英國人未來的奧運項目很可能是敲鐘
Some Britons love ringing church bells so much that they think it ought to be an Olympic sport.
一些英國人如此喜愛在教堂敲鐘，以致覺得它該被列爲奧運會項目。
There are magazines devoted to bell ringing, there are bell-ringing societies at universities with their own coats of arms, and there’s even a national council. A few seasons ago, the nation went “bonkers,” as the tabloid The Sun put it, over a pair of bell ringers who appeared on “Britain’s Got Talent.”
這個國家有專門研究敲鐘的雜誌，大學裏有敲鐘協會，有自己的徽章，甚至還有一個全國性的敲鐘委員會。而據小報《太陽報》(The Sun)報道，幾個賽季前，這個國家還曾爲電視節目《英國達人》(Britain’s Got Talent)上出現的一對搖鈴玩家“瘋狂”。
There are about 5,000 churches with bell ringers in Britain, and almost everyone lives within hearing range of one of them. Bell-ringing enthusiasts are called campanologists, and the country has about 40,000 of them.
英國有大約5000座教堂有敲鐘人，幾乎所有人都居住在可以聽到教堂鐘聲的範圍內。這裏有大約4萬名敲鐘愛好者，他們被稱爲“鍾學家”(campanologist)。
Besides weekly practices, Sunday services and weddings in their own parishes, many campanologists like to visit and pull the ropes in as many other places as they can, a hobby called “tower grabbing.”
除了每週在自己的教區內練習，在週日禮拜活動和婚禮上敲鐘，許多“鍾學家”還喜歡拜訪其他教堂，在儘可能多的教堂里拉鍾繩。這種愛好被稱爲“搶鐘樓”。
Not everyone embraces bell ringing: The sessions, or peals, that may be music to some people’s ears drive others insane. In 2011, a man living in Sharow, North Yorkshire, was so incensed by a three-hour peal that he locked the bell ringers inside the church belfry.
不是所有人都喜歡敲鐘：在有些人聽來是樂音的鐘鳴聲，可能會讓其他人感到抓狂。2011年，生活在北約克郡沙羅的一名男子被延續三個小時的鐘鳴激怒，將敲鐘的人鎖在了教堂鐘塔內。
Ringing is a strenuous business, and a lengthy peal can feel like running a marathon, according to Kate Flavell, who works for the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers.
據供職於教堂敲鐘人中心委員會(Central Council of Church Bell Ringers)的凱特•弗拉維爾(Kate Flavell)講，敲鐘是一項繁重的勞動，長時間敲鐘感覺就像跑了一場馬拉松。
“It’s an intellectual and physical challenge when your team is changing the order in which they ring, so that you get different permutations,” she said. “The idea is to get a good rhythm going without making any mistakes or ropes breaking.”
“在你的團隊不停變幻鐘響的順序，以便實現不同排列組合的時候，是對智力和體力的雙重考驗，”她說。“目標是形成好的節奏，同時又不出錯，不會把繩子弄斷。”
British church bells have been ringing since medieval times, when the sound was thought to drive away the devil and calm storms. After the Reformation, churches started hanging their bells on wheels, giving better timing control; that allowed the development of intricately patterned “change ringing” instead of the more random chiming of most church bells in Continental Europe.
英國的教堂在中世紀已經開始敲鐘，當時人們認爲鐘聲可以驅趕魔鬼，平息風暴。經過宗教改革運動之後，教堂開始把鍾掛在輪子上，這樣可以更好地控制拍子；人們由此發展出錯綜複雜的“編鐘敲奏”，而不是像歐洲大陸的大多數教堂那樣比較隨機地敲響鐘聲。
Bell ringing became fashionable in the 1600s, and soon, teams of ringers were holding competitions. But those events were often connected with large meals at the local pub that could get boisterous, with bell ringers described as being lazy and drunk, according to a website on the history of bell ringing.
敲鐘在17世紀的第一個十年時興了起來，很快，敲鐘人的團隊開始舉辦比賽。不過，一個致力於研究敲鐘史的網站稱，那些活動往往涉及在當地酒館的大餐，有時場面可以很喧鬧，敲鐘人也被描述爲一個懶惰、嗜酒的羣體。
The social tradition survives, though, and contributes to the hobby’s appeal. “It sounds wonderful,” Ms. Flavell said, “and when you’re done, you go to the pub to get a good old natter.”
這一社交傳統至今依然存在，併爲這項愛好平添了一份魅力。“聲音很好聽，”弗拉維爾說，“而且完事後，你可以去酒吧跟人神侃。”
