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這是我第五次站在這個海岸,古巴海岸,望著遠處的地平線,再次相信我將成功橫渡這片遼闊的危險海域。不僅是我已嘗試了四次,世上許多傑出的游泳健將自1950年以來即開始嘗試,至今仍無人成功。
前四次的嘗試令我們團隊引以為豪。這是約30人組成的遠征隊,Bonnie是我最好的朋友兼後勤支柱,在經歷長久歲月後,不知怎地,竟喚起我的意願,最後一絲我以為已消失無蹤的意願。我們擁有世上首屈一指的海中大型掠奪者-鯊魚;能釋出海洋中最致命毒液的箱型水母;就在這片海域。前一次嘗試時,我差點因此喪命。這片水域的環境,除了遼闊海洋中100多英哩的路程,還有世上最無法捉摸的洋流、渦流及灣流。
順帶一提,好笑的是,進行嘗試前,記者和人們經常問我:「嗯,有任何船隻或人員之類的與你同行嗎?」我心想,他們想到哪去了?竟以為我只進行某種天文導航,嘴裡叼著一把獵刀,徒手捕魚,將牠們活生生地扒皮、生吃嗎?也許身後還拖著一座海水淡化廠,以便供應淡水。(笑聲)
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以下為系統擷取之英文原文
It's the fifth time I stand on this shore, the Cuban shore, looking out at that distant horizon, believing, again, that I'm going to make it all the way across that vast, dangerous wilderness of an ocean. Not only have I tried four times, but the greatest swimmers in the world have been trying since 1950, and it's still never been done.
The team is proud of our four attempts. It's an expedition of some 30 people. Bonnie is my best friend and head handler, who somehow summons will, that last drop of will within me, when I think it's gone, after many, many hours and days out there. The shark experts are the best in the world -- large predators below. The box jellyfish, the deadliest venom in all of the ocean, is in these waters, and I have come close to dying from them on a previous attempt. The conditions themselves, besides the sheer distance of over 100 miles in the open ocean -- the currents and whirling eddies and the Gulf Stream itself, the most unpredictable of all of the planet Earth.
And by the way, it's amusing to me that journalists and people before these attempts often ask me, "Well, are you going to go with any boats or any people or anything?" And I'm thinking, what are they imagining? That I'll just sort of do some celestial navigation, and carry a bowie knife in my mouth, and I'll hunt fish and skin them alive and eat them, and maybe drag a desalinization plant behind me for fresh water. (Laughter)
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是的,我有一個團隊。(笑聲)這是個專業團隊,團員們勇氣十足,充滿創新與科學探索精神,如同世上任何大型探險隊。
我們踏上一段旅程。自希臘人以來,人們對此一直有激烈爭論,不是嗎?難道這不就是重點嗎?難道生命的重點不就是旅程,而非目的地?我們身處這段旅程中,過程充滿驚險。我們尚未抵達彼岸,但我們依然充滿自豪和決心,堅定不移的決心。我邁入60歲時,那個夢想依然存在。從20多歲時的嘗試開始,總是夢想著、想像著。我想像著現今世上最著名的水域-古巴到佛羅里達,而-它深藏在我靈魂深處。我邁入60歲時,這個夢想不再是關乎體育成就、不再是關乎「我想拿第一」的自我期許。無可否認地,這個自我一直存在,但更加深刻。我思索,生命還剩多少時間?面對事實吧!我們都身處一條單行道,不是嗎?我們該怎麼做?我們該如何在這條道路上前進,使自己回首時沒有遺憾?過去一年的訓練當中,老羅斯福總統的一句話一直迴盪在我腦海,大意是:「你儘管做吧!儘管坐在你舒適的椅子上,做個批評者、做個旁觀者。勇敢的人走上拳擊台參與比賽;流血、弄髒身體、被擊敗,一次又一次。但他既不害怕,亦不膽怯,以勇敢的方式享受人生。」
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Yes, I have a team. (Laughter) And the team is expert, and the team is courageous, and brimming with innovation and scientific discovery, as is true with any major expedition on the planet.
And we've been on a journey. And the debate has raged, hasn't it, since the Greeks, of isn't it what it's all about? Isn't life about the journey, not really the destination? And here we've been on this journey, and the truth is, it's been thrilling. We haven't reached that other shore, and still our sense of pride and commitment, unwavering commitment. When I turned 60, the dream was still alive from having tried this in my 20s, and dreamed it and imagined it. The most famous body of water on the Earth today, I imagine, Cuba to Florida. And it was deep. It was deep in my soul. And when I turned 60, it wasn't so much about the athletic accomplishment, it wasn't the ego of "I want to be the first." That's always there and it's undeniable. But it was deeper. It was, how much life is there left? Let's face it, we're all on a one-way street, aren't we, and what are we going to do? What are we going to do as we go forward to have no regrets looking back? And all this past year in training, I had that Teddy Roosevelt quote to paraphrase it, floating around in my brain, and it says, "You go ahead, you go ahead and sit back in your comfortable chair and you be the critic, you be the observer, while the brave one gets in the ring and engages and gets bloody and gets dirty and fails over and over and over again, but yet isn't afraid and isn't timid and lives life in a bold way."
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當然,我想橫渡這片水域,這是目標。我應該坦白地說,就我今年的經驗,目的地比旅途更美好。(笑聲)(掌聲)但旅途本身是值得的。今年夏天的當時,每個人-科學家、運動科學家、耐力專家、神經學家、我的團隊、Bonnie-都說這是不可能的;絕對辦不到。Bonnie對我說:「但如果你打算踏上這段旅程,我會一路看顧著你,所以我會在你身邊。」
因此我們來到這裡。出發之前,我們站在海明威碼頭的岩石上舉目遠眺,感覺不太真實。古巴國旗在上空飄揚,所有團隊成員在他們的船上,雙手高舉,說:「我們在這裡,我們陪在你身邊。」Bonnie和我望著彼此,然後說,今年的口號是-我訓練時也一直使用-找出方法。你有一個夢想,你的前方有阻礙,大家都一樣。沒有任何人一生中不曾經歷心痛、不曾經歷波折,如果你有信心、有信仰,你可以在被打倒時重新站起。你相信毅力是珍貴的人類特質,你會找出方法。Bonnie抓住我的肩膀,她說:「讓我們找出通往佛羅里達的方法。」
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And so of course I want to make it across. It is the goal, and I should be so shallow to say that this year, the destination was even sweeter than the journey. (Laughter) (Applause) But the journey itself was worthwhile taking. And at this point, by this summer, everybody -- scientists, sports scientists, endurance experts, neurologists, my own team, Bonnie -- said it's impossible. It just simply can't be done, and Bonnie said to me, "But if you're going to take the journey, I'm going to see you through to the end of it, so I'll be there."
And now we're there. And as we're looking out, kind of a surreal moment before the first stroke, standing on the rocks at Marina Hemingway, the Cuban flag is flying above, all my team's out in their boats, hands up in the air, "We're here, we're here for you," Bonnie and I look at each other, and we say, this year, the mantra is -- and I've been using it in training -- find a way. You have a dream and you have obstacles in front of you, as we all do. None of us ever get through this life without heartache, without turmoil, and if you believe and you have faith and you can get knocked down and get back up again and you believe in perseverance as a great human quality, you find your way, and Bonnie grabbed my shoulders, and she said, "Let's find our way to Florida."
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然後我們啟程。接下來53個小時是充滿刺激、令人難忘的人生經歷。高處不勝寒,令人敬畏。我並非教徒,但我想告訴你們,身處湛藍的灣流中,彷彿一面呼吸、一面俯視深不見底的海洋,感受我們所生存的藍色星球的宏偉,令人敬畏不已。我有一份大約包含85首歌的清單。特別是午夜時-那個夜晚,因為我們不使用燈光,燈光會引來水母、燈光會引來鯊魚、燈光會引來鯊魚的餌食-因此我們在漆黑的夜晚前進。你不曾見過如此深沉的黑暗,你看不見眼前的手和船上的人。Bonnie和我的團隊只能藉由手臂拍水的聲音才知道我在哪裡,因為視覺完全無用武之地。我只是沉浸在我的音樂清單裡。(笑聲)我戴著一頂很緊的橡膠帽,因此什麼也聽不見。我戴著泳鏡,以每分鐘50次的速度擺頭,一面唱著:「想像世上沒有天堂,doo doo doo doo doo,這不難,只要你嘗試,doo doo doo doo doo。」我可以連續唱一千遍。(笑聲)這本身也算是一種才能。(笑聲)(掌聲)我每次都以這句做結尾:「喔,你或許會說我是夢想家,但我並非唯一;想像世上沒有天堂。」當我唱完約翰.藍儂的《想像》一千遍時,我已游了9小時45分,絲毫不差。
當然,其中也有危機-開始嘔吐,海水令你不適。你戴著防水母面罩作為終極保護,這使游泳變得困難,導致口腔內側擦傷,但水母觸鬚無法觸及你;然後體溫開始降低。水溫是85度(約攝氏29度),你逐漸消耗體重和熱量。當你游向船緣,卻不能觸碰、不能半途而廢。但Bonnie和隊員遞給我營養品,問我感覺如何、是否一切安好,我卻看見泰姬瑪哈陵;(笑聲)就在前方。我處於一種相當不尋常的狀態。我心想,哇,我從沒想過會在這裡見到泰姬瑪哈陵,美極了。我想,他們花多久時間才建成?簡直-太-哇!(笑聲)我們有個基本原則,就是沒人會告訴我還剩多少距離,因為我們無從知曉從這裡到那裡會發生什麼事、天氣和洋流的狀況如何?還有-但願不會-被水母螫了;當你認為全副武裝時不可能發生這種事。第三天早晨,Bonnie做了一個決定。當時我痛苦不堪、命懸一線,她說:「過來這裡。」我游到船邊。她說:「你看!看那邊。」我看見光線。因為白天情況比晚上好,我以為天就要亮了。我看見地平線出現一束白光,我說:「天快亮了。」她說:「不,那是Key West島的燈光。」還需要15小時。這對大部分泳者來說都是一段長時間。(笑聲)(掌聲)你不知道我受過多少15小時的游泳訓練。
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And we started, and for the next 53 hours, it was an intense, unforgettable life experience. The highs were high, the awe, I'm not a religious person, but I'll tell you, to be in the azure blue of the Gulf Stream as if, as you're breathing, you're looking down miles and miles and miles, to feel the majesty of this blue planet we live on, it's awe-inspiring. I have a playlist of about 85 songs, and especially in the middle of the night, and that night, because we use no lights -- lights attract jellyfish, lights attract sharks, lights attract baitfish that attract sharks, so we go in the pitch black of the night. You've never seen black this black. You can't see the front of your hand, and the people on the boat, Bonnie and my team on the boat, they just hear the slapping of the arms, and they know where I am, because there's no visual at all. And I'm out there kind of tripping out on my little playlist. (Laughter) I've got a tight rubber cap, so I don't hear a thing. I've got goggles and I'm turning my head 50 times a minute, and I'm singing, ♪ Imagine there's no heaven ♪ ♪ doo doo doo doo doo ♪ ♪ It's easy if you try ♪ ♪ doo doo doo doo doo ♪ And I can sing that song a thousand times in a row. (Laughter) Now there's a talent unto itself. (Laughter) (Applause) And each time I get done with ♪ Ooh, you may say I'm a dreamer but I'm not the only one ♪ 222. ♪ Imagine there's no heaven ♪ And when I get through the end of a thousand of John Lennon's "Imagine," I have swum nine hours and 45 minutes, exactly.
And then there are the crises. Of course there are. And the vomiting starts, the seawater, you're not well, you're wearing a jellyfish mask for the ultimate protection. It's difficult to swim in. It's causing abrasions on the inside of the mouth, but the tentacles can't get you. And the hypothermia sets in. The water's 85 degrees, and yet you're losing weight and using calories, and as you come over toward the side of the boat, not allowed to touch it, not allowed to get out, but Bonnie and her team hand me nutrition and asks me what I'm doing, am I all right, I am seeing the Taj Mahal over here. I'm in a very different state, and I'm thinking, wow, I never thought I'd be running into the Taj Mahal out here. It's gorgeous. I mean, how long did it take them to build that? It's just -- So, uh, wooo. (Laughter) And then we kind of have a cardinal rule that I'm never told, really, how far it is, because we don't know how far it is. What's going to happen to you between this point and that point? What's going to happen to the weather and the currents and, God forbid, you're stung when you don't think you could be stung in all this armor, and Bonnie made a decision coming into that third morning that I was suffering and I was hanging on by a thread and she said, "Come here," and I came close to the boat, and she said, "Look, look out there," and I saw light, because the day's easier than the night, and I thought we were coming into day, and I saw a stream of white light along the horizon, and I said, "It's going to be morning soon." And she said, "No, those are the lights of Key West." It was 15 more hours, which for most swimmers would be a long time. (Laughter) (Applause) You have no idea how many 15-hour training swims I had done.
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因此我們繼續前進。不知怎地,我不再進行判斷、不再數划了多少下、不再唱歌、不再想史蒂芬‧霍金的名言及宇宙參數,我只是開始思考這個夢想以及其中原因和由來。如我說過的,我邁入60歲時,它不再是關於具體的「你是否辦得到?」,而是關於每日的策劃、訓練及準備,其中包含自豪。但隨著這個過程,我決定開始思考。俗話說:「追逐星星」,以我的情況來說則是「追逐地平線」。當你抵達地平線時,如我的經歷,你或許無法抵達,但在追逐地平線過程中紮下的基礎,對你性格和精神的建立有很大影響。
當海岸逐漸接近,我內心的一小部分開始感到悲傷;這段史詩般的旅程即將結束。
很多人上前問我:「接下來呢?我們愛極了!那個電腦上的實況追蹤?你打算何時進行下一場冒險?我們等不及追蹤你的下一場冒險了。」好,他們只花了53個小時,我卻花了好幾年,因此不會再有另一趟史詩般的海上旅程。
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So here we go, and I somehow, without a decision, went into no counting of strokes and no singing and no quoting Stephen Hawking and the parameters of the universe, I just went into thinking about this dream, and why, and how. And as I said, when I turned 60, it wasn't about that concrete "Can you do it?" That's the everyday machinations. That's the discipline, and it's the preparation, and there's a pride in that. But I decided to think, as I went along, about, the phrase usually is reaching for the stars, and in my case, it's reaching for the horizon. And when you reach for the horizon, as I've proven, you may not get there, but what a tremendous build of character and spirit that you lay down. What a foundation you lay down in reaching for those horizons.
And now the shore is coming, and there's just a little part of me that's sad. The epic journey is going to be over.
So many people come up to me now and say, "What's next? We love that! That little tracker that was on the computer? When are you going to do the next one? We just can't wait to follow the next one." Well, they were just there for 53 hours, and I was there for years. And so there won't be another epic journey in the ocean.
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但重點是,重點在於,我們生命中每一天都是史詩般的旅程。我要告訴各位,當我走上那片海灘,蹣跚地走上那片海灘時-我曾經許多次以膨脹的自我演練在那片海灘上要說什麼。當時Bonnie以為我喉嚨腫脹,她把醫療團隊帶到我們船上,對他們說:「在海水中待了12、24小時後,她開始呼吸困難」等等。我只是以為-在幻聽狀態中,我以為聽見「氣管切開術」這個字眼。(笑聲)Bonnie對醫生說:「我不擔心她不能呼吸,如果她抵達岸邊時不能說話,肯定會火冒三丈。」(笑聲)
但事實是,所有我為了激勵自己度過訓練過程而練習的演說並非如此。那是相當真實的一刻。身邊有人群、有我的團隊,我們做到了。不是我,而是我們。我們將永難忘懷,這將永遠成為我們的一部分。
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But the point is, and the point was that every day of our lives is epic, and I'll tell you, when I walked up onto that beach, staggered up onto that beach, and I had so many times in a very puffed up ego way, rehearsed what I would say on the beach. When Bonnie thought that the back of my throat was swelling up, and she brought the medical team over to our boat to say that she's really beginning to have trouble breathing. Another 12, 24 hours in the saltwater, the whole thing -- and I just thought in my hallucinatory moment, that I heard the word tracheotomy. (Laughter) And Bonnie said to the doctor, "I'm not worried about her not breathing. If she can't talk when she gets to the shore, she's gonna be pissed off." (Laughter)
But the truth is, all those orations that I had practiced just to get myself through some training swims as motivation, it wasn't like that. It was a very real moment, with that crowd, with my team. We did it. I didn't do it. We did it. And we'll never forget it. It'll always be part of us.
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當我們抵達時,我脫口而出的三個體會,第一是:「永不放棄。」這是我的親身體會。蘇格拉底那句話是怎麼說的?生命就是實踐。因此我不會只是站起來說「永不放棄」;我沒有放棄,這句話的背後是行動證明。
第二點是:「任何年紀都能追逐夢想,永不嫌老。」64歲;不曾有任何年紀的男性或女性曾經做到這件事。我沒有絲毫懷疑,今天我正處於生命的巔峰。(掌聲)是的,謝謝。
我在那片海灘上說的第三個體會是:「它看起來像世上最孤獨的努力;以許多層面來說確實如此。但其他層面-最重要的層面-這是一個團隊。如果你認為我很酷,你應該見見Bonnie。」(笑聲)
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And the three things that I did sort of blurt out when we got there, was first, "Never, ever give up." I live it. What's the phrase from today from Socrates? To be is to do. So I don't stand up and say, don't ever give up. I didn't give up, and there was action behind these words.
The second is, "You can chase your dreams at any age; you're never too old." Sixty-four, that no one at any age, any gender, could ever do, has done it, and there's no doubt in my mind that I am at the prime of my life today. (Applause) Yeah. Thank you.
And the third thing I said on that beach was, "It looks like the most solitary endeavor in the world, and in many ways, of course, it is, and in other ways, and the most important ways, it's a team, and if you think I'm a badass, you want to meet Bonnie." (Laughter)
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Bonnie,你在哪裡?你在哪裡?Bonnie Stoll在那裡。(掌聲)我的夥伴。
亨利‧大衛‧梭羅有句名言:當你實現夢想時,重點不在於你獲得什麼,而在於你因此變成什麼樣的人。是的,現在我站在你們面前,那趟旅程已結束三個月。我接受過歐普拉的訪談、我造訪過歐巴馬總統的橢圓形辦公室、我受邀為像你們這樣令人尊敬的團體演講、我簽了一個很棒的出書合約。這些都很棒,我不會貶低它的價值,這一切令我自豪。但事實是,我抬頭挺胸,因為我是一位勇敢無畏的人,我將時時保持這樣的自我,直到最後。
十分感謝,好好享受這場會議。
謝謝、謝謝、謝謝。(掌聲)謝謝、謝謝、謝謝、謝謝、謝謝。找出方法!
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Bonnie, where are you? Where are you? There's Bonnie Stoll. (Applause) My buddy.
The Henry David Thoreau quote goes, when you achieve your dreams, it's not so much what you get as who you have become in achieving them. And yeah, I stand before you now. In the three months since that swim ended, I've sat down with Oprah and I've been in President Obama's Oval Office. I've been invited to speak in front of esteemed groups such as yourselves. I've signed a wonderful major book contract. All of that's great, and I don't denigrate it. I'm proud of it all, but the truth is, I'm walking around tall because I am that bold, fearless person, and I will be, every day, until it's time for these days to be done.
Thank you very much and enjoy the conference.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. (Applause) Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Find a way!