尊敬的用戶您好，這是來自FT中文網的溫馨提示：如您對更多FT中文網的內容感興趣，請在蘋果應用商店或谷歌應用市場搜尋「FT中文網」，下載FT中文網的官方應用。
Over the past few days I’ve had conversations with friends and colleagues living in four separate countries. One thing that comes with having regular contact with people in different parts of the world is that I always get some sense of their sociopolitical perspective on what is happening where they are, wherever I happen to be. And despite all the expected variation from one country to the next, what seems clear is that people everywhere are harbouring feelings of uncertainty and concern about our collective future.
在過去的幾天裏，我與生活在四個不同國家的朋友和同事進行了交談。與世界各地的人保持經常聯繫的一個好處是，無論我身在何處，我總能感受到他們對所在地發生的事情的社會政治觀點。儘管每個國家之間的差異是可以預料的，但顯而易見的是，世界各地的人們都對我們共同的未來感到不確定和擔憂。
I’ve found myself thinking about where it is many of us look to place our faith. Not necessarily the idea of faith in a traditional religious sense, though it may be that, but in the broader sense of where or in what or whom we put our belief and confidence for experiencing the life for which we hope, peaceful and free.
我發現自己在思考我們許多人將信仰寄託於何處。這不一定是傳統宗教意義上的信仰，儘管可能是如此，而是在更廣泛的意義上，我們將信念和信心寄託於何物、何事或何人，以實現我們所期望的和平與自由的生活。
“Politics in an Oyster House”, a painting from 1848 by the American artist Richard Caton Woodville, is held at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. Two elegantly dressed men from different generations sit across from one another at a wooden table in a booth of a restaurant. A red curtain that could offer privacy is pulled back, so we are privy to their interaction.
美國藝術家理查德•卡頓•伍德維爾(Richard Caton Woodville)於1848年創作的畫作《牡蠣屋中的政治》(Politics in an Oyster House)現收藏於巴爾的摩的沃爾特斯藝術博物館(Walters Art Museum)。兩位來自不同年代、衣著優雅的男士坐在餐廳包廂的木桌對面。紅色的簾子被拉開，使我們能夠看到他們的互動。
The younger man on the right of the canvas with his top hat still on looks intently at the older man, while holding an open newspaper in one hand and gesturing passionately with the other. It seems that he is sharing his opinions about the contents of the newspaper, and we can assume it is political in nature.
畫布右側的年輕男子仍戴著高頂禮帽，專注地看著年長的男子，一手拿著展開的報紙，另一手熱情地比劃著。看起來他正在分享他對報紙內容的看法，我們可以推測這是政治性的。
The older man, even though he is being directly addressed by his companion, has turned to face the viewer. His left hand rests against the side of his head as though cupping his ear closed, his right hand holds his glasses and rests on his thigh, and he has a look of slight amusement on his face as he glances at us. I love the way the body language of both men offers insight into their different attitudes, and also gives us viewers more to think about.
這位年長的男士，儘管他的同伴正在直接和他交談，卻已經轉身面向觀衆。他的左手靠在頭部旁邊，彷彿在捂住耳朵，右手拿著眼鏡，放在大腿上，臉上帶著一絲輕微的愉悅表情，看著我們。我喜歡兩位男士的肢體語言揭示了他們不同的態度，也讓我們這些觀衆有更多的思考空間。
From their posture and facial expressions, my own interpretation of the painting is that the young man feels passionately about the politics of his day, perhaps because he expects the elected leadership to act more in the best interests of people and society. So, frustrations arise when the faith he has placed in this leadership fails him. The older gentleman looks as though life has already shown him what happens when you put too much of your faith in politics, and he is mildly entertained by the young man’s naïveté.
從他們的姿勢和麪部表情來看，我對這幅畫的解讀是，這位年輕人對當時的政治充滿熱情，可能是因爲他期望當選的領導層能更多地爲人民和社會的利益著想。因此，當他對這些領導層的信任落空時，他感到沮喪。而那位年長的紳士看起來似乎已經從生活中領悟到，當你對政治寄予過多信任時會發生什麼，他對年輕人的天真感到略微有些好笑。
Many of us anchor our hope for the future to our belief in our financial, or at least material, accumulations
我們中的許多人將對未來的希望寄託在對財務或至少物質積累的信念上
It’s an interesting scene to me because it makes me wonder about which side of the booth to sit on. One can understand the need to have faith in good leadership to make the best decision for society, but as we also know, politics rarely serves the best interest of everyone, even in democracies. There will always be people on the margins who do not get the same opportunities or freedoms, and who they are is largely determined by who makes up the majority and whose voices are most powerful in leadership.
這對我來說是一個有趣的場景，因爲它讓我思考應該坐在這個桌子的哪一邊。人們可以理解需要對良好的領導力抱有信心，以便爲社會做出最佳決策，但我們也知道，政治很少能爲每個人的最佳利益服務，即使在民主國家也是如此。總會有一些邊緣人羣無法獲得相同的機會或自由，而他們是誰，很大程度上取決於誰構成多數以及誰在領導層中聲音最有力。
World history gives evidence to this again and again. The passion of the man on the right could be admirable or it could be potentially dangerous, depending on how his faith in politics plays out, and whose interests are deemed more valuable than others. I wonder too, if the older man’s gaze might also be one of questioning how much he too should perhaps still have faith in political leadership. And if he chooses not to, where then does he turn for support, and where do we?
世界歷史一再證明了這一點。右邊那位男士的激情可能令人欽佩，也可能潛藏危險，這取決於他對政治信仰的表現，以及誰的利益被認爲比其他人更有價值。我也在想，年長者的目光是否也在質疑他是否仍應對政治領導保持信心。如果他選擇不這樣做，那麼他將向何處尋求支援，我們又該何去何從？
In the 1514 work “The Money Lender and His Wife” by the Flemish painter Quentin Matsys, we see a couple sitting side by side attending to their respective duties. There is a lot of detail in this painting. The shelves in the background are lined with books, an empty vase, a snuffed-out candle, a piece of fruit and other items. In the foreground, the money changer sits at a table of treasures. We cannot see his eyes because he is gazing down intently at the gold coins he is weighing.
在1514年，弗拉芒畫家昆廷•馬茨斯的作品《放債人和他的妻子》中，我們看到一對夫婦並肩坐著，各自忙碌。這幅畫中有很多細節。背景的架子上擺滿了書籍、一個空花瓶、一支熄滅的蠟燭、一塊水果和其他物品。在前景中，貨幣兌換商坐在一張堆滿珍寶的桌子旁。我們看不到他的眼睛，因爲他正專注地低頭看著他正在稱重的金幣。
He holds the scales carefully between his slim fingers with a delicacy one might reserve for a thing of great value. Even his body leans in towards the money. His wife, beside him, holds a prayer book, but instead of reading it her attention is diverted by her husband’s activity. The couple’s rapt interest in material wealth seems to have an almost spiritual intensity.
他用纖細的手指小心翼翼地握住天平，彷彿對待一件珍貴之物般細緻。甚至他的身體也向金錢傾斜。他身旁的妻子手持一本祈禱書，但她並沒有在閱讀，而是被丈夫的活動吸引。這對夫婦對物質財富的熱切興趣似乎帶有一種近乎宗教般的強烈感情。
This painting was made at a time of religious conflict and growing division in Europe. The Protestant Reformation began just three years later in 1517, with Martin Luther’s 95 Theses. It was an era when people were beginning to openly question what they believed and to reconsider their faith. We are living in very different times today, although organised religions or spiritual paths of any kind will always have tenets and practices to inspire and those of which to be wary.
這幅畫創作於歐洲宗教衝突和日益加劇的分裂時期。僅僅三年後的1517年，馬丁•路德(Martin Luther)發表了《九十五條論綱》，新教改革由此開始。那是一個人們開始公開質疑並重新審視自己信仰的時代。儘管我們今天生活在一個截然不同的時代，但有組織的宗教或任何形式的精神道路始終會有啓發人們的信條和實踐，也會有需要警惕的地方。
But I was taken by this work because, regardless of people’s religious or spiritual beliefs, many of us still anchor our hope for the future by placing faith presently in our financial, or at least material, accumulations. We live in societies that teach us that the more we own, the safer we will be, to the extent that fear of not having enough, which also equates to feeling not in control of our own lives, can lead us to favour decisions and political policies that promise to secure our own wellbeing at a cost to others.
但我被這項工作吸引，因爲無論人們的宗教或精神信仰如何，我們許多人仍然透過對當前財務或至少物質積累的信任來寄託對未來的希望。我們生活在這樣的社會中，教導我們擁有越多就會越安全，以至於對不夠的恐懼，也等同於感覺無法掌控自己的生活，可能導致我們偏向那些承諾以犧牲他人爲代價來確保我們福祉的決策和政治政策。
It’s fascinating because the nature of faith is to actively place trust in a thing, system or person without certainty, and yet many of us seem to believe that only things that are predictably and reliably in our favour are worthy of our confidence or trust.
令人著迷的是，信仰的本質是在沒有確定性的情況下積極地信任某個事物、體系或人，然而我們中的許多人似乎認爲，只有那些可以可靠且可預測地對我們有利的事物才值得我們的信任。
I don’t think we consciously sit around and decide to place our faith in money and resources but I do think we naturally feel more confident about our lives if we can control them. The only problem is that this sense of control is mostly an illusion.
我不認爲我們會有意識地坐下來決定把信任放在金錢和資源上，但我確實認爲，如果我們能控制它們，我們自然會對自己的生活更有信心。唯一的問題是，這種控制感大多是一種幻覺。
Much of what happens in life happens in spite of our efforts to orchestrate it. Maybe this painting is a work that invites us to think about what we are devoted to, what else competes for that devotion, and where we choose to place our faith.
生活中發生的許多事情，往往是在我們努力策劃之外發生的。也許這幅畫作邀請我們思考我們所專注的事物，還有什麼在與這種專注競爭，以及我們選擇將信仰寄託於何處。
I love the 2024 painting “Joie de Vivre” by British-Nigerian artist Joy Labinjo. Three children of different ethnicities play together in an open park alongside a young brown-skinned woman. There is an expanse of green grass and there are trees in the background across a quiet lake. In the foreground of the image, the children chase a green and a red ball, as the woman, wearing jeans, a patterned shirt and hijab, laughingly tries to intervene.
我喜歡英國-奈及利亞藝術家喬伊•拉賓喬(Joy Labinjo)創作的2024年畫作《生活的樂趣》。三個不同種族的孩子在一個開闊的公園裏玩耍，旁邊是一位年輕的棕色皮膚女性。畫面中有一片綠草地，背景是寧靜湖泊和樹木。在畫面的前景，孩子們追逐著一個綠色和一個紅色的球，而那位穿著牛仔褲、圖案襯衫和頭巾的女性則笑著試圖介入。
I picked this painting to symbolise an example of where we might put our faith because I think it represents so many things to which people aspire.
我選擇這幅畫作爲我們可能寄託信仰的一個例子，因爲我認爲它代表了許多人所向往的事物。
We often say that children are the future, so obviously it matters how we take care of our children on both a daily basis and through policies and practices on a larger scale. This painting of happy children from different backgrounds may seem simplistic, even romantic, but it reminds me that if we are concerned about our futures, we should be concerned about the present conditions of children across the world, not least those suffering as a result of poverty or conflict.
我們常說孩子是未來，因此，顯然我們在日常生活中如何照顧孩子，以及透過更大範圍的政策和實踐來關懷他們，是非常重要的。這幅描繪來自不同背景的快樂孩子的畫作，或許看起來簡單甚至浪漫，但它提醒我，如果我們關心自己的未來，就應該關注全球各地孩子的現狀，尤其是那些因貧困或衝突而受苦的孩子。
It seems it would be in all of our best interests to put our faith not just in children but in the diversity of young people who represent the next generation. And just as when putting our faith in politics or money we do that by our actions, to put our faith in children and young people we would all be required to also do something active and intentional, whether that is considering ways to create safer spaces for children in domestic, communal and educational environments or voting for policies that support the welfare of children.
看來，我們不僅要相信兒童，還要相信代表下一代的年輕人的多樣性，這符合我們所有人的最大利益。正如我們透過行動來表達對政治或金錢的信任一樣，爲了信任兒童和年輕人，我們也需要採取積極和有意識的行動，無論是考慮如何在家庭、社區和教育環境中爲兒童創造更安全的空間，還是投票支援有利於兒童福利的政策。
I suspect there are countless big and small opportunities within our individual communities in which we could figure out a way to act towards the greater wellbeing of children. But I almost want to challenge us to also think of those children who may not be right under our noses.
我懷疑在我們各自的社區中有無數大大小小的機會，我們可以找到方法來促進兒童的福祉。但我幾乎想挑戰我們，也要考慮那些可能不在我們眼皮底下的孩子。
Where in the world right now do we know of where there are children experiencing such difficulties but that we would rather not confront the reality of? What would it mean to put faith in them? I’m just thinking aloud with you.
我們現在是否知道世界上有哪些地方的孩子正在經歷這樣的困境，而我們卻寧願不去面對現實？信任他們意味著什麼？我只是在和你一起思考。
In a way it takes us back to the idea of spiritual faith requiring works but in this case it is works that are for the benefit of others and not just ourselves. The future of peace and security naturally requires us to look beyond our own self-interest and to remember that difference in perspective or ideology ultimately shouldn’t keep us from the care needed to ensure futures for everyone.
在某種程度上，這讓我們回到了精神信仰需要行動的觀念，但在這種情況下，這些行動是爲了他人的利益，而不僅僅是爲了我們自己。和平與安全的未來自然要求我們超越自身利益，記住，觀點或意識形態的差異最終不應阻止我們提供必要的關懷，以確保每個人的未來。
What would it look like to practise such a faith in each of our lives and communities today?
在當今的生活和社區中踐行這樣的信仰會是什麼樣子？
Email Enuma at enuma.okoro@ft.com
給埃努瑪發送電子郵件enuma.okoro@ft.com
Find out about our latest stories first — follow FT Weekend on Instagram and X, and subscribe to our podcast Life & Art wherever you listen