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

◎ David A. Berman

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

假如有人送你一支笔，一支密封的、不可拆卸的单色钢笔。

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?；蛐碓谀闶蕴叫缘匦瓷霞父鲎趾笏突岣煽荩蛐碜愎挥美创醋饕徊浚ɑ蚴羌覆浚┯跋焐钤兜牟恍嗑拗６庑诙是岸际俏薹ǖ弥?。在这个游戏规则下，你真的永远不会预知结果。你只能去碰运气！

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?

事实上，这个游戏里没有规则指定你必须要做什么。相反，你甚至可以根本不去动用这支笔，把它扔在书架上或是抽屉里让它干枯。但是，如果你决定要用它的话，那么你会用它来做什么呢？你将怎么来进行这个游戏呢？你会不写一个字，老是计划来计划去吗？你会不会由于计划过于宏大而来不及动笔呢？或者你只是手握钢笔，一头扎进去写，不停地写，艰难地随着文字的迂回曲折而随波逐流？你会小心谨慎地写字，好像这支笔在下一个时刻就可能会干枯；还是装作或相信（或是装作相信）这支笔能够永远写下去而信手写来呢？

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?

你又会用笔写下些什么呢：爱？恨？快乐？痛苦？生命？死亡？虚无？万物？你写作只是为了愉己？还是为了悦人？或者是借替人书写而悦己？

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?

你的落笔会是颤抖胆怯的，还是鲜明果敢的？你的想象会是丰富的还是贫乏的？甚或你根本没有落笔？这是因为，你拿到笔以后，没有哪条规则说你必须写作。也许你要画素描，乱涂乱画？信笔涂鸦？画画？你会保持写在线内还是线上，还是根本看不到线，即使有线在那里？是吧？真的有线吗？

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

这里面有许多东西值得考虑，不是吗？

Now, suppose someone gave you a life...

现在，假如有人给予你一支生命的笔……

超多双语阅读，尽在听力课堂