When did sport begin? If sport is, in essence, play, the claim might be made that sport is much older than humankind, for , as we all have observed, the beasts play.
Dogs and cats wrestle and play ball games. Fishes and birds dance. The apes have simple, pleasurable games.
狗和猫会扭抱玩球,鱼和鸟翩翩起舞,猿类会进行一些简单的、愉快的游戏。
Frolicking infants, school children playing tag, adult arm wrestlers are demonstrating strong,transgenerational and transspecies bonds with the universe of animals - past, present, and future.
雀跃的幼儿,捉迷藏的学童和成年摔跤者展示出人与动物界有力的跨越世代与物种永恒的联系--
Young animals, particularly, tumble, chase, run wrestle, mock, imitate, and laugh (or so it seems) to the point of delighted exhaustion.
特别是幼兽,它们翻筋斗、追逐、奔跑、扭打、模仿、嬉笑(或者看起来是),直到愉快地精疲力尽。
Their play, and ours, appears to serve no other purpose than to give pleasure to the players, and apparently, to remove us temporarily from the anguish of life in earnest.