I got off the all-night train

在一個炎熱的十月的早晨，

in Mandalay,

我下了過夜火車，

the old royal capital of Burma,

在曼德勒，

now Myanmar.

那是舊緬甸皇室首度，

And out on the street, I ran into a group of rough men

現在是緬甸聯邦了。

standing beside their bicycle rickshaws.

我到了街上， 碰到一群衣著樸素的人，

And one of them came up

站在他們的黃包車旁邊。

and offered to show me around.

其中一個走上前，

The price he quoted was outrageous.

想帶我在附近逛逛。

It was less than I would pay for a bar of chocolate at home.

他要求的價格讓人難以置信，

So I clambered into his trishaw,

價格比我在家吃一根巧克力棒還要便宜。

and he began pedaling us slowly between palaces and pagodas.

所以我爬上他的三輪車，

And as he did, he told me how he had come to the city from his village.

他載著我，緩緩地穿梭在皇宮和寶塔之間。

He'd earned a degree in mathematics.

同時，他開始講述他從他的村莊來到城市的經歷。

His dream was to be a teacher.

他擁有數學系學位。

But of course, life is hard under a military dictatorship,

夢想成為一名老師。

and so for now, this was the only way he could make a living.

但是，受軍閥獨裁統治的生活是很困難的，

Many nights, he told me, he actually slept in his trishaw

所以這是他唯一能賴以生存的方式。

so he could catch the first visitors off the all-night train.

多少個夜晚，他告訴我， 他睡在自己的三輪車裡

And very soon, we found that in certain ways,

為了能夠接到走下連夜火車的第一個乘客

we had so much in common --

很快的，我們發現，在很多方面，

we were both in our 20s,

我們其實很相似——

we were both fascinated by foreign cultures --

我們都二十幾歲，

that he invited me home.

我們都熱愛異國文化。

So we turned off the wide, crowded streets,

他邀請我到他家。

and we began bumping down rough, wild alleyways.

所以我們離開了寬大而擁擠的馬路，

There were broken shacks all around.

開始顛簸在一條條凹凸不平的巷子裡。

I really lost the sense of where I was,

身邊都是破舊的小屋。

and I realized that anything could happen to me now.

我完全不知道我在哪，

I could get mugged or drugged

我意識到什麼都有可能發生在我身上。

or something worse.

我可能會被打劫或者下藥，

Nobody would know.

或者更糟。

Finally, he stopped and led me into a hut,

沒人會知道。

which consisted of just one tiny room.

最終，他停下車， 帶我進了一個棚屋，

And then he leaned down,

棚屋只有一個小小的房間。

and reached under his bed.

然後他趴下，

And something in me froze.

伸手到床下，

I waited to see what he would pull out.

這讓我有點不知所措。

And finally he extracted a box.

我等待著， 想知道他會拿出什麼東西。

Inside it was every single letter he had ever received

終於，他抽出一個盒子，

from visitors from abroad,

裡面是每一封他從外國遊客那裡

and on some of them he had pasted

收到的信。

little black-and-white worn snapshots

其中的一些，被他黏貼上了

of his new foreign friends.

他新結交的外國朋友的

So when we said goodbye that night,

小小的黑白照片。

I realized he had also shown me

那個晚上，當我們道別的時候，

the secret point of travel,

我意識到，他向我展示了

which is to take a plunge,

旅行的秘密，

to go inwardly as well as outwardly

那就是沈浸其中，

to places you would never go otherwise,

由裡及外，

to venture into uncertainty,

去你不會去的地方，

ambiguity,

去探索不確定，

even fear.

模糊，

At home, it's dangerously easy

甚至恐懼。

to assume we're on top of things.

在家，我們極容易

Out in the world, you are reminded every moment that you're not,

認為事情都在掌控之中。

and you can't get to the bottom of things, either.

離家在外的時候， 你要記住，每一分每一秒，

Everywhere, "People wish to be settled,"

你不會，也不能了解事情的全部。

Ralph Waldo Emerson reminded us,

“無論何處，人們都想通曉世事，”

"but only insofar as we are unsettled

拉爾夫 沃爾多 愛默生提醒過我們，

is there any hope for us."

“但是正因為我們無法通曉世事

At this conference, we've been lucky enough

我們才有希望。”

to hear some exhilarating new ideas and discoveries

在這個會上，我們都很幸運，

and, really, about all the ways

能夠聽到一些令人激動的 新想法和發現，

in which knowledge is being pushed excitingly forwards.

而真的就是在這樣的時刻

But at some point, knowledge gives out.

知識被熱情地往前推動。

And that is the moment

但是有的時候，知識不起作用

when your life is truly decided:

那就是

you fall in love;

在人生的關鍵點上：

you lose a friend;

墜入愛河，

the lights go out.

失去朋友，

And it's then, when you're lost or uneasy or carried out of yourself,

面對死亡。

that you find out who you are.

然後，當你失敗或失落的時候，

I don't believe that ignorance is bliss.

你才會發現你是誰。

Science has unquestionably made our lives

我不相信無知是福。

brighter and longer and healthier.

科學無庸置疑讓我們的生活

And I am forever grateful to the teachers who showed me the laws of physics

變得更光明，更長久，更健康。

and pointed out that three times three makes nine.

我永遠感激教導我物理定律的老師

I can count that out on my fingers

和教會我三三得九的老師。

any time of night or day.

我能在任何時候

But when a mathematician tells me

用手指算出來。

that minus three times minus three makes nine,

但是當一個數學家告訴我，

that's a kind of logic that almost feels like trust.

負三乘負三等於九，

The opposite of knowledge, in other words, isn't always ignorance.

這種邏輯感覺有點像信任。

It can be wonder.

知識的對岸，換句話說，不一定是無知。

Or mystery.

也可能是思考，

Possibility.

或者懷疑，

And in my life, I've found it's the things I don't know

都有可能。

that have lifted me up and pushed me forwards

在我的人生中，我發現，那些我不知道的事情

much more than the things I do know.

為我帶來的進步和成長，

It's also the things I don't know

遠超過我所知道的事情。

that have often brought me closer to everybody around me.

而且也是我不知道的那些事情，

For eight straight Novembers, recently,

讓我和身邊的人更親近。

I traveled every year across Japan with the Dalai Lama.

過去的八個十一月，

And the one thing he said every day

我和達賴喇嘛在日本遊歷。

that most seemed to give people reassurance and confidence

有一句話他每天都說，

was, "I don't know."

也似乎最能夠讓人們感到安慰和自信，

"What's going to happen to Tibet?"

就是“我不知道。”

"When are we ever going to get world peace?"

“西藏會發生什麼？”

"What's the best way to raise children?"

“什麼時候世界會和平？”

"Frankly," says this very wise man,

“培養孩子最好的方式是什麼？”

"I don't know."

“坦白說”，這個智者說，

The Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman

“我不知道。”

has spent more than 60 years now researching human behavior,

諾貝爾奬得主 經濟學家 丹尼爾 卡爾曼

and his conclusion is

花了超過60年研究人類行為，

that we are always much more confident of what we think we know

他的結論是，

than we should be.

相較於我們真正知道的事情，

We have, as he memorably puts it,

我們總是對 自認為知道的事情更為自信。

an "unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance."

他的表述是，“我們擁有

We know -- quote, unquote -- our team is going to win this weekend,

無限忽視無知的能力。”

and we only remember that knowledge

我們知道”我們隊伍這週末會贏。“

on the rare occasions when we're right.

而我們只會在極罕見的時刻

Most of the time, we're in the dark.

記得那些我們正確的知識。

And that's where real intimacy lies.

大多數時候， 我們都處在無知當中，

Do you know what your lover is going to do tomorrow?

這是所謂的親密。

Do you want to know?

你知道你的愛人明天要做什麼嗎？

The parents of us all, as some people call them,

你想知道嗎？

Adam and Eve,

對於一些人來說，我們的父母，

could never die, so long as they were eating from the tree of life.

亞當和夏娃，

But the minute they began nibbling

如果他們只從生命之樹獲取食物， 他們可以永生。

from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

但是他們開始一點一點地從

they fell from their innocence.

知善惡樹上獲取食物的時候，

They grew embarrassed and fretful,

他們落入了無知的陷阱。

self-conscious.

他們萌生害羞，煩躁

And they learned, a little too late, perhaps,

和自我意識。

that there are certainly some things that we need to know,

他們意識到，可能晚了一點，

but there are many, many more that are better left unexplored.

總有些事情是需要了解的，

Now, when I was a kid,

但是有更多的事情還是不要知道指導的好。

I knew it all, of course.

當我還是個孩子的時候，

I had been spending 20 years in classrooms collecting facts,

當然，我覺得我什麼都知道，

and I was actually in the information business,

我已經花了20年在教室裡了解事實，

writing articles for Time Magazine.

我在資訊業工作，

And I took my first real trip to Japan for two-and-a-half weeks,

給時代雜誌寫文章。

and I came back with a 40-page essay

我的第一次日本之旅花了兩週半，

explaining every last detail about Japan's temples,

回來的時候， 我寫了一份40頁的文章，

its fashions, its baseball games,

詳述每一個細節。 日本寺廟

its soul.

時尚潮流，棒球比賽，

But underneath all that,

日本的民主魂。

something that I couldn't understand

但是，深埋底下的，

so moved me for reasons I couldn't explain to you yet,

一些我無法理解的東西，

that I decided to go and live in Japan.

無法言表地打動了我，

And now that I've been there for 28 years,

讓我決定到日本定居。

I really couldn't tell you very much at all

現在，我已經在那兒待了28年，

about my adopted home.

我真的沒有辦法告訴你們很多

Which is wonderful,

關於我的第二個家。

because it means every day I'm making some new discovery,

這真的很棒，

and in the process,

因為這意味著我每天都有新發現。

looking around the corner and seeing the hundred thousand things

在這個過程中，

I'll never know.

我環視角落，發現上萬的

Knowledge is a priceless gift.

我永遠不會知道的東西。

But the illusion of knowledge can be more dangerous than ignorance.

知識是無價的禮物。

Thinking that you know your lover

但是知識的幻象可能比無知更危險。

or your enemy

你以為你了解你的愛人，

can be more treacherous

或者你的敵人，

than acknowledging you'll never know them.

可能會認知到你不了解他們

Every morning in Japan, as the sun is flooding into our little apartment,

還要危險。

I take great pains not to consult the weather forecast,

在日本的每一個早上， 當陽光湧入我們的小公寓時，

because if I do,

我都掙扎著看不看天氣預報，

my mind will be overclouded, distracted,

因為如果我看了，

even when the day is bright.

我的意念會被烏雲遮蔽，渙散，

I've been a full-time writer now for 34 years.

即使那是個晴天。

And the one thing that I have learned

我當全職作家已經34年了，

is that transformation comes when I'm not in charge,

我學到一件事，

when I don't know what's coming next,

就是改變是在不去掌控的時候發生的，

when I can't assume I am bigger than everything around me.

當我不知道接下來會發生什麼，

And the same is true in love

當我不自以為是。

or in moments of crisis.

這也發生在墜入愛河的時候，

Suddenly, we're back in that trishaw again

或者身陷危機的時候。

and we're bumping off the broad, well-lit streets;

突然，我們又回到那台三輪車，

and we're reminded, really, of the first law of travel

我們顛簸地駛離寬大明亮的馬路，

and, therefore, of life:

我們記得，旅行的真諦，

you're only as strong as your readiness to surrender.

也是生命的真諦:

In the end, perhaps,

你因面對未知的能力而強壯，

being human

可能，到最後，

is much more important

做普通人，

than being fully in the know.

比做一個無所不知的人，

Thank you.

還要重要。

(Applause)

謝謝。