[2008.09.13] 逝者：伊恩•希贝尔

Ian Hibell
伊恩•希贝尔

Sep 11th 2008
From The Economist print edition

Ian Hibell, a long-distance cyclist, died on August 23rd, aged 74
伊恩•希贝尔，自行车上的旅人，逝于8月23日，享年74岁

IN A man’s life there comes a time when he must get out of Brixham. He must leave the boats bobbing in the harbour, the Devon cream teas, the holiday camp and the steam railway; he must bid farewell to the nine-to-five job at Standard Telephones and Cables, up the A379 in Paignton, and hit the more open road.
有一个人，命中注定他要离开家乡布里克瑟姆，离开港口内泊的船只，离开德文郡的奶油茶，离开度假胜地，离开蒸汽火车。这个人必定要告别其在标准电话与电缆有限公司的朝九晚五的工作，织驶向佩恩顿的A379道，踏上征程。

Some might get no farther than Bristol. But Ian Hibell went so far in one direction that his eyebrows crusted with frost and his hands froze; and so far in another that he lay down in the hot sand to die of dehydration(as he expected) under a thorn tree; and so far in another that the safest place to be, out of range of the mosquitoes, was to burrow like an alligator into black, viscous mud.
对有些人来说，征程可能不会远于布里斯托。但是伊恩•希贝尔却走得辽阔高远。曾经，他的眉毛都结了冰霜，双手都冻僵；曾经，他躺在荆棘树下火热的沙地上，严重脱水（当时他以为会就此死掉）；曾经，为了躲避蚊虫的袭击，最好的办法是像鳄鱼那样钻进黑色的粘泥浆里。

In the course of his 40-year travelling life he went the equivalent of ten times round the equator, covering 6,000 miles or so a year. He became the first man to cycle the Darien Gap in Panama, and the first to cycle from the top to the bottom of the American continent. He went from Norway to the Cape of Good Hope and from Bangkok to Vladivostok, wheeling or walking every inch of the way. Every so often he would come back, showing up at STC (from which he had taken, in the beginning, only a two-year leave of absence) with vague murmurings of an apology. But pretty soon the panniers would be packed, the brakes checked, the tyres pumped, and he would be off again.
在其四十年的旅途中，他走过的路程可以绕赤道十周，每年约六千英里。他是骑车穿过巴拿马达里恩沼泽的第一人，也是骑车横跨美洲大陆的第一人。从挪威到好望角，从曼谷到海参威，他或走或骑，足迹遍布征程。他不时也会回趟国，出现在标准电话与电缆有限公司（他开始里只向公司请了两年假），咕哝着小声地表示歉意。但不久，就会装行李箱，检查刹车，给轮胎打气，再次上路。

His cycle, loaded with 60-80lb of clothes, tent, stove, biscuits, sardines and water, was sometimes a complication. In the Sahara it sank to its hubs in fine, talc-like sand. In the Amazonian jungle he could not squeeze it between the trees. Crossing the great Atrato swamp, where the track became a causeway over slimy logs and then a mat of floating grass, the bike would sometimes sink into nothingness. He became expert at feeling for it in the morass with his feet. Every tricky traverse in mountain, stream or forest needed doing twice over: once to find a way for himself, then to collect the steed, often carrying it shoulder-high through sharp palmetto, or water, or rocks.
他的自行车托着约60-80英镑的衣服、帐篷、炉子、饼干、沙丁鱼和水。有时这辆车会有麻烦。在撒哈拉，车子曾深深陷入细滑的沙子里。在亚马逊丛林，他不能把车子挤过树丛。在阿特拉托河沼泽，道路上满是粘粘的木棍和浮草，自行车有时会一下子走空。他成了专家，能用脚在沼泽里探路。在山间、河流或森林里的艰难的每条小路上，他都要走两次：一次是空手探路，一次是回来取车，常常是扛着车，穿过高大的美洲蒲葵，或者涉水攀岩而过。

Yet Mr Hibell’s love for his bikes was unconditional. He took them, muddy as they were, into hotels with him, and clung fiercely on to them whenever tribesmen robbed him of the rest of his things. His favourite had a Freddie Grubb frame of Reynolds 531 tubing on a 42-inch wheelbase, reinforced to take the extra weight of goatskins holding water; Campagnolo Nuevo Record gears front and rear; Robregal double-butted 14-16-gauge spokes; and Christophe pedal-straps. It was so lightweight, as touring bikes go, that a group of boys in Newfoundland mocked that it would soon break on their roads. Instead, it did 100,000 miles.
希贝尔对其坐骑的爱是无条件的。尽管车上满是泥浆，他也要和车一起住旅店。每当盗匪把其他东西抢劫一空时，他都义无反顾地守住自已的车。他的这辆车有 Freddie Grubb架子，Reynolds 531轮子，42英寸的轴距。重新加固了以带更多的羊皮口袋装的水； Campagnolo Nuevo Record前后齿轮，Robregal双加固14-16规格的辐条，Christophe脚踏鞋带。这辆车很轻，像个旅行车，甚至 Newfoundland的一群孩子取笑说这车很快就会坏在路上，但是，它却成功旅行了100,000英里。

Bikes rarely let him down. Escaping once from spear-throwing Turkana in northern Kenya, he felt the chain come off, but managed to coast downhill to safety. He crossed China from north to south-in 2006, at 72-with just three brake-block changes, one jammed rear-brake cable and a change of tape on the handlebars. In his book, “Into the Remote Places” (1984), he described his bike as a companion, a crutch and a friend. Setting off in the morning light with “the quiet hum of the wheels, the creak of strap against load, the clink of something in the pannier”, was “delicious”. And more than that. Mr Hibell was a short, sinewy man, not particularly swift on his feet. But on a good smooth downhill run, the wind in his face, the landscape pelting past, he felt “oneness with everything”, like “a god almost”.
自行车很少让他失望。在肯尼亚北路受到Turkana 人投矛袭击时，他感觉车链子掉了，但却成功地滑向了安全地带。2006年，72岁时他在中国从北骑到南，其间只换了三次闸，一个后煞车线和把手上的皮带。在其《骑向遥远之地》（1984年）一书中，他把自行车描绘成一个伙伴、拐扙和朋友。在晨光中出发，”车轮辗地，背上行囊，行李箱里叮当作响”，这种感觉 “好极了”。还不止这些。希贝尔是个小个子的强壮男人，腿脚速度不算太快。但是当顺利下坡时，风袭过面，两侧风景如云而过，他感觉”拥有了一切”，简直” 像上帝一样”。

A teapot in the desert
沙漠里的茶壶

Human company was less uplifting. His travelling companions usually proved selfish, violent and unreliable, unappreciative of Mr Hibell’s rather proper and methodical approach to putting up a tent or planning a route, leaving (sometimes with essential kit) to strike off by themselves. But there were exceptions. One was the beautiful Laura with whom, after years of shyness towards women, he found love as they skidded down rocky tracks in Peru. Others were the strangers whose kindness he encountered everywhere. Peasants in China shared their dumplings with him; Indians in Amazonia guided him through the jungle; and in a wilderness of sand a pair of Tuareg boys produced from their robes a bag of dates and a small blue teapot, which restored him.
与人结伴而行感觉并不太好。他的旅伴常常是自私的、暴力的、不可靠的，他们不喜欢希贝尔合理巧妙地支帐篷或计划路线的方法，常常会离开他（有时会带走重要的工具）。但也有例外。其中一个是漂亮的Laura。希贝尔多年来一直对女性很害羞，但在他与Laura在秘鲁驰车滑下崎岖的道路时，他却对她心生爱意。他在很多地方也感受到了陌生人带来的温暖。比如，中国的农民请他吃水饺。亚马逊的印地安人带着他穿过了丛林。在荒漠中，两个Tuareg男孩从他们的袍子里掏出一包枣和一个小小的蓝色茶壶给他，这让他恢复了体力。

In a career of hazards, from soldier ants to real soldiers to sleet that cut his face like steel, only motorists did him real damage. The drivers came too close, and passengers sometimes pelted him with bottles (in Nigeria), or with shovelfuls of gravel (in Brazil). In China in 2006 a van drove over his arm and hand. He recovered, but wondered whether his luck would last. It ran out on the road between Salonika and Athens this August, where he was knocked out of the way by a car that appeared to be chasing another.
征程布满风险，有蚂蚁雄兵，有真正的雄兵，也有划脸的冻雨，但直正伤害他的是开（坐）车人。有时司机会把车开得离他太近，而乘客有时会拿瓶子投他（在尼日利亚）或用砂砾袭击他（在巴西）。2006年在中国，一辆货车从他的胳膊和手上辗过。他虽然恢复了，但是却担心可能不会总是这样幸运。今年8月，在从萨罗尼卡到雅典的路上，这种担心不幸言中，他被追车的一辆车撞翻。

At bad moments on his trips he had sometimes distracted himself by thinking of Devonian scenes: green fields, thatched cottages and daffodils. He would return to a nice house, a bit of garden, the job. But that thought could never hold him long. Although his body might long for the end of cycling-a flat seat, a straight back, unclenched hands-his mind was terrified of stopping. And in his mind, he never did.
在旅途不如意时，他有时也想宁静的德文郡的田园生活：绿草萋萋，点缀茅草小屋与水仙花。也想过解甲归田，住一座好房子，带着一个小花园，还要工作。但是这种想法一瞬即过。他的身体可能不想再骑了—平平的臀部、直挺的后背、松馳的双手，但是他的心灵却害怕停止。在心中，他将永骑不止。

译者：王乙任  http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=14089&extra=page%3D1