初到西班牙，你會發現按點兒吃飯簡直成為不可能完成的任務。早上9點，很多西班牙人才慢吞吞地喝著咖啡吃早餐。中午12點你想吃午飯？對不起，餐廳還沒開始供應，而午夜時分，各家餐館中的人群反而熙熙攘攘。而這么奇葩的用餐時間竟然都是時區惹的禍。

2011年7月17日，在西班牙馬德里市，廚師將海鮮飯盛盤擺放在桌子上，準備發放給民眾免費品嘗。海鮮飯是西班牙飲食中最具代表性的主食之一，以平底鐵鍋烹制。除大米外，配料包括蝦、魷魚、牡蠣等各類海鮮，也有肉類和時令蔬菜等。 新華社記者陳海通攝

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 and cocido Madrile?o. Restaurants are bustling at an hour when, in most other countries, chefs would be hanging up their aprons for the night.
晚上10點，在馬德里最古老的地段拉拉提納，圓石鋪就的街道上仍然人聲鼎沸，人們品嘗著蒜味蝦和馬德里燴菜。雖然這個時間點，大多數其他國家的餐廳已經打烊了，但這里的餐廳仍然人潮涌動。

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.
盡管游客們可能會認為西班牙晚餐時間晚，是因為這個國家地中海式的閑適生活態度，但真正的原因有些奇怪。70多年以來，西班牙人一直生活在錯誤的時區里。

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.
掃一眼地圖，你就會知道西班牙坐落的經度與英國、葡萄牙和摩洛哥相同，因此應該采用格林尼治時間。然而，西班牙依照的是歐洲中部時間，與位于馬德里東部2500多千米的塞爾維亞首都貝爾格萊德時間同步。

So why are Spaniards living behind their geographic time zone?
所以為什么西班牙人要按照落后于他們地理時區的時區生活呢？

In 1940, General Francisco Franco changed Spain’s time zone, moving the clocks one hour forward in solidarity with Nazi Germany.
1940年，弗朗西斯科?佛朗哥將軍改變了西班牙的時區，將時間往前調了一小時，與納粹德國保持一致。

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.
那時西班牙人正因內戰而苦不堪言，完全沒心思去抱怨時間的更改。他們仍然在相同的時間點用餐，但因為記時的方式改變，他們午飯的時間也就由下午一點改為兩點，以往晚上8點的晚餐時間也突然之間變成了9點。

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.
二戰結束后，這個記時方式也沒有再改回來，但2016年，西班牙總理馬里亞諾?拉霍伊宣布，政府正在計劃實施一個新的工作日日程，其中包括將下班時間由下午8點改為6點。這份計劃最重要的一點，就是估算有沒有可能，將西班牙的時區由歐洲中部時間改回格林尼治時間，這在全國引發了激烈的討論。

Being 60 minutes behind the correct time zone means the sun rises later and sets later, bestowing Spain with gloriously long summer evenings and 10pm sunsets. Those who run Spain’s tourist resorts believe that more sunlight is a large draw for visitors. The regional government of the Balearic Islands is strongly against returning to GMT and has even campaigned to maintain year-round summer time to allow visitors to take full advantage of the region’s mild winter climate.
落后正確的時區60分鐘意味著，太陽升起和落下的時間會往后推遲，這使西班牙享受到夏日極長的夜晚，以及晚上10點的落日。西班牙旅游度假區的負責人認為，更長的日照時間對游客吸引力很大。巴利阿里群島政府強烈反對重新改回格林尼治時間，甚至倡議全年都保持夏令時，以使得游客能夠充分享受巴利阿里群島冬日溫和的氣候。

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.
然而，對許多西班牙人來說，在錯誤的時區生活已經造成睡眠不足以及工作效率下降的問題。西班牙人工作日一般從早上9點開始，2點到4點這兩小時進行午休，之后重新開始工作，大約晚上8點結束一天的工作。較晚的工作時間迫使西班牙人將社交生活挪到較晚的時間點。黃金時間的電視也是晚上10:30才開始。

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.
同時，在西北地區的加利西亞，冬季太陽在9點后才升起，這讓很多居民要在黑夜中開始一天的生活。

“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.”
“事實是，西班牙的時間與太陽的運轉規律不符，影響了人們的健康，甚至是睡眠，”何塞?路易斯?卡西奧說道，他是西班牙時間表合理化委員會的主席，這個組織自2006年起一直倡導讓西班牙重回正確的時區。“如果我們改變了時區，那么太陽就會提前一小時升起，我們的起床的時間也能更正常，晚餐時間將提前一小時，這樣我們睡眠時間也能增加一小時。”

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 infamous traditions: the siesta.
西班牙人習慣通過上午的咖啡時間和兩小時的午休來熬夜，這使他們有機會享受西班牙最臭名遠揚的傳統：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.
盡管市民們是否介意仍是個有待商榷的問題，但改變工作日的時間將威脅到西班牙人習慣的午睡時間。2017年1月，Simple Lógica調查公司的研究發現，不到18%的西班牙人有固定的小憩時間，而將近60%的西班牙人從來不午睡。事實上，西班牙主要城市和度假區的商業門店在午休時間照常營業，以迎合游客需求。

Meanwhile, those who do nap express frustration when changes in their daily routine prevent them from sleeping mid-day.
同時，這些會小憩的人表達了不滿，因為改變他們的日常作息使他們無法睡午覺。

“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.”
“我們真的應該改掉西班牙午睡的習慣，因為這并不符合現實，”卡西奧說道，“并且如果時區改變能讓用餐時間前移，增加一小時睡眠時間，那么午休也什么必要了。”

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.
經濟學家努里亞?欽奇利亞是巴塞羅那IESE商學院研究使工作與生活達到平衡的專家，他認為，歸根結底，西班牙人的生活質量比給游客們留出晚上一兩小時的日照時間更重要。

“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.”
“我們一直都在倒時差，”她說道，“旅游業一直存在，游客們也不會在意。日照時間還是一樣的，只是早晚日照的差別而已。”

英文來源：BBC
翻譯：趙若嬋（中國日報網愛新聞iNews譯者）
編審：yaning