In praise of the daily walk

對日常散步的贊美

A brisk half hour walk a day will keep you healthy – and sane – say researchers. Eight people reveal what walking means to them

研究人員說，每天半小時(shí)輕松的散步將使你保持健康和清醒。下面8個(gè)人坦言了散步對他們的重要性

, Tuesday 16 November 2010

·英國衛(wèi)報(bào)，2010年11月16日，星期二

Simon Armitage, poet

西蒙·阿米蒂奇，詩人

I try to get in a bit of a walk most days. Most times it's a toss up between going for a walk and staying in and writing a poem, but it often leads to the same thing. I go on to the moors – we live on the edge of the Pennines and Saddleworth moor, and it can be quite bleak and quite dangerous. Sometimes I go off-piste, but there are issues around here with land ownership so sometimes I stick to the roads and the routes and sometimes I wilfully transgress, which gives me a kick.

我每天都盡量走一小會兒。很多時(shí)候我不知道是該去走走呢，還是呆在屋里寫詩，但是結(jié)果總是一樣的。我會走去曠野里——我們住在奔寧山脈和薩德爾沃思原野的邊上，那兒總是十分荒涼而危險(xiǎn)的。有的時(shí)候我會走小路，但這總是會牽扯到土地所有權(quán)的問題所以我就黏在大路上，有時(shí)我也故意做點(diǎn)兒壞事兒，但總是收到懲罰。

Some people have said there's a relationship between poetic meter and the fall of your foot – and possibly your heartbeat might be thought of as an iambic beat when it's amplified by walking. Often when I go for a walk I come back with a poem. There's a sense of creativity about it, and a sense of wellbeing that you are getting the organs and lungs and the blood moving. You never come back from a walk feeling worse – sometimes you come back feeling colder and wetter though, especially up here.

有人曾說在詩的韻律和你落下的腳步之間有某種聯(lián)系——很可能你走路時(shí)被加強(qiáng)的心跳就被認(rèn)為是一種短長格的節(jié)奏。我經(jīng)常散步回來就能寫出一首詩。在散步的過程中你能感到創(chuàng)造力，并且感受到一種由身體器官、肺和血液的流動(dòng)而帶來的健康感。你從來不會在散步回來覺得糟糕——盡管有時(shí)你會覺得有點(diǎn)兒冷和濕，因?yàn)槌龊?，特別是身上。

I'm sure that somewhere in the back of my mind I see it as a therapeutic activity. I know it can be good for a hangover. Some people believe strongly that art in general can put you in touch with yourself and through it you start feeling worthwhile and valuable, and there might be some kind of chemical trigger that aids recovery and keeps illness at bay. If a walk leads to a poem, maybe there's a relationship there.

在我的內(nèi)心深處，我確信步行是一件具有治愈功能的活動(dòng)。我知道它可以解酒。一些人認(rèn)為，藝術(shù)常常能將你和你自己聯(lián)系起來，這會使你感到自身的價(jià)值和意義，同時(shí)又有某種化學(xué)物質(zhì)觸發(fā)疾病恢復(fù)和防御系統(tǒng)。如果散步能產(chǎn)生出一首詩歌，也許正是由于這種聯(lián)系。

I am 47 now and sometimes I think "How many more fantastic days out on these moors are there?' Sometimes it can be an expedition just to go up there, but when it's sunny and clear and crisp like yesterday it's exhilarating, and that gets right down to the far tributaries of your lungs that normally are breathing warm radiator air and it does heighten your sense of wellbeing.

現(xiàn)在我47歲了，有時(shí)我會想，我還有多少日子可以在這片壯美的曠野上流連？有時(shí)登上那片土地就仿佛在探險(xiǎn)，但是當(dāng)空氣如昨日般明朗清冽的時(shí)候又是如此令人振奮，那種感覺直達(dá)你平時(shí)只呼吸由散熱器發(fā)出的空氣的肺部，大大地提升你的健康感。

Geoff Dyer, writer

杰夫·戴爾，作家

I don't own a car, I'm too stingy to take taxis and am too impatient to wait for buses, so, when I'm not on my bike, I'm walking. Walking is the default pleasure of urban life. Don't get me wrong, I'm not some kind of flneur and I don't just go for a walk. I walk at speed, with purpose (to get to the Coffee Plant for my elevenses, for example). And I don't notice anything except things that are slowing me down: prams that are in my way or people like my wife, trailing behind, whimpering, "Why can't we just stroll?" Because strolling is for tourists and it's exhausting. That's why they come out of our museums feeling like they've run a marathon in reverse: because they're walking more slowly than the human body was designed to.

我沒有車，沒錢打的 ，也沒有耐心等公交，所以，當(dāng)我不騎自行車時(shí)，我就步行。步行是鄉(xiāng)村生活固有的一種樂趣。別誤會我，我不是什么故作姿態(tài)的漫步者，也不僅僅是為了散步而散步。我有意地以某種速度行走（比如去“咖啡樹”來點(diǎn)兒午前茶點(diǎn)什么的 ）。而且，除非什么東西使我慢下來，我心無旁騖——路上的手推車或者我妻子總會在我的身后表示不滿： “為什么我們不能慢慢走？”因?yàn)橛慰筒怕?，而且，這很耗費(fèi)體力。這就解釋了為什么人們從博物館走出來卻反而覺得自己跑了趟馬拉松：他們走得太慢了，不符合人體自然機(jī)制。

I walk fast but I do not run. Adorno was right: running in the street always conveys an impression of terror. "Once people ran from dangers that were too desperate to turn and face, and someone running after a bus unwittingly bears witness to past terror . . . Human dignity insisted on the right to walk, a rhythm not extorted from the body by command or terror."

我走得很快，但我不跑。阿多諾是對的：在街上奔跑讓人感覺你恐懼。人類奔跑著逃離那些令人絕望得難以面對的危險(xiǎn)，追趕公交車的人也在不知不覺間被人盯著渡過恐懼。人類的尊嚴(yán)在于行走的權(quán)利，在于一種不被軀體命令也不被恐懼驅(qū)趕的節(jié)奏。

Joan Bakewell, writer

瓊·貝克威爾，作家

City life cuts you off from the seasons, but walking restores your awareness. In the crisp autumn light I love the chance to kick up the golden leaves. If it rains, well, too bad. Snowfalls are best of all: especially the fun of being first to plant your footprint in a virgin field, and see the trees while the hunks of snow are still lodged in the branches.

城市的生活使你感受不到季節(jié)的更迭，但是行走將你的感知重新喚醒。在秋日脆弱的陽光里，我盡情享受將金色落葉踢起的樂趣。不過如果下起雨就太糟了。下雪是所有里面最美好的 尤其是當(dāng)你在潔白無暇的雪地上留下第一個(gè)腳印，并且看到樹枝上厚厚的積雪時(shí)。

London is blessed with plenty of parks and tree-lined streets. I can walk from my home to BBC's Broadcasting House right through Regent's Park. Its gardens are a delight, wonderfully planned and tended. The Broad Walk of tall plane trees is a favourite with walkers and the odd skate-boarder. And there's a nice cafe for a rest half way.

倫敦有幸擁有大量的公園和綠樹成蔭的街道。我可以直接穿過攝政公園，從我家走到BBC廣播大廈。公園的花木受到精心的打理和照料，十分令人愉快。路邊高大的法國梧桐則是路人和那些奇怪的滑板玩家最喜歡的。在路邊，還有不錯(cuò)的咖啡店供你小憩。

Weekdays, I sometimes walk to and from my pilates class. London architecture is fabulous: I never tire of its variety and the abundance of people's gardens. Sometimes I stand on tiptoe to look over tall fences. I'm really nosy about how others live. When scaffolding's up I ask the builders what's going on. Not polite, I know.

在工作日，我時(shí)常往返于普拉提（一種健身操）課。倫敦的建筑棒的令人難以置信： 它使我從未對人類智慧花園的博大感到厭倦。有時(shí)我蹓到高大的柵欄旁邊偷偷向里望。我對別人怎么生活很感興趣。當(dāng)搭腳手架的材料運(yùn)來的時(shí)候，我就詢問蓋房子的人進(jìn)展如何了。我知道這很沒禮貌。

Lynne Truss, author

林恩·特拉斯，作家

I've worked at home for nearly 20 years, and there used to be days when I would go to lock the front door at bedtime, and find I'd never unlocked it from the night before. In those bad old days, I used to pay a personal trainer to take me for a walk along the seafront twice a week (I live most of the time in Brighton). I've never been attracted to running – I noticed that all my contemporaries who swore by it always seemed to say: "Oh yes, I would have carried on for ever if only my knee-caps hadn't shattered into a thousand pieces. Ooh, hand me that crutch, would you?" But I'm sure self-propelled movement and fresh air are good for you. And I've found that if you talk to yourself quite loudly while walking along, other people give you a nice wide berth, too.

我在家工作了將近20年，曾經(jīng)有段時(shí)間，我在臨睡前將門鎖上，然后發(fā)現(xiàn)自己自那晚以后再也不用將門打開了。在那段糟糕的舊時(shí)光里，我曾經(jīng)雇人每周帶我到海邊散兩回步（大部分時(shí)間我住在布賴頓）。我從來沒對跑步感興趣過——我發(fā)現(xiàn)和我年齡差不多的人好像都愛說“啊，是的，如果我的膝蓋骨沒有碎成好幾塊，我肯定會堅(jiān)持下來的。哦，把拐杖遞給我，好嗎？”但是我確信自主的運(yùn)動(dòng)和新鮮的空氣對你有好處。我還發(fā)現(xiàn)如果你一邊走一邊大聲對自己說話，別人會很友好地為你讓路的。

Having acquired a little dog 18 months ago, I thought exercise would automatically follow, and it's true that he and I are in and out of doors now at least four times a day. But unfortunately there's a snag. My adorable dog is quite small, for a start, with little legs. And although he loves to run along beside the sea with his nose against the breeze, it takes us about an hour to get there because en route he stops dead to sniff every bin, every tree, every fallen leaf. Talk about resistance training. I've got shoulder pains from dragging him alongside me from behind. In the end, I've worked out that the only way I get any proper exercise with the doggie is if I actually pick him up and carry him down to the sea and back – which fortunately he doesn't mind at all.

一年半以前我得到了一只小狗，我想運(yùn)動(dòng)自然就會跟著來了，確實(shí)，現(xiàn)在我倆每天至少出入家門四趟。但是很不幸困難隨之而來。我可愛的狗狗剛開始很小，長著四條小腿兒。盡管他很喜歡和我在海邊呼吸新鮮的空氣，我們也得花上一個(gè)小時(shí)才能到那兒，因?yàn)樵诎肼飞?，他會停下來去聞每一個(gè)垃圾箱，每一棵樹和每一片落葉。說起阻力訓(xùn)練，我為了把他牽在身邊而弄得肩膀疼。最終，我解決了這個(gè)問題：我和狗狗在一起做些適當(dāng)運(yùn)動(dòng)的唯一方法就是我得把他抱起來，然后往返海邊——幸運(yùn)的是，他倒是不介意我這么做。

Plum Sykes

普蘭姆·賽克斯

I absolutely adore walking as I find it a great way to start the day. I love to walk my daughter Ursula to school from Northumberland Place in London where I live to her school in Ladbroke Square. We go up and along the prettiest Notting Hill streets, and I love to get some fresh air before I start writing each day, as otherwise I really don't feel as if I have properly woken up. At weekends I love to walk on Painswick Beacon in Gloucestershire which is part of the famous Cotswold Way. It's extremely beautiful and incredibly ancient, and you feel as though you are a part of history while you walk - very therapeutic.

我確實(shí)很喜歡走路，因?yàn)槲野l(fā)現(xiàn)那是開始新一天的絕佳方式。我喜歡和我的女兒Ursula一起從我們的住所，諾森伯蘭郡，走到她位于拉德布魯克廣場的學(xué)校。我們沿著最漂亮的諾丁山街行走，在我開始一天的寫作之前呼吸一些新鮮空氣，不然的話我總覺得我還沒醒過來。在周末我喜歡到Painswick Beacon走走，它位于 格洛斯特郡，曾是著名的科茨沃爾德丘陵線路的一部分。那兒十分美麗，同時(shí)難以置信的古老，當(dāng)你漫步其中的時(shí)候你會覺得自己就是歷史的一部分——這十分有益身心。

Andrew Motion, poet

安德魯·摩申，詩人

I'm a keen walker. A year or so ago, I did a series of talks about poetry and walking and how, particularly when we hit the Romantic period, walking becomes a very important part of how they expressed their democratic feelings. Keats felt with walking he was part of the land – that he didn't have to be a rich person to be able to experience the sublime (he couldn't afford to go further afield on the Grand Tour).

我是一個(gè)十分熱衷于行走的人。大概一年以前，我就行走與詩歌的話題進(jìn)行了一些列的討論，特別是當(dāng)我們談到浪漫主義時(shí)期，行走成為人民表達(dá)他們民主意愿的方式。濟(jì)慈說當(dāng)他行走時(shí)他便成了大地的一部分——他不用去成為一個(gè)富人就可以體驗(yàn)偉大（因?yàn)樗?fù)擔(dān)不起那遙遠(yuǎn)的遍游歐洲大陸的教育旅行費(fèi)用）。

I don't have enough time to do as much of it as I would like, but my wife and I go round Hampstead Heath every weekend. It's a way of escaping the city. We chatter on the way, catch up on our week. We walk for about an hour and a half, and then if we can resist the siren sound of the pub – which we usually can't – we come home. When I am by myself, the rhythm of walking, and rhythm of writing and poetry are very easily combined. Wordsworth wrote most of his stuff when he was walking – or bumming as he called it. I certainly feel that way. The movement of the body releases a poem and then confirms its rhythmic identity. The sheer volume of things that you happen to notice – the birds you coincide with, the light, the accidental mess of things. Walking gives you ideas, unblocks blockages, sets up rhythms in your head. At times, I find it difficult not to get locked on to certain phrases, which can be maddening. You want to change the record after a while.

我沒有那么多時(shí)間想走多久就走多久，但是我和我的妻子每周末都會去漢普斯德特希思走走。這是我們逃避城市的一種方式。在途中我們會嘮叨嘮叨這一周。我們走一個(gè)半小時(shí)，然后，如果我們能夠忍受得了酒吧里警報(bào)般的聲音——通常境況下忍受不了——我們就回家。當(dāng)我獨(dú)自一人時(shí)，我行走的節(jié)奏和詩歌的節(jié)奏很容易就融為一體。沃茲沃思在散步時(shí)寫下他大部分詩作——或者用他自己的話來說，是哼哼出來的。我也有同樣的感覺。身體的律動(dòng)脫胎出詩歌，并且捋順?biāo)墓?jié)奏。你會遇上大量的事物——偶遇的鳥兒，光芒，意外的一些東西。行走給你靈感，打破障礙，并在你的頭腦里形成韻律。很多時(shí)候，我很難做到不在某一個(gè)句子上糾結(jié)不清，這令人抓狂。這時(shí)你就需要換換腦子了。

I still lament how fat I am getting, but I certainly would be much more so without walking. And life would be very dull without it.

我總是為我的體重而擔(dān)憂，但無疑不走路我會變得更胖。不能散步的生活也將變得枯燥無味。

Rachel Johnson, journalist

瑞秋·約翰遜，記者

Most days I walk with Coco my dog from Notting Hill in west London, where I live, to Covent Garden, where I work, wearing an unflattering, all-weather combination of hoodie and trainers (I slip into something much less comfortable when I get to The Lady). My commute is pretty peachy – I walk through park after park for an hour to get to work. I don't do it in the sleet, it's bad for morale, but I've come to realise it's the most effective and important hour of the day. I walk the dog. I make telephone calls. I exercise, but best of all, I'm outside.

大多時(shí)候我和我的狗狗Coco從我的住處，倫敦西部的諾丁山，走到工作的科芬園。我穿著并不光鮮、卻能適合任何天氣的風(fēng)帽衣和軟運(yùn)動(dòng)鞋（當(dāng)我去The Lady雜志時(shí)穿得可不舒服多了）。我的上班路線非常“桃色” ——我穿過一個(gè)又一個(gè)公園，步行一小時(shí)去工作。如果有雨夾雪我就不這么走了，因?yàn)椴焕谔岣呤繗?，但是我漸漸意識到這是一天中最有效率且最重要的一小時(shí)。我遛狗，打電話，運(yùn)動(dòng)，最重要的是，我身處室外。

I try not to listen to my iPhone – every time I plug it in, I'm reminded of what David Hockney said about people who do, which is that they are wasting their time, because they may look but they don't see. So I stare hard at the trees and the changing sky and I breathe fresh, grassy air.

我試著不去聽電話——每次插上插頭，我都想起大衛(wèi)霍克尼的話，他說人們在浪費(fèi)時(shí)間，他們在看，可是并沒有看見。所以我盡力凝視樹木和變幻的天空，呼吸新鮮的、帶青草香味的空氣。

Billy Bragg, musician

比利·布拉格，音樂家

Walking my dog twice a day across the fields of Dorset around our house is better exercise than I could ever get in a gym – I don't have to compete with everyone and though the route may be repetitious, the natural cycles of the countryside make every day different. What I wouldn't get at a gym is me time, an escape from a crowded cluttered day and a chance to recalibrate my senses all the way to the far horizon. Walking is a time for contemplation and, on good days, inspiration.

我每天和我的狗狗穿過我家附近的多賽特散步兩次，這比我在健身房得到的任何鍛煉都要好——我不用和人們競爭，而且，雖然道路迂回曲折，但城鎮(zhèn)的自然景觀卻給我的每一天帶來很大影響。在健身房，我不能得到的一樣?xùn)|西就是時(shí)間——我沒有時(shí)間從擁擠嘈雜的人群中逃離，利用這個(gè)機(jī)會以更廣闊的視野重新衡量我的感受。行走是思考冥想的時(shí)間，運(yùn)氣好的話，也是靈感的來源。

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