an election on May 11. The governor, Louis Mouttet, did not want panic. A group of scientists told him the volcano was not an immediate danger. So he told people to stay calm.
zh:5月11日有一场选举。总督路易·穆泰不想引起恐慌。一群科学家告诉他，火山暂时没有直接危险。于是他让民众保持冷静。
[Sarah]: Did he believe it?
zh:他信了吗？
[Mike]: He believed it enough to stay in the city himself. With his wife. They both died on May 8.
zh:他信到把自己留在了城里。还带着妻子。两人都在5月8日死了。
[Sarah]: So he wasn't lying to them. He was just wrong.
zh:所以他没有骗人。他只是错了。
[Mike]: Yes. And being wrong was enough.
zh:对。而错了就已经足够了。
[Sarah]: Alright. So where does the prisoner come in?
zh:好。那那个囚犯是怎么回事？
[Mike]: His name was Ludger Sylbaris. He was also known as Louis-Auguste Cyparis. He was a sailor and a farm worker, and he had a lot of trouble with the police.
zh:他叫 Ludger Sylbaris，也被叫作 Louis-Auguste Cyparis。他是水手，也是农场工人，和警察打过很多次交道。
[Sarah]: What kind of trouble?
zh:什么样的麻烦？
[Mike]: On May 2, he was arrested for stabbing a man in a fight. Then, on the night of May 7, he left the prison without permission. He went to a party in town and came back the next morning.
zh:5月2日，他因为打架时刺伤一个人被抓。然后，5月7日晚上，他未经允许离开了监狱。他去城里参加了一个聚会，第二天早上才回来。
[Sarah]: He went to a party? Six days before all of this?
zh:他去参加聚会？就在这一切发生前六天？
[Mike]: He didn't know what was coming. Nobody did. But that night out had a price. As punishment, the guards put him alone in a special cell. Eight days.
zh:他不知道要发生什么。谁都不知道。但那晚出门是有代价的。作为惩罚，狱警把他单独关进一间特别的牢房。八天。
[Sarah]: That sounds like the worst place to be. A tiny cell, in that heat.
zh:听起来是最糟的地方。那么小的牢房，还那么热。
[Mike]: It sounds like it. But this was no normal cell. It was built half underground. The stone walls were about a metre thick. There was no window at all. The only air came through a narrow slit in the door.
zh:听起来是。但那不是普通的牢房。它有一半建在地下。石墙大约一米厚。完全没有窗户。唯一的空气来自门上的一条窄缝。
[Sarah]: And the door faced...
zh:而那扇门朝着……
[Mike]: Away from the volcano. It faced north. The mountain was to the south.
zh:背着火山的方向。门朝北，山在南边。
[Sarah]: Wait. So he was sitting in a stone box, with one small hole, and the hole was on the safe side.
zh:等等。所以他坐在一个石头盒子里，只有一个很小的洞，而那个洞正好在安全的一侧。
[Mike]: Exactly. It was probably the safest room in the whole city. And he was in it because he broke the rules.
zh:正是。那可能是全城最安全的房间。而他之所以在里面，是因为他违反了规定。
[Sarah]: So what happened at eight in the morning?
zh:那早上八点发生了什么？
[Mike]: The mountain opened. A cloud of black ash and burning gas shot out of the side of Mount Pelée and came down the slope. It moved faster than a car on a highway. It reached the city in about a minute.
zh:山裂开了。一团黑色火山灰和燃烧的气体从培雷火山侧面喷出来，顺着山坡往下冲。它的速度比高速公路上的汽车还快。大约一分钟就到了城里。
[Sarah]: One minute.
zh:一分钟。
[Mike]: In that minute, Saint-Pierre stopped existing. The air was hundreds of degrees hot. Wood, cloth, rum, people — everything burned. Almost 28,000 people died.
zh:就在那一分钟里，圣皮埃尔不存在了。空气有几百摄氏度。木头、衣服、朗姆酒、人——所有东西都在燃烧。近两万八千人死了。
[Sarah]: And the man in the cell?
zh:那牢房里那个人呢？
[Mike]: He said the light went out. It became completely dark. Then hot air and fine ash pushed through the slit in the door. It burned his face, his hands, his legs, his back.
zh:他说光灭了。四周变得一片漆黑。然后热空气和细灰从门缝里挤了进来。烧到了他的脸、手、腿和背。
[Sarah]: What did he do?
zh:他做了什么？
[Mike]: He took off his clothes, wet them, and pushed them into the gap. It didn't stop the heat. But it slowed it down.
zh:他脱下衣服，把衣服弄湿，塞进门缝里。这没能挡住热，但让热慢了下来。
[Sarah]: He was still thinking. In the dark, with his skin burning, he was still thinking.
zh:他还在思考。在黑暗里，皮肤在烧，他还在思考。
[Mike]: That's the part I keep coming back to. He didn't only survive. He fought for it, with the only tools he had.
zh:这一点我一直回想。他不只是活了下来。他用自己的全部工具去争这条命。
[Sarah]: How long was he in there?
zh:他在里面待了多久？
[Mike]: Four days. No food. No water. The city around him was gone. On May 12, a rescue team heard someone shouting from the ruins.
zh:四天。没有食物。没有水。他周围的城市已经没了。5月12日，一支救援队听到废墟里有人在喊。
[Sarah]: He was still shouting.
zh:他还在喊。
[Mike]: He was still shouting.
zh:他还在喊。
[Sarah]: Were there other survivors?
zh:还有别的幸存者吗？
[Mike]: A few. Accounts differ on the number. There was a shoemaker, Léon Compère-Léandre, who lived at the edge of the city. He was badly burned, but he lived. And there was a young girl, Havivra Da Ifrile, who is said to have escaped by boat. Her story is less well documented.
zh:有几个。具体人数各说不一。有个鞋匠叫 Léon Compère-Léandre，住在城边。他烧得很重，但活了下来。还有一个女孩 Havivra Da Ifrile，据说坐小船逃了出去。关于她的记载比较少。
[Sarah]: So he wasn't the only one. But he was the one inside the city.
zh:所以他不是唯一一个。但他是城里活下来的那个。
[Mike]: The only one inside a stone building in the middle of it. By one account, sixty or seventy other prisoners died in that same jail.
zh:是唯一一个在城中心石头建筑里活下来的。有一种说法是，同一座监狱里另外六七十名囚犯都死了。
[Sarah]: That's a hard number to hear.
zh:这个数字听着难受。
[Mike]: Yes.
zh:是的。
[Sarah]: What happened to him after?
zh:他后来怎么样了？
[Mike]: He was pardoned. He recovered, though his body stayed marked. And then he became famous.
zh:他被赦免了。他恢复了，但身上留下了痕迹。然后他出名了。
[Sarah]: Famous how?
zh:怎么个出名法？
[Mike]: Barnum and Bailey's circus hired him. He toured the United States. He sat in a copy of his cell, showed his scars, and told his story. He became one of the most famous circus acts of that time.
zh:巴纳姆与贝利马戏团雇了他。他在美国巡演。他坐在一间复制牢房里，展示自己的伤疤，讲自己的故事。他成了当时最有名的马戏节目之一。
[Sarah]: That's a strange job. Showing the worst day of your life, every night.
zh:这工作很怪。每天晚上展示你一生中最糟的一天。
[Mike]: It paid. But it didn't last. He got into fights. He was arrested several times in New York. In the end, he was sent out of the country. He died in Panama in 1929.
zh:确实挣钱。但没持续多久。他又打架。在纽约被抓了好几次。最后他被驱逐出境。1929年，他死在巴拿马。
[Sarah]: So the cell saved him, and then life went on being life.
zh:所以牢房救了他，然后生活还是那个生活。
[Mike]: That's one way to say it. The director Werner Herzog talked about him in a 1977 documentary. He said Sylbaris survived because he was the baddest guy in town.
zh:可以这么说。导演沃纳·赫尔佐格在1977年的一部纪录片里提到他。他说 Sylbaris 能活下来，是因为他是全城最坏的那个家伙。
[Sarah]: The baddest guy in town.
zh:全城最坏的那个家伙。
[Mike]: That's why he was in the deepest cell. The guards were trying to make his life harder. They put him in the safest place in Saint-Pierre.
zh:所以他才被关在最深的牢房里。狱警本想让他的日子更难过。他们把他放进了圣皮埃尔最安全的地方。
[Sarah]: Is the cell still there?
zh:那间牢房还在吗？
[Mike]: It's still there. You can visit it. A small stone box, half in the ground, at the edge of a town that never came back.
zh:还在。你可以去看。一个小小的石头盒子，一半埋在地下，就在一座再也没能恢复的城的边上。
[Sarah]: I keep thinking about that door. One small slit, facing the wrong way for the volcano. If it had faced south...
zh:我一直在想那扇门。一条窄缝，背对着火山。如果它朝南的话……
[Mike]: Then we would have no story. Just another name on a very long list.
zh:那我们就不会有这个故事了。只会是那张很长的名单上的又一个名字。
[Sarah]: If you could ask him one question, what would it be?
zh:如果你能问他一个问题，你会问什么？
[Mike]: I'd ask what he thought about, in those four days in the dark. But I don't think he would tell me the truth. I think he would tell me the circus version.
zh:我会问他在那黑暗的四天里想了些什么。但我觉得他不会跟我说真话。他会跟我说马戏团那个版本。
[Sarah]: That's a sad answer.
zh:这个回答有点悲伤。
[Mike]: It's an honest one.
zh:但它是诚实的。
[Mike]: Listeners, we want to hear from you. If you know a story like this one — a person saved by the worst thing that ever happened to them — tell us. We might talk about it in a future episode.
zh:听众朋友们，我们想听你们说。如果你知道类似的故事——一个人被自己身上发生过的最糟的事救了——告诉我们。我们也许会在以后的节目里聊它。
[Sarah]: Thanks for listening to Learn English with Podcasts. See you in the next episode.
zh:感谢收听 Learn English with Podcasts。我们下期见。
