An ode to living on Earth | Oliver Jeffers

翻译人员: Meng Ren 校对人员: Yolanda Zhang

[Oliver Jeffers]

【奥利弗·杰弗斯 】

[An ode to living on Earth]

【地球礼赞】

Hello.

你好。

I'm sure by the time I get to end of this sentence,

相信当我说完这句话——

given how I talk,

根据我的说话方式——

you'll all have figured out that I'm from a place called

你们就已经知道 我来自一个地方：

planet Earth.

地球。

Earth is pretty great.

地球很伟大。

It's home to us.

她孕育了我们，

And germs.

和细菌。

Those [blip] take a back seat for the time being,

你这个混蛋 现在最好给我消停点儿，

because believe it or not, they're not the only thing going on.

眼下已经够乱的了。

这颗星球还孕育了 汽车、抱子甘蓝；

This planet is also home to cars, brussels sprouts;

those weird fish things that have their own headlights;

那种自带头灯的奇怪鱼类；

art, fire,

艺术、火、

fire extinguishers,

灭火器、

laws, pigeons, bottles of beer,

法律、鸽子、啤酒瓶、

lemons and light bulbs;

柠檬和灯泡；

Pinot noir and paracetamol;

黑比诺葡萄酒和扑热息痛；

ghosts, mosquitoes, flamingos, flowers,

鬼、蚊子、火烈鸟、鲜花；

the ukulele, elevators and cats,

尤克里里、电梯和猫，

cat videos, the internet;

猫视频、互联网；

iron beams, buildings and batteries,

铁梁、建筑和电池，

all ingenuity and bright ideas, all known life ...

所有创造力和奇思妙想， 所有已知的生命······

and a whole bunch of other stuff.

和一大堆其他东西。

Pretty much everything we know and ever heard of.

几乎所有我们已知 或听说过的东西。

It's my favorite place, actually.

事实上，这是我最爱的地方。

This small orb,

这个小圆球。

floating in a cold and lonely part of the cosmos.

在宇宙中一个孤单冷清的 角落里转动着。

Oh, the accent is from Belfast, by the way, which is ...

随便一提， 我的口音来自贝尔法斯特。

here.

差不多······

Roughly.

在这儿吧。

You may think you know this planet Earth,

你可能觉得你很了解地球，

as you're from here.

因为你从这儿来的。

But chances are,

但是很可能，

you probably haven't thought about the basics in a while.

你有阵子没思考过 这些基本问题了。

I thought I knew it.

我以为我了解它。

Thought I was an expert, even.

甚至觉得自己是地球专家。

Until, that is, I had to explain the entire place,

直到我不得不向 第一次来地球的人

and how it's supposed to work,

介绍这个地方，

to someone who had never been here before.

解释它如何运行。

Not what you might think,

不是你想的那样。

although my dad always did say

虽然，我父亲的确说过，

the sure sign of intelligent life out there

智慧生命存在 最确凿的证据就是，

is that they haven't bothered trying to contact us.

他们从来不屑于联系我们。

It was actually my newborn son I was trying to explain things to.

我解释的对象是 我刚出生的儿子。

We'd never been parents before,

我和我的太太

my wife and I,

都是第一次当父母。

所以，我们像对待大多数 第一次来拜访的客人一样

and so treated him like most guests when he arrived home for the first time,

by giving him the tour.

带他参观了我们的家。

This is where you live, son.

这是你住的地方，儿子。

This room is where we make food at.

这是我们做饭的房间。

This is the room we keep our collection of chairs, and so on.

这是我们放凳子的房间，等等。

It's refreshing,

对一个新生儿解释 地球怎样运行，

explaining how our planet works to a zero-year-old.

感觉很新奇。

But after the laughs,

但玩闹过后，

and once the magnitude that new humans know absolutely nothing

当你渐渐意识到 这个新人类对地球一无所知，

settles on you and how little you know either,

而你自己也不太了解，

explaining the whole planet becomes quite intimidating.

解释整个星球这件事 就开始变得让人望而生畏。

But I tried anyway.

但我还是试着进行了解释。

As I walked around those first few weeks,

最开始的那几周， 我一边推着他四处溜达，

narrating the world as I saw it,

一边跟他解释我看见的世界，

I began to take notes of the ridiculous things I was saying.

我开始记录我说的 那些奇奇怪怪的话。

The notes slowly morphed into a letter

这些笔记慢慢地汇集成一封信，

intended for my son once he learned to read.

我想在儿子学会识字后 把这封信给他，

And that letter became a book

后来那封信又变成一本书，

about the basic principles of what it is to be a human

描写在 21 世纪， 在地球上生存着的人类

living on Earth in the 21st century.

所遵循的基本规律。

Some things are really obvious.

有的规律非常明显，

Like, the planet is made of two parts:

比如，地球是由两个部分组成的：

land and sea.

陆地和海洋。

Some less obvious until you think about them.

有的规律却没那么明显， 需要你主动思考，

Like, time.

比如，时间。

Things can sometimes move slowly here on Earth.

它有时过得很慢，

But more often, they move quickly.

但大部分时候，它都过得很快。

So use your time well, it will be gone before you know it.

所以你要好好利用时间， 否则不经意间它就溜走了。

Or people.

又或者是，人。

People come in all different shapes, sizes and colors.

身形、胖瘦和肤色各异的人。

We may all look different,

或许我们长得不一样，

act different and sound different,

行为和声音也不一样，

but don't be fooled.

但不要被表象所迷惑，

We are all people.

我们都是人。

It doesn't skip me that of all the places in the universe,

我很清楚， 在茫茫宇宙中，

people only live on Earth,

人只存在于地球上，

can only live on Earth.

也只能在地球上生存，

And even then, only on some of the dry bits.

而且还只能在陆地上生存。

There's only a very small part of the surface of our planet

在地球的表面， 只有小小的一部分

that is actually habitable to human life,

适合人类栖居，

and squeezed in here is where all of us live.

我们就挤在那儿， 那儿就是我们的家。

It's easy to forget when you're up close to the dirt,

我们很容易忘记，

特别是当你离地面—— 土地、岩石和植物——很近时,

the rocks, the foliage, the concrete of our lands,

just how limited the room for maneuvering is.

人类能操控的空间 是多么的有限。

From a set of eyes close to the ground,

从贴近地面的角度远眺，

the horizon feels like it goes forever.

地平线似乎无边无际。

After all, it's not an every-day ritual

毕竟，我们也不会每天都思考

to consider where we are on the ball of our planet

我们位于地球上的什么位置，

而地球又位于宇宙中的什么位置。

and where that ball is in space.

I didn't want to tell my son the same story of countries

我不想把我小时候 在北爱尔兰听到的

that we were told where I was growing up in Northern Ireland.

关于国家的那一套 讲给我儿子听，

That we were from just a small parish,

也就是，我们从小乡村来，

which ignores life outside its immediate concerns.

不需要关心和自己 没有直接关系的问题。

I wanted to try to feel what it was like to see our planet

我想试试看 把地球当做一个整体，

as one system, as a single object,

在宇宙里游荡的单一个体，

hanging in space.

是什么感受。

To do this,

为了做这件事，

I would need to switch from flat drawings for books

我得把书中的平面绘画转换成

可以在街上展示的立体雕塑。

to 3D sculpture for the street,

我还得找到一个 60 米见方的空间，

and I'd need almost 200 feet,

a New York City block,

比如纽约的一条街道，

to build a large-scale model of the moon,

来建造一个包含

月球、地球和人类的大型模型。

the Earth and us.

This project managed to take place on New York City's High Line park

去年冬天，在阿波罗 11 号 登月 50 周年纪念日那天，

位于纽约市高线公园的

last winter,

on the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11's mission around the Moon.

这个项目终于落地。

After its installation,

安装完成后，

I was able to put on a space helmet with my son

我和儿子戴上了宇航员头盔，

and launch, like Apollo 11 did half a century ago,

像半个世纪前的 阿波罗 11 号那样，

towards the Moon.

向月球“发射”。

We circled around

我们围着模型打转，

and looked back at us.

然后对视。

What I felt was

在黑暗中，

how lonely it was there in the dark.

我觉得很孤独，

And I was just pretending.

即使这一切都是虚拟的。

The Moon is the only object

月球是唯一一个

even remotely close to us.

离我们不那么远的天体。

And at the scale of this project,

而我制作的地球 直径只有 3 米，

where our planet was 10 feet in diameter,

以它为参考系，

Mars, the next planet, will be the size of a yoga ball

下一个行星，也就是火星， 只有瑜伽球那么大，

and a couple of miles away.

离这个地球好几英里远。

Although borders are not visible from space,

虽然从宇宙中 我们看不到边界线，

on my sculpture,

但在我的地球上，

every single border was drawn in.

我把每根边界线都画了出来。

But rather than writing the country names on the carved-up land,

然而，我没有在大陆上 写下国家名，

I wrote over and over again,

而是一遍又一遍地写着，

"people live here, people live here."

“有人在这里生活，有人在这里生活。”

"People live here."

“有人在这里生活。”

And off on the Moon, it was written,

在月球表面上，我写着：

"No one lives here."

“没有人在这里生活。”

Often, the obvious things

许多事物并非

aren't all that obvious until you think about them.

如我们想象的那么显而易见， 除非你开始认真思考。

Seeing anything from a vast enough distance

从遥远的距离观察任何一件事物

changes everything,

都让一切发生了改变。

as many astronauts have experienced.

许多航天员都有这样的体验。

And human eyes have only ever seen our Earth

人类的双眼曾经从月球上 遥望过我们的地球，

from as far as the Moon, really.

这就是最远的观察距离了。

It's quite a ways further

还要经过好长好长的一段旅行，

before we get to the edges of our own Solar System.

我们才能到达太阳系的边界，

And even out to other stars, to the constellations.

甚至去往其他星系或星座。

There is actually only one point in the entire cosmos

整个宇宙的星群中

that is present in all constellations of stars,

只有一个存在的点，

and that presence is

那个点就是

here, planet Earth.

这里，地球。

Those pictures we have made up for the clusters of stars

我们绘制的那些星群图，

only make sense from this point of view down here.

只是我们从这个角度瞭望时所看到的。

Their stories only make sense here on Earth.

我们对它们的认识 也只有在地球上时才有意义。

And only something to us.

而且只对我们——

To people.

人类——有意义。

We are creatures of stories.

我们喜欢故事。

We are the stories we tell,

我们讲述着自己的故事，

we're the stories we're told.

也聆听着自己的故事。

Consider briefly the story of human civilization on Earth.

想想地球人类文明。

It tells of the ingenuity, elegance,

它诉说着一个有创造力的、优雅的、

generous and nurturing nature of a species

慷慨且充满关怀的物种，

that is also self-focused, vulnerable

同时也可以是自私的、脆弱的、

and defiantly protective.

并充满戒备和警惕的。

We, the people, shield the flame of our existence

人类为了保护生命的星星之火，

from the raw, vast elements outside our control,

不断抵御着我们 无法掌控的、庞杂的、

the great beyond.

未知的一切。

Yet it is always to the flame we look.

但我们仍会将目光投向这星星之火。

"For all we know,"

当我们说：

when said as a statement,

“我们已经知道——”

it means the sum total of all knowledge.

这表示我们已知的所有知识。

But when said another way,

但如果换个方式说：

"for all we know,"

“目前我们只知道——”

it means that we do not know at all.

则表示我们几乎什么也不知道。

This is the beautiful, fragile drama of civilization.

这就是美丽而脆弱的文明。

We are the actors and spectators of a cosmic play

在这部宇宙大戏中， 我们既是演员，也是观众，

that means the world to us here,

它就是我们的全部，

but means nothing anywhere else.

但它在其他地方什么都不是。

Possibly not even that much down here, either.

也许，就连对我们 也不见得那么重要。

If we truly thought about our relationship with our boat,

如果我们仔细想想

人类与地球的关系，

with our Earth,

这更像是一个 关于无知和贪婪的故事。

it might be more of a story of ignorance and greed.

As is the case with Fausto,

福斯托的故事 就是一个例子。

a man who believed he owned everything

这个男人相信 什么东西都是他的，

and set out to survey what was his.

于是想出门去看看 他所拥有的一切。

He easily claims ownership of a flower,

他不费吹灰之力地得到了

a sheep, a tree and a field.

一朵花、一只羊、 一棵树和一片田地。

The lake and the mountain prove harder to conquer,

湖泊和山丘比较难以征服，

但是最终，它们还是屈服了。

but they, too, surrender.

他的滑铁卢发生在

It is in trying to own the open sea

where his greed proves his undoing,

当他尝试征服一片公海时，

when, in a fit of arrogance,

他被一时的自负冲昏了头脑，

he climbs overboard to show that sea who is boss.

一跃而下， 想给海洋点颜色看看。

But he does not understand,

但他大大低估了海洋的威力，

slips beneath the waves, sinks to the bottom.

瞬间被海浪卷走，沉入海底。

The sea was sad for him

大海可能会为他感到悲伤，

but carried on being the sea.

但海浪仍然一如既往地翻涌向前。

As do all the other objects of his ownership,

其他那些被他占为己有的 东西也是一样，

for the fate of Fausto does not matter to them.

毕竟福斯托的命运 和它们毫无关系。

For all the importance in the cosmos we believe we hold,

尽管我们相信自己在宇宙中 占有重要地位，

we'd have nothing

但若不是因为地球的存在，

if not for this Earth.

我们就会一无所有。

While it would keep happily spinning,

可地球离了我们，

obliviously without us.

还是会自顾自地悠然转动。

On this planet, there are people.

这颗星球上住着许多人。

We have gone about our days,

日子一天天过去，

sometimes we look up and out,

我们偶尔会抬头望望天，

mostly we look down and in.

大多数时间都埋头忙自己的事。

Looking up and by drawing lines between the lights in the sky,

抬起头时，我们将天上的星星连成线，

we've attempted to make sense out of chaos.

企图从混沌中找出规律。

Looking down, we've drawn lines across the land to know where we belong

低下头时，我们用线条 描绘出大陆的形状，

and where we don't.

划分出彼此的领地和界限。

We do mostly forget that these lines that connect the stars

我们经常会忘记 这些连接星星的线条

and those lines that divide the land

和那些划分大陆的线条，

live only in our heads.

仅仅存在于我们的脑海里。

They, too, are stories.

它们本身也是故事。

We carry out our everyday routines and rituals

我们按照自己所信奉的故事

according to the stories we most believe in,

来安排日常活动，

and these days, the story is changing as we write it.

但在这些天里， 故事情节日新月异。

There is a lot of fear in this current story,

恐惧充斥着当下的一切，

and until recently,

而现在，

the stories that seemed to have the most power

苦难和仇恨

占据了上风，

are those of bitterness,

of how it had all gone wrong for us individually and collectively.

个人或集体的不幸成了主旋律。

让人备受鼓舞的是， 我们能够从艰难中收获美好。

It has been inspiring to watch how the best comes from the worst.

How people are waking up in this time of global reckoning

人们从这场世界性的劫难中幡然醒悟，

原来人与人之间的连接

to the realization that our connections with each other

are some of the most important things we have.

就是最珍贵的东西。

But stepping back.

不过退一步想想，

For all we've had to lament,

经历了这么多伤痛以后，

we spend very little time relishing the single biggest thing

我们很少回想 人类有史以来取得的

that has ever gone right for us.

最大的成功。

That we are here in the first place,

那就是：我们出现在这颗星球上，

that we are alive at all.

而且存活了下来，

That we are still alive.

还将继续生活下去。

A million and a half years after finding a box of matches,

生命的火苗被点燃后， 150 万年过去了，

we haven't totally burned the house down.

地球还没有因人类化为灰烬。

Yet.

暂时还没有。

The chances of being here are infinitesimal.

在这里出现生命的几率何其微小。

Yet here we are.

但我们出现了，

Perils and all.

虽然危机重重。

There have never been more people living on Earth.

地球上从未有过这么多人，

Using more stuff.

从未消耗过这么多的资源，

And it's become obvious that many of the old systems

我们创造的许多古老的制度

we invented for ourselves

已经被历史所淘汰，

are obsolete.

而我们已无法 再对其视而不见。

And we have to build new ones.

我们必须要有所创新。

If it wasn't germs,

即使细菌没有置人类与死地，

our collective fire might suffocate us before long.

不久之后，大火也会吞没一切。

As we watch the wheels of industry grind to a halt,

当工业的车辙不再向前，

the machinery of progress become silent,

进步的发动机戛然而止，

we have the wildest of opportunities

我们就拥有了无数的机会

to hit the reset button.

来按下重启键，

To take a different path.

来选择另一条道路。

Here we are on Earth.

我们在地球上生存。

And life on Earth is a wonderful thing.

地球上的生命又是如此璀璨。

It looks big, this Earth,

这颗星球看起来很大，

but there are lots of us on here.

但上面住着好多人——

Seven and a half billion at last count,

上次的统计结果是 75 亿，

with more showing up every day.

而且每天还在继续增加。

Even so,

即便如此，

there is still enough for everyone,

如果我们能够彼此分享，

if we all share a little.

对每个人来说，也足够了。

So please,

所以，

be kind.

请做个善良的人。

When you think of it another way,

我们可以换个角度思考——

if Earth is the only place where people live,

如果地球是唯一一个 有人类居住的地方，

it's actually the least lonely place in the universe.

那它就是整个宇宙中 最不孤独的地方。

There are plenty of people to be loved by

无数的人在这里

and plenty of people to love.

爱与被爱。

We need each other.

我们从未如此真切地感受到

We know that now, more than ever.

对彼此的依赖。

Good night.

晚安。