Well known as the busiest waterway on Earth, the Yangtze River recently became the temporary home for yet another human being. No surprise there. But this one was different. This guy was trying to swim home.
众所周知，长江是地球上最繁忙的水道，最近又成为了另一个人类的临时家园。这并不奇怪。但这一次不同。这家伙正试图游回家。
People end up in the Yangtze River for many different reasons. Ships capsize, some leap from the mighty “Da Qiao” in a suicide attempt. But as far as we know, only one has decided that the River’s choppy waters make for the best form of self-powered commute.
人们出于多种不同的原因最终来到长江。船只倾覆，一些人从浩瀚的“大桥”上跳下自杀。但据我们所知，只有一个人认为河流波涛汹涌的河水最适合自供电通勤。
The gentleman in question hails from Anhui. And at this point, it is important to note that our neighbouring Province is upstream, or west of Nanjing. Our water bound friend seemingly had forgotten this fact when he took to the River. First though, his back story.
这位先生来自安徽。在这一点上，值得注意的是，我们的邻省位于上游，即南京以西。当我们的水上朋友来到河边时，他似乎忘记了这个事实。首先是他的背景故事。
Coming to Nanjing in search of work, things started going badly wrong for the unnamed man when he lost his identity card and wallet here in the Southern Capital.
这位不愿透露姓名的男子来到南京寻找工作，当他在南都丢失了身份证和钱包时，事情开始变得严重。
That meant no job, no money, nowhere to stay, no nucleic-acid test even. Poor him. He was severely out of luck.
这意味着没有工作、没有钱、无处可住，甚至不能进行核酸检测。可怜的他。他实在是太不走运了。
It also meant no means to take a train or plane home.
这也意味着无法乘坐火车或飞机回家。
Our hero then had a flash of inspiration, or something that illustrious publication, the Global Times, called on 11 August a “brilliant idea”. Not quite.
然后我们的英雄灵光一闪，著名刊物《环球时报》在 8 月 11 日称这是一个“绝妙的主意”。不完全是。
Filling his backpack with empty plastic bottles for flotation, he then found a plank and waded out into the Yangtze. He was going to swim home to Anhui.
他在背包里装满了空塑料瓶，以便漂浮，然后找到一块木板，涉入长江。他要游回安徽的家。
But he had figured without the River’s current. The flow of the Yangtze varies with the seasons, periods of heavy rain or drought, the River’s width and depth, etc. However, a number of 1 metre per second is a good average. In other words, a not-too-shabby swim that could put you in the school team.
但他已经想到了没有河水的情况。长江的流量随季节、大雨或干旱的时期、河流的宽度和深度等而变化。但是，每秒1米的数字是一个很好的平均数。换句话说，一次不算太糟糕的游泳可以让你进入学校队。
But we’re not talking a couple of lengths here. We’re talking 50-100 kilometres. While the waters at this time of year are comparatively warm, our Anhui friend made little headway against the current and soon tired.
但我们在这里谈论的不是几个长度。我们说的是50-100公里。虽然每年这个时候的海水相对温暖，但我们的安徽朋友逆流而行却步履维艰，很快就累了。
And so he started drifting, further and further away from home. In fact, he drifted as far as Zhenjiang, the city neighbouring Nanjing to the east, another 100 kilometres away, but this time in the wrong direction. It was in its stretch of the Yangtze that police and rescuers were able to pluck him from the water.
就这样，他开始漂泊，离家越来越远。事实上，他还漂到了100公里外的镇江，只不过这次方向错了。警察和救援人员在长江流域将他从水中救了出来。
The brave, but foolhardy effort has been applauded and dubbed, “Life of Pi in real life” by local people. But they’re overlooking something. In the 2012 movie, Pi had a tiger to talk to. Our guy had a plank.
这种勇敢而又鲁莽的举动被当地人称赞为“现实生活中的圆周率生活”。但他们忽略了一些事情。在 2012 年的电影中，Pi 可以和一只老虎交谈。我们的家伙有一块木板。
