The Beauty of What We'll Never Know | Pico Iyer | TED

翻译人员: Conway Ye 校对人员: Jiawei Ni

One hot October morning,

在一个炎热的十月早晨，

I got off the all-night train

我下了过夜火车

in Mandalay,

在曼德勒，

the old royal capital of Burma,

那是旧的缅甸皇室首都，

now Myanmar.

现在是缅甸联邦了。

And out on the street, I ran into a group of rough men

到了街上， 我碰到了一群衣着朴素的人，

standing beside their bicycle rickshaws.

站在他们的黄包车旁边。

And one of them came up

其中的一个走上前，

and offered to show me around.

想带我在附近逛逛。

The price he quoted was outrageous.

他提出的价格是难以置信的，

It was less than I would pay for a bar of chocolate at home.

比我在家一根巧克力棒的 价格还要便宜。

So I clambered into his trishaw,

所以我爬上他的三轮车，

and he began pedaling us slowly between palaces and pagodas.

他开始缓缓地载着我， 穿梭在皇宫和宝塔之间。

And as he did, he told me how he had come to the city from his village.

这时，他开始讲述他是 如何从他的村庄来到城市，

He'd earned a degree in mathematics.

他取得了数学的学位。

His dream was to be a teacher.

梦想成为一名老师。

But of course, life is hard under a military dictatorship,

但是，受军阀独裁的 统治的生活是很困难的，

and so for now, this was the only way he could make a living.

所以到现在， 这就是他唯一赖以生存的方式。

Many nights, he told me, he actually slept in his trishaw

多少个夜晚，他告诉我， 他睡在自己的三轮车里，

so he could catch the first visitors off the all-night train.

为了能够接到 下连夜火车的第一个乘客。

And very soon, we found that in certain ways,

很快，我们发现，在很多方面，

we had so much in common --

我们其实很像——

we were both in our 20s,

我们都是二十几岁，

we were both fascinated by foreign cultures --

我们都热爱异国文化。

that he invited me home.

他邀请我到他家。

So we turned off the wide, crowded streets,

所以我们离开了宽大且拥挤的马路，

and we began bumping down rough, wild alleyways.

开始颠簸在一条条 凹凸不平的巷子里。

There were broken shacks all around.

身边都是破旧的小屋。

I really lost the sense of where I was,

我完全不知道我在哪，

and I realized that anything could happen to me now.

我意识到什么都有可能发生在我身上。

I could get mugged or drugged

我可能会被打劫或者下药，

or something worse.

或者更糟。

Nobody would know.

没人会知道。

Finally, he stopped and led me into a hut,

最终，他停了车， 带我进了一个棚屋，

which consisted of just one tiny room.

棚屋只有一个小小的房间。

And then he leaned down,

然后他趴下，

and reached under his bed.

伸手到床下。

And something in me froze.

有点让我不知所措。

I waited to see what he would pull out.

我等待着， 想知道他会拿出什么东西。

And finally he extracted a box.

终于，他抽出了一个盒子，

Inside it was every single letter he had ever received

里面是每一封他从外国游客那里

from visitors from abroad,

收到的信。

and on some of them he had pasted

其中的一些，被他粘贴着，

little black-and-white worn snapshots

他新交外国朋友的

of his new foreign friends.

小小的黑白照片，

So when we said goodbye that night,

那个晚上，当我们在互道再见的时候，

I realized he had also shown me

我意识到，他也向我展示了

the secret point of travel,

旅行的秘密，

which is to take a plunge,

那就是沉浸于其中，

to go inwardly as well as outwardly

由里及外，

to places you would never go otherwise,

去你不会去的地方，

to venture into uncertainty,

去探索不确定，

ambiguity,

模糊，

even fear.

甚至是恐惧。

At home, it's dangerously easy

在家，我们极容易

to assume we're on top of things.

认为事情都在掌控之中。

Out in the world, you are reminded every moment that you're not,

离家在外的时候，你要记住， 每一分每一秒，

and you can't get to the bottom of things, either.

你不会，也不能了解事情的全部。

Everywhere, "People wish to be settled,"

“无论何处，人们都想通晓世事，”

Ralph Waldo Emerson reminded us,

拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生提醒过我们，

"but only insofar as we are unsettled

“但是正因为我们无法通晓世事

is there any hope for us."

我们才有希望。”

At this conference, we've been lucky enough

在这个会议，我们都很幸运，

to hear some exhilarating new ideas and discoveries

能够听到一些令人激动的新主意和发现，

and, really, about all the ways

知识就在这样令人激动

in which knowledge is being pushed excitingly forwards.

的方式里被传播。

But at some point, knowledge gives out.

但是有的时候，知识不再起作用。

And that is the moment

那就是

when your life is truly decided:

当你的人生将被决定的时候：

you fall in love;

坠入爱河，

you lose a friend;

失去朋友，

the lights go out.

面对死亡。

And it's then, when you're lost or uneasy or carried out of yourself,

然后， 当你失败或失落的时候，

that you find out who you are.

你才会发现你是谁。

I don't believe that ignorance is bliss.

我不相信无知是福。

Science has unquestionably made our lives

科学毋庸置疑让我们的生活

brighter and longer and healthier.

变得更光明，更长久，更健康。

And I am forever grateful to the teachers who showed me the laws of physics

我永远感激教导我 物理定律的老师

and pointed out that three times three makes nine.

和教会我三乘三得九的老师。

I can count that out on my fingers

我能在任何时候

any time of night or day.

用手指算出来。

But when a mathematician tells me

但是当一个数学家告诉我，

that minus three times minus three makes nine,

负三乘负三等于九，

that's a kind of logic that almost feels like trust.

这种逻辑感觉有点像信任。

The opposite of knowledge, in other words, isn't always ignorance.

博学的反义，换一个角度来说， 不一定是无知。

It can be wonder.

也可能是思忖，

Or mystery.

或者怀疑。

Possibility.

都有可能。

And in my life, I've found it's the things I don't know

在我的人生中， 我发现是我不知道的事情

that have lifted me up and pushed me forwards

让我进步和成长，

much more than the things I do know.

远超过我知道的事情。

It's also the things I don't know

而且也是我不知道的事情，

that have often brought me closer to everybody around me.

让我和身边的人更亲近。

For eight straight Novembers, recently,

最近连续的八个十一月，

I traveled every year across Japan with the Dalai Lama.

我和达赖喇嘛在日本游历。

And the one thing he said every day

他每天说的一件事，

that most seemed to give people reassurance and confidence

似乎最能够让人们安慰和自信的，

was, "I don't know."

就是“我不知道。”

"What's going to happen to Tibet?"

“西藏会发生什么？”

"When are we ever going to get world peace?"

“什么时候世界会和平？”

"What's the best way to raise children?"

“培养孩子最好的方式是什么？”

"Frankly," says this very wise man,

“坦白说，”这个智者谈到，

"I don't know."

“我不知道。”

The Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman

获得过诺贝尔奖的经济学家， 丹尼尔·卡内曼

has spent more than 60 years now researching human behavior,

曾经花了超过60年研究人类行为，

and his conclusion is

他的结论是，

that we are always much more confident of what we think we know

相对于我们真正知道的事情，

than we should be.

我们总是对自以为知道的 事情更自信。

We have, as he memorably puts it,

他的表述是，“我们拥有

an "unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance."

无尽的忽视无知的能力。“

We know -- quote, unquote -- our team is going to win this weekend,

我们知道“我们队伍这周末会赢。”

and we only remember that knowledge

我们只会记得这个在少数

on the rare occasions when we're right.

我们是正确的情况下。

Most of the time, we're in the dark.

大多数时候，我们都处在无知当中，

And that's where real intimacy lies.

这也是正是亲近所在。

Do you know what your lover is going to do tomorrow?

你知道你的爱人明天要做什么吗？

Do you want to know?

你想知道吗？

The parents of us all, as some people call them,

对于一些人来说，我们的父母，

Adam and Eve,

亚当和夏娃，

could never die, so long as they were eating from the tree of life.

如果他们只从生命之树获取食物， 他们可以永生。

But the minute they began nibbling

但是他们开始一点一点地从

from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

知善恶树上获取食物的时候，

they fell from their innocence.

他们落入了无知的陷阱。

They grew embarrassed and fretful,

他们不耐心和烦躁，

self-conscious.

自我意识太强。

And they learned, a little too late, perhaps,

他们可能意识到的太晚了一点，

that there are certainly some things that we need to know,

总有一些事情是需要了解的，

but there are many, many more that are better left unexplored.

但是还有更多最好处在未知的事情。

Now, when I was a kid,

当我还是个孩子的时候，

I knew it all, of course.

当然，我觉得我什么都知道，

I had been spending 20 years in classrooms collecting facts,

我已经在教室里花了20年收集信息，

and I was actually in the information business,

而且，我在信息行业工作，

writing articles for Time Magazine.

给时代杂志写文章。

And I took my first real trip to Japan for two-and-a-half weeks,

我去日本的第一次旅行持续了两周半，

and I came back with a 40-page essay

回来的时候， 我写了一份40页的文章，

explaining every last detail about Japan's temples,

关于日本寺庙

its fashions, its baseball games,

时尚潮流，棒球比赛的每一个细节。

its soul.

还有日本的民族魂。

But underneath all that,

但是，更深的层次里，

something that I couldn't understand

依旧有一些我无法理解的东西，

so moved me for reasons I couldn't explain to you yet,

无法言表地打动了我，

that I decided to go and live in Japan.

让我决定造访并在日本定居。

And now that I've been there for 28 years,

现在，我已经在那儿待了28年，

I really couldn't tell you very much at all

我真的没有办法告诉你们很多

about my adopted home.

关于我的第二个家。

Which is wonderful,

这真的很棒，

because it means every day I'm making some new discovery,

因为这意味着我每天都会有些新发现。

and in the process,

在这个过程中，

looking around the corner and seeing the hundred thousand things

我会查看墙角，并发现上万的

I'll never know.

我永远不会知道的东西。

Knowledge is a priceless gift.

知识是无价的礼物。

But the illusion of knowledge can be more dangerous than ignorance.

但是装作知道可能比无知还要危险。

Thinking that you know your lover

想想看你了解你的爱人，

or your enemy

或者你的敌人，

can be more treacherous

可能会比你不了解他们

than acknowledging you'll never know them.

还要危险。

Every morning in Japan, as the sun is flooding into our little apartment,

在日本的每个早上， 当阳光涌入我们小公寓的时候，

I take great pains not to consult the weather forecast,

我都会因为不看天气预报而难受，

because if I do,

因为如果我看了，

my mind will be overclouded, distracted,

我的思绪会被积压，分散，

even when the day is bright.

即使是晴天。

I've been a full-time writer now for 34 years.

我当全职作家已经34年了，

And the one thing that I have learned

我学到的一件事，

is that transformation comes when I'm not in charge,

就是改变是在无知的时候发生的，

when I don't know what's coming next,

当我不知道接下来会发生什么的时候，

when I can't assume I am bigger than everything around me.

当我不知道身边的事情都是光明的时候。

And the same is true in love

也是当坠入爱河的时候，

or in moments of crisis.

或者身陷危机的时候。

Suddenly, we're back in that trishaw again

突然，我们又回到了那辆三轮车，

and we're bumping off the broad, well-lit streets;

我们正在颠簸地离开宽大明亮的马路，

and we're reminded, really, of the first law of travel

并提醒我们旅行的真谛，

and, therefore, of life:

因此，在生活中，

you're only as strong as your readiness to surrender.

你因面对未知的能力而强壮，

In the end, perhaps,

可能，在最后，

being human

做普通人，

is much more important

可能比做一个无所不知的人

than being fully in the know.

还要重要。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（鼓掌）