好英语网西班牙人用餐时间晚的真正原因
It is 10pm in the Madrid neighbourhood of La Latina, one of the city’s oldest areas, and the cobbled streets thrum with the sounds of people enjoying plates of gambas al ajillo (garlic prawns) and cocido Madrileño (a hearty chickpea, pork and chorizo stew). Restaurants are bustling at an hour when, in most other countries, chefs would be hanging up their aprons for the night.
拉提纳 (La Latina) 街区是马德里最古老的地区之一。晚上 10 点，在鹅卵石铺就的街道上人声鼎沸，到处都有人在享用 gambas al ajillo（蒜蓉虾）和 cocido Madrileño（马德里烩肉，一种包括鹰嘴豆、猪肉和西班牙辣香肠的丰盛炖菜）。这个时间，大多数其他国家餐厅都已经打烊，但这里的餐厅仍然人潮涌动。
While travellers might attribute Spain’s late mealtimes to the country’s laidback Mediterranean attitude, the real reason is a little more peculiar. Spaniards are living in the wrong time zone, and have been for more than 70 years.
尽管旅行者可能会认为，西班牙用餐时间晚是因为这个国家人们悠闲的地中海式生活方式，但真正的原因却可能有点奇怪。这个原因就是，70 多年以来，西班牙人一直生活在错误的时区里。
Glance at a map and you’ll realise that Spain – sitting, as it does, along the same longitude as the UK, Portugal and Morocco – should be in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). But Spain goes by Central European Time (CET), putting it in sync with the Serbian capital Belgrade, more than 2,500km east of Madrid.
看一下地图，您就会发现西班牙与英国、葡萄牙和摩洛哥位于相同经度，应该采用格林尼治标准时间（GMT）。但是，西班牙却采用欧洲中部时间（CET），与马德里以东 2,500 公里的塞尔维亚的贝尔格莱德同步。
So why are Spaniards living behind their geographic time zone?
那么，为什么西班牙人要按照落后于他们地理时区的时间生活呢？
In 1940, General Francisco Franco changed Spain’s time zone, moving the clocks one hour forward in solidarity with Nazi Germany.
1940 年，佛朗哥将军（General Francisco Franco）将西班牙的时区往前调了一个小时，以便与纳粹德国同步。
For Spaniards, who at the time were utterly devastated by the Spanish Civil War, complaining about the change did not even cross their minds. They continued to eat at the same time, but because the clocks had changed, their 1pm lunches became 2pm lunches, and they were suddenly eating their 8pm dinners at 9pm.
那时候，西班牙人备受西班牙内战摧残，完全没心思去抱怨时间的更改。他们继续按照以前的时间吃饭，但因为记时的方式改变，他们午饭的时间也就由下午 1 点变成 2 点，以往晚上 8 点的晚餐时间也突然之间变成了 9 点。
After World War II ended, the clocks were never changed back. However, in 2016, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced that the government was working on a plan to implement a new workday schedule ending at 6pm as opposed to 8pm. One important element of the plan was evaluating the possibility of changing Spain’s time zone from CET to GMT – something that has sparked a heated discussion throughout the country.
由于工作日下班时间为晚上 8 点，西班牙人的社交生活就留到了深夜
西班牙时间比正确的时区晚 60 分钟，这意味着日出日落的时间都更晚了，让西班牙人拥有了漫长的夏夜，太阳到晚上 10 点才下山。西班牙一些旅游度假区的经营者认为更多的阳光是吸引游客的一大优势。西班牙东部巴利阿里群岛（Balearic Islands，包括马略卡岛Mallorca、梅诺卡岛Menorca和伊比沙岛Ibiza）的地区政府强烈反对恢复格林尼治标准时间，甚至举行大型活动要求保留全年夏令时 (CET+1)，从而让游客可以充分利用该地区温和的冬季气候。
But for many Spaniards, living in the wrong time zone has resulted in sleep deprivation and decreased productivity. The typical Spanish work day begins at 9am; after a two-hour lunch break between 2 and 4pm, employees return to work, ending their day around 8pm. The later working hours force Spaniards to save their social lives for the late hours. Prime-time television doesn’t start until 10:30pm.
但是对于很多西班牙人而言，生活在错误的时区下导致他们睡眠不足，工作效率下降。西班牙工作时间通常从上午 9 点开始，午餐时间为下午 2 点到 4 点，然后继续工作直到晚上 8 点左右下班。由于下班时间很晚，所以西班牙人不得不将社交活动推到深夜。黄金时段的电视节目直到晚上 10:30 才开始。
Meanwhile, in the northwestern region of Galicia, the sun doesn’t rise until after 9am in winter, meaning that residents are starting their day in the dark.
同时，在西班牙西北部的加利西亚地区（Galicia），冬季太阳要到上午 9 点之后才升起，这意味着这里的居民要摸黑上班。
“The fact that the time in Spain doesn’t correspond to the sun affects health, especially sleep,” said José Luis Casero, president of the National Commission for the Rationalization of Spanish Schedules, an organisation that has been campaigning for Spain to return to the correct time zone since 2006. “If we changed time zones, the sun would rise one hour earlier and we’d wake up more naturally, meal times would be one hour earlier and we’d get an extra hour’s sleep.”
"事实上，西班牙目前采用的时间跟太阳照射时间不符，这会影响健康，尤其是睡眠，"西班牙时间合理化国家委员会主席胡塞·路易·卡塞罗（José Luis Casero）表示。该组织从 2006 年起开始为西班牙回归正确的时区而奋斗。"如果我们改变时区，太阳会提前一小时升起，我们也会更自然地醒来，就餐时间会提前一小时，我们就多了一小时的睡眠时间。"
Spaniards have traditionally coped with their late nights by taking a mid-morning coffee break and a two-hour lunch break, giving them the opportunity to enjoy one of the country’s most famous traditions: the siesta.
西班牙人为了适应迟来的夜晚，会在上午设一个喝咖啡时间以及两个小时的午休，这让人们能够享受这个国家最令人尴尬的传统之一：午睡。
Changing the workday would threaten Spaniards’ customary naptime, although whether or not citizens would mind is still up for debate. A January 2017 study by research company Simple Lógica found that less than 18% of Spaniards nap regularly, while nearly 60% never take a siesta. In fact, business owners in many of the country’s major cities and holiday resorts remain open during the midday break to cater to tourists.
改变工作时间会威胁到西班牙人的午睡习惯，尽管人们是不是介意这一点还有待讨论。2017 年 1 月 Simple Lógica 公司开展的一项调查显示，不到 18% 的西班牙人有午睡习惯，而将近 60% 的人从不午睡。事实上，这个国家的很多大城市和度假胜地的店主们在午休时间仍然营业，以便为游客提供服务。
Meanwhile, those who do nap express frustration when changes in their daily routine prevent them from sleeping mid-day.
同时，午睡者们抱怨对他们日常生活节奏的改变让他们不能睡午觉。
“We should really banish the siesta in Spain because it doesn’t fit with reality,” Casero said. “And with the change of time zone bringing meal times forward and giving us an extra hour of sleep, there would be less need for a rest at midday.”
"我们应该在西班牙取消午睡制度，因为这根本不符合现实，"卡塞罗说。"随着时区的改变，晚饭时间提前，我们就多了一个小时的睡眠时间，这样就不需要睡午觉了。"
When it comes down to it, economist Nuria Chinchilla, an expert in work-life balance at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa business school in Barcelona, feels that quality of life for Spaniards is more pressing than preserving an extra hour or two of evening light for tourists.
巴塞罗那 IESE 商学院（Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa）的工作生活平衡研究专家、经济学家努利亚·钦奇拉认为，归根结底，提高西班牙人的生活质量远比为旅游者多保留一两个小时的夏夜更重要。
“We have continuous jetlag,” she said. “Tourism will always be there and tourists don’t care. The number of hours of sunlight will be the same, whether it is an extra hour in the morning or in the evening.”
"我们无需太关注时差问题，"她表示。"旅游业一直都有时差问题，旅游者们也不在乎。不管所谓早上多了一小时还是晚上多了一小时，白天的时长不会变。"
