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

譯者: Lilian Chiu 審譯者: Helen Chang

A girl lies sleeping with electrodes attached to her body.

有個女孩躺著，沉睡著，

身上接著電極。

A man and a woman are looking at her

一名男子和一名女子看著她，

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

從隔壁房間，透過 單向透視玻璃窗看著她。

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

男子說：「浪費時間和金錢。」

“An illiterate kid from a stone quarry?

「一個不識字的採石場孩子？

What could she possibly contribute to the project?”

她怎麼可能對這個計畫有所貢獻？」

“Hardly a kid.

女子說：「算不上孩子， 她至少有十六歲了。

She’s at least 16,” says the woman.

“Come on, we’re making history.

拜託，我們是在創造歷史。

First ever experiment in collective dreaming.”

史上第一個集體作夢的實驗。」

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

在她的左邊有一個螢幕， 有整面牆這麼大。

The 311 participants in the experiment are now all asleep.

參與實驗的三百一十一名受試者

現在全都入睡了。

Her poised finger jabs the keyboard.

她用手指敲了一下鍵盤。

The girl’s dream.

這個女孩的夢。

記憶的碎片。

Shards of memory.

She’s watching her father at work.

她在看著她父親工作。

The wooden skeleton of the great loom,

偉大織布機的木頭骨架，

the finished tapestries hanging on the wall.

掛在牆壁上的繡帷成品。

Clackety-clack goes the loom.

織布機發出嗶剝嗶剝的聲音。

The river floods,

河流泛濫，把她的父母捲走。

sweeping her parents away.

The loom comes apart:

織布機解體了：

colored threads in the water.

水中都是彩色的線。

The sound of hammer striking stone.

鐵槌敲擊石頭的聲音。

The choking dust.

令人窒息的塵土。

The quarry at night.

夜晚的採石場。

Young people around the fire.

年輕人圍繞著營火。

She lifts a bubbling pot of rice from the flames.

她把火焰上已經 沸騰的一鍋米拿起來，

Someone douses the fire,

有人把火弄熄。

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

她把鍋子放到他們 自己做的保溫器裡頭，

是用泥土和草做成的。

The rice cooks with its own heat.

米飯靠著它自身的溫度烹煮。

The taste of hot rice and spiced oil.

熱騰騰的米飯和調味油的味道。

But look,

但，看哪，她的夢中有陌生人。

there are strangers in her dream.

So many unfamiliar, bewildered faces.

如此多不熟悉、困惑的面孔。

And beside her,

在她旁邊，

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

有個約十二歲的男孩，

用雙臂抱著一個大型的時鐘。

“Sync successful.

「同步成功。啟動第二階段。」

Activating stage two.”

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

突然間，三百一十一名正在作夢的人

都到了高空中。

The Earth dawns below them

他們下方的地球剛破曉，

swathed in green and blue,

被綠色和藍色包圍，

punctuated by clouds and storm formations.

點綴上雲朵和暴風雨的陣仗。

The most beautiful tapestry the girl has ever seen.

是這個女孩所見過最美的繡帷。

“Father,” she whispers,

雖然她的父親已經過世兩年， 她仍然低語：「父親。

although he's been dead two years.

“Father, the world itself is a weave,

父親，世界本身就是一片織物，

a living garment.”

活生生的服飾。」

Slowly, they fall through the air

慢慢地，

他們在空中向下落，

and then they see ...

接著，他們看到……

a vast swath of forest veined and spotted with fire,

一大片森林，到處都是火脈和火點,

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

一道灰色的水牆打向無遮蔽的海岸，

drowning islands ringed with plastic refuse,

淹沒被塑膠垃圾環繞的島嶼，

beached carcasses of dead whales,

死鯨魚的屍體被沖上海灘，

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

數百萬像螞蟻一樣的形體

離開了沙漠化的地景：

ruined fields,

被毀壞的田野、被破壞的森林。

destroyed forests.

The grief that envelops the girl is so enormous a thing

包圍著女孩的哀傷

如此巨大，

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

以致於她只能透過

微小的痛苦喘息來讓這哀傷進入。

She alights with the others on a featureless plain

她和其他人一起下到了 一片毫無特色的平原，

under a vast, brooding sky.

上頭是浩瀚、陰森的天空。

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

用雙臂環抱著時鐘的男孩就在那裡。

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

女孩心臟砰砰地跳，

完全配合男孩的時鐘，

an urgent, rapid beat.

急迫、快速地跳動。

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

滴答滴答滴答滴答滴答。

Something’s coming.

有什麼過來了。

“Warning: this is not in the program.”

「警告：這不屬於程式的一部分。」

Bearing down upon them is a whirlwind.

一陣旋風壓向他們。

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

由暴雨雲、塑膠垃圾，和燃燒的 樹木組成的一隻吐火怪物。

炙熱的塵土和憤怒的水 所形成的怪獸。

A monster made of hot dust and angry water.

People scream and run,

人們尖叫著逃跑，

但抱著時鐘的男孩站在原處，看著。

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

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

滴答滴答滴答滴答。

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

女孩問：「你為什麼不逃？」

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

男孩誠肯地說：「我在 研究是什麼在破壞世界。

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

也就是我們夢中的怪獸所代表的。

I’m an engineer and a knowledge-seeker.

我是工程師也是知識追求者。

Pleased to meet you.”

很高興認識你。」

She turns away.

她轉過身。

There’s a storm inside her:

她體內有場暴風雨：

grief and memory and anger.

哀傷、記憶，和憤怒。

She takes a deep breath

她深呼吸一口，

and walks toward the monster.

接著走向怪獸。

She stands before it.

她站在牠面前。

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

一個瘦弱黝黑女孩， 穿著破爛的綠色印度莎麗服。

Her hair is whipped loose from its braid,

她本來綁好的辮子散掉了，

and the end of her sari unfurls like a flag.

莎麗服的末端像旗子一樣展開。

“Stand back,” shouts the boy in alarm.

男孩大聲警告：「退開！

“Let me figure out the control mechanism.”

讓我想通控制的機制。」

Bending her head,

她低下頭，

straining against the wind,

在風中毅立不搖，

the girl walks into the monster.

女孩走進了怪獸裡面。

The monster has a middle with a quiet place.

這怪獸

中央有一塊安靜的地方。

She sits on the bare ground

她坐在裸露的地面上，

and looks up at the towering vortex around her.

向上看著她高聳的旋渦圍繞著她。

A rain of debris patters down.

垃圾雨啪嗒啪嗒地降下。

有個很深很低沉的聲音，

There is a deep rumble,

and she thinks she hears the monster say,

她認為她聽到了怪獸說：

“Why?”

「為什麼？」

“To learn,” says the girl.

女孩說：「為了學習。

“I’ve lost everything --

我已經失去了一切—— 失去了在學校學習的機會。

lost my chance to learn at school.

Teach me.”

教我。」

To the boy outside with the clock in his arms,

雙臂抱著時鐘的男孩從外面看起來，

the girl has been consumed by the monster.

女孩已經被怪獸吃掉了。

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

在實驗室裡，

男子和女子透過窗戶，看著

at the girl’s twitching body.

女孩的身體在抽搐。

Alarms sound from the instruments monitoring her vital signs.

監控她生命跡象的器材發出警報聲。

At last, the girl emerges from the monster.

終於，女孩浮出了怪獸。

The monster is retreating over the horizon.

怪獸向地平線撤退。

The plain is littered with debris.

垃圾被亂丟在平原上。

The girl has cuts on her face and arms.

女孩的臉上和手臂上都有割傷。

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

她走向男孩，急著對他說話。

Then they turn and face the waiting people.

接著，他們轉向在等待的人們。

“My teacher taught me,” says the girl,

女孩說：「我的老師教我，

“that the world is a living tapestry.

世界是活的繡帷。

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

風和海浪與森林及草原 通通織在一起，

threaded with the deserts and snowy regions,

縫上沙漠和下雪的地區，

and all living things are knit together in mutuality.

所有生物也都相互被織在一起。

Although each place has its own pattern,

雖然每個地方都有它自己的圖案，

the tapestry is one.

但全都屬於同一張繡帷。

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

當一處的生命織物被扯破，

the threads unravel in another.”

另一處的線也會被破壞。

She and the boy confer again.

她和男孩再次商談。

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

男孩迫切地向群眾說： 「看看我的時鐘。

“It has components with clearly defined functions

它的元件都有明確定義的功能，

so you can adjust and control.

讓你能調整和控制。

Treat each part separately.

分開處理每一部分。

You can tinker with it from the outside.

你可以從外面來修它。

The clock was my orienting metaphor for the world.

這個時鐘是讓我在世界中 能找到方向的象徵物。

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

但是，

世界並不像時鐘，對吧？」

He sets his clock on the ground.

他把他的時鐘放到地上。

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

滴答滴答滴答。

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

女孩對著在觀看的人說：「來啊。」

She and the boy start putting the scattered debris together,

她和男孩開始把 散在各處的垃圾收集起來，

and some of the others join them.

有些人加入了他們。

A structure starts to emerge.

一個架構開始浮現。

An enormous loom of strange design.

設計得相當怪異的巨大織布機。

The girl tosses her insulating pot into the loom,

女孩把她的保溫鍋丟向織布機，

and it turns into a thick spool of multicolored yarn.

它變成了一捲多色的稠密紗線。

There are levers for feet and hands,

有操縱腳和手的控制桿，

and with a creak and a groan,

扭一下，吱嘎一聲，

the loom begins to work.

織布機開始運轉了。

The fabric unfolds:

織物攤開來了：

a mesmerizing tapestry of shifting colors and patterns.

一張迷人的繡帷， 有著不斷變化的顏色和圖案。

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

男孩把時鐘拿起來，問： 「我要怎麼處理我的時鐘？」

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

滴答滴答滴答。

但，現在，織布機的聲音更大了。

But now the sound of the loom is getting louder.

Dahganah, denah, dahganah,

織布機發出噠咯噠咯噠咯的聲音。

dahganah, denah, dahganah, goes the loom.

“Throw it in!”

「把它丟進去！」

So the boy picks up the clock

男孩拿起了時鐘，

and tosses it into the loom.

把它丟進織布機裡面。

當它擊中繡帷時便碎裂了。

When it hits the tapestry,

it breaks up.

A fountain of silver glitter scatters over the weaving.

閃耀的銀色碎片噴灑在織物上。

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

看哪，每一片銀色碎片

都變成了一個小時鐘，

與織物織在一起。

The frantic ticking is slowing down

瘋狂的滴答聲緩下來了，

to accommodate the rhythm of the loom.

配合著織布機的節奏。

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

女孩大叫：「我們在 重新編織這個世界！」

作夢者發現他們自己 都身在繡帷中——

and the dreamers find themselves within the tapestry --

not outside, but in it.

不是外面，是身在其中。

Even the man and woman in the lab,

就連實驗室中的男子和女子，

even you and me here in this room,

這間房間中的你我，

being woven back into the fabric of the world.

都被重新織回了這片世界織物。

Tick-tock, tick-tock,

滴答滴答滴答滴答。

tick-tock,

tick-tock.

Dahganah, denah, dahganah,

噠咯噠咯噠咯噠咯噠咯噠咯。

dahganah, denah, dahganah.

Thank you.

謝謝。

(Applause and cheers)

（掌聲及歡呼聲）