Before I get to bulk of what I have to say, I feel compelled just to mention a couple of things about myself. I am not some mystical, spiritual sort of person. I'm a science writer. I studied physics in college. I used to be a science correspondent for NPR. OK, that said: in the course of working on a story for NPR, I got some advice from an astronomer that challenged my outlook, and frankly, changed my life.
在進入正題之前, 我認為先說說我自己是十分必要的。 我不是神秘主義者, 亦不篤信精神力量。 我是一位科學作家, 大學期間主修物理學。 我曾是全國公共廣播電台 (NPR)的科學通訊記者。 有一次, 在為 NPR 寫一篇文章時, 一位天文學家給我的建議 挑戰我了的觀點, 坦率來說,改變了我的生命。
You see, the story was about an eclipse, a partial solar eclipse that was set to cross the country in May of 1994. And the astronomer -- I interviewed him, and he explained what was going to happen and how to view it, but he emphasized that, as interesting as a partial solar eclipse is, a much rarer total solar eclipse is completely different. In a total eclipse, for all of two or three minutes, the moon completely blocks the face of the sun, creating what he described as the most awe-inspiring spectacle in all of nature. And so the advice he gave me was this: "Before you die," he said, "you owe it to yourself to experience a total solar eclipse."
那篇文章與日食有關, 是一次全國都看得到的日偏食, 發生在 1994 年五月。 我採訪的這位天文學家, 向我解釋了將要發生什麼, 以及如何觀測日食。 但他特別強調,雖然日偏食也有趣, 更為罕見的日全食卻全然不同。 在日全食發生的二至三分鐘內, 月球完全遮擋住太陽, 形成他描述的 自然界裡最令人驚歎的景象。 他給我的建議是: 「在你的生命結束之前, 應該要有一次日全食的體驗。」
Well honestly, I felt a little uncomfortable hearing that from someone I didn't know very well; it felt sort of intimate. But it got my attention, and so I did some research. Now the thing about total eclipses is, if you wait for one to come to you, you're going to be waiting a long time. Any given point on earth experiences a total eclipse about once every 400 years. But if you're willing to travel, you don't have to wait that long. And so I learned that a few years later, in 1998, a total eclipse was going to cross the Caribbean.
說實話,聽一個不熟悉的人說這話, 讓我感到有點不舒服, 畢竟這是個私人話題。 但它吸引了我的注意力, 所以我做了些調查。 對於日全食來說, 如果你只是等待它來到你住的地區, 那你恐怕要等很久。 在地球上任意一處遇到日全食的機會 大約每四百年一次。 但如果你樂意去旅行, 就不必等待那麼長時間。 我得知在幾年後,1998 年, 在加勒比海將有機會觀測到日全食。
Now, a total eclipse is visible only along a narrow path, about a hundred miles wide, and that's where the moon's shadow falls. It's called the "path of totality." And in February 1998, the path of totality was going to cross Aruba. So I talked to my husband, and we thought: February? Aruba? Sounded like a good idea anyway.
日全食僅在一條狹長區域看得到, 這個區域寬約一百英里, 由月球在地球上的投影形成。 它被稱為「全食帶」。 在 1998 年 2 月, 全食帶將穿越阿魯巴島。 我和我丈夫討論了這件事, 我們想:二月?阿魯巴島? 不論如何聽起來還不錯。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
So we headed south, to enjoy the sun and to see what would happen when the sun briefly went away.
於是我們一路向南享受陽光, 同時看看太陽暫時消失時會怎樣。
Well, the day of the eclipse found us and many other people out behind the Hyatt Regency, on the beach, waiting for the show to begin. And we wore eclipse glasses with cardboard frames and really dark lenses that enabled us to look at the sun safely. A total eclipse begins as a partial eclipse, as the moon very slowly makes its way in front of the sun. So first it looked the sun had a little notch in its edge, and then that notch grew larger and larger, turning the sun into a crescent. And it was all very interesting, but I wouldn't say it was spectacular. I mean, the day remained bright. If I hadn't known what was going on overhead, I wouldn't have noticed anything unusual.
日食的那天終於到來, 許多人和我們一起 在凱悅酒店外的沙灘上 等待大自然的表演開場。 我們戴的日食眼鏡 是硬紙板鏡框鑲嵌著深色鏡片, 這樣就能安全地觀測日食了。 日全食一開始是日偏食, 因為月球慢慢地掠過太陽的前面。 起初,太陽的邊緣出現一個缺口, 缺口越來越大, 太陽逐漸變成新月狀。 這些景象雖然十分有趣卻並不壯觀。 我的四周依舊是明亮的白天。 如果不是事先知道 我的頭頂上空正在發生什麼, 我也許根本不會注意到任何不同。
Well, about 10 minutes before the total solar eclipse was set to begin, weird things started to happen. A cool wind kicked up. Daylight looked odd, and shadows became very strange; they looked bizarrely sharp, as if someone had turned up the contrast knob on the TV. Then I looked offshore, and I noticed running lights on boats, so clearly it was getting dark, although I hadn't realized it. Well soon, it was obvious it was getting dark. It felt like my eyesight was failing.
在日全食開始的十分鐘前, 奇怪的事情開始發生了。 一陣涼風吹過。 日光顯得怪怪的,陰影變得詭異; 看起來很不尋常的清晰, 就像有人調高了電視銀幕的對比度。 我望向海面,注意到船隻開了燈, 很顯然雖然我沒有意識到, 但光照正在變暗。 很快,顯然有如夜幕降臨一般, 我感覺到視力看不清了。
And then all of a sudden, the lights went out. Well, at that, a cheer erupted from the beach, and I took off my eclipse glasses, because at this point during the total eclipse, it was safe to look at the sun with the naked eye. And I glanced upward, and I was just dumbstruck.
突然, 四周全暗了。 此時, 掌聲響徹沙灘, 我也取下日食眼鏡, 因為當日全食進行到此時, 用裸眼觀察太陽是安全的。 我向上瞟了一眼, 眼前的景象使我目瞪口呆。
Now, consider that, at this point, I was in my mid-30s. I had lived on earth long enough to know what the sky looks like. I mean --
試想,那時我早已步入而立之年。 我在地球上活得夠久, 知道天空是什麼樣子。 我是想說是
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
I'd seen blue skies and grey skies and starry skies and angry skies and pink skies at sunrise. But here was a sky I had never seen.
我見過藍天,也見過烏雲密佈, 我見過星辰漫天,亦見過天公降怒, 我還見過日出時粉色的天空。 但我從未見過此時的天空。
First, there were the colors. Up above, it was a deep purple-grey, like twilight. But on the horizon it was orange, like sunset, 360 degrees. And up above, in the twilight, bright stars and planets had come out. So there was Jupiter and there was Mercury and there was Venus. They were all in a line.
首先,天空的顏色便與以往不同。 向上看,那是一種深紫灰色, 一如暮色降臨。 但是沿著地平線看天空是橙色的, 像落日, 360 度全方位的。 在上方的「暮色」中, 明亮的群星已然出現。 那是木星, 那個是水星, 還有一顆是金星。 它們全部排成一排。
And there, along this line, was this thing, this glorious, bewildering thing. It looked like a wreath woven from silvery thread, and it just hung out there in space, shimmering. That was the sun's outer atmosphere, the solar corona. And pictures just don't do it justice. It's not just a ring or halo around the sun; it's finely textured, like it's made out of strands of silk. And although it looked nothing like our sun, of course, I knew that's what it was. So there was the sun, and there were the planets, and I could see how the planets revolve around the sun. It's like I had left our solar system and was standing on some alien world, looking back at creation.
沿著這條線看去, 你會看到它, 這個輝煌的卻令人迷惑的小東西。 它看起來像由銀絲編織的花環, 它就那樣懸在空中,閃耀著。 那是太陽的外大氣層, 我們稱之為日冕。 圖片並不能如實的重現它。 它不僅是圍繞著太陽的光環或日冕; 它看起來的手感那麼好, 就像是用絲線織成的。 雖然它看起來完全不像我們的太陽, 當然,我明白它就是太陽。 太陽懸在空中,行星也在那裡, 這樣我就可以看清 行星如何圍繞太陽運轉。 我感覺自己似乎離開了太陽系, 此時我正在外星世界, 回顧創世的壯景。
And for the first time in my life, I just felt viscerally connected to the universe in all of its immensity. Time stopped, or it just kind of felt nonexistent, and what I beheld with my eyes -- I didn't just see it, it felt like a vision. And I stood there in this nirvana for all of 174 seconds -- less than three minutes -- when all of a sudden, it was over. The sun burst out, the blue sky returned, the stars and the planets and the corona were gone. The world returned to normal. But I had changed.
這是人生中第一次 我體會到與浩渺的宇宙連成一體, 廣袤無限。 時間靜止了, 或者只是彷彿不存在, 目之所及, 不僅是看到, 而且覺得像是一個夢境。 我站在那,有如登仙, 整整 174 秒,不到三分鐘, 突然,它結束了。 陽光炸開來, 藍天回歸到我們的視野中, 那些星星和日冕都消失得無影無蹤。 世界回歸正常, 但我卻改變了,
And that's how I became an umbraphile -- an eclipse chaser.
從此癡迷日食, 成了「追逐日食者。」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
So, this is how I spend my time and hard-earned money. Every couple of years, I head off to wherever the moon's shadow will fall to experience another couple minutes of cosmic bliss, and to share the experience with others: with friends in Australia, with an entire city in Germany. In 1999, in Munich, I joined hundreds of thousands who filled the streets and the rooftops and cheered in unison as the solar corona emerged. And over time, I've become something else: an eclipse evangelist. I see it as my job to pay forward the advice that I received all those years ago. And so let me tell you: before you die, you owe it to yourself to experience a total solar eclipse. It is the ultimate experience of awe.
這就是我花錢和消遣的方式。 每幾年我直奔日食降臨之地, 去體會宇宙賜予的數分鐘珍貴時刻, 同時與他人分享這些經歷: 與澳洲的朋友分享, 與一整個德國城市分享。 1999 年在慕尼黑, 我與數十萬人擠滿街道和屋頂, 同聲歡呼日冕的出現。 隨著時間的逝去,我變了, 變成日食的傳道者。 我將它視為己任, 通過傳給別人 來回應多年前收到的忠告。 來,讓我告訴你: 當你離開這個世界之前, 你一定要有一次觀測日全食的經歷。 那是對自然的終極敬畏。
Now, that word, "awesome," has grown so overused that it's lost its original meaning. True awe, a sense of wonder and insignificance in the face of something enormous and grand, is rare in our lives. But when you experience it, it's powerful. Awe dissolves the ego. It makes us feel connected. Indeed, it promotes empathy and generosity. Well, there is nothing truly more awesome than a total solar eclipse.
如今 “awesome” (敬畏) 這詞因為被濫用 而失去了它原有的含義。 真正的敬畏,對奇跡的體會, 和面對宏偉事物對自身渺小的體驗, 在我們的生活中是稀有的。 但當你去體會才會發現它如此有力。 敬畏使自我消失無蹤, 使我們心心相連。 事實上,它豐富我們的同理心, 使我們更加慷慨。 世上沒有比日全食 更令人感到敬畏的了。
Unfortunately, few Americans have seen one, because it's been 38 years since one last touched the continental United States and 99 years since one last crossed the breadth of the nation. But that is about to change. Over the next 35 years, five total solar eclipses will visit the continental United States, and three of them will be especially grand. Six weeks from now, on August 21, 2017 --
可惜並沒有幾個美國人見過日食, 因為自上一次日全食發生後, 美國大陸 38 年未有過此現象, 99 年來沒有從東到西 覆蓋全國的日食。 但這種情況將會發生改觀。 在接下來 35 年裡, 美國大陸會迎來五次日全食, 其中三次將會尤為壯觀。 六個星期後,也就是 2017 年 8 月 21 日,
(Applause)
(掌聲)
the moon's shadow will race from Oregon to South Carolina. April 8, 2024, the moon's shadow heads north from Texas to Maine. In 2045, on August 12, the path cuts from California to Florida.
月亮的陰影將由俄勒岡州 延伸到南卡羅萊納州。 在 2024 年 4 月 8 日,月亮的 陰影將從德州向北延伸到緬因州。 在 2045 年 8 月 12 日, 全食帶將從加州延伸到佛羅里達州。
I say: What if we made these holidays? What if we --
我提議: 「把這些日子變成假期如何?」 如果我們
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
(Applause)
(掌聲)
What if we all stood together, as many people as possible, in the shadow of the moon? Just maybe, this shared experience of awe would help heal our divisions, get us to treat each other just a bit more humanely.
如果我們同心協力, 越多的人越好, 站在月亮的影子裡怎麼樣? 也許這種共享敬畏的經歷 會緩解人與人之間的分歧, 讓我們之間的交往更加有人情味。
Now, admittedly, some folks consider my evangelizing a little out there; my obsession, eccentric. I mean, why focus so much attention on something so brief? Why cross the globe -- or state lines, for that matter -- for something that lasts three minutes? As I said: I am not a spiritual person. I don't believe in God. I wish I did. But when I think of my own mortality -- and I do, a lot -- when I think of everyone I have lost, my mother in particular, what soothes me is that moment of awe I had in Aruba. I picture myself on that beach, looking at that sky, and I remember how I felt. My existence may be temporary, but that's OK because, my gosh, look at what I'm a part of.
我得承認,有人認為我像在傳福音, 覺得我太過了、癡迷、行為古怪。 我是說,他們疑惑我為什麼會 在短暫的小事上花費這麼多精力? 為什麼為一件只持續三分鐘的小事 不惜跨過州界、甚至半個地球? 就像我說的一樣: 我不是追求性靈的人, 我不信奉上帝, 但願我是,但我不是。 但每當我想到自己有限的生命, 而且我常常想到,真的, 每當我想到身邊逝去的每一個人, 尤其是我的母親, 能安慰我的, 只有我在阿魯巴島那充滿敬畏的時刻。 我想像自己躺在那沙灘上, 看著那天空, 我記得當時的感覺。 儘管我的存在是短暫的, 但是那也沒什麼,因為,哦天哪, 看看我是什麼的一部分。
And so this is a lesson I've learned, and it's one that applies to life in general: duration of experience does not equal impact. One weekend, one conversation -- hell, one glance -- can change everything. Cherish those moments of deep connection with other people, with the natural world, and make them a priority. Yes, I chase eclipses. You might chase something else. But it's not about the 174 seconds. It's about how they change the years that come after.
這就是我學習到的一課, 它在生活中普遍適用: 持續長時間的經歷未必就衝擊力大。 一個週末、一次對話, 甚至驚鴻一瞥, 都足以改變任何事。 珍惜那些你與他人親密接觸的時刻, 與自然相處的時刻, 並把它們排在首要地位。 是的,我追逐日食。 也許你追求其他的東西。 重點不在那 174 秒鐘, 重要的是它對以後人生的影響。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)