As a child, I was raised by native Hawaiian elders -- three old women who took care of me while my parents worked. The year is 1963. We're at the ocean. It's twilight. We're watching the rising of the stars and the shifting of the tides. It's a stretch of beach we know so well. The smooth stones on the sand are familiar to us. If you saw these women on the street in their faded clothes, you might dismiss them as poor and simple. That would be a mistake. These women are descendants of Polynesian navigators, trained in the old ways by their elders, and now they're passing it on to me. They teach me the names of the winds and the rains, of astronomy according to a genealogy of stars. There's a new moon on the horizon. Hawaiians say it's a good night for fishing. They begin to chant.
在小时候, 我由夏威夷原住民长者抚养 -- 三位老夫人 在我父母去工作时照看我。 那是1963年。 我们在海边, 正是黄昏。 我们看着星星升起 和潮起潮落。 那是一段我们非常熟悉的海滩。 沙滩上光滑的石头 也为我们熟知。 如果你看看街上那些 穿着褪色的衣物的妇女们, 你也许会认为她们 贫困且无知。 这将是个错误。 这些妇女是波利尼西亚航海家 的后代, 由他们的长辈 用古老的方式训练。 现在她们正在把它传授给我。 她们教给我风的名字、雨的名字 -- 天文学中的星系。 当一轮新月出现在地平线上时。 夏威夷人会说这个晚上是捕鱼的好时机。 他们开始歌唱。
[Hawaiian chant]
[夏威夷歌声]
When they finish, they sit in a circle and ask me to come to join them. They want to teach me about my destiny. I thought every seven-year-old went through this. (Laughter) "Baby girl, someday the world will be in trouble. People will forget their wisdom. It will take elders' voices from the far corners of the world to call the world into balance. You will go far away. It will sometimes be a lonely road. We will not be there. But you will look into the eyes of seeming strangers, and you will recognize your ohana, your family. And it will take all of you. It will take all of you." These words, I hold onto all my life. Because the idea of doing it alone terrifies me.
唱完之后, 他们坐成一圈 并邀请我也加入其中。 他们想要教我些与我的命运有关的事。 我想每个七岁的孩子都会经历这些。 (笑声) “宝贝儿, 有一天,这世界会陷入困境。 人们将遗忘他们的智慧。 从世界遥远的角落 传来的长者的声音 将让这世界回归平衡。 你将远走高飞。 有时会走上一条孤独的路途。 我们不再你身边。 但你直视那些 貌似陌生的人的眼睛, 你将认出你的‘奥哈纳’, 你的家人。 而他会照顾你的一切。 它会照顾你的一切。” 这些话,我一生 谨记。 因为那个孤独面对的说法 让我感到恐惧。
The year is 2007. I'm on a remote island in Micronesia. Satawal is one half-mile long by one mile wide. It's the home of my mentor. His name is Pius Mau Piailug. Mau is a palu, a navigator priest. He's also considered the greatest wave finder in the world. There are fewer than a handful of palu left on this island. Their tradition is so extraordinary that these mariners sailed three million square miles across the Pacific without the use of instruments. They could synthesize patterns in nature using the rising and setting of stars, the sequence and direction of waves, the flight patterns of certain birds. Even the slightest hint of color on the underbelly of a cloud would inform them and help them navigate with the keenest accuracy.
这是2007年。 我在密克罗尼西亚的一座偏远的岛屿上。 萨塔瓦尔岛有一英里半长 一英里宽。 这是我的导师的家。 他的名字是庇乌斯·皮埃勒格。 毛是名巴鲁, 一名航海牧师。 他也被视为 世界上最大海浪的发现者。 这个岛上只有 很少的巴鲁。 他们的传统是如此的非凡 以至于那些水手 不用任何仪器航行也能穿越 三百万平方英里的太平洋。 他们能综合自然中的模式 星辰的起落, 海浪的顺序和方向, 特定鸟类的飞行模式。 甚至云层下 颜色一丝半点的变化 也能被他们察觉 并帮他们非常精确的导航。
When Western scientists would join Mau on the canoe and watch him go into the hull, it appeared that an old man was going to rest. In fact, the hull of the canoe is the womb of the vessel. It is the most accurate place to feel the rhythm and sequence and direction of waves. Mau was, in fact, gathering explicit data using his entire body. It's what he had been trained to do since he was five years old. Now science may dismiss this methodology, but Polynesian navigators use it today because it provides them an accurate determination of the angle and direction of their vessel.
当西方科学家们乘坐毛的独木舟, 并观察他进入船体时, 看起来就像是位老人 准备休息。 实际上,这个独木舟的船体 是船的子宫。 这是能对海浪的 节奏、顺序和方向 感觉最精确的地方。 实际上,毛是在 用他整个身体 在收集详细的数据。 这就是他自从五岁起 就受训做的事。 现在科学也许摒弃了这一方法, 但波利尼西亚航海家今天仍在使用这一方法 因为它能为他们提供 对他们的船的 角度和方向 的精确测定。
The palu also had an uncanny ability to forecast weather conditions days in advance. Sometimes I'd be with Mau on a cloud-covered night and we'd sit at the easternmost coast of the island, and he would look out, and then he would say, "Okay, we go." He saw that first glint of light -- he knew what the weather was going to be three days from now.
巴鲁还有 一项奇异的能力, 能在数天前事先 预测天气状况。 有时,我与毛在一个乌云密布的夜晚 我们坐在岛的最东岸, 他会留心观察。 然后他会说, “好,我们走吧。” 他看到第一道闪电 -- 他就知道今后三天的天气会是怎么样的。
Their achievements, intellectually and scientifically, are extraordinary, and they are so relevant for these times that we are in when we are riding out storms. We are in such a critical moment of our collective history. They have been compared to astronauts -- these elder navigators who sail vast open oceans in double-hulled canoes thousands of miles from a small island. Their canoes, our rockets; their sea, our space. The wisdom of these elders is not a mere collection of stories about old people in some remote spot. This is part of our collective narrative. It's humanity's DNA. We cannot afford to lose it.
他们的这些能力,在智慧上和科学上 都很非凡, 而且这与 我们逃离风暴时 所在的时机息息相关。 我们处在我们共同的历史中的 一个重要的时刻。 人们曾经把他们跟 宇航员对比 -- 这些年长的航海者 驾驶着双体独木舟 从一个小岛出发 在辽阔的海洋之上 航行数千英里。 他们的独木舟,我们的火箭, 他们的海洋,我们的太空。 这些长者的智慧 不仅仅是 在某个偏远地方的老人们 故事的集合。 这是我们集体叙事的一部分。 这是人性的DNA。 我们不能失去它。
The year is 2010. Just as the women in Hawaii that raised me predicted, the world is in trouble. We live in a society bloated with data, yet starved for wisdom. We're connected 24/7, yet anxiety, fear, depression and loneliness is at an all-time high. We must course-correct. An African shaman said, "Your society worships the jester while the king stands in plain clothes." The link between the past and the future is fragile. This I know intimately, because even as I travel throughout the world to listen to these stories and record them, I struggle. I am haunted by the fact that I no longer remember the names of the winds and the rains.
这是2010年。 正如在夏威夷抚养我的 那位女性所预言的, 世界陷入了困境。 我们生活在 数据爆炸的社会之中, 但仍然渴望智慧。 我们全天候的互联, 但焦虑、 担心、沮丧和孤独的感觉 却达到了历史最高的程度。 我们必须朝着正确的方向前行。 一位非洲巫师说过, “你们的社会崇拜小丑, 而王者则穿着平常地 站在一旁。” 过去和未来间的联系 是脆弱的。 这我非常熟悉, 因为在我 环游世界 的时候听到这些故事并记录下来。 我挣扎着。 我不再记得 风和雨的名字的这一事实 一直在我心头萦绕。
Mau passed away five months ago, but his legacy and lessons live on. And I am reminded that throughout the world there are cultures with vast sums of knowledge in them, as potent as the Micronesian navigators, that are going dismissed, that this is a testament to brilliant, brilliant technology and science and wisdom that is vanishing rapidly. Because when an elder dies a library is burned, and throughout the world, libraries are ablaze.
毛在五个月之前 去世了, 但他的遗产和教训继续存在。 这提醒我 整个世界 有许多包含 无数知识的文化, 与密克罗尼西亚航海家一样强大, 这些文化正在消失, 这是那些 非常非常灿烂的 技术、科学和智慧 快速消亡的证据。 因为一名长者逝去,如同一座图书馆被焚毁。 全世界的图书馆都着火了。
I am grateful for the fact that I had a mentor like Mau who taught me how to navigate. And I realize through a lesson that he shared that we continue to find our way. And this is what he said: "The island is the canoe; the canoe, the island." And what he meant was, if you are voyaging and far from home, your very survival depends on everyone aboard. You cannot make the voyage alone, you were never meant to. This whole notion of every man for himself is completely unsustainable. It always was.
我对我能有一个 像毛这样的导师充满感激, 他教会了我如何航海。 我记得 在他教授的一节课中 我们不断地寻找出路。 这时他说道: “这岛就是独木舟; 这独木舟,这岛。” 他的意思是, 如果你正在航行 远离家乡, 你的生存依赖于 每个在船上的人。 你不能独自航行, 你从未这么想过。 每个人都只为自己的想法 是完全无法持续的。 一直都是这样。
So in closing I would offer you this: The planet is our canoe, and we are the voyagers. True navigation begins in the human heart. It's the most important map of all. Together, may we journey well.
在最后,我想想大家说这些: 这个星球是我们的独木舟, 而我们就是航行者。 真正的航行 从人类的心中开始。 这是最为重要的地图。 让我们一起,祝愿我们路途愉快。
(Applause)
(掌声)