Today I want to talk to you about swimming across the North Pole, across the most northern place in the whole world. And perhaps the best place to start is with my late father. He was a great storyteller. He could tell a story about an event, and so you felt you were absolutely there at the moment. And one of the stories he told me so often when I was a young boy was of the first British atomic bomb test. He had been there and watched it go off.
我今天要给你们讲讲 我游过北极, 游过世界最北端的故事。 我最好从我已经过世的父亲说起。 我的父亲很会讲故事。 他会把一件事讲得 让你觉得完全是身临其境。 我小时候,他常常给我讲的一个故事是 在英国进行的第一次原子弹爆炸试验。 他在现场亲眼看着它引爆。
And he said that the explosion was so loud and the light was so intense, that he actually had to put his hands in front of his face to protect his eyes. And he said that he could actually see an x-ray of his fingers, because the light was so bright. And I know that watching that atomic bomb going off had a very, very big impact on my late father. Every holiday I had as a young boy was in a national park. What he was trying to do with me was to inspire me to protect the world, and show me just how fragile the world is.
他说,当时爆炸声之响, 光线之强, 使他不得不把手蒙在脸上去保护他的眼睛。 他还说他甚至看到了他手指的 x光影像, 因为光线实在是太强了。 我知道那次原子弹试爆的经历 留给我过世的父亲非常巨大的影响。 我小时候的每个假期, 都是在国家公园度过。 他这样做是为了要激励我 去保护这个世界, 也让我看到这个世界是多么的脆弱。
He also told me about the great explorers. He loved history. He would tell me about Captain Scott walking all the way to the South Pole and Sir Edmund Hillary climbing up Mount Everest. And so ever since I think I was just six years old, I dreamed of going to the polar regions. I really, really wanted to go to the Arctic. There was something about that place which drew me to it. And, well, sometimes it takes a long time for a dream to come true. But seven years ago, I went to the Arctic for the first time. And it was so beautiful that I've been back there ever since, for the last seven years. I love the place.
他也给我讲那些伟大的探险家的故事。 他热爱历史。他会给我讲斯科特船长怎样 徒步征服南极, 埃德蒙 希拉里 爵士怎样登上珠穆朗玛峰。 所以自打我六岁起, 就梦想着到极地去探险。 我想去得不得了, 就好像那里有一种魔力 在吸引着我一样。 可是,有时候你要等好多年 才能梦想成真。 我终于在七年前第一次 到了北极圈。 那里实在是太美了,让我从那以后的七年,每年都会 再到那里看看。 我深爱那里,
But I have seen that place change beyond all description, just in that short period of time. I have seen polar bears walking across very, very thin ice in search of food. I have swum in front of glaciers which have retreated so much. And I have also, every year, seen less and less sea ice. And I wanted the world to know what was happening up there.
但是我也亲眼目睹了在那里发生的 无法形容的变化, 居然就在那么短的时间内。 我看见北极熊跋涉在薄薄的冰面上, 寻找食物。 我曾经面对着极度消退的 冰川游泳, 我也亲眼目睹海洋上的浮冰在 一年一年地减少。 我想让世界都知道在那里发生的一切。
In the two years before my swim, 23 percent of the arctic sea ice cover just melted away. And I wanted to really shake the lapels of world leaders to get them to understand what is happening. So I decided to do this symbolic swim at the top of the world, in a place which should be frozen over, but which now is rapidly unfreezing. And the message was very clear: Climate change is for real, and we need to do something about it. And we need to do something about it right now.
在我游北极之前的两年内, 就有百分之二十三的极地冰盖 溶化掉了。 我真想揪着那些世界领袖的领子, 让他们搞清楚到底发生的是什么。 所以我下决心要进行这次象征性的游泳, 在世界之巅,在一个本该冰封, 不幸却在快速解冻的地方。 我的信息很清楚: 气候变化是真的, 我们需要行动起来。 而且我们需要马上行动。
Well, swimming across the North Pole, it's not an ordinary thing to do. I mean, just to put it in perspective, 27 degrees is the temperature of a normal indoor swimming pool. This morning, the temperature of the English Channel was 18 degrees. The passengers who fell off the Titanic fell into water of just five degrees centigrade. Fresh water freezes at zero. And the water at the North Pole is minus 1.7. It's fucking freezing. (Laughter) (Applause) I'm sorry, but there is no other way to describe it. (Laughter)
当然,游泳穿过北极 并不是一件普通的事。 我想让大家比较一下, 普通室内游泳池的水温是27摄氏度, 今天早晨,英吉利海峡的水温是18摄氏度, 泰坦尼克号上掉下来的乘客 掉到海里,当时的水温只有5摄氏度。 淡水是在零度结冰。 而在北极,水温只有负的1.7度。 那是真他妈的冷啊。 (众笑) (掌声) 对不起,我只能那么说。 (众笑)
And so I had to assemble an incredible team around me to help me with this task. I assembled this team of 29 people from 10 nations. Some people think that swimming is a very solo sport, you just dive into the sea and off you go. It couldn't be further from the truth for me. And I then went and did a huge amount of training, swimming in icy water, backwards and forwards.
所以我必须组建一个强大的团队 来帮助我完成这次挑战。 我组建了一个由来自10个国家,29人的团队。 有人以为游泳完全是个人运动项目, 你只要跳进海里游就好了。 其实完全不是这样。 接下来我开始进行大运动量的训练。 在冰水里来回地游。
But the most important thing was to train my mind to prepare myself for what was going to happen. And I had to visualize the swim. I had to see it from the beginning all the way to the end. I had to taste the salt water in my mouth. I had to see my coach screaming for me, "Come on Lewis! Come on! Go! Go! Go! Don't slow down!" And so I literally swam across the North Pole hundreds and hundreds of times in my mind.
但是训练的关键是做好心理准备, 来面对将要来临的挑战。 我必须在脑海里想象我在游泳, 我必须从头想象到尾。 我要尝到我嘴里海水的咸味 我要看到我的教练向我大喊, “路易斯加油!加油!快!快!快!不要慢下来!” 所以我实际上已经在我的脑海里 游过北极成百上千次了。
And then, after a year of training, I felt ready. I felt confident that I could actually do this swim. So myself and the five members of the team, we hitched a ride on an icebreaker which was going to the North Pole. And on day four, we decided to just do a quick five minute test swim. I had never swum in water of minus 1.7 degrees before, because it's just impossible to train in those types of conditions. So we stopped the ship, as you do. We all got down onto the ice, and I then got into my swimming costume and I dived into the sea.
经过了一年的训练,我觉得我准备好了 我自信能够完成 这次游泳。 所以我和五名队员一起 搭乘了一艘破冰船, 向北极进发。 第四天,我们决定试试水, 很短, 就游五分钟。 我还从来没有在负的零下1.7度的水里游过泳, 因为不可能在那样的条件下 进行训练。 我们把船停下来, 大家都走到冰面上, 然后我穿上游泳裤, 就跳进了海里。
I have never in my life felt anything like that moment. I could barely breathe. I was gasping for air. I was hyperventilating so much, and within seconds my hands were numb. And it was -- the paradox is that you're in freezing cold water, but actually you're on fire. I swam as hard as I could for five minutes. I remember just trying to get out of the water. I climbed out of the ice. And I remember taking the goggles off my face and looking down at my hands in sheer shock, because my fingers had swollen so much that they were like sausages. And they were swollen so much, I couldn't even close them.
那一刹那的感觉, 是我一辈子从来没有过的。 当时我简直无法呼吸,我大口大口地喘着气, 但是很快就喘不过气来, 仅仅几秒钟之内,我的双手就麻木了。 可奇怪的是, 你人在冰冷的水里, 可是感觉像是浑身着火了一样。 我竭尽全力游了五分钟。 我只记得想尽快从水里起来。 我爬到冰面上, 然后我记得当我把眼镜摘下来, 看着我的双手的时候,我惊呆了。 因为我的手指 都肿得非常厉害,像香肠一样。 它们肿得太厉害,我的手都合不拢。
What had happened is that we are made partially of water, and when water freezes it expands. And so what had actually happened is that the cells in my fingers had frozen and expanded. And they had burst. And I was in so much agony. I immediately got rushed onto the ship and into a hot shower.
当时的情况是因为,人体的主要成分是水, 而水结冰时就会膨胀。 所以当时实际上 我手指上的细胞已经结冰膨胀, 并且它们已经胀裂了。当时我是疼痛万分 他们马上把我送上船,让我冲个热水澡。
And I remember standing underneath the hot shower and trying to defrost my fingers. And I thought, in two days' time, I was going to do this swim across the North Pole. I was going to try and do a 20-minute swim, for one kilometer across the North Pole. And this dream which I had had ever since I was a young boy with my father, was just going out the window. There is no possibility that this was going to happen. And I remember then getting out of the shower and realizing I couldn't even feel my hands. And for a swimmer, you need to feel your hands because you need to be able to grab the water and pull it through with you.
我忘不了当时站在喷头下, 试着解冻我的手指时的情景。 当时我想,还有两天我就要完成穿越北极的游泳了, 我想要尽力去完成20分钟的游泳, 用一公里横跨北极。 这可是我小时候和爸爸在一起时就渴望实现的梦想啊, 现在却要前功尽弃了。 我怎么可能接着游下去呢? 我还记得冲完澡后, 发觉我的双手完全失去了知觉。 而身为游泳选手,你的手必须要有知觉, 因为你要能够抓住水 再把身体往前推。
The next morning, I woke up and I was in such a state of depression, and all I could think about was Sir Ranulph Fiennes. For those of you who don't know him, he's the great British explorer. A number of years ago, he tried to ski all the way to the North Pole. He accidentally fell through the ice into the sea. And after just three minutes in that water, he was able to get himself out. And his hands were so badly frostbitten that he had to return to England. He went to a local hospital and there they said, "Ran, there is no possibility of us being able to save these fingers. We are going to actually have to take them off." And Ran decided to go into his tool shed and take out a saw and do it himself.
第二天早晨,我醒了 完全被淹没在沮丧之中。 满脑子想的都是Ranulph Fiennes 爵士。 如果你不知道他是谁的话,他是一位伟大的英国探险家。 几年前,他试图一路滑雪征服北极。 他不慎顺着冰缝跌入海里 仅仅在水里待了三分钟, 仅仅在水里待了三分钟, 他终于自己爬了出来 但是他的手已经被严重冻伤了 使他不得不返回英国。 他到一家当地的医院,在那里,医生对他说, “Ran, 我们不可能保住 你的手指了, 我们只能把它们截肢。” 听到这话,Ran毅然到他的工具棚里 拿出一把锯子 自己亲手把他的手指锯下来。
And all I could think of was, if that happened to Ran after three minutes, and I can't feel my hands after five minutes, what on earth is going to happen if I try 20 minutes? At the very best, I'm going to end up losing some fingers. And at worst, I didn't even want to think about it. We carried on sailing through the ice packs towards the North Pole.
当时我满脑子里想的都是,如果Ran在冰水里只待了三分钟就那样的话, 而我在五分钟后手就失去知觉, 那么如果我要游二十分钟,又到底会发生怎样的情况呢? 就是最好的打算我都会丢掉几根手指头。 而最坏的打算,我都不敢再想下去。 我们的船又继续破冰向北极航行
And my close friend David, he saw the way I was thinking, and he came up to me and he said, "Lewis, I've known you since you were 18 years old. I've known you, and I know, Lewis, deep down, right deep down here, that you are going to make this swim. I so believe in you Lewis. I've seen the way you've been training. And I realize the reason why you're going to do this. This is such an important swim. We stand at a very, very important moment in this history, and you're going to make a symbolic swim here to try to shake the lapels of world leaders. Lewis, have the courage to go in there, because we are going to look after you every moment of it."
我的好友大卫看出了我的心思, 就过来对我说,“路易斯, 从你18岁起我就认识你了。 我很了解你,所以我知道,路易斯, 你内心深处,在你的心底, 你一定是会去游的 我对你完全有信心,路易斯。我看着你一直地在努力训练 也明白你要这样做的原因。 这次游泳确实是重要非凡, 因为我们正站在历史的关键时刻。 而你在这里要用这次象征性的游泳, 来让世界各国的领袖们觉醒。 路易斯,你放胆去吧, 我们会眼睛都不眨一下地保护你的。”
And I just, I got so much confidence from him saying that, because he knew me so well. So we carried on sailing and we arrived at the North Pole. And we stopped the ship, and it was just as the scientists had predicted. There were open patches of sea everywhere. And I went down into my cabin and I put on my swimming costume. And then the doctor strapped on a chest monitor, which measures my core body temperature and my heart rate. And then we walked out onto the ice.
他的一番话又让我鼓起了勇气, 因为他太了解我了。 于是我们继续航行,最后抵达了北极。 我们把船停下, 举目四望, 正如科学家预测的一样, 到处都是裸露的海面。 我走进我的船舱, 穿上游泳裤, 然后医生给我系上一个胸部监测仪, 来测量我的核心体温 和心率。 然后我们走到了冰面上。
And I remember looking into the ice, and there were big chunks of white ice in there, and the water was completely black. I had never seen black water before. And it is 4,200 meters deep. And I said to myself, "Lewis, don't look left, don't look right. Just scuttle forward and go for it." And so I now want to show you a short video of what happened there on the ice.
我记得往冰水里看时, 里面有大块大块的白色的冰块, 而海水却是完全是黑的 我还从来没有见过黑色的海水 而且它深达4200 米。 我对自己说:“路易斯,不要向左看,不要向右看, 要一直往前冲。” 我现在就要给大家播放一段 当时冰上的录像。
Narrator (Video): We're just sailing out of harbor now, and it's at this stage when one can have a bit of a wobble mentally. Everything just looks so gray around here, and looks so cold. We've just seen our first polar bears. It was absolutely magical. A mother and a cub, such a beautiful sight. And to think that in 30, 40 years they could become extinct. It's a very frightening, very, very frightening thought. We're finally at the North Pole. This is months and months and months of dreaming to get here, years of training and planning and preparation. Ooh. In a couple of hours' time I'm going to get in here and do my swim. It's all a little bit frightening, and emotional. Amundson, you ready? Amudson: Ready. Lewis Pugh: Ten seconds to swim. Ten seconds to swim. Take the goggles off. Take the goggles off!
录像:我们的船刚刚离开港湾, 也就是在此时 心头会涌起一丝犹疑。 环顾四周,尽都灰蒙蒙的 让人心生寒意。 刚才我们看到了行程中的第一对北极熊, 那感觉真是非常奇妙。 熊妈妈和她的幼崽,好美的景象。 但是想到在30,40年后 它们就可能灭绝, 是一个非常可怕,让人不寒而栗的事。 我们终于到达了北极点。 这一刻,凝聚了我经年累月的梦想, 训练,计划和准备。 哦,大概还有两个小时我就要跳下去游泳了。 我是有一点点害怕 和激动。 Amundson,你好了吗? 还有十秒钟,还有十秒钟。 把游泳镜取下来,把游泳镜取下来!
Man: Take the shoes. Take the shoes. Well done lad! You did it! You did it Lewis! You did it! You did it man!
旁:把鞋拿上,把鞋拿上。 干得好,小伙子!你成功了!路易斯你成功了! 你成功了!你成功了伙计!
LP: How on earth did we do that?
路易斯 皮尤:我们怎么可能就做到了?
Man: Against the current! You did it against the current!
旁:逆水!你是逆水游完的!
(Applause)
(掌声)
LP: Thank you very much. Thank you very much. (Applause) Thank you so much.
路易斯 皮尤:非常感谢。非常感谢。 (掌声) 非常感谢
Audience: Encore! (Laughter)
听众:再来一次! (众笑)
LP: I'd just like to end off by just saying this: It took me four months again to feel my hands. But was it worth it? Yes, absolutely it was. There are very, very few people who don't know now about what is happening in the Arctic. And people ask me, "Lewis, what can we do about climate change?"
路易斯 皮尤:我想用以下的话作为结束, 我的手花了四个月才恢复了知觉。 但这样值得吗?值得,绝对值得。 现在只有极少数的人不知道 北极发生的情况。 而且人们问我:“路易斯,我们能为气候变化做些什么呢?”
And I say to them, I think we need to do three things. The first thing we need to do is we need to break this problem down into manageable chunks. You saw during that video all those flags. Those flags represented the countries from which my team came from. And equally, when it comes to climate change, every single country is going to have to make cuts. Britain, America, Japan, South Africa, the Congo. All of us together, we're all on the same ship together.
我就对他们说 我想我们需要做三件事。 第一件事是我们需要把这个问题分解成为 容易解决的小问题。 在录像里,你们看见了很多的旗帜。 那些旗帜代表了我的队员 所在的国家。 同样地,对于气候变化, 每一个国家都必须减少排放。 英国,美国,日本, 南非,刚果。 我们所有的人都要同舟共济。
The second thing we need to do is we need to just look back at how far we have come in such a short period of time. I remember, just a few years ago, speaking about climate change, and people heckling me in the back and saying it doesn't even exist. I've just come back from giving a series of speeches in some of the poorest townships in South Africa to young children as young as 10 years old. Four or five children sitting behind a desk, and even in those poorest conditions, they all have a very, very good grasp of climate change.
我们要做的第二件事是 我们只需要回顾 我们在这么短的时间内 所取得的进步。 我还记得仅仅是在几年前,当我讲到气候变化的时候, 还有人在后面质问我 说那是无稽之谈。 我刚刚从一个系列演讲回来, 在南非最穷的一些小镇, 讲给小到十岁的儿童们听。 他们四五个人挤着坐在一张桌子后面, 就是在那样贫穷的条件下, 他们都清楚地知道 气候变化的概念。
We need to believe in ourselves. Now is the time to believe. We've come a long way. We're doing good. But the most important thing we must do is, I think, we must all walk to the end of our lives and turn around, and ask ourselves a most fundamental question. And that is, "What type of world do we want to live in, and what decision are we going to make today to ensure that we all live in a sustainable world?" Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very, very much. (Applause)
我们需要相信我们自己。 而现在就是相信的时候。 我们有了很大的进步。我们做得不错。 但是最重要的事情是 我认为,我们必须要能够在我们生命的尽头, 转过身来,问我们自己一个最根本的问题。 那就是:“我们想生活在怎样的一个世界, 而且我们今天应该做怎样的决定, 才能保证我们都住在 一个可持续发展的世界?” 女士们先生们,谢谢。 (掌声)