If trees could speak | Elif Shafak

Transcriber: TED Translators Admin Reviewer: Mirjana Čutura

翻译人员: TED Translators Admin 校对人员: Yanyan Hong

Humans do not see trees.

人类看不到树木。

They walk by us every day.

他们每天都从我们身旁经过，

They sit and sleep, smoke and picnic

他们倚靠着我们睡觉，吸烟和野餐，

and secretly kiss in our shade.

在我们的树荫下偷偷接吻。

They pluck our leaves and gorge on our fruits.

他们摘着我们的叶子， 肆无忌惮地吃着我们的果实。

They break our branches

他们折断了我们的树枝，

or carve their lover's name on our trunks with their blades

或者用刀将爱人的名字 在我们的树干上刻下。

and vow eternal love.

许下永恒的爱之誓言。

They weave necklaces out of our needles

他们用我们的针叶编织成项链，

and paint our flowers into art.

并把我们的花朵画成了艺术。

They split us into logs to heat their homes,

他们把我们劈成柴火给家里取暖，

and sometimes they chop us down

而且有时他们把我们砍倒，

just because they think we obstruct their view.

只是因为他们认为 我们挡住了他们的视线。

They make cradles, wine corks, chewing gum, rustic furniture

他们用我们制造摇篮、酒塞、

口香糖、乡村家具，还用我们

and produce the most beautiful music out of us.

去打造最美妙的音乐。

And they turn us into books

他们把我们变成了书，

in which they bury themselves on cold winter nights.

在寒冷的冬夜让自己埋头书海。

They use our wood to manufacture coffins in which they end their lives.

他们用我们的木材制造棺材，

在那里他们告别了自己的生命。

And they even compose the most romantic poems for us,

他们甚至为我们抒写了最浪漫的诗句，

claiming we're the link between earth and sky.

声称我们是天地之间的纽带。

And yet, they do not see us.

然而，他们却看不见我们。

So one of the many beauties of the art of storytelling

因此，讲故事的艺术中的 许多美妙之处之一

is to imagine yourself inside someone else's voice.

就是想象自己在别人的声音里。

But as writers, as much as we love stories and words,

但身为作家， 尽管我们热爱故事和文字，

I believe we must also be interested in silences:

我相信我们也必须对沉默感兴趣。

the things we cannot talk about easily in our societies,

在我们的社会里， 那些受边缘化、被剥夺权力的人，

the marginalized, the disempowered.

是我们不能轻易谈论的。

In that sense, literature can, and hopefully does,

从这个意义上说， 文学可以，而且希望如此，

bring the periphery to the center,

把边缘地带变成中心地带，

make the invisible a bit more visible,

让不可见的事物变得愈发显而易见，

make the unheard a bit more heard,

让听不见的声音变得更加响亮，

and empathy and understanding speak louder than demagoguery and apathy.

感同身受和理解

比煽动和冷漠更响亮。

Stories bring us together.

故事让我们走到一起，

Untold stories and entrenched silences keep us apart.

不为人知的故事 和根深蒂固的沉默使我们分离。

But how to tell the stories of humanity and nature

但是如何讲述人类和自然的故事，

at a time when our planet is burning

当我们的地球在燃烧，

and there is no precedent

对于我们将共同经历的

for what we're about to experience collectively

无论是政治、社会，还是生态上，

whether it's political, social or ecological?

都是史无前例的。

But tell we must

但我们必须告诉他们， 因为如果有一样东西

because if there's one thing

that is destroying our world more than anything,

能比任何东西 都更能摧毁我们的世界，

it is numbness.

那莫过于麻木。

When people become disconnected, desensitized, indifferent,

当人们变得孤立、麻木、冷漠，

when they stop listening, when they stop learning

当他们停止倾听、停止学习时，

and when they stop caring

当他们不再关心

about what's happening here, there and everywhere.

这里、那里和任何地方 正在发生的事情时。

We measure time differently, trees and humans.

我们以不同的方式衡量时间—— 树和人。

Human time is linear --

人类的时间是线性的，

a neat continuum

一个干净的连续谱，

stretching from a past that is deemed to be over and done with

从一个被认为要结束 和已经结束的过去，

towards the future that is supposed to be pristine, untouched.

延伸到一个被认为是 原始的、未触及的未来。

Tree time is circular.

树的时间是循环的，

Both the past and the future breathe within the present moment.

过去和未来

都呼吸在当下。

And the present does not move in one direction.

而且当下也不是朝着一个方向发展，

Instead it draws circles within circles,

相反，它在圆圈中画着圆圈，

like the rings you would find when you cut us down.

就像当你砍下我们时，会发现的年轮。

Next time you walk by a tree, try to slow down and listen

下次当你经过一棵树的时候， 试着放慢脚步、倾听，

because each of us whispers in the wind.

因为我们都在风中低语。

Look at us.

看看我们，

We're older than you and your kind.

我们比你和你的同类年长。

Listen to what we have to tell,

听听我们要说的话，

because hidden inside our story is the past and the future of humanity.

因为在我们的故事里蕴藏着

人类的过去和未来。