塔斯馬尼亞州的慢生活

Slow Life in Tasmania Is Finally Fulfilling

by Hilary Burden Joyce譯

塔斯馬尼亞州的慢生活

Slow Life in Tasmania Is Finally Fulfilling

by Hilary Burden Joyce譯

“從明天起，做一個幸福的人，喂馬、劈柴，周游世界。從明天起，關心糧食和蔬菜。我有一所房子，面朝大海，春暖花開。”我想，在快速發展的現代社會里，不少人都有這樣一個愿望：找一個山清水秀人美的地方，過一段簡單快樂的人生。

T his morning I picked golden plums straight from the trees in my back garden. A guilty pleasure; I didn’t plant the trees, they require little care, and they are free. But they are loved.

Home, now, after years working in London, is a green valley in Tasmania, a place with a postcode and no shop. I was brought up in Tasmania in the late 1960s and 70s, when it was common for young people to leave the place to experience more of the world. Now, after more than two decades away, and much to my surprise, it is my world.

Having lived a professional life mostly in London, a return to Tasmania came about because of a desire to live closer to food and nature. I’d learned about the slow food movement working on a food magazine in London, but my own life was too fast to live it, and I ate out more than in. Days were wasted in traffic jams, in queues, on public transport, in long meetings, and in waiting… I felt my city life was over.

So I settled on a simple weatherboard house in the country I knew, no job, and no idea how to sustain a life—just a knowingness that said if I had stayed where I was I would fade like a cushion in the sun. My mother lives half an hour away, and so do my two brothers, with their children. You don’t go home for them, but a blood connection is both easier and harder than any other.

今天早晨我在后花園的樹上摘了一些洋李。我感到一絲愧疚的愉悅感。這些樹不是我種下的，不需要怎么照料，還是免費的。但它們很討人喜歡。

在倫敦工作多年以后，現在，我的家在塔斯馬尼亞州的一個青翠的山谷中，一個有郵政編碼，但沒有任何商鋪的地方。我成長于上世紀60年代后期到70年代的塔斯馬尼亞，那時，離開家鄉，體驗更廣闊的世界對年輕人來說是很常見的事情。而現在，二十多年以后，出乎意料地，這里成了我的全部天地。

我之前大部分時間都在倫敦過著為工作而忙碌的生活，回來塔斯馬尼亞是因為想要過一種與食物和自然更加親近的生活。我從前在倫敦的一家飲食雜志社工作時，了解到“慢食運動”這個概念，但我個人的生活節奏實在是太快了，我無法響應這個運動，我大多數時候都外出用餐。日子都浪費在了塞車、排隊、公共交通、漫長的會議以及等待當中……我覺得得結束那樣的城市生活。

因此，我搬去了一個熟悉的鄉村，在一間簡單的檐板房里安家落戶。我沒有工作，也不知道該如何維持生計，只知道如果我再繼續留在以前的地方，我就會像陽光下的墊子一樣褪色。