闪亮地生活，创造一首诗；前行，增加大地的宽广。
——阿多尼斯《风中的树叶》
第一次采访刘子超，是因为《单读》的“水手计划”。他在塔吉克斯坦的经历以游记的方式刊登在《单读》的“水手计划”特辑。2020年的疫情期间无法见面，所以就打了电话。电话那头是一位经验丰富的优秀记者同行，所以电话这头的我非常紧张。雪上加霜的是，刘子超的回答十分简短。
没过几天，我在“忽左忽右”的播客上听到了刘子超谈他的《失落的卫星》这本2020年7月份出版的中亚游记。他谈到自己去采访北岛的经历，因为“不健谈”，诗人还为他的职业生涯表示了担忧 。我这才松了一口气。
在疫情的阴翳挥之不去的那几个月，大部分时间我都被困在了北京的一间公寓里。四月末，我去采访三里屯新开的书店Jetlag，创始人之一“乌云装扮者”笑着指着亮黄色封面的“水手计划”说，买这一本书可以帮助两家书店。
于是晚上睡觉前，我翻开让人心情愉悦的亮黄色封面，开始读刘子超的《帕米尔公路和瓦罕山谷》。刘子超的语言简洁生动充满幽默感，才读了两页，我就感到了一种久违的开阔，仿佛我和作者一起乘着当地破烂拥挤的中巴在开阔荒凉的帕米尔高原上行驶。想到世界上还有人在这样的地方过着这样的生活，我心中的世界便开阔了很多。
半年之后我才再次采访了刘子超，请他谈一谈中亚的旅行经历和《失落的卫星》的创作过程。
我们在西直门附近的西餐馆见面，他戴着一副椭圆形的眼镜，背着一个箱状黑色皮包，穿着一件羊皮短上衣，身形修长精神奕奕。他说每天坚持跑步，因为旅途中的各种不确定性让旅行者不得不注重提高身体素质。
'Traveling is quite physically demanding,' he says.
“旅行挺考验体力的，”他说。
Once he spent six hours walking in the Tianshan Mountains in Kyrgyzstan, 3,000 meters above sea level, looking for an alpine lake but his quest was in vain.
有一次，为了找一个高山湖泊，他在吉尔吉斯斯坦海拔3000米的天山上徒步了六个小时，但没有找到。
After being involved in a motorbike accident in Nepol in the spring of 2011, his left ankle was badly injured. The bone, while not broken, was nonetheless badly exposed.
2011年春，他在尼泊尔骑摩托发生了事故，左脚踝严重擦伤，虽然没有断，但露出了骨头。
After applying rudimentary （Indian） medicine and putting on a bandage, he continued traveling.
他涂了印度一种药，绑上绷带继续旅行。
He had to disinfect the wound every morning before setting off and every evening after reaching a destination. But the wound was not healing. Forty days later, on his return to China, he heard a doctor comment that if he had come any later, he would have lost the foot.
每天早上出发前和晚上抵达目的地后，他分别给伤口消一次毒，但是伤口没有愈合。四十天后，他回到中国，医生说，再晚来些，就要截肢了。
曾经的渔民之乡穆伊纳克，只剩下干涸的海床和搁浅的渔船
在《午夜降临前抵达》中，我读到，在夜行的长途大巴上或者泡温泉的时候，旅行者也无法完全放松，既是体验者又是观察者，仿佛有一半身体永远处在时光之门之外，在场又不在场，随时随地都要清醒地捕捉所见所闻所思。
出差中我常常也有这样的时候，于是我问他：你这样不觉得累吗？他说，累，但是旅行对他来说是工作，一直都在工作状态，所有感官一直都在待命。
自2015年出版《午夜降临前抵达》，过去十年在东南亚、南亚、中欧以及中亚的旅行经历让刘子超完成了三本书。另外两本是2019年出版的《沿着季风的方向》和去年的《失落的卫星》。刘子超的风格也日趋成熟，他不再大段地讲述旅行地的历史，而是将历史与个人观察巧妙地结合在一起。
采棉女工
比起前两本游记，刘子超不再通过中亚旅行和《失落的卫星》去“解决个人问题”，为了“在这平庸的现实世界中找一个‘支点’”，以在今后的生活中“获得更有力的抓手”。他带着问题踏上旅行之路，试图去回答“这些前苏联的成员国将何去何从”这样的问题。
'Instead of personal feelings, this time I explored those countries consciously with questions that I hoped I could answer when the trips ended,' he says.
“这次我有意识地带着问题去那些国家旅行，不再强调个人感受，我希望旅行结束的时候我能够回答那些问题，”他说。
'I wanted to foretell the future of those countries based on my understanding of their history, culture and society, especially after communicating with young people,' he says.
“我想做的是基于我对他们历史、文化和社会的理解，尤其在和年轻人交流之后，去预测那些国家的未来，”他说。
Before and during his travel, Liu does a lot of research about the destination. What matters more is that he uses his journalistic instinct to look for interesting people 'whose stories can reflect important perspectives of the country'.
在旅行前和旅行的途中，刘子超都会做大量的研究。但更重要的是通过记者的直觉找到有意思的人，“他们的故事足以反映这些国家重要的方面。”
'I would talk to them and quickly be able to tell whether they were what I was looking for,' he says.
“我会跟他们聊天，很快判断出他们是否是我要找的人，”他说。
馕市场的母子
As well as encountering people randomly while on the road, he would often search local social media platforms, including local dating apps.
除了旅途中随机碰到的人以外，他会去当地的社交媒体平台，包括当地的约会软件上去找有意思的人。
'In these conservative Central Asian countries it is interesting to observe how young people decorate themselves, what clothes they wear and the backdrops they choose for their photos. These things provide a lot of information,' he says.
“在这些保守的中亚国家，看年轻人如何修饰自己是件很有趣的事，他们穿什么样的衣服，他们选的照片背景是怎样的。都能提供很多信息，”他说。
'For instance, what defines their perception of beauty? Where did they take the photos? In a traditional teahouse or in a Western-style restaurant? I found that, in those conservative societies, young people are rather open,' he says.
“例如，他们是怎么定义美的？他们在哪儿拍的照片？是在传统的茶馆里还是西式餐馆？我发现，在那些保守的社会里，年轻人是相当开放的，”他说。
'By viewing enough photos online, I would be able to form a basic judgment of young people in that place and a basic prediction of the country's future in five to 10 years,' he adds.
在网上浏览足够多的照片后，就会对当地年轻人形成基本判断，也可以预知这个国家在五到十年的未来，”他说。
塔吉克女店主
Born and raised in Beijing, Liu always aspired to become a writer. He attended top schools and his early life was uneventful.
刘子超生于北京长于北京，自小就想成为一名作家。他念北京最好的学校，早年生活一帆风顺。
'Limited life experience provides little writing material for fiction. I only published one story,' Liu says.
“有限的生活经验无法给小说创作提供素材。我只发表过一个短篇，”他说。
As a result, after graduating from Peking University, Liu chose to become a journalist as a starting point for his writing career.
所以从北大毕业后，刘子超选择成为一名记者开启他的写作生涯。
'Working in the media helped to build up my capability to ask questions during my journeys,' he says.
“媒体的经验训练了我问问题的能力，”他说。
In the summer of 2010, he went on a business trip to Horgos in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, a border city neighboring Kazakhstan. At the border he saw trucks waiting in long lines to pass and the majestic snowcapped Tianshan Mountains looming in the distance. He had an impulse to see the world beyond the borderline.
2010年夏天，他去新疆出差，到了霍尔果斯，对面就是哈萨克斯坦。在边境上他看到大卡车排着长龙等通关，冰雪覆盖的天山横亘在远方。他说他有冲动想要去看看边境线另一边的世界。
散落在高山牧场上的马群
In 2011, he made his first trip to Central Asia. His destination was Uzbekistan. After returning, Liu started learning Russian and Uzbek to better understand the countries there. However, he did not get the chance to return until 2018.
2011年，他第一次前往中亚，目的地是乌兹别克斯坦。回国后，他开始学俄语和乌兹别克语这样就可以更好地去理解中亚国家。不过他再次前往中亚是在2018年。
In Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, he met a young woman named Zoey, who ran a restaurant. Zoey told Liu that she did not have a sense of belonging, although she had lived in many different places, including the United States, Saudi Arabia, as well as her mother country, Kyrgyzstan.
在吉尔吉斯坦的首都比什凯克，刘子超遇到了一个叫佐伊的年轻女人，她经营一家餐馆。佐伊告诉他，尽管她在不同的地方生活过，包括美国、沙特和吉尔吉斯坦，但她好像没有归属感。
Liu told her that he had the same feeling, describing himself as a modern nomad, moving around all the time from one place to another, belonging to nowhere.
刘子超告诉他自己有同样的感受，称自己为当代游牧民族，不停地从一个地方移动到另一个地方，不属于任何地方。
'For modern nomads, traveling is not to reach any destination, but for the sake of travel itself. The most important thing is to keep moving,' he writes.
“对于当代游牧民族来说，旅行不是为了去任何地方，只是为了旅行。最重要的事情是移动，”他在书里写道。
In Central Asia, he traveled across the depopulated zone of Pamir in Tajikistan, visited a nuclear test site of the former Soviet Union in Kazakhstan, and strolled through Samarqand, Uzbekistan's second largest city, to see the ancient buildings that carry the former brilliance of the Islamic empire.
在中亚，刘穿过塔吉克斯坦的帕米尔高原的无人区，在哈萨克斯坦参观了前苏联的核弹实验场，在乌兹别克斯坦第二大城市撒马尔罕游荡，在古老的建筑中观看伊斯兰帝国逝去的辉煌。
布哈拉的巴扎
At a bar in Uzbekistan, he saw a drunk businessman tossing cash into the air while shouting: 'What you saw was fake, and this is reality.'
在乌兹别克斯坦的一个酒吧里，他看到一个喝醉的商人向空中抛洒纸币，嘴里喊道：“你所看到的都是假的，这才是现实。”
He also saw the influence of China's development on its neighbors. For instance, in Tajikistan, he met a young man called Xing Yun (in Chinese literally meaning 'lucky') who was studying Chinese and keen to talk to Chinese people to practice his Mandarin.
他也在中亚看到了中国的发展对邻居们的影响。例如，他在塔吉克斯坦碰到了一个叫幸运的年轻人，他在学习中文，热衷于和中国人说话练习普通话。
正如刘子超所说，由于外语学习的普及和出国旅游热，越来越多掌握外语的中国人去世界各地旅行，但是很少有人像几个世纪以来的西方游记作家一样，透过中国人的经验去书写对于世界的观察理解，这个空白需要年轻的作家去填补。北京大学历史系教授罗新评价《失落的世界》给这样的中国游记设立了一个标准。
One of his favorite writers is Ernest Hemingway, because 'writers in our time share a lot in common with writers of his time'. Liu explains: 'He wrote about adventures in Europe or Africa, about his life in Paris, fishing in France, hunting in Africa, or the Spanish Civil War. His experience represents the American spirit of his time.'
海明威是刘子超最喜欢的作家之一，因为“我们时代的作家和他那个时代的作家有很多共同点”。他解释道：“海明威写他在欧洲和非洲的历险，巴黎的生活，在法国钓鱼，在非洲打猎，或者是西班牙内战。他代表了他那个时代的美国精神。”
'It's my feeling that China has reached a period similar to that of the United States during Hemingway's life,' Liu says.'Hemingway used his American experience to explore Europe. Similarly, we are now using our Chinese experience to explore the world.'
“我感觉中国现在已经进入了海明威时期的美国，”刘子超说。“海明威用他的美国经验去探索欧洲。同样，现在我们正用中国的经验去探索世界。”
周五清真寺的礼拜
尽管互联网给人们带来了前所未有的迅速了解世界的便利窗口，但世界的话语权仍常常掌握在主流媒体的手中，人们多数活在想象的世界中心，幻想自己是地球的主人因此肆无忌惮地浪费、污染、竞争、掠夺、排他甚至压榨自己，忘记了地理文化的多样性及其之于人类的重要性。
刘子超在《午夜降临前抵达》中写道：
“在这样的全球化时代，旅行文学或许已不太可能承担启蒙的任务，但以文学的笔触写下旅程，以精致的文字书写异域，一定会有长远的意义。我希望做的，就是尽量避免无知的傲慢和廉价的感动，以旁观者的宽容和鉴赏者的谦逊，观看眼前的世界。这或许就是旅行文学在今天仍然不失的意义。”
距离新冠疫情爆发已经过去了一年，可距离“正常”还相差甚远。不少人就地过年，一年一度地球上蔚为壮观的人类大迁徙也因此中断，我们无法自由地前往心中向往的目的地，那就读一读《失落的卫星》吧。
它以一种全新的视角去书写年轻中国作者心中的中亚世界，带我们去那个很多人都未曾抵达的时空，感受它的风土人情。会猛然发现，原来我们对邻居们知之甚少，更不用说那些主流媒体很少提及的国家和地区了。
也许通过阅读刘子超的游记，我们也可以像他一样：知道世界上还有人那样生活，就更容易按照自己想要的方式去度过一生。
“这是旅行带来的最大个人收获。”
编辑：李雪晴
实习生：陈羽洁
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