这或许是史上最为抱歉的20秒

俄罗斯卫星网11月17日报道称，经营日本筑波快线(Tsukuba Express)的首都圈新都市铁道公司向乘客表达了歉意，原因竟然是列车提前20秒离站。

据报道，该趟列车于9时44分20秒由东京出发向北行驶，而根据时刻表，列车本应于9时44分40秒发车。就为这提前的20秒，公司发布道歉声明，说是因为员工疏忽造成这一结果。

公司还表示，事发后已责令列车员严格遵守时刻表。

Japanese Train Leaves 20 Seconds Early. Cue the Abject Apologies.

日本一家铁路公司为提前发车20秒道歉

The New York Times

TOKYO — It may have been the most profusely[十分慷慨的；毫不吝惜的] regretted 20 seconds in history.

东京——这或许是史上最为抱歉的20秒。

Living up to Japan's reputation for being precise as well as contrite[1], a train company in Tokyo delivered a formal apology on Tuesday because one of its trains left a station just 20 seconds early.

这很符合日本守时、爱赔不是的名声。周二，东京一家铁路公司为一列火车提前20秒发车正式道歉。

[1]contrite:feeling guilty and sorry for something bad that you have done 悔罪的，悔悟的，痛悔的

a contrite apology 深感悔悟的道歉

In a country where conductors will beg forgiveness when a train is even a minute late, the Metropolitan Intercity Railway Company posted an apology on its website Tuesday for "the severe inconvenience imposed upon our customers" when the No. 5255 Tsukuba Express train left Minami-Nagareyama station in Chiba, a suburban prefecture east of Tokyo, at 9:44:20 a.m., instead of as scheduled at 9:44:40 a.m.

在这个国家，即使列车晚点一分钟，列车长也会恳求原谅。本该在早上9:44:40发车的5255次筑波快线于9:44:20时从位于东京东郊千叶县南流山车站(Minami-Nagareyama station)发车，首都圏新都市铁道株式会社(Metropolitan Intercity Railway Company)周二在公司网站上为“给乘客带来巨大不便”而道歉。

According to the statement, the train arrived at Minami-Nagareyama on time, at precisely 9:43:40 a.m. But when it came time to leave, the overeager[2] crew closed the doors prematurely and pulled out of the station ahead of schedule. According to Metropolitan Intercity, no passengers missed the train or complained about the jump-start.

根据声明，列车于早上9:43:40准点抵达南流山车站。但发车时，着急的工作人员提早关上了门，早于时刻表驶离了车站。据首都圏新都市铁道株式会社表示，没有乘客因此误车或对提前发车有抱怨。

[2]overeager: too eager 过于热切的；过于渴望的 

Banks, he said, had been overeager to give out loans. 

他说，银行发放贷款过热。

The effusive apology was in keeping with a culture where an ice cream company ran a television advertisement to express regret for raising the price of an ice cream bar by 10 yen last spring.

这个过于热切的道歉与去年春天时，一家冰激凌公司因把一种雪糕的价格提高了10日元（约合人民币5角）而在电视上做广告致歉都源自同一种文化。

As the foreign news media began to cover[3] the news Thursday, observers abroad expressed envy on Twitter at the trainspotting exactitude.

外国新闻媒体从周四开始报道此事，国外的关注者们在Twitter上对这种列车时刻的精准表示羡慕。

[3]cover: to report the details of an event for a newspaper or a television or radio programme 报道

I'd just returned from covering the Cambodian war. 

我刚报道完柬埔寨战争回来。

The Japanese were bemused by the foreign fascination.

而日本人则对外国人表现出的巨大兴趣感到困惑。

"People overseas are half amazed and praised Japan but even Japanese would laugh at this," a user with the handle @gaishi_black wrote on Twitter.

“国外的人对日本一半惊奇一半赞赏，但就算是日本人也会觉得这件事很好笑。”一个叫@gaishi_black的用户在Twitter上写道。

According to one article this month on the Gendai Business website, Tsukuba Express, which carries 130 million passengers a year, markets its "safety and high speed." The article listed what it described as "concerning" incidents from earlier in the year, including two cases of trains stopping in the wrong position and an episode where customers were stuck in elevators at a station for 30 minutes.

本月“现代商业”(Gendai Business)网站上有一篇关于筑波快线的文章，这个年载客1.3亿人的铁路公司宣传自己“安全、高速”。文章列出了今年早些时候以来一些所谓“令人担忧”的事件，包括两起列车停站位置错误以及一起乘客被困车站电梯30分钟的事件。

Thursday's microscopically[微小的；细小的] early train passed with no apparent impact other than a few laughs on social media, unlike a deadly crash in 2005 that killed more than 100 passengers when the train driver began speeding to make up for a lost 90 seconds in the schedule.

周四提早几秒发车的列车除了在社交媒体上令人付之一笑外，并没有造成明显影响，不像2005年发生的一次致命撞车事故，当时列车司机希望弥补90秒的延误而超速行驶，结果导致100多名乘客死亡。