TED演讲：我为什么划船横渡太平洋(2)

 　　Now, some of you might be thinking, "Hold on a minute. 在座的有些人现在一定可能在想，“得了吧。

　　She doesn't look very much like an ocean rower.  她长得一点也不像个横渡大洋者。

　　Isn't she meant to be about this tall and about this wide and maybe look a bit more like these guys?" 她是不是长得这么高，或者这么强壮，是不是和这些家伙们有那么一点相似呢？”

　　You'll notice, they've all got something that I don't.  大家看得出他们具备的一些东西我的确没有。

　　Well, I don't know what you're thinking, but I'm talking about the beards. 我不知道大家心里想的是什么，我是指我没有他们那样的胡子。

　　And no matter how long I've spent on the ocean, I haven't yet managed to muster¹ a decent² beard, and I hope that it remains³ that way. 无论我在大洋上渡过多长时间，我依然无法让自己拥有他们那样的漂亮胡子，我希望还是保持原状吧。

　　For a long time, I didn't believe that I could have a big adventure. 在很长一段时间里，我都无法相信自己可以去冒险。

　　The story that I told myself was that adventurers looked like this. I didn't look the part. 我所认为的冒险，就是这些人所做的。看上去我不适合这样的冒险。

　　I thought there were them and there were us, and I was not one of them. 我曾经觉得我们和他们是两种人，而我不能成为他们中的一员。

　　So for 11 years, I conformed⁴. I did what people from my kind of background were supposed to do. 所以在11年里，我默守陈规，我完成了我这个背景的人应该做的事情。

　　I was working in an office in London as a management consultant⁵. 我以前在伦敦的一间办公室里，作管理顾问的工作。

　　And I think I knew from day one that it wasn't the right job for me. 我想我从工作的第一天就知道这份工作并不对我的心思。

　　But that kind of conditioning just kept me there for so many years, 但是那份工作的丰厚待遇还是让我从事了多年，

　　until I reached my mid-30s and I thought, "You know, I'm not getting any younger. " 一直到我三十四、五岁的时候，我意识到，“是啊，我已经不再年轻。”

　　I feel like I've got a purpose in this life, and I don't know what it is,  我知道我的人生当中还有追求，但我不知道是什么，

　　but I'm pretty certain that management consultancy is not it. 我十分确定的是，管理顾问工作绝不是我追求的目标。

　　So, fast forward a few years. I'd gone through some changes. 几年的时间转瞬即逝。我也经历了一些改变。

　　To try and answer that question of, "What am I supposed to be doing with my life?" 我认真思考回答了这个问题，“在我的人生里，我到底最想做什么？”

　　I sat down one day and wrote two versions⁶ of my own obituary⁷, the one that I wanted, a life of adventure, 终于有一天，我坐下来为自己写了两种不同的讣告，一个是我想要的，是充满了冒险经历的一生，

　　and the one that I was actually heading⁸ for which was a nice, normal, pleasant life, 而另一个则是按照我现在的生活轨迹所能达到的，一个享受正常、安逸、舒适生活的一生，

　　but it wasn't where I wanted to be by the end of my life. 而在我生命终结时，后者并不是我想要达到的目标。

　　I wanted to live a life that I could be proud of. 我希望拥有一个我为之自豪的一生。

1 muster   

v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册

参考例句：

• Go and muster all the men you can find.去集合所有你能找到的人。
• I had to muster my courage up to ask him that question.我必须鼓起勇气向他问那个问题。

2 decent   

adj.象样的，不错的，体面的，正派的，恰当的

参考例句：

• We want to raise our children to be decent men and women.我们盼望把孩子们培养成优秀人才。
• There isn't even a decent table in this room.这屋里连张像样的桌子也没有。

3 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

4 conformed   

[医]紧贴的，同形的

参考例句：

• He has conformed his life to certain principles. 他使自己的生活符合某些准则。
• This is merely one of the many instances of metaphysical theories seemingly conformed by facts. 这只不过是许许多多似乎有事实证明的形而上学理论之一罢了。

5 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

6 versions   

n.译本( version的名词复数 )；版本；（个人对事件的）描述；（原物的）变体

参考例句：

• There are two versions of the game, a long one and a short one. 这游戏有两个版本，一长一短。
• When both versions of the story were collated,major discrepancies were found. 在将这个故事的两个版本对照后，找出了主要的不符之处。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 obituary   

n.讣告，死亡公告；adj.死亡的

参考例句：

• The obituary records the whole life of the deceased.讣文记述了这位死者的生平。
• Five days after the letter came,he found Andersen s obituary in the morning paper.收到那封信五天后，他在早报上发现了安德森的讣告。

8 heading   

n.上标题，标题，起始字，方向

参考例句：

• The heading was in large letters.标题是用大号字母印刷的。
• He realized that he was heading in the wrong direction.他意识到走错了方向。