英语晨读TED演讲系列：快乐藏在哪里(1)

It's 2008, and I'm just finishing my first year of design school. And I'm at my first year-end review, which is a form of ritual torture for design students, where they make you take everything you made over the course of the year and lay it out on a table and stand next to it while a bunch of professors, most of whom you've never seen before, give you their unfiltered opinions of it. So it's my turn and I'm standing next to my table, everything neatly lined up, and I'm just hoping that my professors can see how much effort I've put into making my designs practical and ergonomic and sustainable. And I'm starting to get really nervous, because for a long time, no one says anything. It's just completely silent. And then one of the professors starts to speak, and he says, "Your work gives me a feeling of joy."

torture  /'tɔːtʃə/  v./n. 折磨

unfiltered  /ʌn'fɪltəd/ adj. 未过滤的

sustainable  /sə'steɪnəb(ə)l/ adj.可持续的

那是2008年，我刚刚完成设计学院第一年的课程。 第一学年末的评审正在进行， 这几乎算是每个学设计的学生的噩梦， 因为需要你把这一年课程中所有的作品 摆在桌上，你站在桌边，一群教授，他们中的大部分你可能都没见过， 会直接给出他们的意见。 轮到我了，我站在自己的桌子旁，所有东西整齐排成一行， 我只希望我的教授能看到我为我的设计付出了多少努力，让它们实用，符合人体工程学并可持续。但我开始越来越紧张，因为很长一段时间都没人说话。一片寂静。终于一位教授开口了，他说， “你的作品让我感到快乐。”

Joy? I wanted to be a designer because I wanted to solve real problems. Joy is nice, I guess, but it's kind of light -- not substantial. But I was also kind of intrigued, because joy is this intangible feeling, and how does that come from the stuff on the table next to me? I asked the professors, "How do things make us feel joy? How do tangible things make us feel intangible joy?" 

substantial  /səb'stænʃ(ə)l/ adj. 大量的，大而结实的

intrigued  /ɪn'triːɡd/ adj. 深感好奇的，有极大兴趣的

intangible  /ɪn'tændʒəbəl/ adj. 无形的，难以触摸的

快乐？我做设计师是为了解决真正的问题。快乐算是不错的评价吧，但是没什么分量……不是那么实在。但我也觉得好奇，因为快乐是一种无形的感受，为什么我桌子上的东西会带来这种感觉呢？我问教授， “事物如何让我们感到快乐呢？ 有形的事物怎么会让我们感受到无形的快乐呢？” 

I couldn't stop thinking about this question ... and this launched a journey -- one that I didn't know at the time would take me 10 years -- to understand the relationship between the physical world and the mysterious, quixotic emotion we call "joy." And what I discovered is that not only are they linked, but that the physical world can be a powerful resource to us in creating happier, healthier lives.

我忍不住在想这个问题，它也让我开始了一段旅程，当时我并不知道这段旅程会持续10年之久。我想去理解物质世界和我们称之为“快乐”的这种神秘而虚幻的情感之间到底有什么关系。我发现，它们之间不仅有联系，而且物质世界可以成为我们创造更快乐、更健康生活的强大资源。