日本的瞌睡文化 上班睡觉也是正经事

 　　In most countries, sleeping on the job isn’t just frowned upon, it may get you fired.

　　在大多数国家，工作时间睡觉不仅会让人不满，而且有可能让你丢掉工作。

　　But in Japan, napping in the office is common and culturally accepted. And in fact, it is often seen as a subtle sign of diligence: You must be working yourself to exhaustion¹.

　　但在日本，在办公室打盹很常见，而且得到文化上的认可。实际上，它经常被看作勤奋的隐晦象征：你肯定是工作得太累了。

　　The word for it is “inemuri.” It is often translated as “sleeping on duty,” but Dr. Brigitte Steger, a senior lecturer in Japanese studies at Downing College, Cambridge, who has written a book on the topic, says it would be more accurate to render it as “sleeping while present.”

　　日语中称呼这种行为的词汇是“inemuri”。它通常被翻译为“工作时间睡觉”，但剑桥大学唐宁学院(Downing College, Cambridge)日本研究的高级讲师布丽吉特?斯蒂格(Brigitte Steger)称，将它译作“在场睡觉”（日文写作“居眠”——译注）会更准确。布丽吉特撰写了一本有关这个话题的著作。

　　That, she said, captures Japan’s approach to time, where it’s seen as possible to do multiple things simultaneously², if at a lower intensity³. So you can get credit for attending that boring quarterly sales meeting while also dreaming of a beach vacation.

　　她表示，这种翻译表达出日本人对待时间的方式。在日本，人们认为同时做多件事是有可能的，尽管专注度会降低。所以你一边参加枯燥的季度销售会议，一边幻想海滩度假，也可以获得好评。

　　Inemuri is most prevalent among more senior employees in white-collar professions, Dr. Steger said. Junior employees tend to want to stay awake all day and be seen as energetic, and workers on assembly lines can’t just nod off.

　　斯蒂格表示，居眠在高级白领中最为普遍。初级职员往往想整天保持清醒，希望被看作充满活力，而生产线上的工人根本没法打盹。

　　Both sexes indulge in inemuri, but women are more likely to be criticized for it, especially if they sleep in a position that is considered unbecoming, Dr. Steger said.

　　斯蒂格还提到，两种性别的人都喜欢居眠，但女性更有可能因之受到指责，尤其是在一个小睡会被视为不得体的职位上。

　　Inemuri has been practiced in Japan for at least 1,000 years, and it is not restricted to the workplace. People may nap in department stores, cafes, restaurants or even a snug⁴ spot on a busy city sidewalk.

　　居眠在日本已经存在至少1000年，并且不限于工作场合。人们会在百货公司、咖啡馆、餐馆，乃至热闹的人行道上温暖舒适的地方小睡片刻。

　　Sleeping in public is especially prevalent on commuter⁵ trains, no matter how crowded; they often turn into de facto bedrooms. It helps that Japan has a very low crime rate.

　　公共场所打盹的情况，在通勤列车上尤其常见，不管里面有多拥挤；那些地方往往会变成实际意义上的卧室。这得益于日本犯罪率非常低。

　　“It’s very unlikely, if you are sleeping on a train, that someone would try to rob you,” said Theodore C. Bestor, a professor of social anthropology⁶ at Harvard University.

　　“你在车上睡觉时，不太可能出现打劫的情况，”哈佛大学社会人类学教授泰奥多尔?C?贝斯特(Theodore C. Bestor)说。

　　Sleeping in social situations can even enhance your reputation. Dr. Steger recalled a group dinner at a restaurant where the male guest of a female colleague fell asleep at the table. The other guests complimented his “gentlemanly behavior” — that he chose to stay present and sleep, rather than excuse himself.

　　在社交场合睡觉甚至可以提高你的声誉。斯蒂格记得有一次在一家餐馆聚餐，一位女性同事的男同伴趴在桌子上睡着了。其他客人称赞了他“绅士行为”——因为他选择留在那里休息，而不是先行离开。

　　One reason public sleeping may be so common in Japan is because people get so little sleep at home. A 2015 government study found that 39.5 percent of Japanese adults slept less than six hours a night.

　　在公开场合小睡在日本如此普遍的一个原因是，人们在家里睡觉时间很少。2015年的一项政府调研显示，39.5%的日本成年人每晚睡眠时间不足六个小时。

　　An unwritten rule of inemuri is to sleep compactly, without “violating spatial⁷ norms,” Professor Bestor said. “If you stretched out under the table in the office conference room, or took up several spaces on the train, or laid out on a park bench,” he said, that would draw reproach for being socially disruptive.

　　居眠不成文的规则是“占地不大”，不会“打破空间规范”，贝斯特教授说。“如果你在会议室的办公桌下躺着，在车上挤占了好几个位置，或在公园长椅上躺着，”他说，那便会因为造成社会干扰而引来指责。

　　Dr. Steger pointed⁸ out that closed eyes may not always equal shut-eye: A person may close them just to build a sphere of privacy in a society with little of it.

　　斯蒂格指出，闭眼可能并不总是意味着在睡觉：一个人闭上眼睛可能只是为了在没什么隐私的社会构建一个私人领域。

　　That’s part of why Dr. Steger said she could imagine inemuri waning⁹ in Japan. These days, smartphones can transport people to their own private zones with their eyes wide open.

　　斯蒂格表示，这也是她预计居眠在日本会逐渐减少的部分原因。如今，智能手机可以让人们睁着眼进入自己的私人空间。

1 exhaustion   

n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述

参考例句：

• She slept the sleep of exhaustion.她因疲劳而酣睡。
• His exhaustion was obvious when he fell asleep standing.他站着睡着了，显然是太累了。

2 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

3 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。

4 snug   

adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房

参考例句：

• He showed us into a snug little sitting room.他领我们走进了一间温暖而舒适的小客厅。
• She had a small but snug home.她有个小小的但很舒适的家。

5 commuter   

n.(尤指市郊之间)乘公交车辆上下班者

参考例句：

• Police cordoned off the road and diverted commuter traffic. 警察封锁了道路并分流交通。
• She accidentally stepped on his foot on a crowded commuter train. 她在拥挤的通勤列车上不小心踩到了他的脚。

6 anthropology   

n.人类学

参考例句：

• I believe he has started reading up anthropology.我相信他已开始深入研究人类学。
• Social anthropology is centrally concerned with the diversity of culture.社会人类学主要关于文化多样性。

7 spatial   

adj.空间的，占据空间的

参考例句：

• This part of brain judges the spatial relationship between objects.大脑的这部分判断物体间的空间关系。
• They said that time is the feeling of spatial displacement.他们说时间是空间位移的感觉。

8 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

9 waning   

adj.（月亮）渐亏的，逐渐减弱或变小的n.月亏v.衰落( wane的现在分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡

参考例句：

• Her enthusiasm for the whole idea was waning rapidly. 她对整个想法的热情迅速冷淡了下来。
• The day is waning and the road is ending. 日暮途穷。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》