Holly Morris: Why stay in Chernobyl? Because it's home.

翻译人员: Ho Man Li 校对人员: Amber Qin

Three years ago, I was standing about a hundred yards

三年前，我站在离切尔诺贝利四号核反应堆

from Chernobyl nuclear reactor number four.

一百码的地方，

My Geiger counter dosimeter, which measures radiation,

我的盖革放射量测定器，在量辐射度时

was going berserk,

就像疯了一样，

and the closer I got, the more frenetic it became,

我走得越近，它就跳得越​​疯狂，

and frantic. My God.

我的天哪。

I was there covering the 25th anniversary

我在核事故发生25周年之际

of the world's worst nuclear accident,

去那里采写一份报道，

as you can see by the look on my face,

你可以看到我脸上的表情

reluctantly so, but with good reason,

此差事虽勉强，但有很好的原因，

because the nuclear fire that burned for 11 days

因为在1986年燃烧了11日

back in 1986 released 400 times as much radiation

的核火灾释放了比广岛的原子弹

as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima,

多400倍的辐射，

and the sarcophagus, which is the covering

而那石棺，覆盖在

over reactor number four,

第四号反应堆上，

which was hastily built 27 years ago,

是27年前草草建成的。

now sits cracked and rusted

现在又破裂又生锈，

and leaking radiation.

并泄漏辐射。

So I was filming.

那时我在拍摄，

I just wanted to get the job done

我只想完成工作

and get out of there fast.

然后快速离去。

But then, I looked into the distance,

但是，我看着远方的时候

and I saw some smoke coming from a farmhouse,

我看见由农舍传来的烟，

and I'm thinking, who could be living here?

我就在想，谁会住在那里？

I mean, after all, Chernobyl's soil, water and air,

毕竟，切尔诺贝利的泥土，水和空气，

are among the most highly contaminated on Earth,

是世上受污染最强的地方之一。

and the reactor sits at the the center of

而反应堆正正位于

a tightly regulated exclusion zone, or dead zone,

严密监管的禁区，又叫死区，的中心，

and it's a nuclear police state, complete with border guards.

还有，它是一个核警察州分，更有边防军助阵，

You have to have dosimeter at all times, clicking away,

你在任何时候都必须有核辐射测量计，

you have to have a government minder,

你需要一个政府看守者，

and there's draconian radiation rules

还有严厉的辐射规则

and constant contamination monitoring.

和恒定的污染监测。

The point being, no human being

即是说，没有人

should be living anywhere near the dead zone.

应该住在这里附近，

But they are.

但他们正是。

It turns out an unlikely community

原来一个大概有200人

of some 200 people are living inside the zone.

居住的社區存在于那地带之中，

They're called self-settlers.

他们是所谓的自我定居者。

And almost all of them are women,

差不多所有都是女人，

the men having shorter lifespans

男人寿命短很多，

in part due to overuse of alcohol, cigarettes,

除了因为辐射，部分是

if not radiation.

由于过量的喝酒和吸烟。

Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated

意外发生时，

at the time of the accident,

数以十万计的人被疏散，

but not everybody accepted that fate.

但不是每个人都接受了这命运，

The women in the zone, now in their 70s and 80s,

这些女人，现在已经七八十岁，

are the last survivors of a group who defied authorities

是最后的幸存者，并自然而然地

and, it would seem, common sense,

违抗了当局部门的决定，

and returned to their ancestral homes inside the zone.

回到他们祖传的家。

They did so illegally.

他们这样做是违法地。

As one woman put it to a soldier

正如一个女人向尝试第二次疏散他们的

who was trying to evacuate her for a second time,

一个军人说的一样：

"Shoot me and dig the grave.

「射死我然后给我挖坟，

Otherwise, I'm going home."

否则，我要回家。」

Now why would they return to such deadly soil?

他们为什么要回到这么容易致死的地方？

I mean, were they unaware of the risks

他们是不知道有风险，

or crazy enough to ignore them, or both?

或是无视风险，还是两样都是？

The thing is, they see their lives

事实是，他们所谓的生命

and the risks they run decidedly differently.

和他们要冒的险是非常不同。

Now around Chernobyl, there are scattered ghost villages,

在切尔诺贝利附近有零落的空无一人的村庄

eerily silent, strangely charming, bucolic,

毛骨悚然地沉默，奇异地迷人，田园般，

totally contaminated.

完全被污染。

Many were bulldozed under at the time of the accident,

很多在意外时就被铲平，

but a few are left like this,

但有少许就像这样，

kind of silent vestiges to the tragedy.

就像悲剧后寂静的残余。

Others have a few residents in them,

另外的有一些住客，

one or two "babushkas," or "babas,"

一两位"babushkas" 或 "babas,"

which are the Russian and Ukrainian words for grandmother.

那是俄文和乌克兰语文，是祖母的意思。

Another village might have six or seven residents.

另一条村落可能有六七人。

So this is the strange demographic of the zone --

那这就是区域里奇怪的人口，

isolated alone together.

一起被孤立了。

And when I made my way to that piping chimney

当我走向那个

I'd seen in the distance,

我在远方看到烟囱时，

I saw Hanna Zavorotnya, and I met her.

我看到Hanna Zavorotnya，然后我认识了她。

She's the self-declared mayor of Kapavati village,

她自我宣称是Kapavati村的村长，

population eight.

那里只有八个人。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

And she said to me, when I asked her the obvious,

我和她聊天时，我问了她最明显的问题，

"Radiation doesn't scare me. Starvation does."

她回答：“我不害怕辐射，但我害怕饥饿。”

And you have to remember, these women have

你们要记得，这些女人

survived the worst atrocities of the 20th century.

在二十世纪最可怕的灾难中生存了下来

Stalin's enforced famines of the 1930s, the Holodomor,

斯大林三十年代时强迫饥荒，大饥荒

killed millions of Ukrainians,

杀了数以百万计的乌克兰人，

and they faced the Nazis in the '40s,

当他们在四十年代面对纳粹时，

who came through slashing, burning, raping,

经历了放火，杀人，强奸，

and in fact many of these women

事实上这些女人很多

were shipped to Germany as forced labor.

都被运到德国做强迫劳工。

So when a couple decades into Soviet rule,

所以在苏联开始当道几十年后，

Chernobyl happened,

切尔诺贝利灾难发生了，

they were unwilling to flee in the face of an enemy

他们不愿意因为这个隐形

that was invisible.

的敌人而逃走。

So they returned to their villages

所以他们回到自己的村庄，

and are told they're going to get sick and die soon,

并且得知他们会病，很快会死，

but five happy years, their logic goes,

但他们的逻辑认为，快乐的五年

is better than 10 stuck in a high rise

比起住在基辅郊区里

on the outskirts of Kiev,

的高楼大厦十年要好，

separated from the graves of their mothers

和自己的母亲，

and fathers and babies,

父亲和孩子的坟墓分离，

the whisper of stork wings on a spring afternoon.

还有春天时鹳的翅膀的微微细语。

For them, environmental contamination

对他们来说，环境核辐射

may not be the worst sort of devastation.

可能不是最残酷的。

It turns out this holds true

事实上，对于其他生物来说

for other species as well.

这样的逻辑都同样存在。

Wild boar, lynx, moose, they've all returned

野猪，猞猁，驼鹿，他们都回到了

to the region in force,

现行的区域，

the very real, very negative effects of radiation

核辐射的非常真实的负面效果其实

being trumped by the upside of a mass exodus

还不如人类大批离去

of humans.

带给他们的好处大。

The dead zone, it turns out, is full of life.

所谓的死区，其实是充满生命的。

And there is a kind of heroic resilience,

然后就有一种英雄式的复原能力，

a kind of plain-spoken pragmatism to those

一种纯口语的实用主义，

who start their day at 5 a.m.

他们早上五点起床，

pulling water from a well

从井里拿水，

and end it at midnight

在半夜才休息。

poised to beat a bucket with a stick

蓄势用棍子打一桶水

and scare off wild boar that might mess with their potatoes,

然后吓走可能偷土豆的野猪，

their only company a bit of homemade moonshine vodka.

陪伴他们的就只有自制的家乡伏特加。

And there's a patina of simple defiance among them.

他们当中有些共同的藐视：

"They told us our legs would hurt, and they do. So what?"

「他们告诉我们的脚会痛，当然它们会。但又如何呢？」

I mean, what about their health?

那他们的健康呢？

The benefits of hardy, physical living,

刻苦劳动的生活带来好处，

but an environment made toxic

但有一个我们明白少许的敌人：

by a complicated, little-understood enemy, radiation.

辐射带来的有毒环境，

It's incredibly difficult to parse.

这是很难去解释的。

Health studies from the region

当地的健康研究，

are conflicting and fraught.

是相互矛盾，有误导性的。

The World Health Organization

世界卫生组织

puts the number of Chernobyl-related deaths

估计因切尔诺贝利事故引起的死亡人数

at 4,000, eventually.

最后会是四千。

Greenpeace and other organizations

绿色和平和其他的机构

put that number in the tens of thousands.

认为会有数以万计的人因此而死。

Now everybody agrees that thyroid cancers

现在每个人都同意甲状腺癌

are sky high, and that Chernobyl evacuees

极多，而由切尔诺贝利疏散出来的人当中，

suffer the trauma of relocated peoples everywhere:

很多遭受搬迁的心灵创伤：

higher levels of anxiety, depression, alcoholism,

更多焦虑，抑郁，酗酒，

unemployment and, importantly,

失业，和最重要的，

disrupted social networks.

扰乱了社会网络。

Now, like many of you,

就像你们一样，

I have moved maybe 20, 25 times in my life.

我可能搬迁了20、25次。

Home is a transient concept.

家只是短暂性的概念。

I have a deeper connection to my laptop

我对我的手提电脑，

than any bit of soil.

比对任何泥土有更多感情。

So it's hard for us to understand, but home

所以对于我们是很难明白，

is the entire cosmos of the rural babushka,

但家，是这个农村的整个宇宙；

and connection to the land is palpable.

而且他们与这土地的联系是十分明显的。

And perhaps because these Ukrainian women

或者有可能因为这些乌克兰女人

were schooled under the Soviets

是由苏联教导，

and versed in the Russian poets,

并由苏联诗人口述，

aphorisms about these ideas

对于这些主题的格言

slip from their mouths all the time.

经常会从他们的嘴里漏出。

"If you leave, you die."

“如果你走，你就死了。”

"Those who left are worse off now.

“那些已离去的现在生活得更差；

They are dying of sadness."

他们正因伤心而亡。”

"Motherland is motherland. I will never leave."

“故乡就是故乡。我永远不会离去。”

What sounds like faith, soft faith,

听起来像信念，柔弱的信念，

may actually be fact,

但这可能是事实；

because the surprising truth --

因为令人惊讶的事实：

I mean, there are no studies, but the truth seems to be

虽然没有学术研究，但真相似乎是

that these women who returned to their homes

这些回到了家乡的女人，

and have lived on some of the most radioactive land

住在世上最放射性的土地之一

on Earth for the last 27 years,

大概二十七年，

have actually outlived their counterparts

事实上比接受了搬迁的人

who accepted relocation,

有更长的寿命。

by some estimates up to 10 years.

根据某些估计，大概高出十年。

How could this be?

这怎么可能呢？

Here's a theory: Could it be

有一个理论：会不会是

that those ties to ancestral soil,

那些和祖先的土地，

the soft variables reflected in their aphorisms,

那些在她们格言中反映的因素，

actually affect longevity?

真是会影响寿命吗？

The power of motherland

乡土的力量，

so fundamental to that part of the world

对于那部分的人来说

seems palliative.

似乎是缓和的。

Home and community are forces

家和社会是比辐射

that rival even radiation.

更强大的力量。

Now radiation or not,

现在不管有没有辐射，

these women are at the end of their lives.

这些女人都步向死亡。

In the next decade, the zone's human residents will be gone,

未来十年内，区域里的居民会不在，

and it will revert to a wild, radioactive place,

返回一个野生的，放射性的土地；

full only of animals and occasionally

里面只有动物，偶尔

daring, flummoxed scientists.

会有大胆，狼狈不堪的科学家。

But the spirit and existence of the babushkas,

在我认识她们的三年里面，

whose numbers have been halved

这些祖母人数已经减半，

in the three years I've known them,

但她们的精神，

will leave us with powerful new templates

会留给我们一个新的模板，

to think about and grapple with,

去思考和探索，

about the relative nature of risk,

有关大自然的风险，

about transformative connections to home,

有关与家的连系，

and about the magnificent tonic

有关自我价值观和自决

of personal agency and self-determination.

的心灵补品。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（鼓掌）