I moved from Ohio to the Northwest, where salmon are famously plentiful. I have always loved to eat salmon, especially grilled salmon. So, it is a perfect place for me to think of this great fish. I especially appreciate the fact that, with salmon, there is plenty of meat to bite into, inexpensively, and I can eat it to my heart’s delight. This is in contrast to the sophisticated tender fish that I can eat in Asia, but which is so expensive, and is served in extremely small portions even at sumptuous banquets, that I can barely satisfy my fish hunger! Come to Seattle and taste the juicy thick chunks of salmon. It’s literally like eating a sizzling Argentinian beef steak, and I am sure it is much healthier!

我从俄亥俄州搬到了因盛产鲑鱼而闻名的西北地区。因为一直喜欢吃鲑鱼，特别是烤鲑鱼，所以西雅图于我而言，绝对是一个完美的地方。鲑鱼非常多肉，价格还合理，每每吃到它，我会发自内心感觉到无比满足。这与我在亚洲吃过的经复杂烹饪、且价格不菲的鲜鱼形成鲜明对比：那是即使在豪华的宴会上也以极少的份量装盘，完全无以饱腹的。欢迎来到西雅图，品尝多汁浓厚的鲑鱼块，它完全可以媲美炙热的阿根廷牛排，当然还更有益健康！

What I really like also is the life story of the salmon fish. It is a story of adventure and mystery, that we might even learn from, and I can actually watch part of its life journeys in real time, as the salmon swim heroically in the streams of the Northwest. You might know that the salmon often need to swim a thousand miles upstream, against the rushing waters pushing them in the opposite direction. And, they have to physically jump up at times to go over huge rocks and other obstacles, several feet high. This journey is so strenuous that watching them makes me feel tired. What amazing drive must they have to do this! And how do they know that they have to do this? What really is the inner drive?

其实我还非常欣赏鲑鱼的故事。这是一个值得我们学习的关于冒险的神奇故事。事实上，我可以现场观察它们日常生活的一些片段，例如：鲑鱼在西北地区的溪流里勇敢的游泳。你也许知道鲑鱼常常需要逆流而上几千英里，同时湍急的流水不时将它们拍打到相反的方向；它们还需要在遇到巨大的石头和其他障碍物时，用力的向上跳跃几英尺高。我总是非常专注且紧张的观察它们勇猛前进，以至于每每令我非常疲惫。它们一定有强大的内在动力去做这样的努力吧？它们为何认定需要这样的勇猛精进呢？什么是它们的真正驱动力呢？

Close to and facing my Seattle home, there is actually a river that salmon have to use to swim upstream. But because of the four-lane road construction through my local town, the government had to spend millions of dollars to make sure that the road did not cut off the stream, and block or interfere with the salmon run. In fact, the state of Washington built and rebuilt many roads like that, running into billions of dollars, which is a reflection of how serious Washingtonians view any interruption of this magic salmon run, so it is not a joking matter!

在我西雅图家的对面，有一条鲑鱼必须逆流而上的河流。它位于城市扩建四车道道路的工地上。政府为了不干扰鲑鱼的泳道，不得不花费数百万美元来确保河流没有被切断、堵塞或干扰。而事实上，在华盛顿州还有许多因为类似的原因，而增加数十亿美元预算的工程。这正好反映了华盛顿州对待生态环境的态度：鲑鱼神奇的活动是不可被中断的，这不仅仅是一句玩笑话！

And then in some amazing way, the super marathon swimmers can find the original little stream they traveled from, and even the original spot where they were born and grew up, a long time, maybe years, ago. You can imagine the many bifurcations and forks in the streams as they thrash their way upstream, where they have to make instant decisions as to which path to take. Seattle land traffic is considered one of the worst in the country, because the roads wind around lakes and hills, up and down hills, zipping sharply left and right, and changing names all the time; the road that is my back road changes names 6 times in 15 minutes of driving! It’s all very unnerving, and I’m nearly always using a GPS, global positioning service, to find my way. What sort of high powered GPS does the salmon have? And there are not even names on the streams. A wrong turn and they never get to their original home of birth. And can you imagine, they do this in a fasted state, drawing on their fat and other reserves in the body. Just imagine yourself driving while hunger pangs are gripping you; I have, and it isn’t funny, and that’s why I always have a nut bar in my car glove compartment, just in case.

这些超级马拉松游泳健将以神奇的方式，找到它们需要前往的正确的河道，那可能是它们几年前游经的水域，甚至是自己出生、长大的地点。你可以想象：河流中有许多分叉和支流，在它们逆流而上的瞬间，必须快速决定游向哪个方向。西雅图地面交通被认为是全国最糟糕的地方之一。因为这些道路环绕着湖泊和丘陵，所以有大量的斜坡和“之”字型的设计。而且相连的道路可能用完全不同的名字。以我家背后的一条道路为例，在大约15分钟的车程中，它改变了六次名字。这令人感到非常不安，所以我总是依靠GPS全球定位服务来正确地驾驶。鲑鱼们使用哪种高功率GPS呢？而那些河流，溪涧未必有名字啊！一个错误的转弯，它们将永远不能回到它们的家乡。而且它们常常需要在禁食状态下，利用脂肪和其他身体储备去做出正确的判断。我常常会在自己的储物箱里准备一些坚果，以备不时之需，因为我明白饥饿驾驶的痛苦。

As the salmon return to their home, they mate, at this literal and poetic high point of their life, in the beautiful snowcapped mountains of the Northwest. Their life journey is finally over. Having spent all their energy making this long strenuous journey, they die, literally exhausted, essentially sacrificing themselves for a new generation to come. They have come back to their ancestral home, sweet home to fulfill their destiny, a fitting location after their many trials of life. I can’t but think, that, Seattle being where my mother was born, grew up, and went to university, before she took the “slow boat to China,” I am literally “coming home,” also. Back to where my mother grew up, among the white snow covered tall pines and firs, next to that huge Pacific Ocean, in the lovely State of Washington. In my life, I have had the pleasure of traveling thousands of miles, and eaten lots of good sea food dinners: I cannot say my life has been exhausting, and I have never had any significant fasting times (work in Asia comes with too much great food!). Yet in the turns and jumps over the years, I could poetically empathize with my fishy friends. But I have come home, finally, likely to live my last years here!

当鲑鱼回到家乡，它们在西北部白雪皑皑的山顶交配，站在了生命华丽而诗意的高点。它们的生命之旅也终于结束。它们花费所有的精力，完成了漫长而艰辛旅程。为了自己的下一代而耗竭了生命的能量，继而死亡。在经历了无数种不同的生活体验之后，它们回到祖先的家，甜蜜的家园，以结束它们的命运。我不得不承认：西雅图是我的家，因为这是我母亲搭乘“慢船”去中国之前，出生、成长和读大学的地方。回到西雅图，于我而言，也是“回家”，回到我母亲长大的地方。回到了这个太平洋边上，有着白雪覆盖的高大松柏的美丽故乡。在这里，我已经游历了数千英里，尝遍了大量的海鲜美食。当然，我的生活并不令我感到疲惫，我也并不曾经历饥饿。（甚至在亚洲工作期间，享受了大量美食！）。然而，在多年来的辗转和奔波之后，我可以与我的鱼类好友一样进行诗意的活动：寻找家园，并在此度过余生。

The newborn salmon, hatched in this gorgeous environment, wait for the spring flowers in full blossom, and then some salmon species decide, en masse, together with hordes of other very young salmon, to go! “Where we going?” could be the legitimate question that one young salmon asks the other. “I don’t think we know,” might be one answer. Or “I’m not sure, maybe the others know.” “In any case, we have to go, so let’s go, we’ll soon find out!” And so, a new generation of tens of thousands fly down the streams. Other salmon species decide to take their sweet time growing up, and enjoying themselves, in the many mountain streams and lakes, for even a year, before finally taking their plunge downstream. I’m a baby doctor (neonatologist), so I like to imagine that, many of the early swimmers are really just my kind of neonatal babies, and yet they can furiously swim swiftly downstream with great purpose: where did they get the intelligence to do all that? how could they do that while so very young? And with no parental guidance, no PG, as Americans like to say about movies, no one to advise them at all, about the long and dangerous journey ahead of them.

鲑鱼宝宝将在这美丽的环境里出生，并在此等待春天的花蕾绽放。然后将会有一批年轻的鲑鱼，决定去游历 。“我们去哪里？”将成为新一代鲑鱼之间合理而又普遍的问题。“我不认为我们知道。”可能是一个答案。或者“我不知道，也许其他人都知道。”“无论如何，我们必须走，所以我们走吧，我们会开始旅行并很快找到答案的！”所以，新一代的数万只鲑鱼快速地开始它们的旅程。也会有鲑鱼决定先留在自己的家园，幸福的成长，在许多山溪和湖泊中享受一年，然后顺流而下。我是一名儿科医生（新生儿科），所以我愿意相信，那些在很小便决定下水的小鱼，就像是的那些新生的婴儿们，它们是那么的幼小，没有父母的指导，没有导航，没有任何人给予意见和建议，它们就那么勇敢地、快速地开始了生命征程。难道它们不担心前路漫长而危险吗？

Down, down, indeed they go, downstream, the thousand miles their parents had struggled in the opposite direction, until they reach the spots where the stream waters mix with salty water of the great Pacific Ocean. Are they in for a shock? I wonder if they might be asking one another again, “Where are we?” “What’s going on here?” “The water here feels very different.” Indeed, their bodies now have to adjust to the new very different salty environment: how do they do that? But, their body begins to adapt, and on and on they still must go, until they realize now they have hit the real gigantic salty Pacific Ocean!

它们确实开始了旅程，顺流而下。与此相反，它们的父辈们在相反的方向上挣扎几万里。 它们终将抵达河流入海的混合水域。它们会震惊吗？我想知道它们是否会再问多一个问题：“我们在哪里？”；“这里发生了什么？”；“这里的水似乎很不同哪？”。确实，它们的身体现在必须适应新的海水环境：它们这样做吗？ 想必，鲑鱼的身体开始被迫渐渐适应， 直到意识到自己已经完全浸没在巨大的太平洋海水中！

From now on, how do they know where they should be swimming? There is a pathway ordained for them in the vast ocean, that is not marked for human eyes to see, but which they know, instinctively, what it will be, along a way that their ancestors used to swim. These elliptical pathways in the ocean can last from 18 months to 8 years to traverse. And each specific path is only for each specific species of salmon. Coho, pink, chinook, sockeye salmon; each have their own pathway, and they do not mix their paths. And, to complicate matters, “Americans don’t mix with Asians”: the Northwestern salmon certainly do not mix paths with Asian salmon coming in their own pathways from the other side of the Pacific Ocean, in their own long circles to return to the Asian continent, even if their paths, from East and West, may even seem to cross in the middle of the Pacific.

从现在开始，它们怎么知道自己应该往哪里游？在浩瀚无垠的海洋中，鲑鱼本能地在设置好了的航道里游玩，这并不是人眼所能见看到的，而是它们的前辈先贤曾用游泳的方式标记出来的航道。沿着海洋中的这些椭圆形航道，鲑鱼需要游上18个月甚至8年之久。而每个具体的航道只适用于每种特定的鲑鱼。银鲑、粉红鲑、帝王鲑、红鲑，每种鱼都有自己的通道，它们不会混淆自己的路径。而且，“美国鲑不会与亚裔鲑混合”：来自西北地区的鲑鱼航道绝对不会与来自太平洋彼岸的亚洲鲑鱼混淆，即使它们漫长的航道会在太平洋的中间穿越而产生交点。

These great ocean pathways could each run 10,000 miles, and yet the salmon, now maturing as they swim, somehow know that is their destiny. I can imagine my inquisitive mother, on the boat to China, in the early 1930s, having a chance to chat with the captain of the boat about the complexity of the routing that he would have to take all the way, through wind and storm and waves, using relatively sophisticated compasses, radios, and stars to safely land thousands of miles away. How do the salmon manage their ocean navigations? Many mariners would love to know; maybe they could learn something to improve their own navigation.

这些漫长的海洋通道动辄上万英里。已经在大海里游泳的成年鲑鱼，似乎认定这就是它们的宿命。我在想，我那爱探究的母亲，在上个世纪30年代，坐船去中国的时候，一定有机会感叹过：她的船长是如何运用复杂而精准的罗盘、无线电和星象的位置，在经历了暴风雨和巨浪的洗礼之后，安全抵达几千里外的彼岸。可是鲑鱼如何在海洋里定位呢？水手们一定很想知道吧？也许他们可以学习一些东西来改善自己的导航能力呢。

This huge elliptical ocean circle pathway ultimately comes right back to where they began their ocean journey, after which the salmon then go upstream as their parents once did, for another heroic cycle of great feat. As they go up the creeks and streams, some are captured, and a few land on my dinner table, to my great delight. I can even savor their taste this minute as I’m writing this.

经历了这个巨大的椭圆形的海洋环路后，它们终究又回到了开始海洋之旅的地方，就像它们的父辈们一样，开始了又一次的漫长而英勇的回乡之旅。当鲑鱼游回到溪澗和河流时，有些被捕获，成就了我餐桌上的美味。甚至在写这篇文章的时候，我仍在回味着鲑鱼的滋味。

But what has puzzled scientists for hundreds of years, continues to fill me with amazement. As a scientist myself, I stand in awe of this huge puzzle, actually just one among thousands of other spectacular puzzles in nature. The Designer who was involved in designing every single minute detail of a salmon’s life has created such an interesting enigmatic life journey story, even for the lowly salmon for which I have a special love. And I am grateful for that, for biology and for my taste buds.

鲑鱼的生命旅途，是几百年来科学家的困惑，当然也持续让我感到惊讶。作为一个科学家，我对这个巨大的难题感到敬畏，虽然它只是数以千计的谜团之一。基于生物学和自己饮食好恶的原因，我非常感激设计鲑鱼生活细节的设计师，创造了一个有趣的神秘生命旅程故事。

Biologically speaking, we lump these puzzles as puzzles of instinct. Darwin literally “gave up” on instinct, as impossible puzzles of nature that upset his basic views of life, and his theories of how we came to be. I agree, and the really funny thing is, we are finding, with time, that there are now more and more impossible puzzles, not less, the more we learn from biology, from the largest giants of nature, right down to the tiniest particles of life. Instinctive behavior seems programmed and designed after all, and no “natural mutations,” or “natural selection” could ever produce that.

在生理学上，我们把这些谜题称作本能。达尔文虽然表面上“放弃”了本能，因为自然不可思议的难题，摧毁了他基于生物学的基本观点以及人类何去何从的理论。正如图片2A所示。有趣的是，随着时间的推移，我们发现越来越多的不可思议的难题：我们从自然中学到的越多，谜团就越多。本能的行为似乎是程序设计的，根本不符合 “天然突变”或“物竞天择”。