在分手博物馆丢掉分手回忆

These are all *mementos of lost loves, and they’re on display at the Museum of Broken Relationships, the newly opened spin-off of a Croatian institution of the same name.
这些都是分手博物馆的展品，也是对旧日爱情的纪念。洛杉矶的这座新馆是位于克罗地亚的同名博物馆的衍生展馆。

The museum is stocked with items donated by ordinary people, who share the stories of how each object came to symbolize a doomed relationship. Not all submissions are displayed, but when they are, the identities of the donors are kept secret.
博物馆里的展品都是由普通人捐赠的。他们分享了这些物品背后注定分离的情感往事。不是所有的捐赠物都会被展出，展出时，捐赠者的身份也都会被保密。

There are lots of curiosities held within the museum’s four walls, but one of the most puzzling is not an item, but an idea. It’s the notion that love – that oh-so-exalted emotion that supposedly *defies time and space, transcending the physical – is, in fact, best captured in the items we keep.
博物馆引发了许多人的好奇心，但最令人困惑不解的，并不是某件展品，而是其中的创意。它体现了一种概念：爱——这种藐视时空，超越肉体的情感——实际上，会更好地留存在我们所保留的信物中。

Science has long tied love to physical phenomena. Nothing illustrates this better than our reactions to breakups. Researchers have found that heartache might actually produce, yes, real aches.
科学研究很早就将爱与生理现象联系到一起。人们对分手的反应就是最好的例子。研究人员发现心痛很可能会引起真的疼痛。

Traditional pain, like the sensation of a bee’s sting or a *stubbed toe, activates both the sensory parts of our brain and what’s called the “affective” areas, which govern our emotions. In the past, scientists thought that breakups activated the same “affective” reaction as physical pain, but not the same sensory reaction.
传统意义上的疼痛，像是被蜜蜂蛰咬或是踢到脚趾，都会激活我们大脑的感官部分以及管理我们情绪的“情感”区域。但在过去，科学家们曾认为分手会激发的是和生理疼痛相同的情感反应，而非感官反应。

However, there’s increasing evidence that heartbreak also produces a sensory reaction. A study, documented in 2010 by the National Academy of Sciences in the US, exposed 40 participants to images of their exes and uncomfortably hot water. In both cases, brain scans revealed they felt physical pain. They were literally hurt, to some degree, by the memory of their ex.
然而，越来越多的证据表明心碎也会产生感官反应。在美国国家科学院2010年的一项研究中，40名被测试者先后接触到了他们前任的照片以及令人不舒服的热水。他们的脑部扫描结果显示，在两种情况中，被测试者都感到了生理疼痛。在某种程度上，他们确实被有关前任的记忆伤害了。

But it’s one thing to talk about feeling love on a physical level, and another to talk about how objects can become the embodiment of that love. Countless songs, poems and novels tell us that love is about more than the clothes we wear and the stuff we buy. And yet, once a relationship is over, all that stuff that’s accumulated in our lives can start to feel like an overwhelming burden.
但是在生理层面上去感受爱情是一回事，而物体如何使爱情具象化又是另外一回事。无数的歌曲、诗作和小说告诉我们，爱情不仅仅是我们那段时间里穿的衣服和买的东西。所有在这些生活中累积下来的物品，在一段感情结束后，还会成为一种巨大的思想负担。

Techniques like the one championed by Japanese “tidying expert” Marie Kondo emphasize our spiritual relationships with objects. Kondo, in particular, asks her followers to respect their possessions, to the point of thanking them for their “service”.
日本家政专家藤麻理惠所倡导的技能就强调了我们与物体之间的精神联系。她还格外要求粉丝们要尊重他们的物品，感谢这些物品所提供的“服务”。

Almost *ritualistically, excess items get *purged from our lives. With breakups, the stakes are heightened: Why simply throw something away, when you can burn, break and bash the items that remind you of a painful romance?
几乎像一场仪式一样，多余的物品会从我们的生活中被清除出去。分手后，该如何处理这些旧物有待权衡：当你可以烧、折断或者痛打那些能让你回忆起痛苦恋情的信物时，为什么要这么简单地把这些东西扔掉呢？

The Museum of Broken Relationships provides a *mellower, though no less *cathartic, way of disposing of these items. But the science behind the disposal is the same. Scientists believe that, by dumping our stuff, we’re attempting to regain control over our lives, *albeit in a symbolic way. A breakup can send us *reeling, and we find stability in objects – and our power over them.
分手博物馆提供了一个更加温和的却同样可以宣泄情感的方式来处理这些物品。但处理这些物品背后的道理都是相同的。科学家们认为，通过扔东西，我们在试图找回对于生活的把握，尽管这只是一个象征性的方法。分手会让我们晕头转向，但我们可以从物品中，找到稳定以及支配它们的力量。