54
0Episode: Hachiko: The Dog Who Waited
Subtitle: 忠犬八公：等待主人的狗
Duration: approximately 6 minutes
Level: B1
PubDate: 2026-11-13
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[Mike]: Welcome back to Learn English with Podcasts. Sarah, picture a train station where a dog showed up every single day, at exactly the same time, for almost ten years.
zh:欢迎回到 Learn English with Podcasts。Sarah，想象一个火车站：一只狗每天准点出现，整整近十年。
[Sarah]: Ten years. Waiting for what?
zh:十年。在等什么？
[Mike]: Waiting for a man who would never come back. This is the true story of Hachiko, a dog from Japan who became a national symbol of loyalty.
zh:等一个永远不会回来的人。这是八公的真实故事——一只日本狗，后来成了全国忠诚的象征。
[Sarah]: Okay, I'm already hooked. Start from the beginning. Who was the man?
zh:好，我已经上钩了。从头讲。那个人是谁？
[Mike]: His name was Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor at Tokyo Imperial University. He taught agriculture, and he lived in a neighbourhood of Tokyo called Shibuya.
zh:他叫上野英三郎，是东京帝国大学的教授，教农业，住在东京一个叫涩谷的街区。
[Sarah]: And the dog?
zh:那狗呢？
[Mike]: Hachiko was an Akita, a large Japanese breed, white and strong. Ueno brought him home in 1924, when the puppy was only a few months old.
zh:八公是一只秋田犬，日本的大型犬种，白色、健壮。1924 年，上野把这只几个月大的小狗带回了家。
[Sarah]: So they lived together in Shibuya.
zh:所以他们一起住在涩谷。
[Mike]: Right. And they built a small daily habit. Every evening, Ueno came home from the university by train. Hachiko walked to Shibuya Station and waited at the exit, then walked home with him.
zh:对。他们养成了一个小习惯。每天傍晚，上野坐火车下班回家。八公会走到涩谷站，在出口等着，然后跟着他一起回家。
[Sarah]: That's a sweet little routine. What broke it?
zh:真温馨的小日常。是什么打破了它？
[Mike]: On 21 May 1925, Ueno went to work as usual. But that day, he had a brain haemorrhage at the university and died suddenly. He was 53.
zh:1925 年 5 月 21 日，上野像往常一样去上班。但那天，他在大学里突发脑出血，突然去世，年仅 53 岁。
[Sarah]: And Hachiko went to the station that evening, like always.
zh:而那天傍晚，八公像往常一样去了车站。
[Mike]: He did. The train arrived, the passengers came out, but Ueno never stepped through that gate. And the next day, Hachiko went back. And the day after that.
zh:没错。火车到了，乘客出来了，但上野再也没从那道门里走出来。第二天，八公又去了。再第二天，还是去了。
[Sarah]: He didn't understand that his owner was gone.
zh:他不明白主人已经不在了。
[Mike]: He just kept the routine. From that day until his own death, Hachiko returned to Shibuya Station almost every day and waited for the evening train.
zh:他只是维持着那个习惯。从那天起，直到自己离世，八公几乎每天都回涩谷站，等着那班晚上的火车。
[Sarah]: How long was that, in the end?
zh:最后，这持续了多久？
[Mike]: Almost ten years. He died on 8 March 1935. From the day Ueno died, that is 9 years, 9 months, and 15 days.
zh:近十年。八公死于 1935 年 3 月 8 日。从上野去世那天算起，是 9 年 9 个月零 15 天。
[Sarah]: Nine years. That is hard to imagine. What happened to the dog after the professor died?
zh:九年。真难以想象。教授去世后，这只狗怎样了？
[Mike]: Ueno's family could not keep him, so Hachiko was sent to live with relatives, and later with the professor's old gardener, a man named Kobayashi who lived near the station.
zh:上野的家人没法养他，于是八公被送给亲戚，后来住进了教授旧园丁小林家——小林就住在车站附近。
[Sarah]: And from there he kept walking to the station.
zh:从那儿，他继续走到车站。
[Mike]: Every day. At first the station workers only tolerated him. Some people were unkind. He was once badly hurt, and one of his ears never stood up straight again.
zh:每天。起初车站工作人员只是容忍他。有些人还不友善。他曾被人打伤，一只耳朵从此再也没竖起来。
[Sarah]: That's the detail that gets me. His own statue shows that drooping ear.
zh:这一点最戳我。他自己的铜像，就塑着那只垂下的耳朵。
[Mike]: Yes. The statue shows him exactly as he was. For about seven years, almost no one outside Shibuya noticed. Then, in 1932, a former student of Ueno changed everything.
zh:对。铜像把他塑得和真身一模一样。头七年，涩谷之外几乎没人注意他。然后，1932 年，上野的一位学生改变了这一切。
[Sarah]: Who was he?
zh:他是谁？
[Mike]: His name was Hirokichi Saito. He loved the Akita breed and was counting how many purebred Akitas were left in Japan. His answer was shocking: only about 30.
zh:他叫斋藤弘吉。他热爱秋田犬这个品种，当时正在统计日本还剩多少只纯种秋田犬。答案令人震惊：只有大约 30 只。
[Sarah]: Thirty? For a whole country?
zh:30 只？全国就这么多？
[Mike]: That was the number. Hachiko was one of them. Saito learned his story, wrote it for a newspaper called the Asahi Shimbun, and on 4 October 1932 the article made Hachiko famous overnight.
zh:就是这个数。八公是其中一只。斋藤了解了他的故事，写给了《朝日新闻》。1932 年 10 月 4 日，这篇文章让八公一夜成名。
[Sarah]: So the dog became a celebrity in his own lifetime.
zh:所以这狗生前就成了名人。
[Mike]: He did. People started bringing him treats at the station. Two years later, in 1934, they raised money for a bronze statue. The sculptor was Teru Ando, and at the unveiling, Hachiko himself was there.
zh:成了。人们开始在车站给他带零食。两年后，1934 年，大家凑钱给他立了一座铜像。雕塑家是安藤照，揭幕那天，八公本人就在现场。
[Sarah]: The dog attended his own monument. I love that image.
zh:这只狗出席了自己的纪念碑揭幕。我喜欢这个画面。
[Mike]: Less than a year later, in March 1935, Hachiko was found dead near the station. He was 11 years old. He was buried at Aoyama Cemetery, right next to Ueno's grave.
zh:不到一年，1935 年 3 月，八公在车站附近被发现死亡，享年 11 岁。他被葬在青山灵园，就挨着上野的墓。
[Sarah]: So in the end, they were together again.
zh:所以最后，他们又在一起了。
[Mike]: Exactly. The original statue was melted down for metal during the war, and a new one was made in 1948. Today it still stands at Shibuya, and it is the most famous meeting spot in Tokyo.
zh:正是。原来的铜像在战争期间被熔掉做了金属，1948 年重铸了一座。今天它仍立在涩谷，是东京最有名的碰头地点。
[Sarah]: People say "meet me at Hachiko" like we say "meet me at the clock."
zh:人们说"在八公那儿见"，就像我们说"在钟楼下见"。
[Mike]: And the story travelled far. In 2009 a film called Hachi: A Dog's Tale, with Richard Gere, told his story in America. Helen Keller even brought the first Akita to the US after hearing about him.
zh:这个故事也传得很远。2009 年，一部叫《忠犬八公的故事》的电影，由理查·基尔主演，在美国讲了他的故事。海伦·凯勒听了他的事之后，还把第一只秋田犬带到了美国。
[Sarah]: Here is what I keep thinking. The dog didn't wait because he hoped. He waited because that was the only way he knew how to love.
zh:我一直在想一件事。这只狗等待，不是因为还抱有希望。他等待，只是因为那是他唯一懂得如何去爱的方式。
[Mike]: That's the quiet truth of it. No drama, no reward, just the same station, the same hour, for nine years.
zh:这才是它安静的本质。没有戏剧，没有回报，只是同一个车站，同一个时辰，坚持了九年。
[Sarah]: So before we go, a question for you: if someone you loved never came home, would you keep the light on? We'd love to hear your thoughts.
zh:结束前提个问题：如果你爱的人再也没回家，你会一直留着那盏灯吗？我们很想听听你的想法。
[Mike]: Thanks for listening to Learn English with Podcasts. See you in the next episode.
zh:感谢收听 Learn English with Podcasts，我们下一集见。
