Name: 為什麼在公園散步能拯救你的生命？ (Why a Walk in the Park Can Save Your Life)
Uploaded: 2025-08-27T17:53:52.000Z
Duration: 5 min 4 s

反身代名詞

Imagine that we've been in the apartment by ourselves since the previous evening and now, at the start of the weekend, it's 11 in the morning.

想象一下，我們從前一天晚上開始就一個人待在公寓裡，現在週末剛開始，已經是上午 11 點了。

A succession of small bits of bad news have been coming in over the past 24 hours.

在過去的 24 小時裡，壞消息接連不斷。

Someone's unhappy with our performance at work.

有人對我們的工作表現不滿意。

A customer complained about our attention to detail.

一位客戶抱怨我們不注重細節。

A friend is accusing us of not caring enough about them.

And then, the final straw, someone we very much hoped to see for dinner cancelled on us abruptly with an unconvincing excuse about their mother.

然後，最後一根稻草來了，我們非常希望見到的一個人突然取消了晚餐，並以一個關於他們母親的難以令人信服的藉口來搪塞我們。

We try to keep the different strands separate, but eventually, in the stillness of the small living room, they coalesce into an overwhelming impression.

我們試圖把不同的線索分開，但最終，在寂靜的小客廳裡，它們凝聚成了一種壓倒性的印象。

We're going to die alone, unhappy and mediocre.

我們會孤獨地死去，不快樂，平庸地死去。

We curl into a ball and can't hold back a tear, which rolls onto and is absorbed by the grey-green sofa.

我們蜷縮成一團，忍不住流下淚來，淚水滾落到灰綠色的沙發上，又被沙發吸收了。

十分鐘過去了，又過了二十分鐘。

We have to pull ourselves out of the spin.

So, with a newfound urgency, we grab our jacket, run downstairs and head for the nearby park.

於是，我們急中生智，拿起外套跑下樓，向附近的公園跑去。

This expanse of green was laid out by a group of enlightened planners and municipal engineers a few generations ago.

幾代人之前，一群開明的規劃師和市政工程師就已經規劃出了這片廣袤的綠地。

There's an inner and an outer circle, a small fountain, a playground and a statue of a man who pioneered research into bees.

這裡有一個內圈和一個外圈、一個小噴泉、一個遊樂場和一座蜜蜂研究先驅的雕像。

More importantly, the park has very little idea of us.

更重要的是，公園對我們知之甚少。

It hasn't heard of our place of employment.

It doesn't have any views on our romantic life.

它對我們的浪漫生活沒有任何看法。

It couldn't care less whether we're alive or dead.

And the ignorance, far from crushing us further, has an immediate soothing effect.

而這種無知非但沒有進一步壓垮我們，反而起到了立竿見影的舒緩作用。

A grand oak tree, that's been sitting patiently in this spot for 150 years at least, has priorities blessedly far from our own.

一棵大橡樹已經在這個地方耐心地坐了至少 150 年，它的優先權幸運地遠離了我們。

It's showing its freshest, newest leaves to the sun.

它正把最新鮮、最新的葉子展現在陽光下。

It's providing a nesting place for robins and an athletic park for grey squirrels.

它為知更鳥提供了築巢場所，為灰松鼠提供了運動公園。

There's a person in scrubs on a break from the nearby hospital, sitting on a bench with a flask of tea.

附近的醫院裡有一個穿著手術服的人正在休息，他坐在長椅上，手裡拿著一壺茶。

They might later be fixing up catheters on the children's ward or ministering to a dying nonagenarian.

後來，他們可能會在兒童病房修理導尿管，或者為一位垂死的老人提供服務。

To their left, a little boy is playing tag with his father.

在他們的左邊，一個小男孩正在和他的父親玩捉人遊戲。

It's a game, but something very serious, about love and self-esteem and having a home, is also being exercised.

這是一場遊戲，但同時也在演練一些非常嚴肅的東西，關於愛、自尊和擁有一個家。

Overhead, planes, perhaps heading back from Singapore or Madrid, are locking on to the final approach beacons at the airport to the west.

頭頂上，也許是從新加坡或馬德里飛回來的飛機正在鎖定西面機場的最終進場信標。

In the distance, a line of uncomplaining pylons is bringing in electricity from the coast to power hair dryers and video games.

遠處，一排排無怨無悔的鐵塔正從海岸引入電力，為吹風機和電子遊戲機供電。

Our strange, extraordinary, pathetic species in all our glory, complexity and mundanity.

我們這個奇特、非凡、可悲的物種，我們所有的榮耀、複雜和平凡。

With all this in view, it suddenly seems not to matter quite so much that we may or may not be a wretch, that a lover has let us down.

有了這一切，我們是否是個可憐蟲，夫妻是否讓我們失望，似乎突然變得不那麼重要了。

Heaven knows they might have their reasons and we aren't perfect either.

天知道他們可能有他們的理由，我們也不是完美的。

Or that we should, in all fairness, probably make more of an effort with our career.

或者說，平心而論，我們應該在事業上做出更多努力。

We let ourselves dissolve into a wider realm.

我們讓自己溶入更廣闊的領域。

What happens to us no longer has to be the measure of everything.

發生在我們身上的事情不再是衡量一切的標準。

We are, in part, also the trees, the houses, the clouds overhead, the pigeon who's come to peck at a leftover sandwich, and the young boy now being hugged tightly by his dad.

在某種程度上，我們也是樹木、房屋、頭頂的雲朵、來啄食吃剩三明治的鴿子，以及被爸爸緊緊擁抱的小男孩。

Our ultimate fate ceases to concern us so tightly.

我們的最終命運不再與我們密切相關。

What does it matter quite so much what we're worth or where we end up?

我們的身價和歸宿又有什麼關係呢？

We rejoin the ocean from which we've been in frightened exile for too long.

我們重新加入汪洋大海，而我們已被恐懼放逐太久。

None of the elements that have helped us to recover our balance care to articulate a theory of existence.

所有幫助我們恢復平衡的因素都不屑於闡述存在的理論。

The oak tree has its own distinctive silent take on love, achievement, success, and power.

橡樹對愛情、成就、成功和權力有著自己獨特的無聲詮釋。

As do the clouds, the robins, the squirrels, and the contrails.

雲朵、知更鳥、松鼠和煙塵也是如此。

Each one of them is whispering, very quietly indeed, matter less, forget more, open your heart, let go of your resentments, surrender.

它們中的每一個都在悄聲低語：少計較，多遺忘，敞開心扉，放下怨恨，臣服。

We can be so much happier when we manage for a time to still the clamor of the eye and live less intimately with ourselves.

當我們有一段時間能夠靜下心來，不再譁眾取寵，不再與自己親密無間時，我們會快樂得多。

When we stop insisting that everything that happens to us must say something profound about us.

當我們不再堅持認為，發生在我們身上的每一件事都必須對我們有深刻的影響。

We may end up alone, we may be foolish, we may be sad.

我們可能會孤獨終老，我們可能會愚昧無知，我們可能會傷心難過。

None of it, the park tells us, might matter too much anyway.

公園告訴我們，這些都不重要。

Perhaps we'll go to the cinema alone tonight, or have a drink on a terrace.

也許今晚我們可以單獨去電影院，或者在露臺上喝一杯。

We haven't just taken a walk, we've had a covert philosophy lesson.

我們不只是散步，還上了一堂隱蔽的哲學課。