白領(lǐng)英語晨讀經(jīng)典365 140 True Traveling 真正的旅行
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True Traveling
The future history books might record that we were deprived of the use of our eyes. In our hurry to get from one place to another, we failed to see anything on the way. Air travel gives you a bird’s-eye view of the world – or even less if the wing of the aircraft happens to get in your way. When you travel by car or train a blurred image of the countryside constantly smears the windows. Car drivers, in particular, are forever obsessed with the urge to go on and on: they never want to stop. Is it the lure of the great motorways, or what? And as for sea travel, it hardly deserves mention. It is perfectly summed up in the words of the old song: ‘I joined the navy to see the world, and what did I see? I saw the sea.’ The typical twentieth-century traveler is the man who always says ‘I’ve been there. ’ You mention the remotest, most evocative place-names in the world like El Dorado, Kabul, Irkutsk and someone is bound to say ‘I’ve been there’ meaning, ‘I drove through it at 100 miles an hour on the way to somewhere else. ’
When you travel at high speeds, the present means nothing: you live mainly in the future because you spend most of your time looking forward to arriving at some other place. But actual arrival, when it is achieved, is meaningless. You want to move on again. By traveling like this, you suspend all experience; the present ceases to be a reality: you might just as well be dead. The traveler on foot, on the other hand, lives constantly in the present. For him traveling and arriving are one and the same thing: he arrives somewhere with every step he makes. He experiences the present moment with his eyes, his ears and the whole of his body. At the end of his journey he feels a delicious physical weariness. He knows that sound. Satisfying sleep will be his: the just reward of all true travellers.
真正的旅行
未來的歷史書還會記載說，我們的眼睛也棄置不用了。在急 急忙忙從一個地方趕往另一個地方的路上，我們什么都沒看到。 航空旅行可以使你鳥瞰世界——要是機翼恰好擋住了你的視線， 你就看得更少了。當(dāng)你乘汽車或火車旅行的時候，模糊不清的鄉(xiāng) 村景象不停地映在車窗玻璃上。尤其是汽車司機，他們的頭腦永 遠(yuǎn)都被“向前，向前”的沖動占據(jù)著：他們從來都不要停下來。到 底是由于漂亮車道的誘惑，還是別的什么？至于海上旅行，簡直 不值一提。有一首老歌的歌詞對海上旅行是一個完美的概括：‘哦 加入海軍去看世界，我看到了什么？我看見了大海。”最典型的 四世紀(jì)旅行者總是說“我已經(jīng)去過那兒了”。你提到世界上最遙 遠(yuǎn)、最引人遇思的地名，比如埃爾多拉多、喀布爾、伊爾庫茨克， 準(zhǔn)有人說“我去過那兒”——意思是：“我在去另外一個地方的路 上，以100英里的時速路過那兒。”
當(dāng)你以很高的速度旅行時，“現(xiàn)在”就什么都不是：你主要生 活在未來，因為你多半時間在盼望趕到別的一個地方去。但是當(dāng) 你真的到達(dá)了目的地，你的到達(dá)也沒有什么意義。你還要繼續(xù)前 行。像這樣子旅行，你什么也沒有經(jīng)歷；你的現(xiàn)在并不是現(xiàn)實：跟 死亡沒有什么兩樣。另一方面，徒步旅行者卻總是生活在現(xiàn)在。 對他來說，旅行和到達(dá)是同一件事情：他是一步一步走著來到某 地的。他在用自己的眼睛、耳朵和整個身體體驗現(xiàn)在。在他旅途 的終點，他感到一種愉悅的生理疲憊。他知道他會享受深沉而甜 蜜的睡眠：這是對一切真正旅行者的酬報。
