Suppose Someone Gave You a Pen

假如给你一支笔

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

假如有人送你一支笔，一支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!

看不出里面究竟有多少墨水。或许在你试探性地写上几个字后它就会干枯，或许足够用来创造一部（或几部）影响深远的不朽巨著。而这些，在动笔前都是无法得知的。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?

事实上，这个游戏里没有规则指定你必须要做点什么。相反的，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的墨水干枯。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？

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, plunge¹ right in and just do it, struggling to keep up with the twists and turns of the torrents² 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?

你会在动笔写字之前，老是计划来计划去吗？你会不会因为计划过于宏大而无从动笔呢？或者你只是手里拿着笔，一头扎进去写，不停地写，努力地使自己随着文字汹涌的浪涛而奔流？抑或，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？还是假装或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? Misery³? Life? Death? Nothing? Everything? Would you write to please just yourself? Or others? Or yourself by writing for others? Would you 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 sketch⁴? Scribble⁵? 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?

你又会用笔写下些什么呢：爱？恨？喜？悲？生？死？虚无？万物？你写作只是为了取悦自己？还是为了取悦他人？抑或是借替人写书之机而愉悦自己？你落笔时会颤抖胆怯，还是敏锐果敢？你的想象是会丰富的还是贫乏的？或者说你真的会动笔吗？你拿到笔以后，并没有哪条规则说你必须写作。也许你要快笔素描，乱写一气？信笔涂鸦？只是激情作画？你会保持写在线内还是线上，还是根本看不到线，即使有线在哪里？又或者，真的有线存在吗？

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

这里面有很多东西值得考虑，不是吗？

Now, suppose someone gave you a life…

现在，假如有人给你一支生命的笔…