which is that if I've learned anything over the last year,

在此次演講之前，我想要從一個觀察開始說起，

it's that the supreme irony

如果我去年對什麼事有印象的話，

of publishing a book about slowness

那就是，極度諷刺地

is that you have to go around promoting it really fast.

是我出版了一本關於慢速的書

I seem to spend most of my time these days

但卻必須快速地到處宣傳它。

zipping from city to city, studio to studio,

最近我似乎花掉大部份的時間，

interview to interview,

快速地跑遍各個城市,各個錄音間，

serving up the book in really tiny bite-size chunks.

以及各個採訪。

Because everyone these days

在真的很短暫的時間內介紹我的書。

wants to know how to slow down,

因爲現在每個人

but they want to know how to slow down really quickly. So ...

都想要瞭解如何慢下來，

so I did a spot on CNN the other day

但他們想要快速地瞭解如何慢下來。

where I actually spent more time in makeup than I did talking on air.

幾天前我在CNN做了一個廣告

And I think that -- that's not really surprising though, is it?

事實上比起在上廣告的時間，我花了更多的時間在化妝上。

Because that's kind of the world that we live in now,

然後我想-這也不是太令人驚訝的事，不是嗎？

a world stuck in fast-forward.

因為在現今我們所生活的世界中，

A world obsessed with speed,

這個陷入快速前進狀態的世界。

with doing everything faster, with cramming more and more

這個對速度過於迷戀的世界，

into less and less time.

在越來越少的時間裡，想更快地做每件事，

Every moment of the day feels like

塞入更多的東西。

a race against the clock.

每天的生活就像是

To borrow a phrase from Carrie Fisher, which is

和時間在賽跑。

in my bio there; I'll just toss it out again --

借一句Carrie Fisher的話，

"These days even instant gratification takes too long." (Laughter)

這在我的自傳中也有，我只是再引用一次-

And

"現在甚至連瞬間的滿足都要花很久的時間。"

if you think about how we to try to make things better, what do we do?

而且

No, we speed them up, don't we? So we used to dial; now we speed dial.

想想如何讓事情做的更好，我們會怎麼做？

We used to read; now we speed read. We used to walk; now we speed walk.

我們會加快速度的去做，不是嗎？如同我們過去播電話號碼;現在我們用快速撥號。

And of course, we used to date and now we speed date.

過去我們閱讀;現在我們速讀。過去我們慢走;現在我們競走。

And even things that are by their very nature slow --

我們過去約會，現在我們有快速約會。

we try and speed them up too.

即使那些原本就該慢慢做的事情-

So I was in New York recently, and I walked past a gym

我們也會試著將它加快速度。所以-

that had an advertisement in the window for a new course, a new evening course.

我最近在紐約時，經過了一個健身房

And it was for, you guessed it, speed yoga.

窗戶上貼了一個新的夜間課程的廣告。

So this -- the perfect solution for time-starved professionals

你猜是什麼？-- 快速瑜伽。

who want to, you know, salute the sun,

這是給時間緊迫的專業人士們最佳的解決辦法。

but only want to give over about 20 minutes to it.

給那些想要練習拜日式，

I mean, these are sort of the extreme examples,

但只想要花20分鐘的人來學。

and they're amusing and good to laugh at.

我的意思是，這些都是極端的例子，

But there's a very serious point,

真的很有趣，而且是很好笑。

and I think that in the headlong dash of daily life,

但這裡有一個非常嚴肅的重點，

we often lose sight of the damage

我認為在每天匆忙的快速奔走中，

that this roadrunner form of living does to us.

我們往往會沒察覺到

We're so marinated in the culture of speed

這種競走式的生活方式對我們的傷害在哪。

that we almost fail to notice the toll it takes

我們是如此地沈浸在崇拜速度的文化中

on every aspect of our lives --

使我們常常忽略了

on our health, our diet, our work,

我們生命各方面所要付出的代價。

our relationships, the environment and our community.

在我們的健康，飲食，工作，

And sometimes it takes

關係上，環境上以及社會上所造成的影響。

a wake-up call, doesn't it,

而且有時候我們需要一個-

to alert us to the fact that we're hurrying through our lives,

-一個警示，不是嗎？用來-

instead of actually living them; that we're

提醒我們正在匆忙地渡過我們的生命。

living the fast life, instead of the good life.

而不是真正地在生活;

And I think for many people, that wake-up call

我們過得快，而不是過得好。

takes the form of an illness.

而我認為對許多人來說，那個警示

You know, a burnout, or eventually the body says,

需要用疾病的形式來呈現。

"I can't take it anymore," and throws in the towel.

疾病突然爆發，最後身體說

Or maybe a relationship goes up in smoke

"我再也受不了了"，投降。

because we haven't had the time, or the patience,

或是因為我們沒有足夠的時間，耐心，

or the tranquility,

去靜靜地陪伴另一半，

to be with the other person, to listen to them.

去聽他們說話，

And my wake-up call came when I started

因而讓一段關係化為泡影。

reading bedtime stories to my son,

而我的警示出現在

and I found that at the end of day,

我讀床邊故事給我兒子聽的時候。

I would go into his room and I just couldn't slow down -- you know,

我發現在他睡前，

I'd be speed reading "The Cat In The Hat."

我會走進他房間，但我就是無法慢下來，

I'd be -- you know, I'd be skipping lines here,

我會很快念過"戴帽子的貓"的故事。

paragraphs there, sometimes a whole page,

我會跳著念，

and of course, my little boy knew the book inside out, so we would quarrel.

有時候是跳過一整頁。

And what should have been the most relaxing, the most intimate,

當然，我的小兒子非常瞭解這本書，所以我們開始爭吵。

the most tender moment of the day,

這應該是一天中最舒服，最親近，

when a dad sits down to read to his son,

最溫柔的時刻。

became instead this kind of gladiatorial battle of wills,

當一個父親要坐下來念一些故事給兒子聽時，

a clash between my speed

反而卻變成了這種意志的鬥爭;

and his slowness.

一個他的速度和我的-

And this went on for some time,

或是我的快和他的慢之間的衝突。

until I caught myself scanning a newspaper article

而這種情況持續了一段時間，

with timesaving tips for fast people.

直到我在報紙上讀到一篇

And one of them made reference to a series of books called

給追求快速的人們提供省時的小技巧的文章。

"The One-Minute Bedtime Story."

其中一個引用了一系列稱為

And I wince saying those words now,

"一分鐘床邊故事"的書作為參考。

but my first reaction at the time was very different.

我現在真的不想這樣說，

My first reflex was to say,

但那時我第一個反應跟現在是非常不同的。

"Hallelujah -- what a great idea!

我第一個反應是說，

This is exactly what I'm looking for to speed up bedtime even more."

"我的老天-多棒的一個點子！"

But thankfully,

這就是我在尋找如何更快地說完床邊故事的方法。

a light bulb went on over my head, and my next reaction was very different,

但幸好，

and I took a step back, and I thought,

一個燈泡在我腦中亮了起來，我的第二個反應是非常不同的，

"Whoa -- you know, has it really come to this?

我往後退了一步想，

Am I really in such a hurry that I'm prepared

"哇-真的要這樣子嗎？

to fob off my son with a sound byte at the end of the day?"

我真的有這麼急到要

And I put away the newspaper --

用一分鐘故事來敷衍我兒子？"

and I was getting on a plane -- and I sat there,

然後-我將報紙放到一旁-

and I did something I hadn't done for a long time -- which is I did nothing.

當時我正要上飛機-我坐在那，

I just thought, and I thought long and hard.

做了一件我很久沒有做的事：那就是不做任何事。

And by the time I got off that plane, I'd decided I wanted to do something about it.

我在想，深刻地想了很久。

I wanted to investigate this whole roadrunner culture,

當我要下飛機時，我決定要做一些改變。

and what it was doing to me and to everyone else.

我想要檢視這整個競走式的社會文化，

And I had two questions in my head.

這樣的文化對我以及其他人有什麼影響。

The first was, how did we get so fast?

當時我腦中想到兩個問題。

And the second is, is it possible,

第一，我們怎麼變得如此快速的？

or even desirable, to slow down?

第二，要慢下來是

Now, if you think about

可能的或是大家期望的嗎？

how our world got so accelerated, the usual suspects rear their heads.

現在，如果你思考

You think of, you know, urbanization,

世界是如何變得如此快速？通常有以下幾點可能的說法，

consumerism, the workplace, technology.

我們會想到城市化，

But I think if you cut through

消費主義，工作環境，科技。

those forces, you get to what might be the deeper

但我認為如果先撇開這些不談，

driver, the nub of the question,

你可能會發現更深層的動力

which is how we think about time itself.

問題的核心，

In other cultures, time is cyclical.

那就是我們如何看待“時間”這個觀念。

It's seen as moving in great,

在其他的文化中，時間是循環的。

unhurried circles.

像是在一個巨大的循環中

It's always renewing and refreshing itself.

不疾不徐地移動。

Whereas in the West, time is linear.

它會不斷地自我更新，自我呈現新的面貌。

It's a finite resource;

但在西方，時間是線性的。

it's always draining away.

是個有限的資源，

You either use it, or lose it.

總是在消失中。

"Time is money," as Benjamin Franklin said.

你要嘛使用它，否則就會失去它。

And I think what that does to us psychologically

班傑明 富蘭克林說的好，時間就是金錢。

is it creates an equation.

我認為它對我們心理上的影響是-

Time is scarce, so what do we do?

它創造了一個方程式。

Well -- well, we speed up, don't we?

時間是稀少的，我們該怎麼做？

We try and do more and more with less and less time.

於是，我們加快速度，不是嗎？

We turn every moment of every day

我們試著在越來越少的時間做更多的事。

into a race to the finish line --

我們把每天的每一刻轉變成

a finish line, incidentally, that we never reach,

一場朝向終點線的賽跑。

but a finish line nonetheless.

順帶一提，這個終點線我們永遠也抵達不了，

And I guess that the question is,

但它畢竟還是一條終點線。

is it possible to break free from that mindset?

我想問題的癥結在於，

And thankfully, the answer is yes, because

我們有沒有可能從這個慣性思維中跳脫出來？

what I discovered, when I began looking around, that there is

幸好，答案是肯定的，因為

a global backlash against this culture that

當我開始環顧四周，我發現

tells us that faster is always better, and that busier is best.

全球已經有了對這種

Right across the world, people are doing the unthinkable:

快總是比較好的，越忙越好的文化的反動。

they're slowing down, and finding that,

全世界，都有人在做讓我們意想不到的事：

although conventional wisdom tells you that if you slow down, you're road kill,

他們在放慢速度，

the opposite turns out to be true:

雖然老一輩的智慧說如果放慢速度，就會被時代拋棄，

that by slowing down at the right moments,

但事實上結果卻是相反的。

people find that they do everything better.

在正確的時候放慢速度，

They eat better; they make love better; they exercise better;

我們可以發現能把事情做的更好。

they work better; they live better.

也能夠吃的更好，性生活更和諧，運動起來也更有效果，

And, in this kind of cauldron

工作品質也提升，活得也更好。

of moments and places and acts of deceleration,

在這些時刻，地點以及

lie what a lot of people now refer to as

減慢速度的行為中

the "International Slow Movement."

就是很多人稱為的

Now if you'll permit me a small act of hypocrisy,

國際慢活運動。

I'll just give you a very quick overview of

現在，如果你們能容許我小小的虛偽的話，

what's going on inside the Slow Movement. If you think of food,

我來為你們快速的概述一下-

many of you will have heard of the Slow Food movement.

慢活運動是什麽。如果你想到吃，

Started in Italy, but has spread across the world,

許多人可能都聽過慢食運動。

and now has 100,000 members

源自於義大利，但已經遍及了全世界，

in 50 countries.

現在在超過五十個國家

And it's driven by a very simple and sensible message,

擁有超過十萬名會員。

which is that we get more pleasure and more health

這背後有一個非常簡單且明智的訊息，

from our food when we

就是當我們如果能用不急不徐的速度栽種，煮，食用食物時，

cultivate, cook and consume it at a reasonable pace.

我們就能夠從食物中

I think also the explosion of

得到更多的快樂以及更健康的身體。

the organic farming movement, and the renaissance of farmers' markets,

我認為有機耕作的蓬勃發展，

are other illustrations

以及農人市場的復興，

of the fact that people are desperate to get away from

也説明了另一個事實，那就是

eating and cooking and cultivating their food

人們急著想要從依照工業化的時程表所製造出的吃的，

on an industrial timetable.

煮的以及種植的食物，

They want to get back to slower rhythms.

脫逃出來的一個實證。

And out of the Slow Food movement has grown something

他們想要重新掌握慢速的節奏。

called the Slow Cities movement, which has started in Italy,

從慢食運動中也發展出了一些

but has spread right across Europe and beyond.

稱為慢速城市的運動，這也是源自於義大利，

And in this, towns

並且已經往歐洲及其他地方發展。

begin to rethink how they organize the urban landscape,

在這個運動裏

so that people are encouraged to slow down

人們重新思考如何設計城市，

and smell the roses and connect with one another.

使得居民能放慢速度-

So they might curb traffic,

聞聞玫瑰的花香並與他人產生更多連結。

or put in a park bench, or some green space.

他們可能會禁止車輛通行，

And in some ways, these changes add up to more than the sum of their parts,

在公園擺上長椅，或是設置一些綠色景象。

because I think when a Slow City becomes officially a Slow City,

某種程度上，這些改變能夠產生一加一大於二的功效，

it's kind of like a philosophical declaration.

我認為當一個號稱為慢速城市變成實質上的慢速城市時，

It's saying to the rest of world, and to the people in that town,

就像是種哲學上的宣言。

that we believe that in the 21st century,

宣告世界上其他國家，並告訴在那個城市中的人民說，

slowness has a role to play.

我們相信在21世紀

In medicine, I think a lot of people are deeply disillusioned

慢速能夠扮演重要角色。

with the kind of quick-fix mentality

在醫療方面，我認為很多人已經

you find in conventional medicine.

對傳統醫療快速治療的心態

And millions of them around the world are turning

失去了信心。

to complementary and alternative forms of medicine,

全世界數百萬的人反而轉向尋求

which tend to tap into sort of

互補的或替代性的醫療形式，

slower, gentler, more holistic forms of healing.

這種形式的醫療傾向於使用

Now, obviously the jury is out on many of these complementary therapies,

較慢，較溫和，更全面性的治療形式。

and I personally doubt that the coffee enema

現在，很明顯地，這些另類的治療方式並沒有一個定論，

will ever, you know, gain mainstream approval.

我個人對咖啡洗腸法能否獲得主流的認同

But other treatments

仍是報持懷疑的態度。

such as acupuncture and massage, and even just relaxation,

但其他的治療方式

clearly have some kind of benefit.

比如針灸和按摩，甚至只是稍微的放鬆，

And blue-chip medical colleges everywhere

很清楚地都有某些的效果。

are starting to study these things to find out how they work,

世界上一流的醫學院都

and what we might learn from them.

在研究這些方法是如何發生作用的，

Sex. There's an awful lot of fast sex around, isn't there?

以及我們可以從這學到些什麼。

I was coming to --

性。我們身邊存在著非常多的快速性愛，不是嗎？

well -- no pun intended there.

我那時正要-

I was making my way, let's say, slowly to Oxford,

嗯-我沒有要暗示些什麼。

and I went through a news agent, and I saw a magazine,

我當時正慢慢地，這麼說吧，前往牛津的路上，

a men's magazine, and it said on the front,

我遇到了一個書報攤，我看到一本雜誌，

"How to bring your partner to orgasm in 30 seconds."

一個男性雜誌，標題寫著，

So, you know, even sex

"如何在30秒內讓你的伴侶達到高潮。"

is on a stopwatch these days.

所以，現在，即使是性愛

Now, you know,

也是放在碼錶上來計算的。

I like a quickie as much as the next person,

現在，你們瞭解，

but I think that there's an awful lot to be gained

我跟大家一樣喜歡快快完事，

from slow sex -- from slowing down in the bedroom.

但我認為從慢速的性愛中

You know, you tap into that -- those deeper,

在房間內放慢速度--能夠獲得更多的東西-。

sort of, psychological, emotional, spiritual currents,

你用這些更深層的

and you get a better orgasm with the buildup.

一種心理上的，情感上的，心靈交流的方式去做，

You can get more bang for your buck, let's say.

那你就會因為慢慢的累積而獲得更棒的高潮。

I mean, the Pointer Sisters said it most eloquently, didn't they,

你的身體會得到更多的快樂。

when they sang the praises of "a lover with a slow hand."

我的意思是，指針姊妹把這件事表達的更清楚，不是嗎？

Now, we all laughed at Sting

當他們用歌來讚賞情人間緩慢游移的手時，

a few years ago when he went Tantric,

幾年前史汀在學習Tantric瑜伽時

but you fast-forward a few years, and now you find couples of all ages

全部的人都嘲笑他，

flocking to workshops, or maybe just

但把時間快轉幾年後，現在你會發現所有年齡層的伴侶

on their own in their own bedrooms, finding ways

都去參加性學講座

to put on the brakes and have better sex.

或者在房間靠他們自己的方法

And of course, in Italy where -- I mean, Italians always seem to know

放慢速度，擁有更好的性愛。

where to find their pleasure --

當然，在義大利-我的意思是，義大利人似乎總是知道

they've launched an official Slow Sex movement.

如何找到他們的快樂-

The workplace.

他們發起了官方的慢速性愛運動。

Right across much of the world --

在工作上-

North America being a notable exception --

在世界上大多數的地方-

working hours have been coming down.

工作時數已經減少了，

And Europe is an example of that,

但北美地區是個值得注意的例外。

and people finding that their quality of life improves

歐洲就是一個例子，