This is a taste for beauty shaped by a reverence for universal laws, mathematics, and an appetite for the perfect and the eternal.

這是對普遍規律、數學的崇敬，以及對完美和永恆的渴望所塑造出對美的品味。

Japanese aesthetics are, however, very different indeed.

然而，日本美學卻截然不同。

And the core of the difference is captured in a term for which Western languages have no direct equivalent, a term known as "Wabi-Sabi".

而其差異的核心，體現在一個西方語言沒有直接對應詞彙的術語中，即「侘寂」一詞。

Wabi-Sabi refers to the beauty of the impermanent, the imperfect, the rustic, and the melancholy.

侘寂指的是無常、不完美、質樸和憂鬱的美。

It derives not from a love of invincibility, youth, and flawlessness, but from a respect for what is passing, fragile, slightly broken, and modest.

不是對無敵、青春和完美的熱愛，而是源於對逝去、脆弱、破碎感及謙虛的尊重。

Wabi-sabi believes that things are always more beautiful, forbearing the marks of age and individuality.

「侘寂」認為有年代和獨特個性痕跡的事物總是更美好。

A trickle of glaze or a beautifully repaired crack on a piece of pottery are to be appreciated rather than made invisible.

我們應該欣賞陶器上濺到的一滴釉或被精美修復的裂縫，而不是將其隱藏。

Wabi-sabi's history is intimately linked with Buddhism and its suggestion that wisdom comes from making peace without transitory, imperfect, and unheroic natures.

侘寂的歷史與佛教密切相關，佛教認為智慧來自於擁抱世事無常、不完美及樸質。

Kyushu, Japan, 1191.

日本九州，1191 年。

A monk known as Eisai returns to Japan from China, with plans to create Japan's first Zen Buddhist temple.

一位名叫榮西的僧人從中國返回日本，計劃創建日本第一座禪宗佛教寺廟。

Zen presents a challenge to Japan's indigenous religion, Shinto.

禪宗對日本本土神道教的地位產生了動搖。

Zen offers a complex philosophical system, which presents nature with its constant cycles of life and imperfect patterns as a focus of meditation and a lens through which to understand our own transients and emptiness.

禪宗提供了一個複雜的哲學系統，它將自然界中不斷循環的生命和不完美的模式作為冥想的重點，並作為理解我們自身短暫性和空性的透鏡。

Zen will go on to be the philosophical bedrock of wabi-sabi.

禪往後仍會是侘寂的哲學基石。

14th Century, Japan.

日本，14 世紀。

The meaning of two words, wabi and sabi, begin to evolve and become more positive than they had been.

「侘」和「寂」這兩個字的含義開始演變，變得比以往更加積極正面。

Wabi had originally meant the misery and loneliness of living in nature, away from human consolation,

「侘」原本是指生活在自然中的痛苦和孤獨，遠離人類的慰藉。

but its meaning now shifts to refer to an almost exquisite, bittersweet melancholy of being on ones' own.

但現在其意義變成了一種近乎精緻、苦樂參半、獨自一人的憂鬱。

Sabi, meanwhile, which had originally meant chill, lean, or withered, started to denote the marks of aging and wear, which can enhance an object.

而「寂」原本意味著寒冷、瘦弱或枯萎，現在則開始代表老化和磨損的痕跡，這兩者都能使物品昇華。

It refers to a positive impermanence and the welcome and noble signs of time.

指的是正面意義上的無常和時間流逝的崇高跡象。

The ancient pattern of a pot or a crack beautifully mended are now called Sabi.

壺上古老的圖紋和被精心修補過的裂痕現在都被稱為「寂」。

Kyoto, 1488.

京都，時間到了 1488 年。

Murata Shukō sits down to write a letter to his student, Furuichi Chōin.

村田珠光坐下來給他的學生古市澄胤寫了一封信。

This document will come to be known as the Letter of the Heart, and will define the ideal way that one should drink tea⏤the tea ceremony⏤and lays out the aesthetic of Wabi-Sabi.

這份文書後被稱為《心之文》，並定義了飲茶的理想型態，也就是茶道，並解釋了侘寂的審美。

The tea ceremony had originated as a way for monks to stay awake in order to practice long periods of Zen meditation, but recently, it's been overtaken by the ruling class of warlords or shoguns.

茶道起源於一種僧侶為進行長時間禪修保持清醒的一種方式，但近期，茶道成為了軍閥及幕府統治階級的心頭好。

They use it as a way of showing off expensive vessels and utensils imported from China.

他們用茶道來炫耀從中國進口的昂貴器皿。

The tea ceremony has become flashy, often in elaborate and gaudy surroundings, and has slipped a long way from its spiritual roots.

茶道已演變的華而不實，往往是在精心設計、富麗堂皇的環境中進行，已離其精神根源相差甚遠。

Now, Shukō redesigns the tea ceremony, with the ideals of wabi-sabi in mind.

此時，村田珠光謹記侘寂的理想，並重新設計了茶道。

The fashion at the time is to enjoy tea on a balcony while looking at the full moon, but Shukō claims that he has no taste for the full moon.

當時流行在陽台上邊賞滿月邊飲茶，但村田珠光稱，他對滿月不感興趣。

Instead, he urges his student to appreciate the more subtle interplay of shadows on the half of the moon, or the partially clouded moon.

相反，他敦促他的學生欣賞半個月亮上的陰影或部分被雲霧遮擋的月亮，這種事物微妙的相互作用。

He also stresses that one should abandon the perfect and lustrous tea-drinking cups of the Chinese, which seem to evoke the flawlessness of a full moon,

他還強調，人們應該放棄中國人完美、有光澤的茶杯，它會讓人想起滿月的無暇。

and, instead, to commission more rustic ware from Japanese artisans, who will make little errors in the glaze, and let these be a deliberate part of their work.

反之，應該委託日本工匠製作更多質樸的器皿，這些器皿釉面上會有小小的瑕疵，刻意呈現出「不完美」的作品。

Kyoto, 1582.

京都，1582 年。

Sen no Rikyū is someone to the service of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a powerful warlord who unites the warring factions of feudal Japan.

千利休為侍奉豐臣秀吉 (統一日本戰國時代的軍閥) 的茶道宗師。

He commissions Rikyū to create a tea ceremony that can help to foster peace.

豐臣秀吉委託利休創建出一套促進和平的茶道。

Along with Shukō, Sen no Rikyū is revered in Japan as the father of the modern tea ceremony, and the most perfect practitioner of wabi-sabi⏤

千利休與村田珠光一樣，在日本同被尊為現代茶道之父，完美實行侘寂的人。

a story that is most often used to illustrate the spirit of wabi-sabi is taken from his life.

一個最常用於說明「侘寂」精神的故事便是取自他的生活。

One day, Rikyū asked a disciple to clean his tea house, and the young boy worked all day to scrub and sweep every inch of the house and garden.

一天，千利休讓一名弟子打掃他的茶館，男孩整天都在擦洗和打掃房子及花園的每個角落。

When Rikyū came to inspect it, he reached up and shook a maple tree overhanging the path.

千利休過來查看時，他伸手搖晃了在小路旁的一棵楓樹。

The sprinkling of leaves that fell brought wabi-sabi to the scene, thus the manmade and the natural, artifice and random chance were united in a perfect expression of beauty and wisdom.

灑落的落葉體現了「侘寂」，將人為事物與自然景物、刻意與偶然結合在一起，完美地表達了美與智慧。

Rikyū goes further than Shukō in undermining the high taste of the shoguns and strips everything non-essential from his tea ceremony.

比起村田珠光，千利休更進一步顛覆了幕府將軍的精緻品味，並從茶道中去除了所有不必要的東西。

The pots he uses are often directly taken from peasant environments or are modeled after a particularly rustic roof tile that he spots while walking through a local village.

他使用的容器通常直接取自農家，或者以他穿過當地村莊時所見質樸的屋頂瓦片為模型。

Rikyū also codifies the movements of the tea ceremony, creating the perfectly economical and graceful notions for preparing tea with a minimum fuss, thereby adding wabi-sabi to the very core of the ritual.

千利休還編纂了茶道動作，創造既經濟又優雅的概念，從最微小的瑣碎的備茶中，添加侘寂到儀式的核心。

Unfortunately for Rikyū, his boss, the warlord Hideyoshi, comes from a peasant background, and begins to fear that the whole process is maybe an elaborate joke at his expense.

不幸的是，千利休的上司豐臣秀吉是農民出身，並開始擔心這整個計畫可能都是為愚弄他而精心策劃的。

This causes him to order Rikyū to commit hara-kiri.

這導致他下令千利休切腹自殺。

In an eerie parallel to Socrates' demise, Rikyū holds a final tea ceremony among his closest friends before obediently stabbing himself through the stomach.

與蘇格拉底的死相似，千利休與最親密的朋友們舉行了最後的茶道儀式後，順從地拿刀刺穿了自己的腹部。

Today, all the great schools of tea trace their lineage back to Rikyū, and all follow the motions and traditions that he set out.

直至今日，所有偉大的茶道流派都源於千利休，並且遵循著他制定的動作及傳統。

The maker of the humble tile that he so admired was known as Raku, and Raku pots are still made today and appreciated as the greatest embodiment of wabi-sabi.

他所推崇的質樸瓦匠被稱為「樂」，而樂茶碗至今仍在製作，被視為侘寂的最佳體現。

If you take tea in the Silver Pavilion in Kyoto, the birthplace of the formal tea ceremony in Japan, you can drink from the same cup as the troublesome Hideyoshi once sipped from.

如果你在日本茶道的發源地京都的銀閣喝茶，你便可以和曾經厭惡茶道的豐臣秀吉使用同樣的茶杯喝茶。

Edo, 1684.

江戶，1684 年。

Matsuo Bashō, the father of the Haiku and Japan's most revered poet, sets off on the first of his great pilgrimages.

俳句之父、日本最受尊敬的詩人松尾芭蕉踏上了他第一次的偉大朝聖之旅。

These aimless wanderings will take him to the heart of solitude and nature, and help him to capture the spirit of wabi-sabi in words.

這些漫遊之行將他帶往了孤寂和自然的中心，並幫助他用文字捕捉侘寂的精神。

A depressive with a great talent, Bashō takes joy in wandering the dangerous roads around Edo disguised as a beggar.

抑鬱而富有才華的松尾芭蕉十分享受以乞丐的身份在江戶的險道上徘徊。

Here, he distills the fragile beauty of the sights around him into poetry that tries to spot the eternal through the fleeting moment.

在此，他將周圍景色的脆弱之美提煉成詩句，試圖通過轉瞬即逝的瞬間發現永恆。

We can hear the beautiful desolation in one of his most famous haikus⏤

我們可以從他最著名的俳句之一中感受到這種淒美荒涼。

Solitary now⏤Standing Amidst the blossoms, is a cypress tree.

此刻孤身⏤ 立於花叢中，是那柏樹。

GInza District, Tokyo, 2013.

東京銀座區，2013 年。

An enormous new outlet of Louis Vuitton opens, built by the Japanese architect Jun Aoki.

由日本建築師青木淳所設計的 Louis Vuitton 新店開業。

Forty-five percent of all Japanese women are now estimated to own a bag by the French luxury goods firm, featuring Western ideals of shininess, perfection, and symmetry.

據估計，現有 45% 的日本女性擁有這家法國奢侈品牌的手袋，這個品牌體現了西方對閃亮、完美和對稱的理想。

Wabi-sabi is, like many traditional Japanese ideas, under enormous threat from the consumerist values of the West.

侘寂與許多傳統的日本觀念一樣，正遭受到西方消費主義價值觀的巨大威脅。

Wabi-sabi is, at one level, an idea that relates to pottery, drinking tea, and the history of Japan.

侘寂在某種程度上是個與陶器、茶道和日本歷史相關的概念。

But at another, it's a lesson for all of us, for all times, because the place we really have to come to terms with imperfection, melancholy, and age is in ourselves.

但從另一方面來看，一直以來這對所有人也是個教誨，因為人類真正不得不面對及接受其不完美、憂鬱和衰老的東西正是我們自身。

Wabi-sabi is a giant marketing effort which urges us to take a second look at what we might otherwise dismiss or treat with disdain.

侘寂是項龐大的營銷行動，促使我們重新審視那些我摒棄或不屑一顧的事物。

It recognizes that our tastes are not fixed.

這讓我們了解到人的喜好並不是固定的。

And that if someone with talent and artistic grace urges us to look more sympathetically at some moss, a slightly wonky teacup, or indeed, the wise, wrinkled face of a friend or relative,

如果有才華和藝術品味的人促使我們以認同的眼光看待苔蘚、搖搖欲墜的茶杯，或是親友睿智且皺紋滿佈的臉龐，

we will be able to find charm and beauty here, too.

我們也將能在其中找到它們的美及魅力。

Our notions of beauty and interests are relative and open to change and improvement.

我們對美的感受和引起我們興趣的標準是相對的，可以被改變和改進。

With the ideals of wabi-sabi in mind, we may learn to find greater satisfaction in the humbler moments⏤

懷著侘寂的理想，我們也許能學會在卑微渺小的時刻中，找到更大的滿足。

in a walk down a slightly crooked path or an overcast autumn day, or in a less than blemish-free house, face, or soul.

無論是在蜿蜒小路上散步、在陰鬱的秋日中，又或是在並非全然無瑕的房子、臉龐或靈魂中。

If you like our films, take a look at our shop, theschooloflife.com/shop.

如果喜歡我們的影片，快上我們的商店 theschooloflife.com/shop 看看。

You'll find lots of thoughtful books, games, stationery, and more.

你會發現很多值得深入思考的書籍、遊戲、文具等等。

Let's say you just had a big row with someone close to you.

假設你剛和親近的人大吵了一架。

They behaved terribly; maybe broke something and said something hideous to you.

他們的行為很糟糕，也許摔破了東西並對你說了可怕的話。

It's so tempting to give up on them and just hate them, but there's another....

放棄他們、恨他們是個很誘人的選項，但還有另一個…