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PicoIyer_2013G-_家在何方_
Where do you come from? 你從哪裡來？
It's such a simple question, but these days, of course, simple questions bring ever more complicated answers. 這是一個很簡單的問題, 但是近年來,當然,簡單的問題 伴隨而來的是相對複雜的答案。
complicated:adj.复杂的;难懂的;v.使复杂化;(complicate的过去分词和过去式)
People are always asking me where I come from, and they're expecting me to say India, and they're absolutely right insofar as 100 percent of my blood and ancestry does come from India. 人們總是問我,我從何而來, 他們期待聽到我說印度, 當然他們說的一點也沒錯, 我流著印度的血,祖先也來自印度。
absolutely:adv.绝对地;完全地; insofar as:na.在…限度内; ancestry:n.祖先;血统;
Except, I've never lived one day of my life there. 只不過,我這輩子從來沒有在那裡生活過一天。
I can't speak even one word of its more than 22,000 dialects . 當地超過兩萬兩千種方言, 我一個字也不會講。
dialects:n.乡土语言,方言;
So I don't think I've really earned the right to call myself an Indian. 因此,我想我沒什麼資格 說自己是印度人。
And if "Where do you come from?" 那麼,如果「你從哪裡來？」
means "Where were you born and raised and educated?" 意謂著「你在哪裡出生、長大和讀書？」
then I'm entirely of that funny little country known as England, except I left England as soon as I completed my undergraduate education, and all the time I was growing up, 那麼,我就完全屬於那個小巧可愛的國家 英國。 只不過,一直到我大學畢業後, 我就離開英國了。 在我所有的成長期間,
as soon as:一…就; undergraduate:n.本科生;
I was the only kid in all my classes who didn't begin to look like the classic English heroes represented in our textbooks. 我總是班上唯一一個,在最初, 不把課本上經典的英國英雄人物 當做典範的孩子。
classic:n.名著;优秀的典范;adj.最优秀的;第一流的;有代表性的;典型的; represented:v.代表; (represent的过去式和过去分词)
And if "Where do you come from?" 如果「你從哪裡來？」
means "Where do you pay your taxes? 指的是「你在哪裡繳稅？
Where do you see your doctor and your dentist?" 你在哪裡上醫院、看牙醫？」
then I'm very much of the United States, and I have been for 48 years now, since I was a really small child. 這樣一來,我就成了道地的美國人。 我來這裡四十八年了, 在我很小的時候就來了。
United:adj.联合的; v.联合,团结; (unite的过去分词和过去式)
Except, for many of those years, 只不過,其中的幾年,
I've had to carry around this funny little pink card with green lines running through my face identifying me as a permanent alien. 我得帶著這張有趣的粉紅小卡, 上頭還有綠色的線劃過我的臉, 證明我是永久居留的外籍居民。
identifying:n.识别,标识;标识关系;v.识别;(identify的现在分词) permanent:adj.永久的,永恒的;n.烫发;
I do actually feel more alien the longer I live there. 我在那住得越久,真的越覺得自己是個外星人。
(Laughter) （笑聲）
And if "Where do you come from?" 如果「你從哪裡來？」
means "Which place goes deepest inside you and where do you try to spend most of your time?" 意謂著「哪個地方深植你心, 又或是你想在哪裡待最久？」
then I'm Japanese, because I've been living as much as I can for the last 25 years in Japan. 那麼我就成了日本人, 因為到目前為止, 我已經在日本待了廿五年。
Except, all of those years I've been there on a tourist visa , and I'm fairly sure not many Japanese would want to consider me one of them. 只不過,那些年來我是用觀光簽證入境的。 我相信,也沒有多少日本人 會認為我是他們的國民。
visa:n.签证;vt.签发签证; fairly:adv.相当地;公平地;简直;
And I say all this just to stress how very old-fashioned and straightforward my background is, because when I go to Hong Kong or Sydney or Vancouver , most of the kids I meet are much more international and multi-cultured than I am. 我說的這些,只是想要強調 我的背景有多老派 又多一致。 因為當我到了香港、雪梨或是溫哥華, 大部份我碰到的小孩 都比我更國際化,文化也更多元。
old-fashioned:adj.老式的;过时的;守旧的; straightforward:adj.简单的;坦率的;明确的;径直的;adv.直截了当地;坦率地; Vancouver:n.温哥华(加拿大主要港市);
And they have one home associated with their parents, but another associated with their partners, a third connected maybe with the place where they happen to be, 他們有一個和父母住的家, 還有另一個和伴侶住的家, 第三個家也許是他們碰巧造訪的地方,
associated:adj.有关联的; v.联想; (associate的过去分词和过去式)
a fourth connected with the place they dream of being, and many more besides . 第四個家是他們夢想中的家, 還有更多可能。
besides:adv.此外;而且;prep.除…之外;
And their whole life will be spent taking pieces of many different places and putting them together into a stained glass whole. 他們的一生是從許多不同的地方 搜集小片玻璃而組成的 彩色花窗。
stained glass:na.有色[彩色]玻璃;
Home for them is really a work in progress. 對他們來說,家是進行式。
It's like a project on which they're constantly adding upgrades and improvements and corrections. 那就像是一個計畫,他們可以不斷地 更新、改善和修正。
constantly:adv.不断地;时常地; upgrades:n.[计]升级; v.[计]升级(upgrade单三形式); improvements:n.改善;改进;改善的事物;(improvement的复数)
And for more and more of us, home has really less to do with a piece of soil than, you could say, with a piece of soul. 對越來越多人來說, 家和一把泥土的連結,顯然, 遠比一縷心靈還少。
If somebody suddenly asks me, "Where's your home?" 如果有人突然問我:「你家在哪裡？」
I think about my sweetheart or my closest friends or the songs that travel with me wherever I happen to be. 我想到的是愛人與好友, 或是陪伴我四處旅行的歌曲。
sweetheart:n.亲爱的;甜心;爱人;心上人
And I'd always felt this way, but it really came home to me, as it were , some years ago when I was climbing up the stairs in my parents' house in California, and I looked through the living room windows 我常有這樣的感覺, 但對我來說,這就是家的意義。 數年前,我在父母位於加州的房子裡, 當我爬上樓梯時, 我的視線穿越了客廳的窗子,
as it were:可以说是,似乎就是;好像; living room:n.客厅;起居室;
and I saw that we were encircled by 70-foot flames, one of those wildfires that regularly tear through the hills of California and many other such places. 我看到我們被七十英尺高的火焰包圍, 就像其它地方,加州的野火 時不時就會蔓延整個山頭。
encircled:v.环绕;围绕;包围;(encircle的过去分词和过去式) wildfires:n.野火(wildfire复数);大火灾;鬼火;古时攻打敌船所用的燃料剂; regularly:adv.经常地;有规律地;定期的
And three hours later, that fire had reduced my home and every last thing in it except for me to ash. 三個小時後, 大火吞噬了我家和所有東西, 只留下我和灰燼。
And when I woke up the next morning, 隔天早上,
I was sleeping on a friend's floor, the only thing I had in the world was a toothbrush 我在朋友家的地板上醒來時, 我在世界上僅有的東西只有
toothbrush:n.牙刷;
I had just bought from an all-night supermarket. 剛從廿四小時營業的超市裡買來的牙刷。
all-night:adj.通宵的;通宵营业的;
Of course, if anybody asked me then, "Where is your home?" 當然,如果有人在那之後問我: 「你家在哪裡？」
I literally couldn't point to any physical construction . 我根本無法指向任何具體的建築物。
literally:adv.按字面:字面上:确实地: physical:adj.[物]物理的;身体的;物质的;符合自然法则的;n.体格检查; construction:n.建设;建筑物;解释;造句;
My home would have to be whatever I carried around inside me. 我的家只能讓我隨身攜帶在心頭了。
And in so many ways, I think this is a terrific liberation . 在很多方面,我都覺得這是一種很糟的自由感。
terrific:adj.极好的;极其的,非常的;可怕的; liberation:n.释放,解放;
Because when my grandparents were born, they pretty much had their sense of home, their sense of community , even their sense of enmity , assigned to them at birth, and didn't have much chance of stepping outside of that. 因為當我的祖父母出生時, 他們對家、社區, 又或是家族的世仇, 都在出生的那一刻起就已決定, 而且他們也沒有什麼機會離開那個生活圈。
community:n.社区;[生态]群落;共同体;团体; enmity:n.敌意;憎恨; assigned:v.分配(某物);分派;指定;委派;(assign的过去分词和过去式)
And nowadays, at least some of us can choose our sense of home, create our sense of community, fashion our sense of self, and in so doing maybe step a little beyond some of the black and white divisions of our grandparents' age. 而現在,至少我們可以自己選擇家的樣貌, 建造想要的社區模樣, 塑造自我形象, 也許因為如此,我們不再像 祖父母那個年代那樣 如此黑白對立。
black and white:adj.印刷的;黑白混合的;用笔写的; divisions:n.分开;分隔;分配;除(法);不和;差异;(division的复数)
No coincidence that the president of the strongest nation on Earth is half-Kenyan, partly raised in Indonesia , has a Chinese-Canadian brother-in-law . 世界最強權國的總統 有一半的肯亞血統並非巧合, 曾在印尼長大, 有一位華裔加拿大籍的妹夫。
coincidence:n.巧合,巧事;同时存在;并存;相同; Indonesia:n.印尼,印度尼西亚(东南亚岛国); brother-in-law:n.姐夫;妹夫;内弟;内兄;小叔;大伯;
The number of people living in countries not their own now comes to 220 million, and that's an almost unimaginable number, but it means that if you took the whole population of Canada and the whole population of Australia and then the whole population of Australia again and the whole population of Canada again and doubled that number, you would still have fewer people than belong to this great floating tribe . 現在有超過兩億兩千人 沒有住在自己的國家, 這數字大到讓人難以想像, 它所代表的人口數等於了整個加拿大、 加上整個澳洲、 再加一個澳洲、 再加一個加拿大的總人口數, 然後乘以二, 這個數字還略少於 這個強大的游牧民族。
unimaginable:adj.不可思议的;难以想像的; tribe:n.部落;族;宗族;一伙;
And the number of us who live outside the old nation-state categories is increasing so quickly, by 64 million just in the last 12 years, that soon there will be more of us than there are Americans. 像我們這樣不住在祖國的人數 最近的十二年來已達到六千四百萬人, 不久之後,這樣的人數就會比美國人還多了。
nation-state:n.单一民族国家; categories:n.(人或事物的)类别,种类(category的复数)
Already, we represent the fifth-largest nation on Earth. 我們早已成為了世界上的五大國之一。
And in fact, in Canada's largest city, Toronto , the average resident today is what used to be called a foreigner, somebody born in a very different country. 事實上,在加拿大的最大都市多倫多, 現在大部份的市民都是過去大家眼中的外國人, 來自很特別的地方。
Toronto:n.多伦多(加拿大城市); resident:adj.居住的;住院医师;定居的;n.居民;
And I've always felt that the beauty of being surrounded by the foreign is that it slaps you awake. 我總覺得被外國人圍繞的美感 來自於他們一掌把你打醒。
slaps:n.掴;拍击;缺口;v.用手掌拍击;在…上开缺口;(slap的第三人称单数和复数)
You can't take anything for granted . 你不能理所當然地拿走任何東西。
take anything for granted:以为一切都是理所当然的;
Travel, for me, is a little bit like being in love , because suddenly all your senses are at the setting marked "on." 旅行,對我而言,有點像是戀愛, 因為突然間,所有的感官都開啟了,
being in love:恋爱;恋爱中的;拍拖;
Suddenly you're alert to the secret patterns of the world. 突然間,你留意起世界的神秘模樣。
alert:n.警报; adj.警觉的; v.向…报警;
The real voyage of discovery, as Marcel Proust famously said, consists not in seeing new sights, but in looking with new eyes. 真正的發掘之旅,如同普魯斯特 (Marcel Proust) 的名言, 不在於看新的景色, 而在於用新的眼光來看世界。
voyage:v.航行;远行;(尤指)远航;n.航行;(尤指)航海; famously:adv.著名地;极好地; consists:v.由…构成;由…组成(consist的三单形式);
And of course, once you have new eyes, even the old sights, even your home become something different. 當然,如果你有新的眼光, 即便是舊景重現,即便是家, 也變得獨一無二。
Many of the people living in countries not their own are refugees who never wanted to leave home and ache to go back home. 許多不住在祖國的人們是難民, 渴望回到故鄉。
refugees:n.避难者;逃亡者;难民;(refugee的复数)
But for the fortunate among us, 但我想,對我們之中幸運的人來說,
fortunate:adj.幸运的;交好运的;吉利的;
I think the age of movement brings exhilarating new possibilities. 移動的數年,帶來的是新鮮又愉快的可能性。
exhilarating:adj.令人兴奋的; v.使高兴; (exhilarate的现在分词)
Certainly when I'm traveling, especially to the major cities of the world, the typical person I meet today will be, let's say, a half-Korean, half-German young woman living in Paris. 無疑地,在我的旅途中, 特別是到了世界各地的大都市, 我遇見的人就會變成,比如, 韓國與德國混血的年輕女性, 住在巴黎。
especially:adv.尤其;特别;格外;十分; typical:adj.典型的;特有的;象征性的;
And as soon as she meets a half-Thai, half-Canadian young guy from Edinburgh , she recognizes him as kin. 然後當她遇見了一位 泰國與加拿大混血的青年,住在愛丁堡。 她把他當作是同類,
Edinburgh:n.爱丁堡(英国城市名); recognizes:v.认识;认出;辨别出;承认;意识到;(recognize的第三人称单数)
She realizes that she probably has much more in common with him than with anybody entirely of Korea or entirely of Germany. 她想,也許他們倆比其他 純種韓國人或德國人來得相似許多。
in common with:与…一样;
So they become friends. They fall in love . 因此,他們變成了朋友,陷入熱戀。
fall in love:v.坠入情网;坠入爱河;相爱;爱上;
They move to New York City. 他們搬到了鈕約。
(Laughter) （笑聲）
Or Edinburgh. 或是愛丁堡。
And the little girl who arises out of their union will of course be not Korean or German or French or Thai or Scotch or Canadian or even American, but a wonderful and constantly evolving mix of all those places. 他們倆扶養長大的小女孩 當然,不會是韓國人、德國人、 法國人、泰國人、蘇格蘭人、加拿大人、 或是美國人。 她會是融合了這些國家的美好結晶。
arises:v.出现;发生;站立; Korean:n.朝鲜族;韩国人;朝鲜话;adj.朝鲜的;朝鲜族的;朝鲜话的; Scotch:vi.弄伤;制止转动;扑灭;镇压;n.刻痕; evolving:v.(使)逐渐形成,逐渐演变;进化形成;(evolve的现在分词)
And potentially , everything about the way that young woman dreams about the world, writes about the world, thinks about the world, could be something different, because it comes out of this almost unprecedented blend of cultures. 這位年輕女孩 夢想世界的方式、 書寫世界的方式、思考世界的方式, 都可能成為很特別的樣貌, 因為她的誕生幾乎是史無前例地 由多元文化綜合而成。
potentially:adv.可能地,潜在地; unprecedented:adj.空前的;无前例的; blend:v.混合;融合;加入;相称;n.混合;混合物;混合种;混合色;
Where you come from now is much less important than where you're going. 相較之下,你從哪裡來已不如 你往何處去來得重要了。
More and more of us are rooted in the future or the present tense as much as in the past. 我們受到未來或是當前的影響, 已不亞於過去對我們的影響了。
present tense:n.现在时;
And home, we know, is not just the place where you happen to be born. 我們知道,家不只是一個 你恰巧出生的地方,
It's the place where you become yourself. 那是一個讓你成為你的地方。
And yet, there is one great problem with movement, and that is that it's really hard to get your bearings when you're in midair . 然而, 這樣的移動造成了很大的問題, 那就是當你流離失所時,
bearings:n.关系;影响;姿态;举止;方位;(bearing的复数) midair:n.半空中;
Some years ago, I noticed that I had accumulated one million miles on United Airlines alone. 幾年前,我發現自己在聯合航空 已經累積了一百萬哩的里程數了。
accumulated:v.积累;积聚;(数量)逐渐增加;(accumulate的过去式和过去分词) Airlines:n.航空公司(airline的复数);航空业;
You all know that crazy system, six days in hell, you get the seventh day free. 你們都知道一個瘋狂的機制, 那就是六天活在地獄,然後在第七天得到自由。
(Laughter) （笑聲）
And I began to think that really, movement was only as good as the sense of stillness that you could bring to it to put it into perspective . 因此,我開始思考, 唯有將移動和靜止放在同一個視野中, 才能彰顯兩者共同的美好意義。
stillness:n.静止;沉静; perspective:n.观点;远景;透视图;adj.透视的;
And eight months after my house burned down, 在我家發生火災的八個月後,
I ran into a friend who taught at a local high school, and he said, "I've got the perfect place for you." 我偶然碰到一位在當地中學任教的朋友, 他說:「我幫你找到最好的地方了。」
'"Really?" I said. I'm always a bit skeptical when people say things like that. 「真的？」我說,當別人這麼說時, 我總是抱著懷疑的態度。
skeptical:adj.怀疑的;怀疑论的,不可知论的;
'"No, honestly," he went on, "it's only three hours away by car, and it's not very expensive, and it's probably not like anywhere you've stayed before." 「老實說,是假的,」他繼續說道 「坐車只要三小時, 不太貴, 而且可能也不像以你前住過的地方。」
'"Hmm." I was beginning to get slightly intrigued . "What is it?" 「嗯。」我開始被吸引了「那是哪裡？」
slightly:adv.些微地,轻微地;纤细地; intrigued:adj.感兴趣的; v.密谋; (intrigue的过去式和过去分词)
'"Well —" Here my friend hemmed and hawed — "Well, actually it's a Catholic hermitage ." 「嗯…」我的朋友開始躊躇不語 「嗯,其實那是天主教的修道院。」
hemmed:v.(给某物)缝边,镶边;(hem的过去分词和过去式) hawed:n.山楂,山楂果;吆喝牲畜左转;瞬膜;vi.向左转;vt.使向左转; Catholic:adj.天主教的;宽宏大量的;n.天主教徒;罗马天主教; hermitage:n.隐士生活;隐士住处;
This was the wrong answer. 這答案是錯的。
I had spent 15 years in Anglican schools, so I had had enough hymnals and crosses to last me a lifetime. 過去我曾在英國教會學校待了十五年, 所以我已有足夠的讚美詩集和十字架,夠我一輩子用。
hymnals:adj.赞美诗的;使用赞美诗的;n.赞美诗集;
Several lifetimes, actually. 其實是好幾輩子。
But my friend assured me that he wasn't Catholic, nor were most of his students, but he took his classes there every spring. 但是我的朋友向我保證他不是天主教徒, 大部分他教的學生也不是, 但是每年春天,他都會帶學生到那裡去。
assured:adj.确定的;自信的;n.被保险人;v.保证;确实;(assure的过去分词和过去式);
And as he had it, even the most restless , distractible, testosterone-addled 15-year-old Californian boy only had to spend three days in silence and something in him cooled down and cleared out. 如同他過去的經歷,即使是最焦躁、最容易分心、 荷爾蒙失調的十五歲加州男孩, 也只需要花三天靜一靜, 就能得到內在的平和與淨化。
restless:adj.焦躁不安的;不安宁的;得不到满足的; in silence:沉默地;
He found himself. 他找到了自己。
And I thought, "Anything that works for a 15-year-old boy ought to work for me." 我想:「能讓十五歲男孩管用的東西, 應該對我也管用。」
So I got in my car, and I drove three hours north along the coast, and the roads grew emptier and narrower, and then I turned onto an even narrower path, barely paved , that snaked for two miles up to the top of a mountain. 因此我上了車,沿著海岸線往北 開了三小時。 路途人煙變得稀少,道路逐漸狹小, 後來我彎進一條更窄、 未經修整過的兩哩長小徑, 一路蜿蜒到山頂。
barely:adv.仅仅,勉强;几乎不;公开地;贫乏地; paved:v.(用砖石)铺(地);(pave的过去分词和过去式)
And when I got out of my car, the air was pulsing . 當我下了車, 空氣流動著,
pulsing:adj.脉冲的;n.脉动;v.使跳动;搏动(pulse的ing形式);
The whole place was absolutely silent, but the silence wasn't an absence of noise. 一片寂靜, 但不是一丁點聲響也沒有,
It was really a presence of a kind of energy or quickening . 那是真正的活力和朝氣的象徵。
presence:n.存在;出席;参加;风度;仪态; quickening:adj.使活泼的;使复苏的;n.胎动;兴奋;v.加速;活跃(quicken的ing形式);
And at my feet was the great, still blue plate of the Pacific Ocean. 在我腳下的是浩瀚、靜止的 湛藍太平洋。
All around me were 800 acres of wild dry brush. 我站在八百英畝大的荒野中。
And I went down to the room in which I was to be sleeping. 我往下走向留宿處,
Small but eminently comfortable, it had a bed and a rocking chair and a long desk and even longer picture windows looking out on a small, private, walled garden, and then 1,200 feet of golden pampas grass running down to the sea. 雖然不大,但是非常舒適, 有一張床、一張搖椅, 還有一張長桌和一扇更長的畫窗, 對著外頭一座小巧、隱密,有圍牆的花園, 一千兩百呎金黃色的潘帕斯草原 綿延到大海。
eminently:adv.突出地;显著地; rocking chair:摇椅,安乐椅; pampas grass:n.蒲苇(产于南美洲,开银白色长羽毛状花,常见于园子);
And I sat down, and I began to write, and write, and write, even though I'd gone there really to get away from my desk. 接著我坐了下來,開始書寫, 不斷地書寫、不斷地書寫, 即使我上那兒的原意是要遠離我的書桌。
And by the time I got up, four hours had passed. 我起身時已過了四小時。
Night had fallen, and I went out under this great overturned saltshaker of stars, and I could see the tail lights of cars disappearing around the headlands 12 miles to the south. 夜幕低垂, 我走進這片浩瀚無垠的點點星空, 可以看到車燈 消逝在南方十二哩外的海角中。
overturned:v.推翻;倾覆;撤销;(overturn的过去分词和过去式) saltshaker:n.盐瓶(常见于餐桌上); disappearing:v.消失;不复存在;灭绝;丢失(disappear的现在分词) headlands:n.岬;
And it really seemed like my concerns of the previous day vanishing . 前一天的擔憂 似乎已消失無蹤。
concerns:n.关注; v.使关心(concern的三单形式); previous:adj.以前的;早先的;过早的;adv.在先;在…以前; vanishing:adj.消没的;n.消失;v.消失(vanish的现在分词);
And the next day, when I woke up in the absence of telephones and TVs and laptops , the days seemed to stretch for a thousand hours. 隔天,我在遠離 電話、電視和電腦的晨裡醒來, 一天的時光似乎延長了上千小時。
in the absence of:缺乏,不存在;无…时,缺少…时; laptops:n.便携式电脑;笔记本电脑;(laptop的复数) stretch:v.伸展;延伸;伸出;舒展;n.伸展;弹性;舒展;一片;adj.有弹力的;
It was really all the freedom I know when I'm traveling, but it also profoundly felt like coming home. 這是我在旅程中得到的所有自由, 但是我卻深深地感覺像是回到了家。
profoundly:adv.深刻地;深深地;极度地;
And I'm not a religious person, so I didn't go to the services. 我沒有宗教信仰, 因此我沒有參與宗教儀式,
religious:adj.宗教的;虔诚的;严谨的;修道的;n.修道士;尼姑;
I didn't consult the monks for guidance. 沒有向修道士尋求指引,
consult:v.咨询;请教;商量;查阅;查询;参看;
I just took walks along the monastery road and sent postcards to loved ones. 我只是沿著修道院漫步, 寄些名信片給親愛的人。
monastery:n.修道院;僧侣; postcards:n.明信片;(postcard的复数)
I looked at the clouds, and I did what is hardest of all for me to do usually, which is nothing at all. 我看著雲朵, 我做了件一直以來對我來說最困難的事, 那就是什麼也不做。
And I started to go back to this place, and I noticed that I was doing my most important work there invisibly just by sitting still, and certainly coming to my most critical decisions the way I never could when I was racing from the last email to the next appointment . 我開始回到這個地方, 發現自己正默默地做著最重要的事, 就只是靜靜地坐著, 然後我做了幾個重要的決定, 那是我在追逐最後一封郵件和下一場會議的繁忙生活中,
invisibly:adv.看不见地;看不出地; critical:adj.鉴定的;[核]临界的;批评的,爱挑剔的;危险的;决定性的;评论的; appointment:n.任命;约定;任命的职位;
And I began to think that something in me had really been crying out for stillness, but of course I couldn't hear it because I was running around so much. 我察覺,我體內有個東西 早已渴望這份平靜許久, 但是顯然我從未聽見, 因為我一直在忙亂的生活中打滾。
I was like some crazy guy who puts on a blindfold and then complains that he can't see a thing. 我像是一個戴著眼罩的瘋子, 不斷地抱怨自己看不見。
blindfold:n.障眼物;眼罩;v.(用布等)蒙住…的眼睛;adj/adv.被蒙住眼睛的(地) complains:v.抱怨;控诉;发牢骚(complain的第三人称单数形式);
And I thought back to that wonderful phrase 我回想起在我還是個小男孩時,
I had learned as a boy from Seneca, in which he says, "That man is poor not who has little but who hankers after more." 我讀到塞尼加 (Seneca) 筆下的美好詞句: 「窮人並非擁有的少, 而是渴望得到更多。」
hankers:vi.向往,追求;渴望,期望;
And, of course, I'm not suggesting that anybody here go into a monastery. 當然,我不是建議在座的每一位 都去修道院。
That's not the point. 那不是重點。
But I do think it's only by stopping movement that you can see where to go. 我認為只有透過停止移動, 你才能看清要往何處去。
And it's only by stepping out of your life and the world that you can see what you most deeply care about and find a home. 只有透過暫時離開你的生活和這個世界, 你才能看見自己最關心的事物, 然後找到一個家。
And I've noticed so many people now take conscious measures to sit quietly for 30 minutes every morning just collecting themselves in one corner of the room without their devices , or go running every evening, or leave their cell phones behind when they go to have a long conversation with a friend. 我注意到現在有很多人 有意識地每天早上靜坐三十分鐘, 在房裡的某個角落中關注自己, 遠離任何設備。 或是每天傍晚時去跑步、 又或是把行動電話拋在腦後, 和朋友深談。
conscious:adj.意识到的;故意的;神志清醒的; devices:n.[机][计]设备;[机]装置;[电子]器件(device的复数);
Movement is a fantastic privilege , and it allows us to do so much that our grandparents could never have dreamed of doing. 移動是一種珍貴的恩典, 它讓我們能夠體現許多 祖父母不敢奢望的夢想。
fantastic:奇异的,空想的 privilege:n.特权;优待;v.给与…特权;特免;
But movement, ultimately , only has a meaning if you have a home to go back to. 然而,移動, 終究只在有家可歸時,才有意義。
ultimately:adv.最终;最后;归根结底;终究;
And home, in the end, is of course not just the place where you sleep. 家,到頭來, 不只是一個休息的地方,
It's the place where you stand. 而是你的立足之地。
Thank you. 謝謝！
(Applause) （掌聲）