陌生人&奇遇 Strangers and Serendipity by Nigel Teh 

原文链接 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/oGCn50pFwlBnmRgCupyMIA

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Neither of us spoke each other’s language, but my encounter with this stranger will always serve as a perennial reminder that kindness is something that does not require words as a conduit for expression.

我们没有相同的语言。但，我与这位陌生人的相遇一直在提醒着我，善良是不需要通过语言表达的。

It was during the spring break of 2017 when I had embarked on one of the greatest adventures of my life - to follow in the footsteps of the Incan people of yesteryears on a 4-day hike along the Inca Trail leading to the impossibly beautiful ancient site of Machu Picchu. After the initial adrenaline rush had subsided, it was back to reality and the journey home involved a long 14-hour fight back to New York. Part of this included an 8-hour long layover in this tiny little regional airport in the city of Cali in Colombia. I was exhausted and barely got through with a lack of sleep for the past few days. 

故事发生于2017年的春假。那时的我正开启一段属于自己人生中最棒的冒险旅程之一——跟随昔日印加人的足迹，沿着印加古道进行为期四天的徒步旅行，一路前往美丽无比的马丘比丘古城。在最初肾上腺素所带来的一阵兴奋随着时间消退后，我终于回到现实，踏上了归途。路上坐了14小时的长途回到了纽约，其中就包括在哥伦比亚卡利市的一个小型机场停留8个小时。过去几天的旅途劳累、困乏和睡眠不足使得我有些精疲力尽。

The expectation upon arrival in the layover airport was this:

到达中途机场时的期望是这样的： 

You know…kicking back with a little rest and relaxation in a cozy airport lounge wouldn’t seem like a bad idea. The reality was more like this:

你知道的，在一个舒适的机场休息室里放松一下似乎还是个不错的主意。但是现实更像这样：

This was the airport that I had landed in, which reminded me more of an old worn-down strip mall rather than an airport terminal. Also, picture the place with 90% fewer people than what’s shown here and most of the shops closed. This airport probably isn’t a major transit hub as the information board only showed about 3 flights arriving and departing on that day. So I found myself tired and alone in a foreign land in which I do not speak the language, and the people weren’t equally well versed with my English tongue, to say the least.

我到达的机场，更让我觉得它是一个破旧的购物中心，而不是一个机场航站楼。另外，想象一下这儿的人比机场看上去少90%，大部分的商店还关门了。很可能这里并不是一个主要的中转枢纽，因为信息板上只显示当天有大约 3 个到达和离开的航班。所以我发现自己在这块陌生的土地上感到有些疲倦和孤独，我不会说当地人的语言，他们也一样，不精通我所讲的英语。

There was no Starbucks, no lounge and no internet to be found. I had wandered around in the empty terminal for a while wondering how I would kill time until I stumbled upon a tiny entrance tucked in an inconspicuous corner of the place with a sign above that read “Hotel”. This could either be the rest that I’m dying for or the start of a potential horror movie.

机场没有星巴克，没有休息室和网络。徘徊在空旷的航站楼许久，思考着我该如何消磨这漫长的时间。偶然间我发现了一个入口，隐蔽在一个不起眼的角落里，标志上面写着“酒店”。这儿，要么能容我急需休息的身体得以放松，要么可能是一部潜在恐怖电影的第一幕。

I sheepishly walked through the doors into an empty lobby and an unmanned front desk. After a while, a man emerged from the back room and if my memory served me well it was at best a conversation between a human and a Martian (me being the alien in this scenario). Despite our best attempts, neither of us understood each other, but it somehow ended with my understanding that there were no available rooms for the day. I tried a no-shame last resort making signs with my hands to see if I could take a corner of the lobby while waiting for my flight to depart. He got the message and cleared up a seat for me and gave me the WiFi password. It was already more than a kind gesture for a stranger who walked through his door and wasn’t even a paying customer. This is as good as it gets.

我羞怯的穿过门，路过一个无人值守的前台，走进了一个空荡荡的大厅。过了一会儿，一个男人从后面的房间里走出来。如果我没记错的话，这可能会是一场人类和火星人之间的对话（在这种情况下我是那个外星人）。尽管我们尽了最大的努力，都不甚了解彼此所说的语言。但我还是明白了这儿已经没有更多房间提供给我休息了。我最后尝试了一种比较不要脸的方法，用手势示意那个人，看看我是否可以在等待航班起飞时占据这里大厅的一角。他心领神会，为我腾出座椅，还给我了WiFi密码。对于一个走进他家店里甚至还不是付费客户的陌生人来说，这已经是超越普通善意的举动了。这样的待遇已经再好不过了。

After an hour or so of fiddling around on my phone, I heard the sound of glass settling in front of me and looked up to find a woman who seemed like the housekeeper of the hotel. She smiled at me like I was an old friend and had given me a nice cold drink and quickly proceeded to speak eloquently in Spanish in what I could only imagine as curious questions about me, to which I had responded in English as if she understood me perfectly. This two-language conversation went on for a good 10 minutes like two friends catching up on each other’s life, just nodding and smiling in acknowledgment after every finished sentence. 

玩了一个多小时的手机后，我听到有人把杯子放在我面前。抬起头来，她应该是酒店的打扫卫生的阿姨。她像老朋友一样对我微笑，给我喝了一杯不错的冷饮，然后很快用流利的西班牙语好奇的问了我能想象到的一些关于我自己的问题。我只能用英语回答，就好像她能完美理解一样。但是这种对话持续了10多分钟，就像两个朋友在询问彼此的近况，每说完一句话就点头微笑表示感谢。

Different things fill your heart with joy. Sometimes it’s the cobblestone streets in Cuzco on a chilly Spring evening and sometimes it’s a conversation with a stranger. This is what traveling is at best. You don’t just find yourself looking out into the horizon on the highest point of the Inca Trail in awe of the beauty that’s right in front of you, but also get the chance to cross paths with others along the way that remind you of certain truths in life:

不同的事物能让你心生喜悦。有的是春寒料峭时晚上库斯科的鹅卵石街道，有时是与陌生人的谈话。这就是最好的旅行。你不仅可以在印加古道的最高处眺望遥远的地平线，敬畏眼前的美象，而且还有机会沿途遇到其他人，这些的种种都能让你在某时想起那些生活中的真相：

1. Not everyone understands a language, but everyone knows a smile when they see one. This is often a good opening move to start with most people.

1. 不是每个人都懂一种语言，但每个人看到微笑时却都能明白它的含义。对于大多数人来说，这通常是一个很好的开场白。

2. Our expectations often don’t match up to reality, but chance encounters and serendipity its own beauty and is part of the adventure. You may not end up sipping on a Margarita in an airport lounge, but a cold glass of water offered in kindness tastes just as sweet.

2. 我们的期望往往与现实不符，但偶然的相遇和意外的发现本身就很美丽，这也是冒险和旅程的一部分。你可能最终不会在机场休息室啜饮玛格丽特，但一杯出于善意而提供的冰水可能会同样甘甜。

3. The world may seem like a dangerous place and that everyone is out to get you. The picture of Colombia in most people’s minds doesn’t conjure up the same image as what one might get when they think of, say, Switzerland. We need to constantly challenge the supposed “truths” that we hold on to because there are foreign strangers who are simply happy to chit-chat with you like an old pal even when she clearly does not understand a single thing that you’re saying. 

3. 世界很可能看起来像一个危险的地方，每个人都看起来要针对你。在大多数人的脑海里，想到哥伦比亚的画面可能和瑞士并不相同。我们需要不断的挑战曾经假定并坚信的那些“事实”，因为这里有太多来自不同国家的陌生人很乐意像老朋友一样和你聊天，即使她明显听不懂你在说什么。

I shall stop here lest I become too Pollyanna about traveling and meeting strangers. When we eventually emerge on the other side of this pandemic, I hope we get to go places again…with even greater hope that we go accompanied by the realization that there is a common thread that underlies the fabric of this human race. 

我将就此打住，以免我对旅行和结识陌生人变得太过盲目乐观。当我们最终出现在这场新冠疫情的另一端时，我希望我们能再次去到一些地方……带着更大的希望，一种意识伴随着我们：一个共同的针线在穿引于人类种族这块针织布之中。

Bonus read of one of my favorite stories about encounters with strangers 

如想阅读更多，这是我喜欢的与陌生人相遇的故事之一：

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cntraveler.com/stories/2016-03-01/elizabeth-gilberts-life-changing-story-from-indonesia-that-you-havent-heard/amp