怎樣讓愛長駐、湯姆·羅賓斯（Tom Robbins）、《啄木鳥的靜物寫生》（Still Life With Woodpecker）

 

知道湯姆·羅賓斯的人不多；我也是因為先生推薦他寫的第三本書《啄木鳥的靜物寫生》給我讀，我才得以從無數的作者裡面把他挖出來。其實他是個享有盛名的美國作家，作品幽默、詩意、獨特、深刻，常常跟主流文化唱對台戲，尤受年輕人青睞。他曾在2000年被《作家文摘》雜誌評為二十世紀100位最佳作者之一；他的小說《即使是女牛仔也有傷痛》（Even Cowgirls Get the Blues）在1993年被拍成電影，由烏瑪·瑟曼主演。

 

《啄木鳥的靜物寫生》跟畫畫無關，而是一個後現代童話，一個愛情故事。它寫的是一個被廢黜的紅頭髮公主在如何尋找愛情和試圖拯救世界的同時愛上了一個也是紅頭髮的以炸毀建築物製造爆炸性新聞為人生目的的法外分子。就像羅賓斯的其它著作一樣，該書還涵蓋了諸如個人主義、外星人、紅頭髮、消費主義、炸彈、羅曼史、王室、月亮、駱駝牌香煙等議題。更重要的，它對如何讓愛長駐這個問題提供了一些答案。

 

下面是書中的一些語錄。中文部分是我的翻譯。有些地方翻得不是很順，請大家指正：

 

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.”

 

加繆寫道：唯一嚴肅的問題是自殺還是不自殺。湯姆·羅賓斯寫道：唯一嚴肅的問題是時間有否始終。加繆顯然是起床起錯了邊，而羅賓斯一定是忘了設鬧鐘。人生只有一個嚴肅的問題。這個問題是：誰知道如何讓愛長駐？給我一個答案，然後我會告訴你是否得殺死你自己。

 

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.

 

一個人怎麼可能比任何別的人更真實？說起來，有人躲有人尋。也許那些躲的人—那些逃避機遇、避免驚慌、死守財產、罔顧夢想、限制感受、對開眼界的體驗只作壁上觀的人，那些不屑於跟鄉下人說話的人，或者是那些不屑跟知識分子講話的鄉下人，那些怕把他們的鞋弄髒鼻子弄濕的人，那些想吃又怕吃、怕喝墨西哥的水、怕投注那些耗時的賭、怕搭車、怕斜穿公路、怕去低級夜總會、怕深思熟慮、怕關係弄得太深、怕關係弄得太淺、怕搖滾、怕波普、怕打擊樂、或是怕對月亮吠叫的人，也許那些人就不真實。可能假冒的人道主義者不會同意我這樣說，是把他的舌頭放到騙子地獄的熱磚上燒烤的時候了。有人躲藏，有人尋找。當一個人盲目地、神經質地、絕望地、或膽怯地尋找時，那也是躲藏的一種形式。但就有一些人想知道而又不怕尋找，而且在他們發現他們要找的之後不會夾着尾巴逃跑。即使他們遍尋不獲，他們也會很快樂：因為沒有什麼，無論是可怕的真相，還是沒有它，都不能阻止他們真正地呼吸到地球的甜蜜空氣。

 

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.

 

瘋狂有兩種：必要的和非必要的。後者屬於太陽，前者則跟月亮有關。非必要瘋狂是野心的脆弱疊加、是侵犯、是青春期前的焦慮—這些都是早該倒掉的垃圾。必要性瘋狂是那些即使同齡人覺得愚蠢但是你本能地知道是高潔正確的衝動。非必要瘋狂是讓人自尋煩惱，必要性瘋狂是讓人跟別人起衝突。事實上，找別人麻煩可能是必不可少的。詩，最好的詩，跟月球和必要性瘋狂有關。新聞是太陽的······且忠實於非必要瘋狂的。

 

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.

 

當我們不完整時，我們拼命尋找某人來成全我們。找到了，過了幾年或幾個月以後，我們發現我們還是不完整；我們於是責怪我們的伴侶，然後找來一個看似更合適的。這樣繼續着—跟一夫多妻或是一妻多夫制差不多—直到我們承認雖然一個伴侶可以給我們的生活添加甜味，我們，我們每個人，都得負責我們自己的成全；沒有其他人可以提供它給我們。不這樣想的話就是自欺欺人，並把我們進入的任何關係導向最終的失敗。

 

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

 

社會有了犯罪這一問題後就雇用警察來對付犯罪，結果就是現在社會有了警察問題。

 

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.

 

愛是終極的法外分子。它無論如何都不會循規蹈矩。我們可以做的最多就是成為它的共犯。不必發誓照做和服從，而是要鄭重保證協助及慫恿。這意味着保障出局；“做”或是“留”這一類的詞也變得不恰當。我對你的愛沒有任何附加條件。我無償地愛你。

 

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.

 

誰知道如何讓愛長駐？告訴愛你要到布魯克林的平灌大道上的小子熟食店那去買個芝士蛋糕；如果它留下來的話，蛋糕的一半就歸它。這樣，愛就會留下來。告訴愛你想要一個它的紀念品，從它那弄來一摞頭髮。把頭髮放在一個一元店有賣的三面有陰陽符的香爐上燒。面得朝西南，一邊燒一邊用某種外國語作碎碎念。取出頭髮的灰燼，用它在你的臉上畫一把鬍子。找到愛，告訴它你是一個新手，它會為你留下來。把愛在半夜弄醒，告訴它世界着火了，衝到臥室的窗口，撒泡尿把火澆滅，沒事兒似地回到床上，對愛保證說，一切都會好起來，入睡，然後愛在第二天還會呆在那。

 

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.

 

我們的生活並不像我們想象的那樣有限。這個世界是一個奇異的地方；經過協議而達成的關係都有缺陷，沒有一個婚姻制度是可以信任的。但是，愛還是管用的；所有的事情也都有可能。只要我們有膽量去真正解放自己，有智慧去收緊自尊不再把自己太當回事兒，我們都可以過得幸福和充實。

 

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.

 

“燃燒應該是這樣的，”保險絲似乎在對那更服帖的呆子燭芯說。“燦爛地、狂喜地、不可壓制地。這才是真正的燃燒。”

 

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

 

我們浪費時間去尋找完美的情人，卻忘了去創造完美的愛情。

 

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.

 

當兩個人相遇並相戀，會有神奇突然爆發出來。那時的神奇出現得很自然。我們於是就靠着那個免費的神奇為生而不去想着努力創造出更多的神奇來。然後某一天，我們醒來，發現神奇不見了。我們急忙去找它尋它，但通常為時已晚，我們已經把神奇揮霍殆盡。我們得做的是從一開始就盡全力去創造額外的神奇。這樣當然辛苦，但如果我們能記住去做，我們將大大提高我們把愛留住的機會。“

 

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.

 

當讓我們相吸的奧秘不再是奧秘時，愛也就沒影了。就這麼簡單。這表明對我們重要的不是愛，而是奧秘本身。愛的相吸可能僅僅是一個讓我們得以跟奧秘接觸的器具。我們渴望愛能長駐，這樣就能維持與那個奧秘貼近的狂喜感。但奧秘如果靜止不動，就不成為奧秘了。不過，它總是在那，某個地方，鏡子（或駱駝牌香煙）的另一頭，在下一雙朝我們微笑的眼睛的承諾里。當我們站在原地不動的時候，我們能夠得以一窺。

 

新愛的浪漫，獨處的浪漫，物件的浪漫，古老金字塔和遙遠星星辰的浪漫都是我們跟奧秘接觸的手段。但是，如果你想讓奧秘長生不老，對不起，我給不了你什麼忠告。不過，我可以提醒你我所知道的兩個最重要的事實：

1。一切都是某個整體的一部分。
2。永遠不會太晚去擁有一個快樂的童年。“

 

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.

 

不要讓自己成為你所處時代的受害者。讓我們失望的不是時代，也不是社會。如果你把責任推給社會，那麼最終你也會轉向社會去尋求解決方案，就像那些“在乎大會”上的可憐蟲。當今就有這種推卸個人道義責任，把自己當成社會環境的受害者的趨勢。如果你贊同這個觀點，你就得付出靈魂的代價。不是男人限制女人，不是異性戀限制同性戀，不是白人限制黑人。限制人的是品格乏缺。限制人的是他們沒有超人的意志或想象力來擔當自己電影裡的明星，更遑論導演它。

 

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.”

 

駱駝有一個碩大、笨拙、醜陋的駝峰。但是，更漂亮，線條更優美的野獸們都很快地渴死在沙漠，只有駱駝例外。傳說，駱駝攜帶自己的水，存儲於它那笨拙的駝峰里。如果個體們能像駱駝一樣完善自己的內部資源，如果我們擁有內在的威力，那麼我們就可以相對舒適地跨越任何荒原，無須外援也能生存於草木不生的劣境中。此外，通常情況下都是我們的“駝峰”--我們那被社會視為古怪、可笑、或不被認同的一面—盛着我們的蜜水，我們幸福的秘密之井，我們得以在惡劣情勢時泰然處之的秘方。“

 

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.

 

人類已進步不小，不過進步的原因不是人類的清醒、負責、和謹慎，而是人類的俏皮、叛逆、和不成熟的。

 

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

 

鯊魚是海的罪犯；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.

 

這個世界上有兩種人：一種認為這個世界上有兩種人，一種聰明到明白世界沒那麼簡單。

 

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

 

一個更美好的世界總得始於某個地方。何不從你我開始呢？

 

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.

 

如果你是個正直的人，你遲早要面對你的價值觀。然後，你就會被逼着把什麼是對的跟什麼僅僅是合法的分開。這就迫使你作哲學意義上的逃亡。美國充滿了這類哲學上的不法分子。

 

"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.

 

“我會跟着他到世界的盡頭，”她抽泣着說。是的，親愛的。但地球沒有任何盡頭。哥倫布早把這點搞定了。

 

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

 

任何半睡半醒的物質主義者都清楚—你緊抓不放的東西也緊緊抓勞你不放。

 

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，我們想到的浪漫總是涉及到兩個人。其實一個人的浪漫可以更有味道也更強烈。一個人獨處時，世界把它自己無償地貢獻給我們。

 

“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.” 

 

“如果我代表的是童話里的球和龍的誘餌--龍的誘餌—那你代表什麼？”
“我？我代表不確定性，不安全性，不好的品味，樂趣，和在晚上爆炸的那些東西。”
“坦率地說，在我看來，你已把自己變成了陳規舊套了。
“你也許是對的，不過我不在乎。任何懂車的人都會告訴你，老款式才是最美的，即使他們不是最有效率的。那些拿美麗去交換效率的人是罪有應得。”
“你或許可以用美麗的陳規舊套做藉口而罔顧社會後果，但我的良心不會允許你這樣做。而且我他媽的就不做龍之誘餌。我有能耐挽救你，就像你有能耐挽救我一樣。”
“我是一個法外分子，不是英雄。我從來沒有打算挽救你。我們是自己的龍，同時也是自己的英雄。我們得把自己從自己手中救出來。”

 

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；如果你相信愛情，那就去愛；不管你信什麼，照你信的去做就行。這我毫無異議。但你千萬不要試圖把你的信念兜售給社會。你最終會自相矛盾，並樹立一個壞榜樣。如果你想改變世界，改變自己。

 

People are never perfect, but love can be.” 

 

人是永遠不會完美的，但愛卻可以。

 

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. 

 

人們喜歡對什麼都太認真，尤其是對自己。就是這樣。而這可能就是讓他們總覺得受傷、覺得害怕的原因。生命還沒有認真到得那麼認真去對待的程度。

 

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. 

 

在一個基本上是被設計來組織、指導、和放任大眾的衝動的社會，有什麼能慰藉一個個體的心靈？宗教？藝術？自然？不，教會已將宗教變成規範化的公共奇觀，博物館也對藝術作了同樣的事情，大峽谷和尼亞加拉大瀑布已被看了這麼多年，它們早就形容枯槁，靈氣皆被太多的感覺遲鈍的眼睛吸走了。有什麼能慰藉一個個體的心靈？午夜的一張紙碟上的冷雞骨嗎？一個你說長就長，你說短就短的紅色唇膏嗎？一隻你從來不知道的，鳥也不睬的，塑料泡沫做的鳥巢嗎？一雙在你穿過滂沱大雨獨自往家開時徒勞無益地追逐彼此的雨刷嗎？某件你看電影時你的鞋子在座位下碰到的東西嗎？破鉛筆、小巧可愛的叉子、胖胖的小收音機、領結盒子、浴缸邊上的氣泡嗎？是的，就是這些東西，這些風箏的繩子和橄欖油罐子和塞滿糖果的情人節紅心讓自閉性視野和經驗世界之間有了牢固的關聯；月亮的目的就是讓這些東西顯示出它們真正的神秘之光。

 

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).

 

理念肯定是不穩固的；它們不僅可能被錯用，它們更招致錯用--理念越好越不穩固。這是因為只有非比尋常的好理念才變成教條。就是這個過程把一個新鮮的、刺激的、對人類有益的觀念轉變為機器人般的死教條。就造成的危險性而言，觀念向教條的轉變就像氫變成氦，鈾變成鉛，無邪變成腐化。而且，其轉變也幾乎像其它轉變一樣冷酷無情。

 

這個問題始於繼發階段，跟理念的倡導者或開創者無關。問題出在那些被它吸引的人，那些採用它的人，那些糾纏着直到它的最後一個指甲都斷裂了才放手的人，那些總是缺乏概貌、靈活性、想象力、尤其是幽默感的人，那些致力於把它維持在剛孵出來的樣子的人。

理念是主人創造出來的，教條是由門徒弄出來的，佛永遠被殺死在半途中。

 

一個特別讓人生厭讓人沮喪的通病叫管見。製造了那麼多苦難的它實在應該讓世界衛生組織把消滅它放在其工作的首位。得這種病的人認知受到無知的限制和既得利益的歪曲。這種病是在自負蓋過理智時某種視覺黴菌繁殖引起的，而政治使它更複雜化。當一個不錯的理念通過平庸管見的過濾和壓縮以後，它的規模和價值不僅大大降格，而且由其轉化的教條所產生的影響跟原定的目標背道而馳。

 

耶穌基督的愛的理念就是這樣變成了基督教的令人生厭的陳詞濫調。歷史上幾乎每一個革命就這樣慘遭失敗：那些被壓迫的，一旦奪取政權，即變成壓迫者，極盡其能去“保護革命成果”。這也是為什麼那些試圖消除偏見的變得心胸狹窄、謀求和平的變得好戰、尋求平等的自變得自以為是、尋求解放的變得虎視眈眈（自我壓抑的首發症狀是過分緊張）。

 

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

 

人生就像是燉肉：你得經常攪拌攪拌，否則的話所有的渣滓都會升到頂部。

 

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.

 

在樂觀主義者的世界裡，炒蛋的讓人鼓舞的事情是無論你怎麼翻怎麼轉，蛋黃都是朝上的。在存在主義的世界裡，炒蛋的令人沮喪的事情是無論你怎麼翻怎麼轉，它們都是雜亂無章的。“

 

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.

 

這個詞，讓是成為事實，讓非成為可能。

這個詞，把無償放進自由里，把義務從愛里剔出來。

這個詞，在最後一扇窗關上時，打開另一扇窗。

這個詞，所有的冒險，所有的欣喜，所有的意義，所有的榮耀都仰賴它。

這個詞，點燃演化的泥漿馬達。

這個詞，是那個蠶繭跟毛毛蟲說的悄悄話。

這個詞，是那個分子連接前反覆背誦的東西。

這個詞，分開死與生的一切。

這個詞，沒有鏡子可以把它轉過來。

自太初始就是這個詞。這個詞叫選擇。

 

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.

 

四個要素里有三個是所有的生靈都共享的，只有火是人類獨占的禮物。吸煙最能讓我們跟火親近而不受火的直接煎熬。每個吸煙者都是普羅米修斯的化身，偷來天火併把它帶回家。我們用吸煙來捕捉太陽的能量，來安撫地獄，來跟原始的火花融為一體，來汲取火山的精髓。我們所追求的不是煙草而是火。吸煙時，我們是在跳某個版本的火之舞，一個古老如閃電的典禮。

 

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說就藏在雷明頓SL3打字機里—只是它寫字的速度遠遠超過我拼寫的速度。

 

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.

 

這個小屁孩（雷明頓SL3打字機）你稍微鼓勵一下就會講電動莎士比亞語；只要你死死盯牢它，它就能說唱出半頁一頁來。

 

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.

 

雜耍和在打字機上寫作頗為相同。訣竅是，當你失手的時候，你得讓它看起來像是你故意這樣做的。