from Chernobyl nuclear reactor number four.

三年前，我站在距離

My Geiger counter dosimeter, which measures radiation,

車諾比第四號核子反應爐大約一百碼外。

was going berserk,

我的蓋革放射量測定器，用來測量輻射量，

and the closer I got, the more frenetic it became,

指數狂飆，

and frantic. My God.

當我越接近，機器的反應越激烈，

I was there covering the 25th anniversary

我的天。

of the world's worst nuclear accident,

我當時在那裡播報

as you can see by the look on my face,

世上最嚴重的核災事故 25 週年報導，

reluctantly so, but with good reason,

你可以看到我臉上的表情，

because the nuclear fire that burned for 11 days

不太情願，但是我有個好理由，

back in 1986 released 400 times as much radiation

因為 1986 年時核火災延燒了 11 天，

as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima,

釋放的輻射量大約是

and the sarcophagus, which is the covering

投擲在廣島的原子彈的 400 倍，

over reactor number four,

而用來覆蓋

which was hastily built 27 years ago,

第四號反應爐的「石棺」

now sits cracked and rusted

在 27 年前匆促完成，

and leaking radiation.

現在已破裂、生鏽，

So I was filming.

並且釋出輻射。

I just wanted to get the job done

當時我在拍攝，

and get out of there fast.

只想把工作完成，

But then, I looked into the distance,

趕快離開現場。

and I saw some smoke coming from a farmhouse,

在那當下，我望向遠方，

and I'm thinking, who could be living here?

看到農舍上冉冉昇起的炊煙。

I mean, after all, Chernobyl's soil, water and air,

我想，誰會住在這裡？

are among the most highly contaminated on Earth,

我的意思是畢竟車諾比的泥土、水和空氣

and the reactor sits at the the center of

是世界上受到最嚴重污染的地方之一，

a tightly regulated exclusion zone, or dead zone,

而反應爐座落在

and it's a nuclear police state, complete with border guards.

嚴密管制禁區的中央，或者說是死亡禁區，

You have to have dosimeter at all times, clicking away,

那是一個核能警察國家，有邊防警察。

you have to have a government minder,

你得時時刻刻帶著放射量測定器，

and there's draconian radiation rules

你得要有政府官員陪同，

and constant contamination monitoring.

而且還有很嚴格的輻射法規，

The point being, no human being

以及不間斷的污染監測。

should be living anywhere near the dead zone.

重點是，沒有人

But they are.

可以住在靠近死亡禁區的任何一個角落。

It turns out an unlikely community

但是他們卻住在那裡。

of some 200 people are living inside the zone.

結果是一群不太像社區的

They're called self-settlers.

200 人住在裡面，

And almost all of them are women,

他們被稱為自主移居者。

the men having shorter lifespans

他們幾乎全都是女性，

in part due to overuse of alcohol, cigarettes,

男性的壽命較短

if not radiation.

有一部分是因為他們飲酒過量、抽煙，

Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated

如果排除輻射因素的話。

at the time of the accident,

在意外發生時

but not everybody accepted that fate.

有成千上萬人被撤離，

The women in the zone, now in their 70s and 80s,

但不是每個人都接受這樣的命運安排。

are the last survivors of a group who defied authorities

住在禁區的女性現在大概 7、80 歲，

and, it would seem, common sense,

是最後一批違反公權力的倖存者，

and returned to their ancestral homes inside the zone.

對他們來說這就像常識，

They did so illegally.

回到他們在禁區裡的故鄉。

As one woman put it to a soldier

這麼做其實是違法的。

who was trying to evacuate her for a second time,

其中一名女性

"Shoot me and dig the grave.

向第二次要驅離她的士兵表明：

Otherwise, I'm going home."

「一槍斃了我，然後幫我挖個墳。

Now why would they return to such deadly soil?

否則我要回家了。」

I mean, were they unaware of the risks

那麼為什麼他們要 回到如此致命的土地上呢？

or crazy enough to ignore them, or both?

我的意思是，他們有意識到這些風險嗎？

The thing is, they see their lives

或是他們瘋狂到可以忽略這個事實？ 還是說兩者都是？

and the risks they run decidedly differently.

重點是，他們肯定用很不同的方式

Now around Chernobyl, there are scattered ghost villages,

看待自己的生命和要冒的險。

eerily silent, strangely charming, bucolic,

如今車諾比附近到處是毫無人煙的村莊，

totally contaminated.

靜得嚇人，詭譎迷人的氣息，一片荒蕪，

Many were bulldozed under at the time of the accident,

完全受到污染。

but a few are left like this,

在那次的意外中有許多房屋被剷平，

kind of silent vestiges to the tragedy.

但是有一些遺留下來，就像這樣，

Others have a few residents in them,

有點像是災難過後的死寂遺跡。

one or two "babushkas," or "babas,"

有一些居民住在這樣的房屋裡，

which are the Russian and Ukrainian words for grandmother.

一到兩位「巴布希卡」(babushka) 或「巴巴」(baba)，

Another village might have six or seven residents.

在俄語和烏克蘭語中指的是祖母。

So this is the strange demographic of the zone --

另一個村莊也許有六到七個居民，

isolated alone together.

因此成了這個地區中特異的人口分布：

And when I made my way to that piping chimney

孤零零的獨居與聚集。

I'd seen in the distance,

當我往前走向在遠處看見那個

I saw Hanna Zavorotnya, and I met her.

冒著煙的煙囪，

She's the self-declared mayor of Kapavati village,

我看到漢娜．沃洛纽克，向前和她接觸。

population eight.

她是卡拉瓦帝村莊的自立村長，

(Laughter)

管轄八個人。

And she said to me, when I asked her the obvious,

（笑聲）

"Radiation doesn't scare me. Starvation does."

在我提出顯而易見的問題時，她告訴我：

And you have to remember, these women have

「輻射嚇不了我，餓肚子才會。」

survived the worst atrocities of the 20th century.

你得要記得，這些女性

Stalin's enforced famines of the 1930s, the Holodomor,

從 20 世紀最惡劣的環境中活過來了。

killed millions of Ukrainians,

史達林在 1930 年代引起的烏克蘭大飢荒，

and they faced the Nazis in the '40s,

造成上百萬名烏克蘭人死亡；

who came through slashing, burning, raping,

而且他們在 1940 年代歷經納粹人

and in fact many of these women

虐待、焚燒、性侵的暴行，

were shipped to Germany as forced labor.

而且事實上，其中有許多女性

So when a couple decades into Soviet rule,

被運到德國做苦力。

Chernobyl happened,

因此在蘇維埃政權生活數十年後

they were unwilling to flee in the face of an enemy

發生了車諾比事件，

that was invisible.

他們不願意因為這個

So they returned to their villages

看不見的敵人而離開。

and are told they're going to get sick and die soon,

因此他們回到自己的村莊，

but five happy years, their logic goes,

被告知會在短期內生病、死亡，

is better than 10 stuck in a high rise

但是過了五年快樂的日子， 他們理所當然認為

on the outskirts of Kiev,

這總好過十年被困在

separated from the graves of their mothers

基輔郊區的高樓裡，

and fathers and babies,

這總好過被迫離開他們父母

the whisper of stork wings on a spring afternoon.

和孩子的墳墓，

For them, environmental contamination

還有鸛鳥在春天午後翱翔時的吟唱聲。

may not be the worst sort of devastation.

對他們來說，環境的污染

It turns out this holds true

也許不是最悲慘的蹂躪。

for other species as well.

結果對其它物種來說

Wild boar, lynx, moose, they've all returned

也同樣如此。

to the region in force,

大批的野豬、山貓、麋鹿都回到

the very real, very negative effects of radiation

這個地區，

being trumped by the upside of a mass exodus

輻射造成的真實又消極影響

of humans.

已被一大群移出者

The dead zone, it turns out, is full of life.

戰勝了。

And there is a kind of heroic resilience,

死亡禁區反而變得欣欣向榮，

a kind of plain-spoken pragmatism to those

有一種如英雄般的韌性，

who start their day at 5 a.m.

一種坦率的務實存在之中，

pulling water from a well

他們在早上五點展開新的一天，

and end it at midnight

從井中打水；

poised to beat a bucket with a stick

結束一天的生活後，在夜裡

and scare off wild boar that might mess with their potatoes,

準備劈好一桶木柴、

their only company a bit of homemade moonshine vodka.

嚇跑那些會踐踏馬鈴薯田的野豬，

And there's a patina of simple defiance among them.

唯一陪伴他們的是私釀伏特加。

"They told us our legs would hurt, and they do. So what?"

在他們身上有些許挑釁的神情，

I mean, what about their health?

「他們說我的腳會受傷， 還真的受傷了，但是那又如何？」

The benefits of hardy, physical living,

然而，他們的身體健康嗎？

but an environment made toxic

擁有身強體壯和物質生活的好處，

by a complicated, little-understood enemy, radiation.

但是身在有毒的環境，

It's incredibly difficult to parse.

面對一個複雜、所知甚少的敵人：輻射。

Health studies from the region

這個問題實在很難釐清。

are conflicting and fraught.

針對那個地區做的健康研究

The World Health Organization

都很矛盾又漏洞百出。

puts the number of Chernobyl-related deaths

世界衛生組織

at 4,000, eventually.

估計與車諾比事件相關的

Greenpeace and other organizations

死亡人數有 4,000 人。

put that number in the tens of thousands.

綠色和平和其它組織

Now everybody agrees that thyroid cancers

估計有上萬人。

are sky high, and that Chernobyl evacuees

現在每個人都同意 甲狀腺癌的罹患率奇高，

suffer the trauma of relocated peoples everywhere:

在車諾比事件中的撤離者

higher levels of anxiety, depression, alcoholism,

飽受重新安置的創傷之苦：

unemployment and, importantly,

更嚴重的焦慮、沮喪、酗酒、

disrupted social networks.

失業，還有更重要的是

Now, like many of you,

社交圈瓦解。

I have moved maybe 20, 25 times in my life.

現在，就像在座的你們一樣，

Home is a transient concept.

我這輩子大概搬了 20、25 次家，

I have a deeper connection to my laptop

家是一種短暫的概念。

than any bit of soil.

相較於任何一片土地，

So it's hard for us to understand, but home

我和我的筆電有更深刻的連結。

is the entire cosmos of the rural babushka,

這對我們來說很難理解，但是家的概念

and connection to the land is palpable.

就是這群村婦的全世界，

And perhaps because these Ukrainian women

與土地的連結是顯而易見的。

were schooled under the Soviets

也許是因為這些烏克蘭婦女

and versed in the Russian poets,

在蘇維埃政權下接受教育，

aphorisms about these ideas

熟讀俄國詩歌

slip from their mouths all the time.

和格言，與這些相關的觀念

"If you leave, you die."

隨時都能輕易地從她們口中頌出。

"Those who left are worse off now.

「如果你離開，就會逝去。」

They are dying of sadness."

「那些離開的人處境每況愈下，

"Motherland is motherland. I will never leave."

他們都悲傷地死去。」

What sounds like faith, soft faith,

「家鄉就是家鄉，我永遠都不會離開。」

may actually be fact,

那些聽起來像是信念，溫柔的信念，

because the surprising truth --

也許才是事實，

I mean, there are no studies, but the truth seems to be

因為那些出乎意料之外的真相——

that these women who returned to their homes

畢竟沒有任何研究證明，只是真相似乎是

and have lived on some of the most radioactive land

那些回到家鄉的婦女

on Earth for the last 27 years,

至今生活在這片全世界

have actually outlived their counterparts

最高放射污染的土地上已長達 27 年，

who accepted relocation,

相較於與她們有同樣處境，

by some estimates up to 10 years.

但是接受安置的人們，

How could this be?

她們的壽命預估多於十年。

Here's a theory: Could it be

這怎麼可能？

that those ties to ancestral soil,

有一個理論是：有沒有可能

the soft variables reflected in their aphorisms,

那些與祖先土地的連結，

actually affect longevity?

那些在他們的格言中展現的可變因子，

The power of motherland

其實也影響了壽命？

so fundamental to that part of the world

家鄉的力量

seems palliative.

對那部分的世界來說如此重要，

Home and community are forces

似乎能夠帶來療癒。

that rival even radiation.

家與社群是一種力量，

Now radiation or not,

即使連輻射都能抵抗。

these women are at the end of their lives.

不管有沒有輻射，

In the next decade, the zone's human residents will be gone,

這些婦女都走到了她們的生命盡頭。

and it will revert to a wild, radioactive place,

未來十年，禁區的居民都會過世，

full only of animals and occasionally

這片土地會恢復為荒野，有輻射的地方，

daring, flummoxed scientists.

只有滿滿的動物和偶爾出現

But the spirit and existence of the babushkas,

膽大又困惑的科學家。

whose numbers have been halved

但是這些老奶奶的精神與生活方式

in the three years I've known them,

──儘管在我認識她們的三年中

will leave us with powerful new templates

人數已減少了一半──

to think about and grapple with,

將留給我們強而有力的新模式，

about the relative nature of risk,

讓我們得以省思 風險的相對涵義，

about transformative connections to home,

讓我們得以攫取 一種變遷中的

and about the magnificent tonic

家的聯繫，

of personal agency and self-determination.

也讓我們得以反思，並且獲得

Thank you.

那滋養個人決心的動力。

(Applause)

謝謝！