TED演講精選：談呵護創(chuàng)造力及減輕創(chuàng)作壓力

　　I am a writer. Writing books is my profession but it’s more than that, of course. It is also my great lifelong love and fascination. And I don’t expect that that’s ever going to change. But, that said, something kind of peculiar has happened recently in my life and in my career, which has caused me to have to recalibrate my whole relationship with this work. And the peculiar thing is that I recently wrote this book, this memoir called “Eat, Pray, Love” which, decidedly unlike any of my previous books, went out in the world for some reason, and became this big, mega-sensation, international bestseller thing. The result of which is that everywhere I go now, people treat me like I’m doomed. Seriously – doomed, doomed! Like, they come up to me now, all worried, and they say, “Aren’t you afraid – aren’t you afraid you’re never going to be able to top that? Aren’t you afraid you’re going to keep writing for your whole life and you’re never again going to create a book that anybody in the world cares about at all, ever again?”

　　我是個作家，寫作不僅僅是我的職業(yè)，更是我一輩子的摯愛與迷戀 我認為這是永遠不會改變的事情盡管如此，最近在我的生活工作中，發(fā)生了一個特殊事件這個特殊事件就是：我最新出版的那本回憶錄《美食、祈禱、愛》與我以前那些普普通通的作品大不一樣 ，不知怎么的，成了一本轟動一時、令人激動的國際暢銷書結果是，現(xiàn)在不論我到哪里，人們都覺得我這一輩子就這樣了 真的，就這樣了，徹底地，沒救了，玩完了! 他們會非常憂慮地過來跟我說： “你不怕嗎? 不怕你這輩子都超越不了那本書了嗎?” “你不怕你會這樣寫一輩子，卻永遠再也寫不出世人熱愛的作品了嗎?”

　　So that’s reassuring, you know. But it would be worse, except for that I happen to remember that over 20 years ago, when I first started telling people – when I was a teenager – that I wanted to be a writer, I was met with this same kind of, sort of fear-based reaction. And people would say, “Aren’t you afraid you’re never going to have any success? Aren’t you afraid the humiliation of rejection will kill you? Aren’t you afraid that you’re going to work your whole life at this craft and nothing’s ever going to come of it and you’re going to die on a scrap heap of broken dreams with your mouth filled with bitter ash of failure?” (Laughter) Like that, you know.

　　他們可真是會安慰人呀 我的日子本來會很難熬，幸運的是，我想起了20年前決定成為作家的事情 那時我才十幾歲我當時遭遇到了同樣的質疑，人們說：你不怕永遠都不會成功嗎? 你不怕持續(xù)的拒絕會把你擊垮嗎? 你不怕努力終身卻一無所成嗎?你最后會在支離破碎的夢想中絕望死去，滿含著失敗的痛楚 我當時一直得到諸如此類的質疑。

　　The answer – the short answer to all those questions is, “Yes.” Yes, I’m afraid of all those things. And I always have been. And I’m afraid of many many more things besides that people can’t even guess at. Like seaweed, and other things that are scary. But, when it comes to writing the thing that I’ve been sort of thinking about lately, and wondering about lately, is why? You know, is it rational? Is it logical that anybody should be expected to be afraid of the work that they feel they were put on this Earth to do. You know, and what is it specifically about creative ventures that seems to make us really nervous about each other’s mental health in a way that other careers kind of don’t do, you know? Like my dad, for example, was a chemical engineer and I don’t recall once in his 40 years of chemical engineering anybody asking him if he was afraid to be a chemical engineer, you know? It didn’t – that chemical engineering block John, how’s it going? It just didn’t come up like that, you know? But to be fair, chemical engineers as a group haven’t really earned a reputation over the centuries for being alcoholic manic-depressives. (Laughter)

　　對于這些質疑，最簡單的回答是：“怕” 是的，這種種一切都讓人害怕，直到今天也一樣 其實除了這些，我還害怕很多別人猜不到的東西比方說海草，還有其他嚇人的東西 ，但是，說到害怕寫作，我最近一直在想，我為什么要害怕寫作呢? 這難道是一種理性的想法嗎?人們害怕從事自己命中注定的工作?這符合邏輯嗎? 創(chuàng)造性工作究竟有著怎樣的特殊性，以至于讓我們?yōu)楸舜说男闹墙】祿�心起來了�?別的行業(yè)可不太會這樣，不是嗎? 比方說，我爸爸是個化學工程師 ，在他40年的化學工程生涯中，我不曾記得有人問他是否害怕成為化學工程師沒人說：“約翰，化學工作遇到瓶頸了嗎?怎么樣了?” 從來不曾發(fā)生過這種問話 ，當然，平心而論，化學工程師這一群體并沒有在過去幾個世紀里，因酗酒吸毒、狂躁抑郁而享譽全球 。

　　We writers, we kind of do have that reputation, and not just writers, but creative people across all genres, it seems, have this reputation for being enormously mentally unstable. And all you have to do is look at the very grim death count in the 20th century alone, of really magnificent creative minds who died young and often at their own hands, you know? And even the ones who didn’t literally commit suicide seem to be really undone by their gifts, you know. Norman Mailer, just before he died, last interview, he said “Every one of my books has killed me a little more.” An extraordinary statement to make about your life’s work, you know. But we don’t even blink when we hear somebody say this because we’ve heard that kind of stuff for so long and somehow we’ve completely internalized and accepted collectively this notion that creativity and suffering are somehow inherently linked and that artistry, in the end, will always ultimately lead to anguish.

　　而我們作家，倒確確實實有著那樣的名聲不僅作家，各個領域的創(chuàng)作人才似乎都有著情緒極不穩(wěn)定的惡名， 只需看看上個世紀，各個領域偉大創(chuàng)作天才們英年早逝的案例常常是年紀輕輕死于自殺 ，即使那些沒有自殺的，往往也沒有完全展現(xiàn)出他們的才華 ，即使那些沒有自殺的，往往也沒有完全展現(xiàn)出他們的才華諾曼梅勒，在去世前的最后一次采訪中說： “我的每一本書都蠶食了一部分的我”， 對于你畢生的作品，這是多么激進的說法啊但我們對此類說法卻視若無睹，因為我們早已見怪不怪了 ，且不知為何,人們都已經完全內化接受了這一觀念這種觀念就是：創(chuàng)造力和痛苦息息相關，藝術創(chuàng)造最終一定會導致極度苦悶。

　　And the question that I want to ask everybody here today is are you guys all cool with that idea? Are you comfortable with that – because you look at it even from an inch away and, you know – I’m not at all comfortable with that assumption. I think it’s odious. And I also think it’s dangerous, and I don’t want to see it perpetuated into the next century. I think it’s better if we encourage our great creative minds to live.

　　我今天想問在座各位的是：你們大家都對此毫無異議嗎? 你們都覺得這一觀點毫無問題嗎? 哪怕稍稍離遠點看這個觀點，我也不能同意這種臆斷 ，這個觀點不但可憎，而且可怕，我不希望這樣的想法一直延續(xù)到下個世紀我覺得鼓勵我們偉大的創(chuàng)作天才們繼續(xù)活下去會更加好。

　　And I definitely know that, in my case – in my situation – it would be very dangerous for me to start sort of leaking down that dark path of assumption, particularly given the circumstance that I’m in right now in my career. Which is – you know, like check it out, I’m pretty young, I’m only about 40 years old. I still have maybe another four decades of work left in me. And it’s exceedingly likely that anything I write from this point forward is going to be judged by the world as the work that came after the freakish success of my last book, right? I should just put it bluntly, because we’re all sort of friends here now – it’s exceedingly likely that my greatest success is behind me. Oh, so Jesus, what a thought! You know that’s the kind of thought that could lead a person to start drinking gin at nine o’clock in the morning, and I don’t want to go there. (Laughter) I would prefer to keep doing this work that I love.

　　而且就我自己來說，持這一觀點必然將我引入黑暗的絕境 尤其是在我目前的事業(yè)階段 你看，我還年輕，我才四十來歲我今后還有大約四十年的創(chuàng)作生涯 而且很有可能的是，從這一刻起，我所寫的每一部作品 ，都會被用來和我上一本轟動一時的巨作進行比較，不是嗎?坦率地說吧，看在我們都聊了這么久，我就說句朋友間的掏心話吧 極有可能的是，我這輩子最大成功已經過去了， 天啊，這是何種的想法!就是這種想法，讓人踏上了一大清早就喝琴酒的不歸路啊 我可不想變成那樣我希望繼續(xù)從事我所熱愛的寫作事業(yè)，所以問題就變成：我應該怎么辦呢?

　　And so, the question becomes, how? And so, it seems to me, upon a lot of reflection, that the way that I have to work now, in order to continue writing, is that I have to create some sort of protective psychological construct, right? I have to, sort of find some way to have a safe distance between me, as I am writing, and my very natural anxiety about what the reaction to that writing is going to be, from now on. And, as I’ve been looking over the last year for models for how to do that I’ve been sort of looking across time, and I’ve been trying to find other societies to see if they might have had better and saner ideas than we have about how to help creative people, sort of manage the inherent emotional risks of creativity.

　　經過一番深入思考，在我看來 要想繼續(xù)寫作，我必須要創(chuàng)造出某種心理保護機制 我必須以某種方式，建立起一個安全距離區(qū)別開寫作本身，以及我對于作品反響的極度焦慮， 前一年，我到處找尋可以參考的模式，在歷史中找，也在不同文化中找看他們是否有比我們更好、更理智的觀點 來幫助藝術工作者處理藝術創(chuàng)作所固有的內在情感風險。

　　And that search has led me to ancient Greece and ancient Rome. So stay with me, because it does circle around and back. But, ancient Greece and ancient Rome – people did not happen to believe that creativity came from human beings back then, OK? People believed that creativity was this divine attendant spirit that came to human beings from some distant and unknowable source, for distant and unknowable reasons. The Greeks famously called these divine attendant spirits of creativity “daemons.” Socrates, famously, believed that he had a daemon who spoke wisdom to him from afar. The Romans had the same idea, but they called that sort of disembodied creative spirit a genius. Which is great, because the Romans did not actually think that a genius was a particularly clever individual. They believed that a genius was this, sort of magical divine entity, who was believed to literally live in the walls of an artist’s studio, kind of like Dobby the house elf, and who would come out and sort of invisibly assist the artist with their work and would shape the outcome of that work.

　　這一尋找最后把我?guī)У搅斯畔ＥD和古羅馬 所以請耐心聽我講，因為最后會繞回到我們的問題在古希臘和古羅馬，人們并不認為創(chuàng)造力來自于人類本身 ，人們相信，創(chuàng)造力是一種神圣的守護精靈從遙遠而不可知的地方來到藝術家身邊，帶著某種遙遠而不可知的目的 希臘人普遍地稱這種伴隨著創(chuàng)造力的守護精靈為“守護神”。 當時人們普遍地認為蘇格拉底就有這樣一個守護神，從遠處賦予他智慧 古羅馬人有著相似的觀點，他們把這種無形的創(chuàng)造精靈稱為“天才” 這種觀點很妙，因為羅馬人并沒有認為“天才”是某個特別聰慧的個人。 他們認為“天才”是某種奇妙的神圣存在他們甚至認為“天才”居住在藝術家工作室的墻壁中，就像小精靈多比一樣 它們會悄悄地鉆出來，無形地幫助藝術家創(chuàng)作，并影響作品成敗。

　　So brilliant – there it is, right there that distance that I’m talking about – that psychological construct to protect you from the results of your work. And everyone knew that this is how it functioned, right? So the ancient artist was protected from certain things, like, for example, too much narcissism, right? If your work was brilliant you couldn’t take all the credit for it, everybody knew that you had this disembodied genius who had helped you. If your work bombed, not entirely your fault, you know? Everyone knew your genius was kind of lame. And this is how people thought about creativity in the West for a really long time.

　　這個觀點簡直絕了，這就是我在找尋的那個安全距離 這就是讓人免受作品成敗影響的心理保護機制 我們都可以理解它的運作模式，不是嗎?古代藝術家由這個觀點而得到保護，避免了過度自戀 ，如果你的作品很偉大，那可不能完全歸功于你因為大家都知道你是在一個無形的“天才”幫助下完成作品的 如果你的作品很爛，同樣也不全是你的錯 ，人人都知道那是因為你的“天才”很差勁這就是西方人在過去很長一段時間里看待創(chuàng)作力的方式。

　　And then the Renaissance came and everything changed, and we had this big idea, and the big idea was let’s put the individual human being at the center of the universe above all gods and mysteries, and there’s no more room for mystical creatures who take dictation from the divine. And it’s the beginning of rational humanism, and people started to believe that creativity came completely from the self of the individual. And for the first time in history, you start to hear people referring to this or that artist as being a genius rather than having a genius.

　　接著文藝復興來臨，一切都變了，人們產生了一個偉大的想法： “讓我們把人類置于宇宙中心，超越眾神和神秘未知” 于是再也沒有空間留給傳遞神圣意志的小精靈。 這就是理性人文主義的開端，人們開始相信創(chuàng)造力完全來源于人類個體本身有史以來，人們第一次將某個藝術家稱為“天才”，而非擁有一個“天才”。

　　And I got to tell you, I think that was a huge error. You know, I think that allowing somebody, one mere person to believe that he or she is like, the vessel you know, like the font and the essence and the source of all divine, creative, unknowable, eternal mystery is just a smidge too much responsibility to put on one fragile, human psyche. It’s like asking somebody to swallow the sun. It just completely warps and distorts egos, and it creates all these unmanageable expectations about performance. And I think the pressure of that has been killing off our artists for the last 500 years.

　　而我要說的是，我認為那是一個巨大的錯誤 讓一個人，區(qū)區(qū)一個個體 去相信他(她)是承載著神圣、創(chuàng)造、未知和永恒這些事物的源泉與圣器無異于要求他(她)吞下太陽，這對于脆弱的個體而言，是太大的責任。 這徹底地扭曲了一個人的自我認知，并導致對于個人成就無比膨脹的預期我認為就是這種壓力，在過去的500年間扼殺了無數(shù)藝術家

　　And, if this is true, and I think it is true, the question becomes, what now? Can we do this differently? Maybe go back to some more ancient understanding about the relationship between humans and the creative mystery. Maybe not. Maybe we can’t just erase 500 years of rational humanistic thought in one 18 minute speech. And there’s probably people in this audience who would raise really legitimate scientific suspicions about the notion of, basically fairies who follow people around rubbing fairy juice on their projects and stuff. I’m not, probably, going to bring you all along with me on this.

　　如果真是這樣 至少我認為是這樣的 那么我們的問題就是：現(xiàn)在該怎么辦?我們能夠改變這種狀況嗎?也許我們應回到更古老的過去，去參考他們對于人類與創(chuàng)造力的理解? 也許不行我們無法用一個短短18分鐘的演講，抹殺掉發(fā)展了500多年的理性人文思想， 況且或許今天的聽眾中，就有人能夠提出有理有據(jù)的科學質疑批駁這種童話精靈跟著藝術家主人，給作品上點上神仙水的可笑想法也許，我無法說服你們大家都同意我的看法。

　　But the question that I kind of want to pose is – you know, why not? Why not think about it this way? Because it makes as much sense as anything else I have ever heard in terms of explaining the utter maddening capriciousness of the creative process. A process which, as anybody who has ever tried to make something – which is to say basically, everyone here –- knows does not always behave rationally. And, in fact, can sometimes feel downright paranormal.

　　但我想說的是：為何不呢?為什么不換個角度思考呢? 就各種解釋人類變化無常的創(chuàng)作過程的理論而言這個精靈理論和我聽過的所有其他理論一樣地合理(或者說一樣地無理)這個過程，對于任何一個曾試圖創(chuàng)作的人來說相信在坐各位都曾有這方面的經歷 ，都會知道創(chuàng)作過程并不總是理性的 實際上，創(chuàng)作過程有時簡直就是超乎常理。

　　I had this encounter recently where I met the extraordinary American poet Ruth Stone, who’s now in her 90s, but she’s been a poet her entire life and she told me that when she was growing up in rural Virginia, she would be out working in the fields, and she said she would feel and hear a poem coming at her from over the landscape. And she said it was like a thunderous train of air. And it would come barreling down at her over the landscape. And she felt it coming, because it would shake the earth under her feet. She knew that she had only one thing to do at that point, and that was to, in her words, “run like hell.” And she would run like hell to the house and she would be getting chased by this poem, and the whole deal was that she had to get to a piece of paper and a pencil fast enough so that when it thundered through her, she could collect it and grab it on the page. And other times she wouldn’t be fast enough, so she’d be running and running and running, and she wouldn’t get to the house and the poem would barrel through her and she would miss it and she said it would continue on across the landscape, looking, as she put it “for another poet.” And then there were these times – this is the piece I never forgot – she said that there were moments where she would almost miss it, right? So, she’s running to the house and she’s looking for the paper and the poem passes through her, and she grabs a pencil just as it’s going through her, and then she said, it was like she would reach out with her other hand and she would catch it. She would catch the poem by its tail, and she would pull it backwards into her body as she was transcribing on the page. And in these instances, the poem would come up on the page perfect and intact but backwards, from the last word to the first. (Laughter)

　　比方說，我最近見到杰出的美國詩人露絲.斯通 露絲已經九十多歲，她一直是一位詩人 她對我說她少年時生活在弗吉尼亞鄉(xiāng)間的事情她會在田間勞作著，然后突然聽到并感覺到一首詩，從遠處沖她而來， 像一股雷鳴般的氣息，朝她傾瀉而下她可以感受到它的來臨，因為這股力量會撼動她腳下的大地 每當此時，她唯一能做的只有一件事 用她的話說，就是“死命地狂奔” 她會狂奔回家里，這首詩則會一路追逐著她， 她需要飛快地找到紙筆，從而在這股力量穿過她時，捕捉住那首詩，把它記在紙上 有些時候她則不夠快她拼命地跑，還沒到家，那首詩已經奔騰而過，于是她便錯過了那首詩， 她說那首詩會繼續(xù)在田野間穿行，尋找“下一位詩人” 在另一些時候，這是最叫我難忘的部分： 她說有些時候她幾乎就要錯過一首詩了 ，她飛奔回家，尋找紙筆而那首詩即將穿越她而去，她在它正要穿過之際抓住了筆 然后她會伸出另一只手，抓住那首詩的尾巴把它順勢拉回來，另一只手則一邊將詩句謄寫在紙上 ，每當這種時候，詩會完好無缺地呈現(xiàn)在紙上只不過順序是顛倒的，從最后那個詞開始，由后往前，一直到第一個詞

　　So when I heard that I was like – that’s uncanny, that’s exactly what my creative process is like. (Laughter)

　　我聽了她的故事后，心想：太不可思議了，這和我的創(chuàng)作過程一模一樣!

　　That’s not all what my creative process is – I’m not the pipeline! I’m a mule, and the way that I have to work is that I have to get up at the same time every day, and sweat and labor and barrel through it really awkwardly. But even I, in my mulishness, even I have brushed up against that thing, at times. And I would imagine that a lot of you have too. You know, even I have had work or ideas come through me from a source that I honestly cannot identify. And what is that thing? And how are we to relate to it in a way that will not make us lose our minds, but, in fact, might actually keep us sane?

　　當然這并非我創(chuàng)作過程的全部，我不是管道，我的工作方式更像是一頭騾子 我必須每天同一時間起床，然后笨拙地，勤懇地工作不過即使古板如我，偶爾也會意外地得到不可思議的靈感， 在坐很多人或許也有類似經歷你想，即使像我這樣墨守成規(guī)的人，也會遇到不知何處而來的靈感 這到底是怎么回事呢? 我們要以怎樣的方式看待它，才不會喪失理智呢?

　　And for me, the best contemporary example that I have of how to do that is the musician Tom Waits, who I got to interview several years ago on a magazine assignment. And we were talking about this, and you know, Tom, for most of his life he was pretty much the embodiment of the tormented contemporary modern artist, trying to control and manage and dominate these sort of uncontrollable creative impulses that were totally internalized.

　　就我所知的當代藝術家中，將這一問題處理得最好的是音樂家湯姆威茲 幾年前，我就一個雜志工作采訪過他，當時我們談及了這一問題湯姆是備受創(chuàng)作壓力折磨的現(xiàn)代藝術家的典型 ，大半生時間，他都在努力地控制,管理并主宰那不可控的內在創(chuàng)作靈感

　　But then he got older, he got calmer, and one day he was driving down the freeway in Los Angeles he told me, and this is when it all changed for him. And he’s speeding along, and all of a sudden he hears this little fragment of melody, that comes into his head as inspiration often comes, elusive and tantalizing, and he wants it, you know, it’s gorgeous, and he longs for it, but he has no way to get it. He doesn’t have a piece of paper, he doesn’t have a pencil, he doesn’t have a tape recorder.

　　但隨著年紀漸長，他變得沉靜內斂了 他告訴我說：一天他在洛杉磯高速公路開車，這時發(fā)生了一件改變他一生的事情他正在加速前行，突然，他隱約聽到了一小段優(yōu)美的旋律?????? 這旋律莫名地進入他的腦海，就像靈感來臨時那樣，捉摸不定而誘人心弦他急切地想要捕捉它，但是沒有辦法，他既沒有紙筆，也沒有錄音機

　　So he starts to feel all of that old anxiety start to rise in him like, “I’m going to lose this thing, and then I’m going to be haunted by this song forever. I’m not good enough, and I can’t do it.” And instead of panicking, he just stopped. He just stopped that whole mental process and he did something completely novel. He just looked up at the sky, and he said, “Excuse me, can you not see that I’m driving?” (Laughter) “Do I look like I can write down a song right now? If you really want to exist, come back at a more opportune moment when I can take care of you. Otherwise, go bother somebody else today. Go bother Leonard Cohen.”

　　他感覺到那種熟悉的創(chuàng)作焦慮又在他體內集聚 “我就要失去這個靈感了，然后這首曲子會永世陰魂不散地折磨我” “我根本不行，我做不到” ，突然，他奇異般地停止了繼續(xù)抓狂和焦躁情緒，然后做了一件不尋常的事情 他抬頭望向天空，對它說道：“不好意思，您沒看到我正在開車嗎?” 我看上去像是能立馬記下一首曲子的樣子嗎? 如果你真想在世上流傳，另挑個合適的時間再來吧，在我方便的時候或者，你可以今天去騷擾別人，去找萊昂納德·科恩去。

　　And his whole work process changed after that. Not the work, the work was still oftentimes as dark as ever. But the process, and the heavy anxiety around it was released when he took the genie, the genius out of him where it was causing nothing but trouble, and released it kind of back where it came from, and realized that this didn’t have to be this internalized, tormented thing. It could be this peculiar, wondrous, bizarre collaboration kind of conversation between Tom and the strange, external thing that was not quite Tom.

　　自從那件事以后，湯姆的整個創(chuàng)作過程改變了 不是作品變了，他的作品仍是一如既往的黑暗但當他把創(chuàng)作天才從自身剝離開來時，伴隨著創(chuàng)作過程的嚴重焦慮也被化解了將創(chuàng)作靈感歸于自我，只是帶來痛苦與麻煩，將它解放出來，倒像是放歸原處 ，同時他也意識到，他原本無需將創(chuàng)作靈感內化于自身，自我折磨創(chuàng)作靈感可以是他和這一外部未知存在之間奇異、奇妙又奇怪的合作關系 那是一個自身以外的存在。

　　So when I heard that story it started to shift a little bit the way that I worked too, and it already saved me once. This idea, it saved me when I was in the middle of writing “Eat, Pray, Love,” and I fell into one of those, sort of pits of despair that we all fall into when we’re working on something and it’s not coming and you start to think this is going to be a disaster, this is going to be the worst book ever written. Not just bad, but the worst book ever written. And I started to think I should just dump this project. But then I remembered Tom talking to the open air and I tried it. So I just lifted my face up from the manuscript and I directed my comments to an empty corner of the room. And I said aloud, “Listen you, thing, you and I both know that if this book isn’t brilliant that is not entirely my fault, right? Because you can see that I am putting everything I have into this, I don’t have anymore than this. So if you want it to be better, then you’ve got to show up and do your part of the deal. OK. But if you don’t do that, you know what, the hell with it. I’m going to keep writing anyway because that’s my job. And I would please like the record to reflect today that I showed up for my part of the job.” (Laughter)

　　這個故事潛移默化地改變了我的工作方式，這一轉變已經拯救了我一次 那是在寫《美食、祈禱、愛》的時候，我陷入了一個焦慮絕望的無底洞那種不斷努力卻毫無靈感的絕望低潮狀態(tài) 。然后你漸漸覺得這部作品將成為一個徹底的失敗 成為有史以來最爛的一本書不僅是爛，而且是徹底的糟糕透頂，我開始覺得我應該放棄寫這本書 。這時我想起了湯姆對著天空喊話的事情，然后我試了試我從手稿中抬起頭，轉向房間中的一個空角落 然后大聲宣布道：“你這個家伙，給我聽著” ，“咱倆都知道，如果這本書不怎么樣，那可不是我一個人的錯，不是嗎?” “因為你可以看到，我已經為之傾盡全力毫無保留了” “你若是想要這本書更好一些，現(xiàn)在輪到你出面，做你那部分工作了”。 “你要是不來幫忙，那就見你的鬼去吧” "我還是會繼續(xù)寫下去的，因為這是我的工作" 我希望今天的歷史記錄證明：我盡責地堅守了我的崗位。

　　Because – (Applause) in the end it’s like this, OK – centuries ago in the deserts of North Africa, people used to gather for these moonlight dances of sacred dance and music that would go on for hours and hours, until dawn. And they were always magnificent, because the dancers were professionals and they were terrific, right? But every once in a while, very rarely, something would happen, and one of these performers would actually become transcendent. And I know you know what I’m talking about, because I know you’ve all seen, at some point in your life, a performance like this. It was like time would stop, and the dancer would sort of step through some kind of portal and he wasn’t doing anything different than he had ever done, 1,000 nights before, but everything would align. And all of a sudden, he would no longer appear to be merely human. He would be lit from within, and lit from below and all lit up on fire with divinity.

　　因為 最后就是這樣的 在幾個世紀前的北非沙漠里，人們會在月色下舉行神圣的歌舞聚會 聚會持續(xù)數(shù)個小時直至天亮那些表演很精彩，因為他們都是很棒的專業(yè)舞者 偶爾的時候，雖然很少見，但確確實實會發(fā)生。 某一位舞者會超越當下，超然出世你們應該都知道我說的這種情況 因為大家都曾在某個時刻，見識過那樣的表演 時間似乎停止了，舞者仿佛穿越了他所做的動作和之前的1000場表演并沒有什么不同 ，但所有的一切卻奇跡般地統(tǒng)一起來了剎那間，他不再是個普通的凡人，他的生命從內部點燃，從心底發(fā)光 他被神圣之火照耀

　　And when this happened, back then, people knew it for what it was, you know, they called it by it’s name. They would put their hands together and they would start to chant, “Allah, Allah, Allah, God God, God.” That’s God, you know. Curious historical footnote – when the Moors invaded southern Spain, they took this custom with them and the pronunciation changed over the centuries from “Allah, Allah, Allah,” to “Ole, ole, ole,” which you still hear in bullfights and in flamenco dances. In Spain, when a performer has done something impossible and magic, “Allah, ole, ole, Allah, magnificent, bravo,” incomprehensible, there it is – a glimpse of God. Which is great, because we need that.

　　當時的人們，清楚地知道這是什么，他們能叫出它的名字 他們會拍起手來，開始吟唱：阿拉，阿拉，阿拉，神啊，神啊，神啊人人都知道：那是神跡顯現(xiàn) ，有趣的野史是，當摩爾帝國入侵南西班牙時，他們帶去了這一習俗于是幾世紀來，頌詞的發(fā)音漸漸改變，從“阿拉,阿拉”變成“歐嘞,歐嘞” ，如今你仍能在斗牛比賽和弗拉明戈舞中聽到這一喝彩聲在西班牙，當一個表演者完成了某種不可思議的神奇之舉時 人們就會喝彩：“阿拉，歐嘞，歐嘞，阿拉，真?zhèn)ゴ�，太棒了，不可思議” 那就是神跡顯現(xiàn) 這種方式很好，因為這正是我們需要的

　　But, the tricky bit comes the next morning, for the dancer himself, when he wakes up and discovers that it’s Tuesday at 11 a.m., and he’s no longer a glimpse of God. He’s just an aging mortal with really bad knees, and maybe he’s never going to ascend to that height again. And maybe nobody will ever chant God’s name again as he spins, and what is he then to do with the rest of his life? This is hard. This is one of the most painful reconciliations to make in a creative life. But maybe it doesn’t have to be quite so full of anguish if you never happened to believe, in the first place, that the most extraordinary aspects of your being came from you. But maybe if you just believed that they were on loan to you from some unimaginable source for some exquisite portion of your life to be passed along when you’re finished, with somebody else. And, you know, if we think about it this way it starts to change everything.

　　對藝術家來說，最棘手的是第二天早上，舞者悠悠轉醒 發(fā)現(xiàn)已經是周二上午11點了，他不再是神跡的顯現(xiàn)而只是那個腰腿不好，終將老去的凡人 而且，他或許再也無法達到昨晚那樣的高度了 ，也許再也不會有人在他跳舞時喝彩神跡顯現(xiàn) 他該如何自處呢?這是個很棘手的問題，也是創(chuàng)作生涯中最痛苦的自我認知之一 ，但也許,我們原本無需如此痛苦如果你本來就從不曾認為，那無與倫比的藝術作品完全來源于你 如果你認為它們是某種神奇的存在，只是暫時借你一用，給你帶來精美絕倫的作品在你完成作品后，繼續(xù)傳遞給其他人 如果我們這樣看待這一問題，一切就都改變了。

　　This is how I’ve started to think, and this is certainly how I’ve been thinking in the last few months as I’ve been working on the book that will soon be published, as the dangerously, frighteningly overanticipated follow up to my freakish success.

　　在過去的幾個月中，我開始以這種方式看待這一問題 同時從事著我下一本書的寫作那本危險的，駭人的，被過度預期的，繼我的暢銷大作之后的作品。

　　And what I have to, sort of keep telling myself when I get really psyched out about that, is, don’t be afraid. Don’t be daunted. Just do your job. Continue to show up for your piece of it, whatever that might be. If your job is to dance, do your dance. If the divine, cockeyed genius assigned to your case decides to let some sort of wonderment be glimpsed, for just one moment through your efforts, then “Ole!” And if not, do your dance anyhow. And “Ole!” to you, nonetheless. I believe this and I feel that we must teach it. “Ole!” to you, nonetheless, just for having the sheer human love and stubbornness to keep showing up.

　　而我需要做的，就是不斷告訴自己，尤其是在我憂郁焦躁的時候： “不要害怕，不要氣餒，只需做好你的那部分工作” ，堅守在你的崗位上，無論你的崗位是什么：如果你是舞者，那就跳舞如果那個屬于你的，神圣卻又邪門的精靈決定通過你讓神跡顯現(xiàn)，哪怕只是短短一瞬 ，那么，讓我們喝彩：歐嘞!如果沒有，那就請繼續(xù)跳舞，堅守你的崗位，我依然為你喝彩：歐嘞! 我堅信我們必須傳授這一理念只要你出于熱愛與執(zhí)著，堅守崗位，那你就值得喝彩：歐嘞!

　　Thank you. (Applause) Thank you. (Applause)

　　謝謝，謝謝。

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