A Sci-Fi Story of Earth's Renewal | Vandana Singh | TED

翻译人员: Han Lei 校对人员: Yip Yan Yeung

A girl lies sleeping with electrodes attached to her body.

女孩躺在床上，身上连接着电极。

A man and a woman are looking at her

男人和女人正在隔壁房间

through a one-way glass window from the next room.

透过一扇单向透视窗看着她。

“Waste of time and money,” says the man.

男人说：“这简直是在浪费时间和钱，”

“An illiterate kid from a stone quarry?

“一个采石场来的文盲小孩而已，

What could she possibly contribute to the project?”

能对项目有什么贡献？”

“Hardly a kid.

女人说：“她已经不是一个孩子了，

She’s at least 16,” says the woman.

她至少 16 岁了。

“Come on, we’re making history.

加油，我们正在创造历史。

First ever experiment in collective dreaming.”

这是一次前所未有的集体做梦实验。”

To her right is a screen that takes up an entire wall.

女人的右边是一个电子屏幕， 它占据了整面墙。

The 311 participants in the experiment are now all asleep.

实验室里 311 个受试者正在沉睡。

Her poised finger jabs the keyboard.

她泰然自若地用手指敲击着键盘。

The girl’s dream.

这个女孩的梦，

Shards of memory.

是一些记忆碎片。

She’s watching her father at work.

她正看着埋头工作的父亲。

The wooden skeleton of the great loom,

巨大的木质织布机架子伫立在一旁，

the finished tapestries hanging on the wall.

编织好的毯子就挂在墙上。

Clackety-clack goes the loom.

织布机正嘎嘎作响。

The river floods,

汹涌的洪水，

sweeping her parents away.

冲走了她的父母，

The loom comes apart:

也把织布机冲到散架，

colored threads in the water.

彩色的织线四散在水中。

The sound of hammer striking stone.

敲击石块的声音。

The choking dust.

令人窒息的灰尘。

The quarry at night.

采石场的黑夜。

Young people around the fire.

火堆旁的年轻人。

She lifts a bubbling pot of rice from the flames.

她从火堆上抬起一锅咕咕冒泡的米饭。

Someone douses the fire,

有人浇灭了火，

and she lowers the pot into an insulator they made out of clay and straw.

然后她把锅放在了用陶土 和稻草做成的隔热垫上。

The rice cooks with its own heat.

米饭还留有余温，

The taste of hot rice and spiced oil.

还能闻到热米饭和香油的味道。

But look,

但再一看，

there are strangers in her dream.

女孩的梦里还有很多陌生人。

So many unfamiliar, bewildered faces.

那么多陌生而又一脸茫然的面孔。

And beside her,

除了女孩之外，

a boy, about 12, holding in his arms a large clock.

还有一个大约 12 岁左右的男孩， 手里正抱着一个巨大的时钟。

“Sync successful.

“同步成功。

Activating stage two.”

进入第二阶段。”

Suddenly, the 311 dreaming people are high up in the air.

突然间，311 个 正在做梦的人都升到了高空。

The Earth dawns below them

他们脚下的地球恰是拂晓，

swathed in green and blue,

绿色和蓝色包裹着它，

punctuated by clouds and storm formations.

风云开阖点缀着它。

The most beautiful tapestry the girl has ever seen.

这就是女孩所见过最瑰丽的织锦。

“Father,” she whispers,

她呢喃道：“爸爸。”

although he's been dead two years.

尽管她的父亲已经逝世两年之久。

“Father, the world itself is a weave,

“爸爸，这个世界本身就是一匹锦缎吧，

a living garment.”

一匹活的锦缎。”

Slowly, they fall through the air

慢慢地，他们落回了地面，

and then they see ...

然后看见了……

a vast swath of forest veined and spotted with fire,

一大片被火烧毁的森林，

a gray wall of water crashing down on a bleak shore,

一片灰色的水墙倾洒着冲向荒凉的海岸，

drowning islands ringed with plastic refuse,

淹没了被塑料垃圾包围的岛屿，

beached carcasses of dead whales,

鲸鱼的尸体搁浅在沙滩上，

ant-like figures in their millions walking away from desertified landscapes:

数百万的蚂蚁从荒漠中爬出，

ruined fields,

它们毁坏了田野，

destroyed forests.

也毁坏了森林。

The grief that envelops the girl is so enormous a thing

巨大的悲伤笼罩着女孩，

that she can only take it in through small, gasping breaths of pain.

她只能痛苦地小口喘气来缓解这种悲痛。

She alights with the others on a featureless plain

她和其他人一起降落在了 一片平淡无奇的原野上。

under a vast, brooding sky.

这片原野笼罩在巨大 而阴郁的穹幕之下。

There’s the boy with the clock in his arms.

原野上一个男孩怀抱着一个时钟。

The thumping of the girl’s heart keeps time with the boy’s clock,

女孩的心砰砰地跳着， 和男孩怀里的时钟一样，

an urgent, rapid beat.

以一种急促的节奏跳动着。

Tuck, tuck, tuck, tuck, tick-tock, tick-tock.

砰、砰、砰、砰， 滴答、滴答。

Something’s coming.

好像要发生什么事了。

“Warning: this is not in the program.”

“警告：非程序内事物。”

Bearing down upon them is a whirlwind.

一股旋风向他们袭来。

A chimera of storm clouds and plastic rubbish and burning trees.

雨云裹挟着塑料垃圾和 燃烧着的树木向他们袭来。

A monster made of hot dust and angry water.

像一个由蒸腾热气 和惊涛怒浪造就的怪物。

People scream and run,

人们尖叫着四散逃开，

but the boy with the clock is standing still, watching.

但怀抱时钟的男孩 仍旧站在那里静静地看。

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.

滴答、滴答、滴答。

“Why aren’t you running?” asks the girl.

女孩问道：“你为什么不跑？”

“I’m studying the unraveling of the world,” says the boy, earnestly.

男孩认真地答道： “我正在寻找这个世界的答案。

“That’s what this monster represents in our dream.

这个怪物在我们的梦中 代表着什么。

I’m an engineer and a knowledge-seeker.

我是一个工程师， 也是一个求知欲很强的人。

Pleased to meet you.”

很高兴见到你。”

She turns away.

她转身离开。

There’s a storm inside her:

这就是她内心的风暴：

grief and memory and anger.

悲伤、记忆和愤怒。

She takes a deep breath

她深吸了一口气，

and walks toward the monster.

然后走向了那个怪物。

She stands before it.

她站在了怪物的面前。

A thin, dark girl in a tattered, green sari.

这个女孩瘦弱，黝黑， 穿着破破烂烂的绿色纱丽。

Her hair is whipped loose from its braid,

编织好的发辫有些松散，

and the end of her sari unfurls like a flag.

纱丽的荆角像旗帜翻飞。

“Stand back,” shouts the boy in alarm.

男孩惊恐地喊道：“往后退，

“Let me figure out the control mechanism.”

让我找找控制的方法。”

Bending her head,

女孩低下了头，

straining against the wind,

迎风而立，

the girl walks into the monster.

一步步走向那个怪物。

The monster has a middle with a quiet place.

怪物周遭有一个真空地带。

She sits on the bare ground

她坐在了那片寸草不生的土地上，

and looks up at the towering vortex around her.

看着周围冲天的漩涡。

A rain of debris patters down.

残骸像雨点一样劈啪落下。

There is a deep rumble,

一阵深沉的隆隆声响起，

and she thinks she hears the monster say,

她似乎听见那头怪物在问，

“Why?”

“为什么？”

“To learn,” says the girl.

女孩回答道：“为了学习，

“I’ve lost everything --

我失去了一切——

lost my chance to learn at school.

失去了在学校学习的机会。

Teach me.”

教教我。”

To the boy outside with the clock in his arms,

而对于真空之外抱着钟的男孩来说，

the girl has been consumed by the monster.

女孩被怪物吞噬了。

In the lab, the man and woman look through the window

实验室内，男人和女人透过窗户

at the girl’s twitching body.

看着女孩抽搐的身体。

Alarms sound from the instruments monitoring her vital signs.

检测女孩生命体征的仪器发出了警报声。

At last, the girl emerges from the monster.

最后，女孩从怪物体内走了出来。

The monster is retreating over the horizon.

然后，怪物退回了地平线。

The plain is littered with debris.

整个平原布满了残骸。

The girl has cuts on her face and arms.

女孩的脸上和胳膊上也布满了伤口。

She walks up to the boy and speaks to him urgently.

她走向男孩，急切地说着什么。

Then they turn and face the waiting people.

然后他们转过身 面对着正在等待着的人群。

“My teacher taught me,” says the girl,

女孩说：“我的老师教导我，

“that the world is a living tapestry.

这个世界就是一匹活的锦缎。

The wind and the waves are woven together with the forests and grasslands,

风浪和森林草原相互交融，

threaded with the deserts and snowy regions,

沙漠和雪原相互交织，

and all living things are knit together in mutuality.

所有的生物相依相伴。

Although each place has its own pattern,

尽管每个地方都有自己的模式，

the tapestry is one.

但这样的锦缎仅有一匹。

As the weave of life is torn apart in one place,

这匹生命的锦缎一旦有一处散开了，

the threads unravel in another.”

就会解开其他的锦线。”

She and the boy confer again.

女孩和又商议了一番，

“See my clock,” says the boy, urgently to the crowd.

男孩急切地对着人群 说道：“看我的钟。

“It has components with clearly defined functions

它的每一个元件都有着明确的功能，

so you can adjust and control.

这样人们才能调整和控制。

Treat each part separately.

分开看待每一个部分。

You can tinker with it from the outside.

人们就能从外面修补它。

The clock was my orienting metaphor for the world.

这个时钟就是我对 外部世界的定向隐喻。

But the world is not like a clock, is it?”

但是这个世界和时钟 并不一样，对吗？”

He sets his clock on the ground.

他把时钟放到了地上。

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.

滴答、滴答、滴答。

“Come on,” says the girl to the watching people.

女孩对观望的人们说道：“过来。”

She and the boy start putting the scattered debris together,

她和男孩开始 将四散的残骸收拢起来，

and some of the others join them.

一些人加入了他们。

A structure starts to emerge.

一个架子开始显现。

An enormous loom of strange design.

这是一个造型奇特的巨大织布机。

The girl tosses her insulating pot into the loom,

女孩把她的绝缘锅扔进了织布机里，

and it turns into a thick spool of multicolored yarn.

然后绝缘锅就变成了一个 粗壮的五彩绕线轴。

There are levers for feet and hands,

织布机的脚踏和机头都有杠杆结构，

and with a creak and a groan,

杠杆嘎吱作响，

the loom begins to work.

织布机开始工作。

The fabric unfolds:

织物在眼前展开：

a mesmerizing tapestry of shifting colors and patterns.

这是一匹颜色和纹饰不断变换、 让人着迷的锦缎。

“What should I do with my clock?” asks the boy, picking it up.

男孩捡起地上的时钟，问道： “我应该怎么处理我的时钟？”

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.

滴答、滴答、滴答。

But now the sound of the loom is getting louder.

但此时织布机的声音越来越大。

Dahganah, denah, dahganah,

扎扎、扎、扎扎，

dahganah, denah, dahganah, goes the loom.

扎扎、扎、扎扎， 织布机不停地响着。

“Throw it in!”

“把它扔进去！”

So the boy picks up the clock

然后男孩捡起时钟，

and tosses it into the loom.

将之扔进了织布机里。

When it hits the tapestry,

时钟在击中织锦的一瞬间，

it breaks up.

就变得四分五裂。

A fountain of silver glitter scatters over the weaving.

一束银光洒在了织锦上。

Look, each bit of glitter has turned into a tiny clock woven with the fabric.

看呀，每一束光都变成了 一个编织的小小时钟。

The frantic ticking is slowing down

疯狂作响的滴答声正在减弱

to accommodate the rhythm of the loom.

以迎合织布机的节奏。

“We’re reweaving the world!” shouts the girl,

女孩大呼道： “我们正在重新编织这个世界。”

and the dreamers find themselves within the tapestry --

这些做着梦的人都在织锦上 看到了他们自己

not outside, but in it.

不是在外面，而是就在里面。

Even the man and woman in the lab,

无论是身处实验室男人和女人，

even you and me here in this room,

还是仍在这间屋子中你我，

being woven back into the fabric of the world.

都被重新编入了这个世界。

Tick-tock, tick-tock,

滴答、滴答，

tick-tock,

滴答，

tick-tock.

滴答。

Dahganah, denah, dahganah,

扎扎、扎、扎扎，

dahganah, denah, dahganah.

扎扎、扎、扎扎。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause and cheers)

（掌声和欢呼）