忙死了，別煩我

　　1、When I decided to quit my full time employment it never occurred to me that I might become a part of a new international trend. A lateral move that hurt my pride and blocked my professional progress prompted me to abandon my relatively high profile career although, in the manner of a disgraced government minister, I covered my exit by claiming "I wanted to spend more time with my family".

　　當(dāng)我決定辭去自己的全日制工作時決沒有想到，自己竟成了一種新的國際性潮流的一分子。一次平級的人事調(diào)動傷了我的自尊心，并阻斷了我的事業(yè)發(fā)展，這促使我放棄自己地位較高的職業(yè)，當(dāng)然，就像面子掃盡的政府部長那樣，我也掩飾說“我只想與家人更多的呆在一起”。

　　2、Curiously, some two-and-a-half years and two novels later, my experiment in what the Americans term "downshifting" has turned my tired excuse into an absolute reality. I have been transformed from a passionate advocate of the philosophy of "have it all", preached by Linda Kelsey for the past seven years in the pages of she magazine, into a woman who is happy to settle for a bit of everything.

　　奇怪的是，大約兩年半的時間我寫完兩部小說后，我這個被美國人稱為“放慢生活節(jié)奏”的試驗，卻使我太疲憊的借口變成了現(xiàn)實。我已從一個“獲得一切”哲學(xué)（琳達(dá)•凱茜過去七年中在《她》這本雜志所宣揚的）的狂熱支持者，變成了一個樂于接受任何東西只要一丁點的女人。

　　3、I have discovered, as perhaps Kelsey will after her much-publicized resignation from the editorship of She after a build-up of stress, that abandoning the doctrine of "juggling your life", and making the alternative move into "downshifting" brings with it far greater rewards than financial success and social status. Nothing could persuade me to return to the kind of life Kelsey used to advocate and I once enjoyed: 12-hour working days, pressured deadlines, the fearful strain of office politics and the limitations of being a parent on "quality time".

　　我已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)（由于壓力過大，凱茜已多次公開宣稱要辭去《她》雜志編輯的職務(wù)，在這之后她也許會有同樣發(fā)現(xiàn)），放棄“忙忙碌碌”的生活哲學(xué)，轉(zhuǎn)而過一種“放慢生活節(jié)奏”的生活所帶來的回報，比經(jīng)濟成功和社會地位更有價值。什么也說服不了我回到過去那種凱茜所宣揚的、我也曾自得其樂的生活中去：每天12小時的工作日，壓得人喘不過氣來的最后期限，可怕而緊張的辦公室的爭權(quán)奪利，以及因為時間有限連做母親也得“高效率”所造成的種種限制。

　　4、In America, the move away from juggling to a simpler, less materialistic lifestyle is a well-established trend. Downshifting — also known in America as "voluntary simplicity" — has, ironically, even bred a new area of what might be termed anti-consumerism. There are a number of bestselling downshifting self-help books for people who want to simplify their lives; there are newsletters, such as The Tightwad Gazette, that give hundreds of thousands of Americans useful tips on anything from recycling their cling-film to making their own soap; there are even support groups for those who want to achieve the mid-'90s equivalent of dropping out.

　　在美國，擺脫忙碌，轉(zhuǎn)而過一種簡單、不大物質(zhì)化的生活已成明確趨勢。具有諷刺意味的是，“放慢生活節(jié)奏”——在美國也稱“自愿簡單化”——甚至孕育了一個嶄新的、可稱之為反消費主義的生活方式。對于那些想簡單生活的人來說，有許多很暢銷的幫你輕松生活的自助書籍；有各種簡訊，例如省錢簡報，會給美國人提供成千上萬條有用的點子去做事，從回收保鮮臘到自制肥皂；甚至還有一些幫助團體，幫人按90年代中期脫離傳統(tǒng)社會的人的生活方式去生活。

　　5、While in America the trend started as a reaction to the economic decline — after the mass redundancies caused by downsizing in the late '80s — and is still linked to the politics of thrift, in Britain, at least among the middle class downshifters of my acquaintance, we have different reasons for seeking to simplify our lives.

　　在美國，這種趨勢一開始是對經(jīng)濟衰落所做出的一種反應(yīng)——出現(xiàn)于80年代后期縮小經(jīng)濟規(guī)模所引起的大量人員冗余之后——在英國，至少在我所認(rèn)識的中產(chǎn)階級的簡化生活者中，這種趨勢仍被認(rèn)為與節(jié)儉政治有關(guān)聯(lián)，雖然如此，然而我們有著不同的緣由去尋求使自己的生活簡單化。

　　6、For the women of my generation who were urged to keep juggling through the '80s, downshifting in the mid-'90s is not so much a search for the mythical good life — growing your own organic vegetables, and risking turning into one — as a personal recognition of your limitations.

　　對我們這一代女性來說，整個80年代我們曾被迫忙碌地生活，90年代中期的簡化生活與其說是尋求神話般的好生活——自己種有機蔬菜以及冒險制造有機蔬菜——倒不如說我們都認(rèn)識了自身的局限。

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