Some Britons love ringing church bells so much that they think it ought to be an Olympic sport.

一些英国人如此喜爱在教堂敲钟，以致觉得它该被列为奥运会项目。

There are magazines devoted¹ to bell ringing, there are bell-ringing societies at universities with their own coats of arms, and there’s even a national council. A few seasons ago, the nation went “bonkers,” as the tabloid² The Sun put it, over a pair of bell ringers who appeared on “Britain’s Got Talent.”

这个国家有专门研究敲钟的杂志，大学里有敲钟协会，有自己的徽章，甚至还有一个全国性的敲钟委员会。而据小报《太阳报》(The Sun)报道，几个赛季前，这个国家还曾为电视节目《英国达人》(Britain’s Got Talent)上出现的一对摇铃玩家“疯狂”。

There are about 5,000 churches with bell ringers in Britain, and almost everyone lives within hearing range of one of them. Bell-ringing enthusiasts³ are called campanologists, and the country has about 40,000 of them.

英国有大约5000座教堂有敲钟人，几乎所有人都居住在可以听到教堂钟声的范围内。这里有大约4万名敲钟爱好者，他们被称为“钟学家”(campanologist)。

Besides weekly practices, Sunday services and weddings in their own parishes, many campanologists like to visit and pull the ropes in as many other places as they can, a hobby called “tower grabbing.”

除了每周在自己的教区内练习，在周日礼拜活动和婚礼上敲钟，许多“钟学家”还喜欢拜访其他教堂，在尽可能多的教堂里拉钟绳。这种爱好被称为“抢钟楼”。

Not everyone embraces bell ringing: The sessions, or peals⁵, that may be music to some people’s ears drive others insane. In 2011, a man living in Sharow, North Yorkshire, was so incensed⁶ by a three-hour peal⁴ that he locked the bell ringers inside the church belfry.

不是所有人都喜欢敲钟：在有些人听来是乐音的钟鸣声，可能会让其他人感到抓狂。2011年，生活在北约克郡沙罗的一名男子被延续三个小时的钟鸣激怒，将敲钟的人锁在了教堂钟塔内。

Ringing is a strenuous⁷ business, and a lengthy⁸ peal can feel like running a marathon, according to Kate Flavell, who works for the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers.

据供职于教堂敲钟人中心委员会(Central Council of Church Bell Ringers)的凯特•弗拉维尔(Kate Flavell)讲，敲钟是一项繁重的劳动，长时间敲钟感觉就像跑了一场马拉松。

“It’s an intellectual and physical challenge when your team is changing the order in which they ring, so that you get different permutations,” she said. “The idea is to get a good rhythm going without making any mistakes or ropes breaking.”

“在你的团队不停变幻钟响的顺序，以便实现不同排列组合的时候，是对智力和体力的双重考验，”她说。“目标是形成好的节奏，同时又不出错，不会把绳子弄断。”

British church bells have been ringing since medieval times, when the sound was thought to drive away the devil and calm storms. After the Reformation, churches started hanging their bells on wheels, giving better timing⁹ control; that allowed the development of intricately patterned “change ringing” instead of the more random¹⁰ chiming of most church bells in Continental¹¹ Europe.

英国的教堂在中世纪已经开始敲钟，当时人们认为钟声可以驱赶魔鬼，平息风暴。经过宗教改革运动之后，教堂开始把钟挂在轮子上，这样可以更好地控制拍子；人们由此发展出错综复杂的“编钟敲奏”，而不是像欧洲大陆的大多数教堂那样比较随机地敲响钟声。

Bell ringing became fashionable in the 1600s, and soon, teams of ringers were holding competitions. But those events were often connected with large meals at the local pub that could get boisterous¹², with bell ringers described as being lazy and drunk, according to a website on the history of bell ringing.

敲钟在17世纪的第一个十年时兴了起来，很快，敲钟人的团队开始举办比赛。不过，一个致力于研究敲钟史的网站称，那些活动往往涉及在当地酒馆的大餐，有时场面可以很喧闹，敲钟人也被描述为一个懒惰、嗜酒的群体。

The social tradition survives, though, and contributes to the hobby’s appeal. “It sounds wonderful,” Ms. Flavell said, “and when you’re done, you go to the pub to get a good old natter.”

这一社交传统至今依然存在，并为这项爱好平添了一份魅力。“声音很好听，”弗拉维尔说，“而且完事后，你可以去酒吧跟人神侃。”