關於 sack race ，我們在網路上蒐集到這些相關的討論、資訊與評價

Fourth of July Series (美國國慶系列之7):

自1776年7月4日簽署《獨立宣言》起。每逢這個日子，美國民眾都會以遊行、煙火、音樂會等多種形式舉行慶祝活動。孩子們特別喜歡這個節日。

圖一: 許多城鎮會特別為家庭規劃國慶日慶祝活動。圖中坐在花車上的小女孩是在德克薩斯州哈林根(Harlingen)的古鐵雷斯公園(Gutierrez Park)舉辦的社區野餐會上。這個活動還包括花車競賽，繪彩臉，充氣滑梯以及吃不完的西瓜。

圖二: 在密蘇里州聖約瑟夫(St. Joseph)康特里湖(Contrary Lake)舉行的套袋跑比賽中，孩子們歡快地朝終點跑去。每年該地都會舉辦“湖邊獨立日”(Fourth at the Lake)慶典活動，套袋跑僅是眾多兒童活動中的一項。

圖三: 在阿拉斯加州安哥拉治(Anchorage)，一名男子肩上搭著小孫女觀看獨立節遊行。當天，安哥拉治的居民們聚集在一起享受共公煎餅早餐、市區遊行、野餐、文化表演、體育及家庭活動。很多阿拉斯加人也會在國慶日的週末湧到當地露營地野營。

America's Independence Day is July 4, marking the date in 1776 when the country’s Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. It is celebrated with parades, fireworks, concerts and other festivities.

Photo 1: Many towns organize Fourth of July events especially for families. Here a little girl looks over the back of her decorated red wagon during a community picnic at Gutierrez Park in Harlingen, Texas. The picnic featured a red wagon contest, face painting, an inflatable slide and lots of watermelon.

Photo 2: Gleeful youngsters head for the finish line during a sack race at Lake Contrary in St. Joseph, Missouri. The race is just one of many children’s events at the annual “Fourth at the Lake” celebration.

Photo 3: A man holds his granddaughter on his shoulders as they watch the Fourth of July parade in Anchorage, Alaska. On Independence Day, residents of Anchorage gather to enjoy a communal breakfast of pancakes, a downtown parade, a picnic, cultural events, sports and family activities. Alaskans also flock to local campgrounds over the Fourth of July weekend.

[美國大學最知名的畢業致詞 This is water]

看了新聞 發現美國高中生80秒對美國教育的批評被傳遍

也被翻譯了

然而這篇也同樣熱門 甚至更有意義的卻被忽視了

所以筆者決定自己把字幕找出來 一句一句翻給大家看

希望能對學弟妹有些幫助 看完能有些想法 順便練英文囉XD

如果對這系列有興趣 喜歡的話 還請幫忙分享出去

花了快一個多小時翻譯= =||| 不過可能翻的也沒有很好

日後筆者會翻譯更多篇好影片過來

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There are these two young fish swimming along
有兩隻年輕的魚正在悠游

And they happen to meet an older fish swimming the otherway
他們碰巧遇到了一隻老魚

Who nods at them and says morning boys how's thewater?
老魚向他們點頭說:早阿 今天的水如何?

And the two young fish swim on for a bit and eventually
One of them looks over at the other and goes
What the hell is water?

這兩隻魚又游了一下 最終其中一隻說 什麼是水?


The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious
Important realities are often the ones that are hardest

魚的故事是在指出一個明確 重要的事實 也同時是最困難的


To see and talk about Stated as an english sentence of course is just a banal platitude

如果只是去探討英文上的句子 顯然只是一個平庸的老生常談

But the fact is that in the day to day trenches of adult existence
Banal platitudes can have a life or death importance

然而事實是 在一天一天如打戰般的成人生活

平庸的老生常談經常有生或死的重要性

The plain fact is that you graduating seniors Do not yet have any clue What day in day out really means

事實是 當妳從高中畢業 你不會知道真正的生活意義是什麼

There happen to be whole large parts of adult
American life That nobody talks about in commencement speeches

這發生在大部分美國成年人的生活中 沒有人開始在演講中談論這個

One such part involves boredom routine and petty frustration

其中很大一部分是無聊 重複的生活 和非常大的挫折

The parents and older folks here will know all too well what I'm talking about

在這裡的父母和比較老的成年人會非常清楚我在講些什麼

By way of example let's say it's an average adult day

舉例而言 讓我們看看現在成年人的生活

And you get up in the morning Go to your challenging white collar college
graduate job

你早上起床 去面對充滿挑戰性的白領生涯

And you work hard for eight or ten hours And at the end of the day you're tired and stressed

你工作非常辛苦 每天八到十小時 到了一天的盡頭 你累癱了 而且充滿了壓力


And all you want is to go home and have good supper And maybe unwind for an hour and then hit the sack early Because of course you have to get up the next25.day and do it all again But then you remember there's no food at home

你唯一想做的就是回家 吃一頓豐盛的晚餐 也許 放鬆個幾個小時

或直接倒到床上

因為 理所當然的 你明天也得重複一遍

但你忽然想起家裡沒有食物了

You haven't had time to shop this week because of your challenging job
And so now after work you have to get in your car and drive to the supermarket

因為妳充滿挑戰性的工作 這一周你都沒有時間去採買

所以現在 在下班後你必須開車去超級市場

It's the end of the work day and the traffic is apt to be very bad

在一天工作的結束 交通通常非常糟糕

So getting to the store takes way longer than it should

所以你去店裡的時間 也比一般需要花的長

And when you finally get there the supermarket is very crowded

當你終於到了超級市場 卻需要面對人潮洶湧

Because of course it's the time of day when all the other people with jobs
Also try to squeeze in some grocery shopping But you can't just get in and quickly out

因為 理所當然的 不只你 其他有工作的人也需要擠出一點時間來採買

所以你不無法迅速的採買就離開

You have to wander all over the huge over lit store's confusing aisles

你需要在巨大令人困惑 琳瑯滿目的商品走到中困惑

To find the stuff you want and you have to maneuver your junky cart

去找到你真正需要 可以放進你品質很糟的購物車中

Through all these other tired hurried people with carts

還得和別人搶購物車

Et cetera et cetera cutting stuff out because this is a long ceremony

等等等等 這是一個漫長的儀式

And eventually you get all your supper supplies Except now it turns out there aren't enough check-out lanes open

最終你買到你的晚餐 然而卻發現沒有足夠的櫃台是開的

So the checkout line is incredibly long which is stupid and infuriating

所以隊伍排得不可思議的長 這是愚蠢而且氣死人的事情

But you can't take your frustration out on the frantic lady working the register

但你無法將你的挫折與怒氣 發洩在結帳小姐身上

Who is overworked at a job whose daily tedium and meaninglessness

尤其他們的生活已經是需要過度的工作 整天單調無聊又沒意義

Surpasses the imagination of any of us here at a prestigious college

勝於任何在座 就讀於名校的學生

But anyway you finally get to the checkout line's front

總之 無論如何 你最終到了隊伍前面

And you pay for your food and you get told to Have a nice day

你為你的食物付了錢 並得到了一句 祝你有個愉快的一天

In a voice that is the absolute voice of death Then you have to take your creepy flimsy plastic bags of groceries

這句話適用無聊死氣沉沉的聲音說出來的

然後你得提者你笨重 脆弱的塑膠袋

And then you have to drive all the way home
through Slow heavy SUV-intensive rush-hour traffic

然後你還得開車回家 在交通尖峰時刻


et cetera et cetera Everyone here has done this of course

等等等等 在座的每一個人 都做過類似的事情

But it hasn't yet been part of you graduates actual life routine
Day after week after month after year But it will be
但這還沒成為你畢業後 每一天 每一周 每一月 真正的生活 但總有一天會


And many more dreary annoying seemingly meaningless routines besides

還有更多無聊 沒意義的生活行程

But that is not the point The point is that petty frustrating crap like
this Is exactly where the work of choosing is gonna come in

但這不是重點 重點是在這挫折的鳥事 正是選擇來臨的時候

Because the traffic jams and crowded aisles and long checkout lines

因為在嚴重的塞車 和壅擠的隊伍中

Give me time to think and if I don't makea conscious decision About how to think and what to pay attention

給了我們時間去思考 如果我們不去做一個有知覺的決定

關於我們要如何去集中注意力去思考

I'm gonna be pissed and miserable every time

我們將會生氣 悲慘的度過每一天

I have to shop Because my natural default setting is the
certainty That situations like this are really all about

我必須要去採買 因為天生設定的的缺陷


me About my hungriness and my fatigue and my
desire to just get home

這關於我的慾望 我的想要 我想要直接回家休息


And it's going to seem for all the world like
everybody else is just in my way And who are all these people in my way?

所以這讓整個世界看起來 其他人只是在擋我的路

And look at how repulsive most of them are And how stupid and cow-like and dead-eyed

看看他們多令人厭惡 又笨有者母牛般的死眼睛

And nonhuman they seem in the checkout line Or at how annoying and rude it is that people

沒有人比排在你前面的人更煩更粗魯的了

Are talking loudly on cell phones in the middle of the line

他們拿者手機講話大聲 完全不顧旁人感受

If I choose to think this way in a store and on the freeway

如果我選擇在店裡 在高速公路上 這樣去思考

Fine lots of us do Except thinking this way tends to be so easy

當然可以 大部分的我們都是這樣去思考的 因為這樣想很容易

and automatic That it doesn't have to be a choice

這是很自動的 好似我們並沒有選擇

It is my natural default setting It's the automatic way that I experience

這是我們的天生設置缺陷 這是來自我經驗很自動的事情

The boring frustrating crowded parts of adult life

無聊又令人挫折的成人生活

That I am the center of the world And that my immediate needs and feelings
Are what should determine the world�s priorities The thing is that of course there are totally different ways To think about these kinds of situations

我是世界的中心，而我的眼前有需要和感受

應該確定什麼世界上優先考慮的事情

當然也有完全不同的方式來思考這些種情況

In this traffic all these vehicles stopped and idling in my way

在這個交通所有這些車輛停了下來，用我的方式空轉

It's not impossible that some of these people in SUV's

這不是不可能的，有些開者SUV的人

Have been in horrible auto accidents in the past

曾遇過可怕的交通意外

And now find driving so terrifying that their therapist

以至於認為開車事非常恐懼的 只能尋求治療師的協助

Has all but ordered them to get a huge heavy SUV

所以命令他們去開巨大 又笨重的suv休旅車

So they can feel safe enough to drive Or I can choose to force myself to consider
the likelihood That everyone else in the supermarkets checkout
line Is just as bored and frustrated as I am

所以，他們可以感到安全，或者我可以選擇強迫自己考慮
一種的可能性，其他人在超市結帳時也是一樣的無聊和沮喪
我也是那個讓人感到生氣的人


And that some of these people probably have much harder

甚至有些人有更困難的情況

More tedious and painful lives than I do Again please don't think that I'm giving you moral advice Or that I'm saying you are supposed to think

他們可能有更無聊 單調 痛苦的生活

再次提醒 不要我在給你們道德上的建議 或者告訴你們應該怎麼去思考


this way Or that anyone expects you to just automatically
do it Because it's hard

這只是一種對你們能自動去思考ˋ的期待 因為這很難

It takes will and effort and

這需要很大的努力

if you are like me
Some days you won't be able to do it Or you just flat out won't want to

如果妳像我 有些日子你不需要去這樣想 或者單純的你不想要去

But most days if you're aware enough to give yourself a choice

但在大多天 如果你有足夠的意識 給自己一個機會

You can choose to look differently At this fat dead eyed over made up lady
Who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line

你可以選擇在這一個在隊伍中對者他小孩大吼的女胖子 以不同的眼光看待

Maybe she's not usually like this Maybe she's been up three straight nights
holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer

也許他並不常像這樣 也許他已經很多晚上握者他即將死於骨癌丈夫的手


Or maybe this very lady is the low wage clerk At the motor vehicle department who just yesterday Helped your spouse resolve a horrific infuriating Red tape problem through some small act of

或者，也許他是低工資的業務員 在機車部門剛好服務了你的太太解決了問題


Of course none of this is likely but it's
also not impossible It just depends what you what to consider

沒有什麼是不可能的 只是看你如何去思考而已


If you're automatically sure that you know what reality is
And you are operating on your default setting Then you like me probably won't consider possibilities

如果妳都自動的腦補 確定你知道什麼是真實

那麼你只是自動執行你天生的缺陷 你不會去思考其他可能性

if you really learn how to think how to
pay attention Then you will know there are other options

如果你真的學者去思考和注意 你將會知道你有其他選項


It will actually be within your power to experience A crowded hot slow consumer hell type situation
As not only meaningful but sacred On fire with the same force that made the
stars Love fellowship the mystical oneness of all

實際上，它會在你的能力範圍內，遇到擁擠的慢熱消費者地獄的情況

This I submit is the freedom of a real education Of learning how to be well adjusted

這是我提出的建議 一個自由 真實的教育 是要學習如何調整自己

You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't
That is real freedom that is being educated And understanding how to think

你需要有意識的決定 什麼是有意義的 什麼不是

這是由教育給予的真實的自由 並且去了解該如何思考

The alternative is unconsciousness The default setting the rat race
The constant gnawing sense of having had And lost some infinite thing

另一個選項是無意識的 像實驗老鼠般賽局

持續的啃食者你的意識 失去了一些重要可以無限的事情

I know that this stuff probably doesn't sound fun and breezy
Or grandly inspirational the way a commencement speech

我知道這件事情 可能聽起來不活潑也不有趣
或者是一個鼓舞人心的畢業典禮演講

You are of course free to think of it whatever
you wish But please don't just dismiss it as just some
Finger wagging Doctor Laura sermon None of this stuff is really about morality
or religion or dogma Or big fancy questions of life after death


無論如何 你當然是可以自由思考的

但拜託請不要認為這只是一些花俏 無用的道德或宗教大道理

或者某些死後才需要知道的問題

The capital T Truth is about life before death It is about the real value of a real education

真理是生活在死亡之前 是教育的真正價值

Which has almost nothing to do with knowledge And everything to do with simple awareness

Awareness of what is so real and essential So hidden in plain sight all around us all the time that we have to keep reminding ourselves overand over

這和我們的知識並無相關 這只是很簡單在我們的意識之中

意識什麼是真的並且重要的

並且不斷一遍一變得提醒自己

This is water

這是水

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