Ordinary abundance / 平凡的丰饶

The sitting room It’s eight o’clock. The apartment is quiet, aside from the music playing softly over the speaker. It’s a playlist your friend made for you years ago. You send them a text to check in, then pick up a book, flick on the lamp, and settle into the chair to read.

客厅 现在是八点钟。公寓里很安静，只有音箱里轻柔播放的音乐。那是一份你朋友多年前为你制作的歌单。你给他们发了条短信问候，然后拿起一本书，打开台灯，坐在椅子上阅读。

Any song, at home If we could have devised an arrangement for providing everybody with music in their homes, perfect in quality, unlimited in quantity, suited to every mood, and beginning and ceasing at will, we should have considered the limit of human felicity already attained. Edward Bellamy, 1888 — From Looking Backward, his utopian novel set in the year 2000. Before recordings, listening to music meant having instruments or performers nearby, and favorite songs could go unheard for years at a time.

随时随地的音乐 “如果我们能设计出一种安排，让每个人都能在家里享受到音乐，音质完美、数量无限、适合各种心境，且能随心所欲地开始和停止，我们就会认为人类的幸福已达到极限。” ——爱德华·贝拉米（Edward Bellamy），1888年，摘自其设定在2000年的乌托邦小说《回顾》（Looking Backward）。 在录音技术出现之前，听音乐意味着必须有乐器或表演者在场，而最喜欢的歌曲可能几年都听不到一次。

Light without fire The people, almost with bated breath, stood overwhelmed with awe, as if in the presence of the supernatural. The strange, weird light, exceeded in power only by the sun, yet mild as moonlight, rendered the Court House square as light as midday. A witness at Wabash, Indiana, 1880 — The night Wabash, Indiana became one of the first cities lit entirely by electric light. Candles, oil lamps, and gas jets gave relatively feeble light, and were all smoky open fires inside the home.

无火之光 “人们屏住呼吸，敬畏得不知所措，仿佛置身于超自然力量面前。那奇异而诡谲的光芒，威力仅次于太阳，却又如月光般柔和，将法院广场照得如同正午一般明亮。” ——印第安纳州沃巴什市的一位目击者，1880年，当晚沃巴什市成为首批完全由电灯照明的城市之一。 蜡烛、油灯和煤气灯提供的光线相对微弱，且在室内都是冒着烟的明火。

A museum on the wall A museum without walls has been opened to us, and it will carry infinitely farther that limited revelation of the world of art which the real museums offer us within their walls. André Malraux, 1947 — Le Musée imaginaire, later translated as Museum Without Walls. Before reliable reproduction, most people saw major artworks only by visiting churches, collections, or museums.

墙上的博物馆 “一座没有围墙的博物馆已向我们敞开，它将把现实博物馆在围墙内提供给我们的、对艺术世界的有限启示，无限地延伸开去。” ——安德烈·马尔罗（André Malraux），1947年，《想象的博物馆》（Le Musée imaginaire），后被译为《无墙的博物馆》。 在可靠的复制技术出现之前，大多数人只能通过参观教堂、私人收藏或博物馆才能看到主要的艺术作品。

Memories kept The very shadow of the person lying there fixed for ever! … I would rather have such a memorial of one I dearly loved, than the noblest artist’s work ever produced. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1843 — On first seeing a daguerreotype, in a letter to Mary Russell Mitford. Preserving a likeness used to require a painted portrait; many families had no accurate image of relatives who died.

留住记忆 “躺在那里的人的影子被永远定格了！……比起最伟大的艺术家创作的作品，我宁愿拥有这样一份我深爱之人的纪念。” ——伊丽莎白·巴雷特·勃朗宁（Elizabeth Barrett Browning），1843年，在致玛丽·拉塞尔·米特福德的信中，描述首次见到银版摄影法照片时的感受。 保存肖像过去需要绘制画像；许多家庭甚至没有已故亲人的准确影像。

Reading after the eyes fail It is not twenty years since there was discovered the art of making spectacles … one of the best and most necessary in the world. I myself saw the man who discovered it, and I talked with him. Friar Giordano da Pisa, 1306 — A sermon at Santa Maria Novella, Florence. Age-related vision loss was common, and before spectacles it could end reading and other close work.

视力衰退后的阅读 “眼镜制造术被发现还不到二十年……这是世界上最好、最必要的发明之一。我亲自见过那位发明者，并与他交谈过。” ——乔达诺·达·比萨修士（Friar Giordano da Pisa），1306年，在佛罗伦萨新圣母大殿的布道。 与年龄相关的视力下降很常见，在眼镜出现之前，这可能意味着阅读和其他近距离工作的终结。

Distant messaging Of all the marvellous achievements of modern science, the Electric Telegraph is transcendently the greatest and most serviceable to mankind. It is a perpetual miracle, which no familiarity can render commonplace. Briggs & Maverick, 1858 — The Story of the Telegraph. For most of history, messages traveled only as fast as the person who carried them. Receiving a reply from far away could take weeks or months.

远程通讯 “在现代科学所有惊人的成就中，电报无疑是最伟大、对人类最有益的。它是一个永恒的奇迹，无论多么习以为常，都无法使其变得平庸。” ——布里格斯与马弗里克（Briggs & Maverick），1858年，《电报的故事》。 在历史的大部分时间里，信息的传递速度仅限于送信人的速度。收到远方的回信可能需要数周甚至数月。

Books unchained A great good, and almost a divine benefit to the world. Jakob Wimpfeling, 1505 — The German humanist, on the new art of printing. A hand-copied book was valuable enough that libraries chained theirs to the reading desks.

不再锁链的图书 “这是一件伟大的好事，几乎是上帝赐予世界的恩惠。” ——雅各布·温普菲林（Jakob Wimpfeling），1505年，这位德国人文主义者在评价新兴的印刷术时说道。 手抄本曾极其珍贵，以至于图书馆必须将书用铁链锁在阅览桌上。

The kitchen It’s nine. A chapter ends, and you stretch and wander into the kitchen. You’re not exactly sure what you want, so you aimlessly rifle through your fruit bowl, open and close the door to the fridge, and settle on a cup of tea. You lean against the counter and let your mind wander as the water comes to a boil.

厨房 九点了。一章读完，你伸了个懒腰，溜达到厨房。你不确定自己想吃什么，于是漫无目的地翻翻果盘，开关几次冰箱门，最后决定泡杯茶。你靠在台面上，任由思绪飘荡，等待水烧开。

Clean water on tap Water! Water! is the universal note which is sounded through every part of the city, and infuses joy and exultation into the masses. Philip Hone, 1842 — On the arrival of Croton water in New York City, in his diary. Manhattan’s wells shared soil with its privies and burial grounds; the cholera epidemic ten years earlier had killed 3,515 New Yorkers.

自来水 “水！水！这是城市各个角落都在传唱的共同音符，它为大众注入了欢乐与狂喜。” ——菲利普·霍恩（Philip Hone），1842年，在其日记中记录克罗顿水库的水引入纽约市时的情景。 曼哈顿的水井与厕所和墓地共用土壤；十年前的霍乱疫情曾夺走了3515名纽约人的生命。

Fruit from afar Like lovers’ kisses, she biteth — she is a pleasure bordering on pain from the fierceness and insanity of her relish. Charles Lamb, 1822 — On the rapture of the pineapple. In eighteenth-century Britain, a pineapple was costly enough that hostesses sometimes rented one for the evening rather than eat it.

远方的水果 “就像恋人的吻，它会咬人——那种滋味浓烈而疯狂，带来一种近乎痛苦的愉悦。” ——查尔斯·兰姆（Charles Lamb），1822年，描述品尝菠萝时的狂喜。 在18世纪的英国，菠萝非常昂贵，女主人有时会租一个菠萝来装饰晚宴，而不是吃掉它。

Cold kept indoors The first transport of ice from the shores of the United States to the banks of the Ganges is an event of no mean importance … the names of those who planned and have successfully carried through their adventure at their own cost, deserve to be handed down to posterity with the name of other benefactors of mankind. The Calcutta Courier, 1837 — On the arrival of New England pond-ice in tropical India. Without cold storage, perishable food like dairy and meat spoiled within a day, and most foods could not be kept or eaten out of season.

室内冷藏 “从美国海岸向恒河岸边运送冰块，这绝非小事……那些自费策划并成功完成这一壮举的人，他们的名字理应与人类的其他恩人一起流芳百世。” ——《加尔各答信使报》，1837年，报道新英格兰的池塘冰块运抵热带印度。 在没有冷藏设备的情况下，乳制品和肉类等易腐食品一天内就会变质，大多数食物无法保存或在非产季食用。

Eden in jars It is said that these things come from the earthly paradise; for the wind blows down the trees in paradise, just as the wind blows down the dry wood in the forests of our own land. Jean de Joinville, c. 1309 — On merchants who netted ginger, cinnamon and rhubarb from the Nile. In medieval price lists, a pound of ginger sold for the price of a sheep; a pound of saffron, the price of a horse.

罐中的伊甸园 “据说这些东西来自人间天堂；因为天堂里的风吹倒了树木，就像我们土地上森林里的风吹倒枯木一样。” ——让·德·茹安维尔（Jean de Joinville），约1309年，描述从尼罗河打捞生姜、肉桂和大黄的商人。 在中世纪的价目表中，一磅生姜的价格相当于一只羊；一磅藏红花的价格相当于一匹马。

The back room At ten, the night starts to wind down. You wash your face, then wash down a pill with a glass of water. As you brush your teeth, you make a mental note of the last few chores you need to cross off the list tomorrow morning before heading to the airport.

后室 十点了，夜色渐深。你洗了脸，喝下一杯水，服下药片。刷牙时，你在脑海中记下明天早上出发去机场前，还需要完成的最后几项任务。

Smallpox made historical You have erased from the calendar of human afflictions one of its greatest. … Future nations will know by history only that the loathsome smallpox has existed, and by you has been extirpated. Thomas Jefferson, 1806 — In a letter celebrating Edward Jenner’s vaccine, sent to Jenner’s nephew. Smallpox killed about three of every ten people it infected, and in Jenner’s century it killed an estimated four hundred thousand Europeans a year.

成为历史的天花 “你从人类苦难的日历中抹去了最沉重的一笔……未来的国家将只能从历史中得知，那令人厌恶的天花曾经存在过，并因你而被根除。” ——托马斯·杰斐逊（Thomas Jefferson），1806年，在致爱德华·詹纳侄子的信中，赞美詹纳的疫苗。 天花感染者的死亡率约为十分之三，在詹纳所处的世纪，每年约有四十万欧洲人死于天花。

Pain, interrupted Before whom, in all time, surgery was agony; by whom pain in surgery was averted and annulled; since whom, science h…

中断的痛苦 在此人之前，手术始终是极度的痛苦；因他之故，手术中的疼痛被避免和消除；自他之后，科学……