怎样让爱长驻、汤姆·罗宾斯（Tom Robbins）、《啄木鸟的静物写生》（Still Life With Woodpecker）

 

知道汤姆·罗宾斯的人不多；我也是因为先生推荐他写的第三本书《啄木鸟的静物写生》给我读，我才得以从无数的作者里面把他挖出来。其实他是个享有盛名的美国作家，作品幽默、诗意、独特、深刻，常常跟主流文化唱对台戏，尤受年轻人青睐。他曾在2000年被《作家文摘》杂志评为二十世纪100位最佳作者之一；他的小说《即使是女牛仔也有伤痛》（Even Cowgirls Get the Blues）在1993年被拍成电影，由乌玛·瑟曼主演。

 

《啄木鸟的静物写生》跟画画无关，而是一个后现代童话，一个爱情故事。它写的是一个被废黜的红头发公主在如何寻找爱情和试图拯救世界的同时爱上了一个也是红头发的以炸毁建筑物制造爆炸性新闻为人生目的的法外分子。就像罗宾斯的其它著作一样，该书还涵盖了诸如个人主义、外星人、红头发、消费主义、炸弹、罗曼史、王室、月亮、骆驼牌香烟等议题。更重要的，它对如何让爱长驻这个问题提供了一些答案。

 

下面是书中的一些语录。中文部分是我的翻译。有些地方翻得不是很顺，请大家指正：

 

Albert Camus wrote that the only serious question is whether to kill yourself or not. Tom Robbins wrote that the only serious question is whether time has a beginning or an end. Camus clearly got up on the wrong side of the bed, and Robbins must have forgotten to set the alarm. There is only one serious question. And that question is: 'Who knows how to make love stay? Answer me that and I will tell you whether or not to kill yourself.”

 

加缪写道：唯一严肃的问题是自杀还是不自杀。汤姆·罗宾斯写道：唯一严肃的问题是时间有否始终。加缪显然是起床起错了边，而罗宾斯一定是忘了设闹钟。人生只有一个严肃的问题。这个问题是：谁知道如何让爱长驻？给我一个答案，然后我会告诉你是否得杀死你自己。

 

How can one person be more real than any other? Well some people do hide and others seek. Maybe those who are hiding- escaping encounters, avoiding surprises, protecting their property, ignoring their fantasies, restricting their feelings, sitting out the Pan pipe hootchy-kootch of experience- maybe those people, people who won't talk to rednecks, or if they're rednecks won't talk to intellectuals, people who are afraid to get their shoes muddy or their noses wet, afraid to eat what they crave, afraid to drink Mexican water, afraid to bet a long shot to win, afraid to hitchhike, jaywalk, honky-tonk, cogitate, osculate, levitate, rock it, bop it, sock it, or bark at the moon, maybe such people are simply inauthentic, and maybe the jackleg humanist who says differently is due to have his tongue fried on the hot slabs of liars' hell. Some folks hide and some folks seek, and seeking when its mindless, neurotic, desperate, or pusillanimous, can be a form of hiding. But there are folks who want to know and aren't afraid to look, and won't turn tail should they find it-and if they never do, they'll have a good time anyway, because nothing, neither the terrible truth, nor the absence of it, is going to cheat them out of one honest breath of earth's sweet gas.

 

一个人怎么可能比任何别的人更真实？说起来，有人躲有人寻。也许那些躲的人—那些逃避机遇、避免惊慌、死守财产、罔顾梦想、限制感受、对开眼界的体验只作壁上观的人，那些不屑于跟乡下人说话的人，或者是那些不屑跟知识分子讲话的乡下人，那些怕把他们的鞋弄脏鼻子弄湿的人，那些想吃又怕吃、怕喝墨西哥的水、怕投注那些耗时的赌、怕搭车、怕斜穿公路、怕去低级夜总会、怕深思熟虑、怕关系弄得太深、怕关系弄得太浅、怕摇滚、怕波普、怕打击乐、或是怕对月亮吠叫的人，也许那些人就不真实。可能假冒的人道主义者不会同意我这样说，是把他的舌头放到骗子地狱的热砖上烧烤的时候了。有人躲藏，有人寻找。当一个人盲目地、神经质地、绝望地、或胆怯地寻找时，那也是躲藏的一种形式。但就有一些人想知道而又不怕寻找，而且在他们发现他们要找的之后不会夹着尾巴逃跑。即使他们遍寻不获，他们也会很快乐：因为没有什么，无论是可怕的真相，还是没有它，都不能阻止他们真正地呼吸到地球的甜蜜空气。

 

There are essential and inessential insanities. The latter are solar in character, the former are linked to the moon. Inessential insanities are a brittle amalgamation of ambition, aggression, and pre-adolescent anxiety - garbage that should have been dumped long ago. Essential insanities are those impulses one instinctively senses are virtuous and correct, even though peers may regard them as coo-coo. Inessential insanities get one in trouble with one's self. Essential insanities get one in trouble with others. In fact, it may be essential. Poetry, the best of it, is lunar and is concerned with the essential insanities. Journalism is solar... and is devoted to the inessential.

 

疯狂有两种：必要的和非必要的。后者属于太阳，前者则跟月亮有关。非必要疯狂是野心的脆弱叠加、是侵犯、是青春期前的焦虑—这些都是早该倒掉的垃圾。必要性疯狂是那些即使同龄人觉得愚蠢但是你本能地知道是高洁正确的冲动。非必要疯狂是让人自寻烦恼，必要性疯狂是让人跟别人起冲突。事实上，找别人麻烦可能是必不可少的。诗，最好的诗，跟月球和必要性疯狂有关。新闻是太阳的······且忠实于非必要疯狂的。

 

When we're incomplete, we're always searching for somebody to complete us. When, after a few years or a few months of a relationship, we find that we're still unfulfilled, we blame our partners and take up with somebody more promising. This can go on and on- series polygamy- until we admit that while a partner can add sweet dimension to our lives, we, each of us, are responsible for our own fulfillment. Nobody else can provide it for us, and to believe otherwise is to delude ourselves dangerously and to program for eventual failure every relationship we enter.

 

当我们不完整时，我们拼命寻找某人来成全我们。找到了，过了几年或几个月以后，我们发现我们还是不完整；我们于是责怪我们的伴侣，然后找来一个看似更合适的。这样继续着—跟一夫多妻或是一妻多夫制差不多—直到我们承认虽然一个伴侣可以给我们的生活添加甜味，我们，我们每个人，都得负责我们自己的成全；没有其他人可以提供它给我们。不这样想的话就是自欺欺人，并把我们进入的任何关系导向最终的失败。

 

Society had a crime problem. It hired cops to attack crime. Now society has a cop problem.

 

社会有了犯罪这一问题后就雇用警察来对付犯罪，结果就是现在社会有了警察问题。

 

Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won't adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice. Instead of vowing to honor and obey, maybe we should swear to aid and abet. That would mean that security is out of the question. The words "make" and "stay" become inappropriate. My love for you has no strings attached. I love you for free.

 

爱是终极的法外分子。它无论如何都不会循规蹈矩。我们可以做的最多就是成为它的共犯。不必发誓照做和服从，而是要郑重保证协助及怂恿。这意味着保障出局；“做”或是“留”这一类的词也变得不恰当。我对你的爱没有任何附加条件。我无偿地爱你。

 

Who knows how to make love stay? Tell love you are going to the Junior's Deli on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn to pick up a cheesecake, and if love stays, it can have half. It will stay. Tell love you want a memento of it and obtain a lock of its hair. Burn the hair in a dime-store incense burner with yin/yang symbols on three sides. Face southwest. Talk fast over the burning hair in a convincingly exotic language. Remove the ashes of the burnt hair and use them to paint a moustache on your face. Find love. Tell it you are someone new. It will stay. Wake love up in the middle of the night. Tell it the world is on fire. Dash to the bedroom window and pee out of it. Casually return to bed and assure love that everything is going to be all right. Fall asleep. Love will be there in the morning.

 

谁知道如何让爱长驻？告诉爱你要到布鲁克林的平灌大道上的小子熟食店那去买个芝士蛋糕；如果它留下来的话，蛋糕的一半就归它。这样，爱就会留下来。告诉爱你想要一个它的纪念品，从它那弄来一摞头发。把头发放在一个一元店有卖的三面有阴阳符的香炉上烧。面得朝西南，一边烧一边用某种外国语作碎碎念。取出头发的灰烬，用它在你的脸上画一把胡子。找到爱，告诉它你是一个新手，它会为你留下来。把爱在半夜弄醒，告诉它世界着火了，冲到卧室的窗口，撒泡尿把火浇灭，没事儿似地回到床上，对爱保证说，一切都会好起来，入睡，然后爱在第二天还会呆在那。

 

Our lives are not as limited as we think they are; the world is a wonderfully weird place; consensual reality is significantly flawed; no institution can be trusted, but love does work; all things are possible; and we all could be happy and fulfilled if we only had the guts to be truly free and the wisdom to shrink our egos and quit taking ourselves so damn seriously.

 

我们的生活并不像我们想象的那样有限。这个世界是一个奇异的地方；经过协议而达成的关系都有缺陷，没有一个婚姻制度是可以信任的。但是，爱还是管用的；所有的事情也都有可能。只要我们有胆量去真正解放自己，有智慧去收紧自尊不再把自己太当回事儿，我们都可以过得幸福和充实。

 

This is the way to burn," the fuse seemed to be saying to the more docile, slow-witted candlewick. "Brilliantly, ecstatically, irrepressibly. This is the way to burn.

 

“燃烧应该是这样的，”保险丝似乎在对那更服帖的呆子烛芯说。“灿烂地、狂喜地、不可压制地。这才是真正的燃烧。”

 

We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.

 

我们浪费时间去寻找完美的情人，却忘了去创造完美的爱情。

 

When two people meet and fall in love, there's a sudden rush of magic. Magic is just naturally present then. We tend to feed on that gratuitous magic without striving to make any more. One day we wake up and find that the magic is gone. We hustle to get it back, but by then it's usually too late, we've used it up. What we have to do is work like hell at making additional magic right from the start. It's hard work, but if we can remember to do it, we greatly improve our chances of making love stay.

 

当两个人相遇并相恋，会有神奇突然爆发出来。那时的神奇出现得很自然。我们于是就靠着那个免费的神奇为生而不去想着努力创造出更多的神奇来。然后某一天，我们醒来，发现神奇不见了。我们急忙去找它寻它，但通常为时已晚，我们已经把神奇挥霍殆尽。我们得做的是从一开始就尽全力去创造额外的神奇。这样当然辛苦，但如果我们能记住去做，我们将大大提高我们把爱留住的机会。“

 

When the mystery of the connection goes, love goes. It's that simple. This suggests that it isn't love that is so important to us but the mystery itself. The love connection may be merely a device to put us in contact with the mystery, and we long for love to last so that the ecstasy of being near the mystery will last. It is contrary to the nature of mystery to stand still. Yet it's always there, somewhere, a world on the other side of the mirror (or the Camel pack), a promise in the next pair of eyes that smile at us. We glimpse it when we stand still.

 

The romance of new love, the romance of solitude, the romance of objecthood, the romance of ancient pyramids and distant stars are means of making contact with the mystery. When it comes to perpetuating it, however, I got no advice. But I can and will remind you of two of the most important facts I know: 

1. Everything is part of it. 
2. It's never too late to have a happy childhood.

 

当让我们相吸的奥秘不再是奥秘时，爱也就没影了。就这么简单。这表明对我们重要的不是爱，而是奥秘本身。爱的相吸可能仅仅是一个让我们得以跟奥秘接触的器具。我们渴望爱能长驻，这样就能维持与那个奥秘贴近的狂喜感。但奥秘如果静止不动，就不成为奥秘了。不过，它总是在那，某个地方，镜子（或骆驼牌香烟）的另一头，在下一双朝我们微笑的眼睛的承诺里。当我们站在原地不动的时候，我们能够得以一窥。

 

新爱的浪漫，独处的浪漫，物件的浪漫，古老金字塔和遥远星星辰的浪漫都是我们跟奥秘接触的手段。但是，如果你想让奥秘长生不老，对不起，我给不了你什么忠告。不过，我可以提醒你我所知道的两个最重要的事实：

1。一切都是某个整体的一部分。
2。永远不会太晚去拥有一个快乐的童年。“

 

Don't let yourself be victimized by the age you live in. It's not the time that will bring us down, any more than it's society. When you put the blame on society, then you end up turning to society for the solution. Just like those poor neurotics at the Care Fest. There's a tendency today to absolve individuals of moral responsibility and treat them as victims of social circumstance. You buy that, you pay with your soul. It's not men who limit women, it's not straights who limit gays, it's not whites who limit black. What limits people is lack of character. What limits people is that they don't have the fucking nerve or imagination to star in their own movie, let alone direct it.

 

不要让自己成为你所处时代的受害者。让我们失望的不是时代，也不是社会。如果你把责任推给社会，那么最终你也会转向社会去寻求解决方案，就像那些“在乎大会”上的可怜虫。当今就有这种推卸个人道义责任，把自己当成社会环境的受害者的趋势。如果你赞同这个观点，你就得付出灵魂的代价。不是男人限制女人，不是异性恋限制同性恋，不是白人限制黑人。限制人的是品格乏缺。限制人的是他们没有超人的意志或想象力来担当自己电影里的明星，更遑论导演它。

 

The camel has a big dumb ugly hump. But in the desert, where prettier, more streamlined beasts die quickly of thirst, the camel survives quite nicely. As legend has it, the camel carries its own water, stores it in its stupid hump. If individuals, like camels, perfect their inner resources, if we have the power within us, then we can cross any wasteland in relative comfort and survive in arid surroundings without relying on the external. Often, moreover, it is our "hump" - that aspect of our being that society finds eccentric, ridiculous, or disagreeable - that holds our sweet waters, our secret well of happiness, the key to our equanimity in malevolent climes.”

 

骆驼有一个硕大、笨拙、丑陋的驼峰。但是，更漂亮，线条更优美的野兽们都很快地渴死在沙漠，只有骆驼例外。传说，骆驼携带自己的水，存储于它那笨拙的驼峰里。如果个体们能像骆驼一样完善自己的内部资源，如果我们拥有内在的威力，那么我们就可以相对舒适地跨越任何荒原，无须外援也能生存于草木不生的劣境中。此外，通常情况下都是我们的“驼峰”--我们那被社会视为古怪、可笑、或不被认同的一面—盛着我们的蜜水，我们幸福的秘密之井，我们得以在恶劣情势时泰然处之的秘方。“

 

Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.

 

人类已进步不小，不过进步的原因不是人类的清醒、负责、和谨慎，而是人类的俏皮、叛逆、和不成熟的。

 

Sharks are the criminals of the sea. Dolphins are the outlaws.

 

鲨鱼是海的罪犯；海豚是法外分子。

 

There are two kinds of people in this world : those who believe there are two kinds of people in this world and those who are smart enough to know better.

 

这个世界上有两种人：一种认为这个世界上有两种人，一种聪明到明白世界没那么简单。

 

A better world has gotta start somewhere. Why not with you and me?

 

一个更美好的世界总得始于某个地方。何不从你我开始呢？

 

If you're honest, you sooner or later have to confront your values. Then you're forced to separate what is right from what is merely legal. This puts you metaphysically on the run. America is full of metaphysical outlaws.

 

如果你是个正直的人，你迟早要面对你的价值观。然后，你就会被逼着把什么是对的跟什么仅仅是合法的分开。这就迫使你作哲学意义上的逃亡。美国充满了这类哲学上的不法分子。

 

"I'll follow him to the ends of the earth," she sobbed. Yes, darling. But the earth doesn't have any ends. Columbus fixed that.

 

“我会跟着他到世界的尽头，”她抽泣着说。是的，亲爱的。但地球没有任何尽头。哥伦布早把这点搞定了。

 

Any half-awake materialist well knows - that which you hold holds you.

 

任何半睡半醒的物质主义者都清楚—你紧抓不放的东西也紧紧抓劳你不放。

 

Funny how we think of romance as always involving two, when the romance of solitude can be ever so much more delicious and intense. Alone, the world offers itself freely to us.

 

有趣的是，我们想到的浪漫总是涉及到两个人。其实一个人的浪漫可以更有味道也更强烈。一个人独处时，世界把它自己无偿地贡献给我们。

 

“If I stand for fairy-tale balls and dragon bait--dragon bait--what do you stand for?" 
"Me? I stand for uncertainty, insecurity, bad taste, fun, and things that go boom in the night." 
"Frankly, it seems to me that you've turned yourself into a stereotype." 
"You may be right. I don't care. As any car freak will tell you, the old models are the most beautiful, even if they aren't the most efficient. People who sacrifice beauty for efficiency get what they deserve." 
"Well, you may get off on being a beautiful stereotype, regardless of the social consequences, but my conscience won't allow it." 
"And I goddamn refuse to be dragon bait. I'm as capable of rescuing you as you are of rescuing me." 
"I'm an outlaw, not a hero. I never intended to rescue you. We're our own dragons as well as our own heroes, and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves.” 

 

“如果我代表的是童话里的球和龙的诱饵--龙的诱饵—那你代表什么？”
“我？我代表不确定性，不安全性，不好的品味，乐趣，和在晚上爆炸的那些东西。”
“坦率地说，在我看来，你已把自己变成了陈规旧套了。
“你也许是对的，不过我不在乎。任何懂车的人都会告诉你，老款式才是最美的，即使他们不是最有效率的。那些拿美丽去交换效率的人是罪有应得。”
“你或许可以用美丽的陈规旧套做借口而罔顾社会后果，但我的良心不会允许你这样做。而且我他妈的就不做龙之诱饵。我有能耐挽救你，就像你有能耐挽救我一样。”
“我是一个法外分子，不是英雄。我从来没有打算挽救你。我们是自己的龙，同时也是自己的英雄。我们得把自己从自己手中救出来。”

 

If you believe in peace, act peacefully; if you believe in love, acting lovingly; if you believe every which way, then act every which way, that's perfectly valid— but don't go out trying to sell your beliefs to the system. You end up contradicting what you profess to believe in, and you set a bum example. If you want to change the world, change yourself.

 

如果你相信和平，那就和平地去行；如果你相信爱情，那就去爱；不管你信什么，照你信的去做就行。这我毫无异议。但你千万不要试图把你的信念兜售给社会。你最终会自相矛盾，并树立一个坏榜样。如果你想改变世界，改变自己。

 

People are never perfect, but love can be.” 

 

人是永远不会完美的，但爱却可以。

 

People tend the take everything too seriously. Especially themselves. Yep. And that's probably what makes 'em scared and hurt so much of the time. Life is too serious to take that seriously. 

 

人们喜欢对什么都太认真，尤其是对自己。就是这样。而这可能就是让他们总觉得受伤、觉得害怕的原因。生命还没有认真到得那么认真去对待的程度。

 

In a society that is essentially designed to organize, direct, and gratify mass impulses, what is there to minister to the silent zones of man as an individual? Religion? Art? Nature? No, the church has turned religion into standardized public spectacle, and the museum has done the same for art. The Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls have been looked at so much that they've become effete, sucked empty by too many stupid eyes. What is there to minister to the silent zones of man as an individual? How about a cold chicken bone on a paper plate at midnight, how about a lurid lipstick lengthening or shortening at your command, how about a Styrofoam nest abandoned by a 'bird' you've never known, how about a pair of windshield wipers pursuing one another futilely while you drive home alone through a downpour, how about something beneath a seat touched by your shoe at the movies, how about worn pencils, cute forks, fat little radios, boxes of bow ties, and bubbles on the side of a bathtub? Yes, these are the things, these kite strings and olive oil cans and Valentine hearts stuffed with nougat, that form the bond between the autistic vision and the experiential world, it is to show these things in their true mysterious light that is the purpose of the moon. 

 

在一个基本上是被设计来组织、指导、和放任大众的冲动的社会，有什么能慰藉一个个体的心灵？宗教？艺术？自然？不，教会已将宗教变成规范化的公共奇观，博物馆也对艺术作了同样的事情，大峡谷和尼亚加拉大瀑布已被看了这么多年，它们早就形容枯槁，灵气皆被太多的感觉迟钝的眼睛吸走了。有什么能慰藉一个个体的心灵？午夜的一张纸碟上的冷鸡骨吗？一个你说长就长，你说短就短的红色唇膏吗？一只你从来不知道的，鸟也不睬的，塑料泡沫做的鸟巢吗？一双在你穿过滂沱大雨独自往家开时徒劳无益地追逐彼此的雨刷吗？某件你看电影时你的鞋子在座位下碰到的东西吗？破铅笔、小巧可爱的叉子、胖胖的小收音机、领结盒子、浴缸边上的气泡吗？是的，就是这些东西，这些风筝的绳子和橄榄油罐子和塞满糖果的情人节红心让自闭性视野和经验世界之间有了牢固的关联；月亮的目的就是让这些东西显示出它们真正的神秘之光。

 

Ideas are definitely unstable, they not only CAN be misused, they invite misuse--and the better the idea the more volatile it is. That's because only the better ideas turn into dogma, and it is this process whereby a fresh, stimulating, humanly helpful idea is changed into robot dogma that is deadly. In terms of hazardous vectors released, the transformation of ideas into dogma rivals the transformation of hydrogen into helium, uranium into lead, or innocence into corruption. And it is nearly as relentless. 

The problem starts at the secondary level, not with the originator or developer of the idea but with the people who are attracted by it, who adopt it, who cling to it until their last nail breaks, and who invariably lack the overview, flexibility, imagination, and most importantly, sense of humor, to maintain it in the spirit in which it was hatched. Ideas are made by masters, dogma by disciples, and the Buddha is always killed on the road. 

There is a particularly unattractive and discouragingly common affliction called tunnel vision, which, for all the misery it causes, ought to top the job list at the World Health Organization. Tunnel vision is a disease in which perception is restricted by ignorance and distorted by vested interest. Tunnel vision is caused by an optic fungus that multiplies when the brain is less energetic than the ego. It is complicated by exposure to politics. When a good idea is run through the filters and compressors of ordinary tunnel vision, it not only comes out reduced in scale and value but in its new dogmatic configuration produces effects the opposite of those for which it originally was intended.

 

That is how the loving ideas of Jesus Christ became the sinister clichés of Christianity. That is why virtually every revolution in history has failed: the oppressed, as soon as they seize power, turn into the oppressors, resorting to totalitarian tactics to "protect the revolution." That is why minorities seeking the abolition of prejudice become intolerant, minorities seeking peace become militant, minorities seeking equality become self-righteous, and minorities seeking liberation become hostile (a tight asshole being the first symptom of self-repression).

 

理念肯定是不稳固的；它们不仅可能被错用，它们更招致错用--理念越好越不稳固。这是因为只有非比寻常的好理念才变成教条。就是这个过程把一个新鲜的、刺激的、对人类有益的观念转变为机器人般的死教条。就造成的危险性而言，观念向教条的转变就像氢变成氦，铀变成铅，无邪变成腐化。而且，其转变也几乎像其它转变一样冷酷无情。

 

这个问题始于继发阶段，跟理念的倡导者或开创者无关。问题出在那些被它吸引的人，那些采用它的人，那些纠缠着直到它的最后一个指甲都断裂了才放手的人，那些总是缺乏概貌、灵活性、想象力、尤其是幽默感的人，那些致力于把它维持在刚孵出来的样子的人。

理念是主人创造出来的，教条是由门徒弄出来的，佛永远被杀死在半途中。

 

一个特别让人生厌让人沮丧的通病叫管见。制造了那么多苦难的它实在应该让世界卫生组织把消灭它放在其工作的首位。得这种病的人认知受到无知的限制和既得利益的歪曲。这种病是在自负盖过理智时某种视觉霉菌繁殖引起的，而政治使它更复杂化。当一个不错的理念通过平庸管见的过滤和压缩以后，它的规模和价值不仅大大降格，而且由其转化的教条所产生的影响跟原定的目标背道而驰。

 

耶稣基督的爱的理念就是这样变成了基督教的令人生厌的陈词滥调。历史上几乎每一个革命就这样惨遭失败：那些被压迫的，一旦夺取政权，即变成压迫者，极尽其能去“保护革命成果”。这也是为什么那些试图消除偏见的变得心胸狭窄、谋求和平的变得好战、寻求平等的自变得自以为是、寻求解放的变得虎视眈眈（自我压抑的首发症状是过分紧张）。

 

Life is like a stew, you have to stir it frequently, or all the scum rises to the top.

 

人生就像是炖肉：你得经常搅拌搅拌，否则的话所有的渣滓都会升到顶部。

 

In the world according to the positivist, the inspiring thing about scrambled eggs is that any way you turn them they're sunny side up. In the world according to the existentialist, the hopeless thing about scrambled eggs is that any way you turn them they're scrambled.

 

在乐观主义者的世界里，炒蛋的让人鼓舞的事情是无论你怎么翻怎么转，蛋黄都是朝上的。在存在主义的世界里，炒蛋的令人沮丧的事情是无论你怎么翻怎么转，它们都是杂乱无章的。“

 

The word that allows yes, the word that makes no possible.

The word that puts free in freedom and takes the obligation out of love.

The word that throws open a window after the final door is closed.

The word upon which all adventure, all exhilaration, all meaning, all honor depends.

The word that fires evolution’s motor of mud.

The word that the cocoon whispers to the caterpillar.

The word that molecules recite before bonding.

The word that separates that which is dead from that which is living.

The word no mirror can turn around.

In the beginning was the word and the word was CHOICE.

 

这个词，让是成为事实，让非成为可能。

这个词，把无偿放进自由里，把义务从爱里剔出来。

这个词，在最后一扇窗关上时，打开另一扇窗。

这个词，所有的冒险，所有的欣喜，所有的意义，所有的荣耀都仰赖它。

这个词，点燃演化的泥浆马达。

这个词，是那个蚕茧跟毛毛虫说的悄悄话。

这个词，是那个分子连接前反复背诵的东西。

这个词，分开死与生的一切。

这个词，没有镜子可以把它转过来。

自太初始就是这个词。这个词叫选择。

 

Three of the four elements are shared by all creatures, but fire was a gift to humans alone. Smoking cigarettes is as intimate as we can become with fire without immediate excruciation. Every smoker is an embodiment of Prometheus, stealing fire from the gods and bringing it on back home. We smoke to capture the power of the sun, to pacify Hell, to identify with the primordial spark, to feed on the marrow of the volcano. It's not the tobacco we're after but the fire. When we smoke, we are performing a version of the fire dance, a ritual as ancient as lightning.

 

四个要素里有三个是所有的生灵都共享的，只有火是人类独占的礼物。吸烟最能让我们跟火亲近而不受火的直接煎熬。每个吸烟者都是普罗米修斯的化身，偷来天火并把它带回家。我们用吸烟来捕捉太阳的能量，来安抚地狱，来跟原始的火花融为一体，来汲取火山的精髓。我们所追求的不是烟草而是火。吸烟时，我们是在跳某个版本的火之舞，一个古老如闪电的典礼。

 

I sense that the novel of my dreams is in the Remington SL3 - although it writes much faster than I can spell.

 

我琢磨着我最好的小说就藏在雷明顿SL3打字机里—只是它写字的速度远远超过我拼写的速度。

 

This baby (the Remington SL3 typewriter) speaks electric Shakespeare at the slightest provocation and will rap out a page and a half if you just look at it hard.

 

这个小屁孩（雷明顿SL3打字机）你稍微鼓励一下就会讲电动莎士比亚语；只要你死死盯牢它，它就能说唱出半页一页来。

 

There is a similarity between juggling and composing on the typewriter. The trick is, when you spill something, make it look like a part of the act.

 

杂耍和在打字机上写作颇为相同。诀窍是，当你失手的时候，你得让它看起来像是你故意这样做的。