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.

里面究竟有多少墨水看不出。或许在你试探性地写上几个字后它就会枯干，或许足够用来创作一部影响深远的不朽巨著(或是几部)。而这些，在动笔前，都是无法得知的。

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

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！事实上，这个游戏里没有规则指定你必须要做什幺。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?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?

但是，如果你决定要用它的话，你会用它来做什幺呢？你将怎样来进行这个游戏呢?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?

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?

或者你只是手里拿着笔，一头扎进去写，不停地写，艰难地随着文字汹涌的浪涛而随波逐流？

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?

你会小心谨慎的写字，好象这支笔在下一个时刻就可能会干枯；还是装做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?

你将会写些什么呢?: 爱情?恨?悲伤？生命？死亡？无从下笔？所有一切Would you write to please just yourself?Or others? Or yourself by writing for others?

你写时是为了取悦自己?他人?还是通过写他人来取悦自己?

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

你落笔时会是颤抖胆怯的，还是鲜明果敢的？花里胡哨还是朴实无华？

Would you even write? Once you have the pen, no rule says you have to write.

你会写作吗？即使你拥有笔，没有规定说你必须写作。

Would you sketch⁴? Scribble⁵? Doodle or draw?

你会素描？信笔涂鸦？画画？

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

你会呆在线里还是线上,或者根本看不到线, 即使他们就在那里? 或者他们在吗?

There’s a lot to think about here, isn’t there? Now, suppose someone gave you a life…还有许多值得思考的事情，不是吗？现在，假如有人给予你一支生命的笔...