Pico Iyer: What ping-pong taught me about life
皮科.艾爾: 乒乓球和勝利之謎
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.
乒乓球桌放在一間房間中。
the balls collide in midair
we select partners and play doubles.
選夥伴玩雙打。
tell you who's won,
every five minutes.
of who is winning games.
of furious exertion,
without competition.
is best followed by watching ping-pong.
最好的方式就是看乒乓球。
were fiercest enemies
是非常對立的敵人,
some small green tables,
could breathe more easily.
"a spiritual nuclear weapon."
「靈性的核武」。
honorary lifelong member
this win-win situation
現代世界的歷史
the bouncing white ball.
like a cousin of "sing-song,"
「唱歌(英文發音類似)」的表親,
that it was invented by high-class Brits
它是在維多利亞時期
over walls of books after dinner.
打向書牆,發明了乒乓。
from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire:
early world championships
that was hit at them
the whole sport to a standstill.
打到停滯狀態。
in Prague in 1936,
一場冠軍賽事中,
two hours and 12 minutes.
才有人得了第一分。
the umpire had to retire with a sore neck
裁判就已經因為脖子酸痛而離場。
the ball back with his left hand
started, of course, filing out,
開始一個接一個離開,
maybe 12,000 strokes.
要揮一萬兩千拍。
the International Table Tennis Association
longer than 20 minutes.
Japan entered the picture,
watchmaker called Hiroji Satoh
in Bombay in 1952.
孟買的世界冠軍賽。
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,
the inner sport of global domination,
我們從來不單打,
we change partners every five minutes,
我們每五分鐘就換夥伴,
you're very likely to win
that as a boy growing up in England,
of a game was to win.
that, really, the point of a game
其實比賽的重點
around you feel that they are winners.
有越多人感覺自己是贏家。
as an individual might,
一個人那樣載沉載浮,
steady chorus.
a 9-1 lead for their team
讓他們球隊九比一領先的局面
is intensely involved.
讓大家和比賽緊密結合。
these high, looping lobs
but I think he's thought of as a loser.
但我認為他被視為是輸家。
is really like an act of love.
像是一種愛的舉動。
to take all the fun out of the sport.
victory against our strongest players,
我不能為之狂喜,
with a new partner,
I never felt disconsolate.
沒有感覺鬱鬱不樂。
and started playing singles again
I was really brokenhearted.
I couldn't sleep either,
only one way to go,
business in Japan,
after four hours,
are based on winning percentage,
can finish ahead
was ever brought over to Japan
Japanese baseball team,
second-place finish,
quite a lot like that point
two hours and 12 minutes,
才得到的那一分,
the daring, the excitement, out of things.
大膽冒險、興奮都給奪去。
playing ping-pong in Japan
regularly enjoy more fun
your small part perfectly,
就是完美演出你的小角色,
a beautiful harmony
than the sum of its parts.
加總起來更強大。
from a child's simple sense of either-ors.
of winning isn't losing --
贏的另一面並不是輸——
for years after it has unfolded.
I owned in the world,
所擁有的一切,
that it was that seeming loss
那看似失去一切的狀況,
on the earth more gently,
known as the ping-pong table.
也就是乒乓球桌。
into the perfect job,
遇到了一個完美的工作,
really relieves me of all my anxiety,
解除了所有焦慮,
in a more or less equal state of delight.
差不多同等的愉悅。
isn't the same thing as falling behind
is the same thing as being dead.
並不等同於死了。
are said to offer degrees in ping-pong,
have found that ping-pong
with mild mental disorders
心理疾病有一點幫助,
to tell who's won or who's lost
for two hours and 12 minutes?
ended up, six years later,
奧斯威辛和達豪集中營。
of Auschwitz and Dachau.
his ping-pong playing days.
before even the first point was concluded.
在那一分出現之前就離場了。
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