Reclaiming Travel
重拾旅行
By IlanStavans&Joshua Ellison
文/伊兰·斯塔文斯、乔舒亚·埃利森
What compels us to leave home, to travel to other places? The great travel writer Bruce Chatwin[1] described nomadism as an “inveterate impulse”, deeply rooted in our species. The relentless movement of the modern world bears this out[2]: our relative prosperity has not turned us into a sedentary[3] species. The World Tourism Organization, an agency of the United Nations, reported nearly a billion tourist arrivals in 2011. Some 200 million people are now living outside their country of birth.
是什么力量驱使我们离开家、旅行到其他地方？著名旅行作家布鲁斯·查特文把游牧生活描写成一种“根深蒂固的冲动”，深深植根于人类的内心。现代社会的流动不息表明：相对繁荣的生活并没有让我们安定下来。联合国机构世界旅游组织2011年发布的全球游客总量接近十亿人次。如今约有两亿人居住在出生国之外的地方。
[1]（1889—1940），英国现代旅行作家，代表作《巴塔哥尼亚高原上》（In Patagonia）曾获“豪森登奖”（Hawthornden Prize）和“福斯特奖”（E. M. Forster Award）。
[2] bear out支持；证明。
[3] sedentary定栖的；不迁徙的。
This type of massive movement – the rearrangement, temporary or permanent, of multitudes[4] – is as fundamental to modern life as the Internet, global trade or any other sociopolitical developments. Certainly, many of our most intractable[5] collective challenges as a society are directly linked to our mobility: urbanization, environmental depletion[6], scarcity and, of course, immigration. An immigrant is a traveler without a return ticket.
这种大规模的流动——不管是临时还是永久性的人口迁移——如同互联网、全球贸易或其他社会政治动态一样，是现代社会的根本。显然，我们共同面临的很多最棘手的社会问题，如城市化、环境损耗、资源稀缺，当然还有移民，都与我们的流动性直接相关。移民就是没有返程票的旅客。
[4] multitude人群。
[5] intractable很难对付（或处理）的。
[6] depletion耗尽，枯竭。
In the Bible, the human journey begins with an expulsion[7]. God’s cho¬sen people are also those condemned to[8] wander. Not only wander, but wonder: Why are we in exile? Where is home? Can this rupture[9] ever be repaired? Gilgamesh[10], the Icelandic sagas and The Odyssey[11] are all about the itinerant[12] life. Yet these characters don’t see travel as we moderns do. They embark on journeys of mythic significance – the literature of travel in the pre-modern era did not recognize travel for leisure or self-improvement. Today, our approach to travel is defined not by archetypal[13] imagery but, rather, according to our own mostly prosaic[14] trips.
在《圣经》中，人类旅行始于一次驱逐。上帝的选民也是注定要漂泊一生的人，不仅流浪，还会反思：我们为何被流放？家在哪里？这种破裂的关系能否修复？《吉尔伽美什》、冰岛传说和《奥德赛》等无一例外记录了主人公的流浪生活。但是，他们对旅行的理解与现代人有所不同。他们踏上具有神话意义的行程——前现代关于旅行的作品既不将其看作休闲，也不把它视为自我提升。如今，我们对待旅行的看法不再受缚于原始意象，转而依托我们自己那些平淡无奇的旅程。
[7] expulsion驱逐。
[8] be condemned to注定；落得个……下场。
[9] rupture断裂。
[10] 人类历史上第一部史诗，讲述了英雄吉尔伽美什一生的传奇故事。
[11] 古希腊史诗，主要讲述希腊英雄奥德修斯在特洛伊战争后航海返乡的奇幻经历。
[12] itinerant流动的；四处奔波的。
[13] archetypal原型的。
[14] prosaic没有诗意（或美感）的；平淡的。
…………
Travel is a search for meaning, not only in our own lives, but also in the lives of others. The humility required for genuine travel is exactly what is missing from its opposite extreme, tourism.
旅行是一种对意义的探索，不仅是在自己生活中，而且也涉及他人生活。真正的旅行要求谦逊，而这恰恰是处在其对立面的旅游所欠缺的。
Modern tourism does not promise transformation but rather the possibility of leaving home and coming back without any significant change or challenge. Tourists may enjoy the visit only because it is short. The memory of it, the retelling, will always be better. Whereas travel is about the unexpected, about giving oneself over to disorientation[15], tourism is safe, controlled and predetermined[16]. We take a vacation, not so much to discover a new landscape, but to find respite[17] from our current one, an antidote[18] to routine.
现代旅游不能促使人转变，它只是让人有可能离开家再返回，其间无须经历任何显著变化或挑战。恰恰因为行程短暂，游客会很享受这段时光。回忆或重温这段旅程总是更美妙。旅行是出乎意料，是让自我迷失；而旅游则是安全的，受控的和预先定制的。我们去休假，并不是为了发现一处新的风景，只是为了从时下境况中暂时解脱，打破常规而已。
[15] disorientation迷失方向；迷惑。
[16] predetermined预先决定的。
[17] respite稍事休息；解脱。
[18] antidote解毒药；〈喻〉矫正法。
There are still traces of the pilgrimage, even in tourism, though they have become warped[19] and solipsistic[20]. Holy seekers go looking for oracles, tombs, sites of revelation. Tourists like to visit ruins, empty churches, battlefields, memorials. Tourist kitsch[21] depends on a sterilized[22] version of history and a smug[23] assurance that all of our stories of the past are ultimately re-demptive[24] – even if it is only the tourists’ false witness that redeems them. There’s no seeking required, and no real challenge, because the emotional voyage is preprogrammed. The world has become a frighteningly small place.
即便在旅游中，朝圣的踪迹依旧可见，尽管已变得扭曲且唯我。寻道者搜寻神谕、古墓和天启圣地，观光客喜欢参观遗迹、空置的教堂、古战场和纪念碑。迎合游客的媚俗景点依赖“净化”的历史，自以为是地宣称一切历史故事都具有救赎性——其实只是从游客错误的见证中得到救赎而已。旅游无须探索，没有真正的挑战，因为情感历程都已预先设定。它把这个世界变小了，小到令人震惊。
[19] warped歪曲的；〈非正式〉反常的。
[20] solipsistic我论的；自我中心。
[21] kitsch投人所好的；迎合低级趣味的。
[22] sterilize消毒。
[23] smug自命不凡的。
[24] redemptive救赎的。
The planet’s size hasn’t changed, of course, but our outsize egos have shrunk[25] it dramatically. We might feel we know our own neighborhood, our own city, our own country, yet we still know so little about other individuals, what distinguishes them from us, how they make their habitat into home.
地球大小没有变化，但是人类的狂妄自大却让它大幅缩小。我们自以为了解自己的社区、自己的城市、自己的国家，但是我们对其他个体几乎一无所知，不知道他们与我们有何不同，也不知道他们如何把栖身处改造成家。
[25] shrink收缩；减少。
This lack of awareness is even more pronounced when it comes to different cultures. The media bombards[26] us with images from far-away places, making distant people seem less foreign, more relatable[27] to us, less threatening. It’s a mirage, obviously. The kind of travel to which we aspire should tolerate uncertainty and discomfort. It isn’t about pain or excessive strain – travel doesn’t need to be an extreme sport – but we need to permit ourselves to be clumsy[28], inexpert and even a bit lonely. We might never understand travel as our ancestors did: our world is too open, relativistic[29], secular[30], demystified[31]. But we will need to reclaim[32] some notion of the heroic: a quest for communion[33] and, ultimately, self-knowledge.
当涉及不同文化时，这种意识上的不足更是显而易见。媒体上充斥着来自遥远地方的形象，让远方的人看起来不再异样，更加可亲，少了些威胁。显然，这是一种幻觉。我们渴望的那种旅行应能容忍不确定性和不适。它并不意味着痛苦或负担过度——旅行不需要成为一项极限运动——但我们应当允许自己显得笨拙、不熟练，甚至有点孤独。我们可能永远无法像祖先那样参透旅行：我们的世界过于开放，趋于相对，极其世俗，神秘感尽失。但是，我们需要重拾史诗的理念：（在旅行中）寻求交融，最终发现自我。
[26] bombard一下子抛给；提供过多信息。
[27] relatable有关联的。
[28] clumsy笨拙的；无技巧的。
[29] relativistic相对性的。
[30] secular世俗的。
[31] demystify弄清楚，解开……的谜团。
[32] reclaim取回。
[33] communion（思想感情的）交流，交融。
Our wandering is meant to lead back toward ourselves. This is the paradox[34]: we set out on adventures to gain deeper access to ourselves; we travel to transcend our own limitations. Travel should be an art through which our restlessness finds expression. We must bring back the idea of travel as a search.
我们的漂泊意在回归自我。吊诡的是：我们开启冒险是为了更接近自我，在旅行中超越自身局限。旅行应该是一门艺术，通过它，我们的不安得以表达。我们必须重新把旅行看成一种探索。
[34] paradox悖论。