Write Your Own Life

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

假如有人送你一支筆，一支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.

你看不出里面究竟有多少墨水。或許在你試探性地寫上幾個字后它就會枯干，或許足夠用來創作一部影響深遠的不朽巨著(或是幾部)。而這些，在動筆前，都是無法得知的。

Under the rules of the game, you really never know. You have to take a chance!

在這個游戲規則下，你真的永遠不會預知結果。你只能去碰運氣!

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.

事實上，這個游戲里沒有規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的墨水干枯。

But if you do decide to use it, what would you do with it? How would you play the game?

但是，如果你決定要用它的話，那么會用它來做什么呢?你將怎么來進行這個游戲呢?

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?

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?

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?

或者你只是手里拿著筆，一頭扎進去寫，不停地寫，艱難地隨著文字洶涌的浪濤而隨波逐流?

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?

你會小心謹慎的寫字，好象這支筆在下一個時刻就可能會干枯;還是裝做相信這支筆能夠永遠寫下去而信手寫來呢?

And of what would you write: Of love? Hate? Fun? Misery? Life? Death? Nothing? Everything?

并且你又會寫下些什么呢：愛?恨?喜?悲?生?死?虛無?萬物?

Would you write to please just yourself? Or others? Or yourself by writing for others?

你寫作只是為了愉己，還是為了悅人?抑或是藉替人書寫而愉己?

Would your strokes be tremblingly timid or brilliantly bold? Fancy with a flourish or plain?

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?

Would you even write? Once you have the pen, no rule says you have to write. Would you sketch? Scribble? Doodle or draw?

甚或你根本沒有落筆。這是因為，你拿到筆以后，沒有哪條規則說你必須寫作。那么，你要畫素描，亂寫一氣，信筆涂鴉，或是畫畫?

Would you stay in or on the lines, or see no lines at all, even if they were there? Or are they?

你會保持寫在線內還是線上，還是根本看不到線，即使有線在那里?嗯，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

現在，假如有人給予你一支生命的筆