雙語 ● Suppose Someone Gave You a Pen　假如有人送你一支筆

Suppose Someone Gave You a Pen　假如有人送你一支筆

◎ David A. Berman

Suppose someone gave you a pen—a sealed, solid-colored pen.

假如有人送你一支筆，一支密封的、不可拆卸的單色鋼筆。

You couldn’t see how much ink it had. It might run dry after the first few tentative words or last just long enough to create a masterpiece (or several) that would last forever and make a difference in the scheme of things. You don’t know before you begin. Under the rules of the game, you really never know. You have to take a chance!

你看不出里面究竟有多少墨水?；蛟S在你試探性地寫上幾個字后它就會干枯，或許足夠用來創(chuàng)作一部（或是幾部）影響深遠(yuǎn)的不朽巨著。而這些，在動筆前都是無法得知的。在這個游戲規(guī)則下，你真的永遠(yuǎn)不會預(yù)知結(jié)果。你只能去碰運(yùn)氣！

Actually, no rule of the game states you must do anything. Instead of picking up and using the pen, you could leave it on a shelf or in a drawer where it will dry up, unused. But if you do decide to use it, what would you do with it? How would you play the game? Would you plan and plan before you ever wrote a word? Would your plans be so extensive that you never even got to the writing? Or would you take the pen in hand, plunge right in and just do it, struggling to keep up with the twists and turns of the torrents of words that take you where they take you? Would you write cautiously and carefully, as if the pen might run dry the next moment, or would you pretend or believe (or pretend to believe) that the pen will write forever and proceed accordingly?

事實上，這個游戲里沒有規(guī)則指定你必須要做什么。相反，你甚至可以根本不去動用這支筆，把它扔在書架上或是抽屜里讓它干枯。但是，如果你決定要用它的話，那么你會用它來做什么呢？你將怎么來進(jìn)行這個游戲呢？你會不寫一個字，老是計劃來計劃去嗎？你會不會由于計劃過于宏大而來不及動筆呢？或者你只是手握鋼筆，一頭扎進(jìn)去寫，不停地寫，艱難地隨著文字的迂回曲折而隨波逐流？你會小心謹(jǐn)慎地寫字，好像這支筆在下一個時刻就可能會干枯；還是裝作或相信（或是裝作相信）這支筆能夠永遠(yuǎn)寫下去而信手寫來呢？

And of what would you write: Of love? Hate? Fun? Misery? Life? Death? Nothing? Everything? Would you write to please just yourself? Or others? Or yourself by writing for others?

你又會用筆寫下些什么呢：愛？恨？快樂？痛苦？生命？死亡？虛無？萬物？你寫作只是為了愉己？還是為了悅?cè)?？或者是借替人書寫而悅己?

Would your strokes be tremblingly timid or brilliantly bold? Fancy with a flourish or plain? Would you even write? Once you have the pen, no rule says you have to write. Would you sketch? Scribble? Doodle or draw? Would you stay in or on the lines, or see no lines at all, even if they were there? Or are they?

你的落筆會是顫抖膽怯的，還是鮮明果敢的？你的想象會是豐富的還是貧乏的？甚或你根本沒有落筆？這是因為，你拿到筆以后，沒有哪條規(guī)則說你必須寫作。也許你要畫素描，亂涂亂畫？信筆涂鴉？畫畫？你會保持寫在線內(nèi)還是線上，還是根本看不到線，即使有線在那里？是吧？真的有線嗎？

There’s a lot to think about here, isn’t there?

這里面有許多東西值得考慮，不是嗎？

Now, suppose someone gave you a life...

現(xiàn)在，假如有人給予你一支生命的筆……

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