国家地理:难以适应的新常态(1)

The nomenclature was so strange at first, and then it was everywhere: in our stories, our questions, our arguments, our dreams. In California, where I live, I wake with a racing heart one morning because in the nightmare I was trying to buy cloth, for a mask, but the other shoppers wouldn't distance. How do they say it where you are? I type online to friends in other places, and the responses pile on. Distanciamento social, Brazil. Distanciation sociale, France. To meters avstand, Norway -- two meters distance.

这个术语一开始很怪，接着就无所不在了：在我们的报道、提问、论述以及梦里。在我居住的加州，一天早上我醒来时心脏跳得很快，因为做了个恶梦：我想买布来做口罩，但其他顾客不肯跟我保持距离。你们那里是怎么说的？我在网络上问了其他地方的朋友，得到了一大堆回复。巴西是这么说的：Distanciamento social，法国是这么说的：Distanciation sociale。而挪威则是To meters avstand，也就是保持两米的距离。

From Mexico City comes a picture of the new cartoon superhero, Susana Distancia, grinning from a sort of isolation bubble inside of which she holds both arms straight out to the sides, marking the no-approach zone. A Delhi friend passes on a comic's line about wanting to meet this famous new guy, Soshal Distan Singh. A friend in Boston insists the phrasing has been wrong from the start, that what the coronavirus began forcing upon the world isn't "social" distancing at all. Anybody fortunate enough to have access to a screen and an internet connection has rushed toward others, wildly, inventively, using live chat and video conferencing to talk, plan, teach, cook, drink, work, dance, sing, weep, exercise, pray, listen, mourn. This distancing is physical, my Boston friend observes. We can connect. We are connecting. We just can't... touch.

墨西哥城推出了一款新的超级英雄卡通形象--卫生距离侠苏珊娜，她在一个隔离泡泡中露齿而笑，并张开双臂往两侧伸展，划出禁止靠近的范围。一位德里的朋友转贴了一则滑稽推文，提到想见见一位名叫“Soshal Distan Singh”的新名人。一位波士顿的朋友则坚称，这个词从一开始就错了，新型冠状病毒开始强迫这个世界接受的根本不是保持“社交”距离。任何有幸能连上屏幕和网络的人，早已用热切和创意十足的方式奔向其他人，通过线上聊天和视频会议来交谈、计划、教学、做菜、喝酒、工作、跳舞、唱歌、哭泣、运动、祷告、倾听、哀悼。我们本来就可以联系，也一直都在联系。我们只是不能...接触。