Pico Iyer: What ping-pong taught me about life
皮柯·耶尔: 乒乓和胜利之谜
Pico Iyer has spent more than 30 years tracking movement and stillness -- and the way criss-crossing cultures have changed the world, our imagination and all our relationships. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
are set up in a studio.
the balls collide in midair
we select partners and play doubles.
tell you who's won,
every five minutes.
of who is winning games.
到底是谁赢了比赛。
of furious exertion,
without competition.
却创造出了比赛的精神。
is best followed by watching ping-pong.
看乒乓了解地缘政治。
were fiercest enemies
曾是针锋相对的敌人,
some small green tables,
could breathe more easily.
"a spiritual nuclear weapon."
honorary lifelong member
this win-win situation
the bouncing white ball.
来讲述,效果最好。
like a cousin of "sing-song,"
“合唱(sing-song)”的表亲,
that it was invented by high-class Brits
是由维多利亚时代
over walls of books after dinner.
用书对着墙击打葡萄酒软塞。
from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire:
奥匈帝国的球员垄断:
early world championships
that was hit at them
the whole sport to a standstill.
带入了停滞状态。
in Prague in 1936,
two hours and 12 minutes.
两小时12分后才被拿下。
the umpire had to retire with a sore neck
裁判在这一比分结束前
the ball back with his left hand
started, of course, filing out,
maybe 12,000 strokes.
the International Table Tennis Association
longer than 20 minutes.
Japan entered the picture,
watchmaker called Hiroji Satoh
in Bombay in 1952.
孟买的国际锦标赛上。
he wasn't highly rated,
that was not pimpled,
secret weapon,
into the streets of Tokyo
was set into motion.
at my regular games in Japan,
常规乒乓赛中学到的,
the inner sport of global domination,
we change partners every five minutes,
我们每五分钟就会更换搭档,
you're very likely to win
那么在六分钟后,
that as a boy growing up in England,
作为在英格兰长大的男孩,
of a game was to win.
that, really, the point of a game
around you feel that they are winners.
的人认为他们是赢家。
as an individual might,
steady chorus.
的团体的一部分。
a 9-1 lead for their team
将他们球队 9 比 1 的领先,
is intensely involved.
都能积极参与其中。
these high, looping lobs
but I think he's thought of as a loser.
但我觉得他却是个输家。
is really like an act of love.
to take all the fun out of the sport.
剥夺了运动的乐趣。
victory against our strongest players,
感受到胜利的喜悦,
with a new partner,
和一个新的搭档在一起。
I never felt disconsolate.
and started playing singles again
I was really brokenhearted.
我真的非常伤心。
I couldn't sleep either,
only one way to go,
business in Japan,
after four hours,
are based on winning percentage,
can finish ahead
排名更靠前。
was ever brought over to Japan
美国人被带到日本
Japanese baseball team,
second-place finish,
quite a lot like that point
two hours and 12 minutes,
才拿下的一分,
the daring, the excitement, out of things.
playing ping-pong in Japan
regularly enjoy more fun
your small part perfectly,
唱好你的那一声部,
a beautiful harmony
than the sum of its parts.
from a child's simple sense of either-ors.
对于对错的简单理解。
of winning isn't losing --
for years after it has unfolded.
被正确的评价。
I owned in the world,
失去了我在这世界上
that it was that seeming loss
这看上去的损失
on the earth more gently,
known as the ping-pong table.
也就是乒乓球桌。
into the perfect job,
really relieves me of all my anxiety,
脱离了所有的焦虑,
in a more or less equal state of delight.
都表现出了差不多的欢乐。
isn't the same thing as falling behind
is the same thing as being dead.
are said to offer degrees in ping-pong,
have found that ping-pong
with mild mental disorders
2020 年奥运会的时候,
to tell who's won or who's lost
for two hours and 12 minutes?
两小时 12 分钟的一分吗?
ended up, six years later,
of Auschwitz and Dachau.
his ping-pong playing days.
before even the first point was concluded.
第一个比分揭晓前就离开了。
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Pico Iyer - Global authorPico Iyer has spent more than 30 years tracking movement and stillness -- and the way criss-crossing cultures have changed the world, our imagination and all our relationships.
Why you should listen
In twelve books, covering everything from Revolutionary Cuba to the XIVth Dalai Lama, Islamic mysticism to our lives in airports, Pico Iyer has worked to chronicle the accelerating changes in our outer world, which sometimes make steadiness and rootedness in our inner world more urgent than ever. In his TED Book, The Art of Stillness, he draws upon travels from North Korea to Iran to remind us how to remain focused and sane in an age of frenzied distraction. As he writes in the book, "Almost everybody I know has this sense of overdosing on information and getting dizzy living at post-human speeds ... All of us instinctively feel that something inside us is crying out for more spaciousness and stillness to offset the exhilarations of this movement and the fun and diversion of the modern world."
Pico Iyer | Speaker | TED.com