TED2008
Amy Tan: Where does creativity hide?
谭恩美谈创意
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小说家谭恩美寻找她发展创意的过程，探讨创意从何而来。
Amy Tan - Novelist
Amy Tan is the author of such beloved books as The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife and The Hundred Secret Senses. Full bio
Amy Tan is the author of such beloved books as The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife and The Hundred Secret Senses. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:18
The Value of Nothing: Out of Nothing Comes Something.
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无的价值：无中生有的可能
00:22
That was an essay I wrote when I was 11 years old
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这是一篇我在十一岁时写的作文
00:26
and I got a B+. (Laughter)
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当时我拿了个乙等。（笑）
00:28
What I'm going to talk about: nothing out of something, and how we create.
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今天我要谈的是创作，和无中生有的艺术
00:32
And I'm gonna try and do that within
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我不但要试着在
00:34
the 18-minute time span that we were told to stay within,
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大会给我的18分钟时限中完成
00:39
and to follow the TED commandments:
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并且遵守TED的严格戒律：
00:41
that is, actually, something that creates
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我必须说，这些戒律的确让我
00:44
a near-death experience,
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有一种濒临死亡的感觉
00:46
but near-death is good for creativity.
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但濒临死亡是有益于创作的
00:48
(Laughter) OK.
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（笑）好
00:52
So, I also want to explain,
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我还想顺便提到
00:54
because Dave Eggers said he was going to heckle me
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如果我说谎，或是说的东西不能普世通用
00:57
if I said anything that was a lie, or not true to universal creativity.
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大卫艾格说他将会严厉地质问我
01:02
And I've done it this way for half the audience, who is scientific.
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这个图是为了听众中的科学家画的
01:05
When I say we, I don't mean you, necessarily;
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当我使用“我们”的时候，我不一定是指你
01:09
I mean me, and my right brain, my left brain
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而是说我，和我的右脑，我的左脑
01:12
and the one that's in between that is the censor
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还有在它们中间那负责审查的东西
01:14
and tells me what I'm saying is wrong.
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如果我说错了什么，它将会提醒我
01:16
And I'm going do that also by looking at
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我也将会谈论
01:19
what I think is part of my creative process,
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我个人的创作过程
01:22
which includes a number of things that happened, actually --
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那包含了一些不同的事件
01:25
the nothing started even earlier than the moment
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无在更早之前发生
01:28
in which I'm creating something new.
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在我开始创作之前就发生了
01:31
And that includes nature, and nurture,
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那包括了天份，滋养
01:36
and what I refer to as nightmares.
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还有我叫做梦魇的东西
01:39
Now in the nature area, we look at whether or not
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在天份的方面，我们必须要检视
01:43
we are innately equipped with something, perhaps
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我们是否生来就有这天赋，或者
01:46
in our brains, some abnormal chromosome
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在我们的大脑里，是否有些一些不正常的染色体
01:49
that causes this muse-like effect.
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带来了这些像是灵感的效应
01:53
And some people would say that we're born with it in some other means.
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有些人会用别的方法说这是我们与生俱来的
01:59
And others, like my mother,
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还有一些人，像我的母亲
02:01
would say that I get my material from past lives.
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会说我是从前世里找到这些写作材料的
02:07
Some people would also say that creativity
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有些人会说创作力
02:10
may be a function of some other neurological quirk --
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是一种精神异常的副作用 --
02:15
van Gogh syndrome -- that you have a little bit of, you know, psychosis, or depression.
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类似梵高症候群 -- 就是你有一点精神失常，或是忧郁症
02:20
I do have to say, somebody -- I read recently
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但我必须告诉这些人 -- 最近我才读到
02:23
that van Gogh wasn't really necessarily psychotic,
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梵高其实不一定是精神病患
02:26
that he might have had temporal lobe seizures,
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而更可能得了一种颞叶癫痫症
02:28
and that might have caused his spurt of creativity, and I don't --
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造成了他这种突然性的创作力
02:32
I suppose it does something in some part of your brain.
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我想那的确会影响你一部分的大脑
02:35
And I will mention that I actually developed
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我也必须提到，事实上
02:37
temporal lobe seizures a number of years ago,
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数年前我也有过这种颞叶癫痫
02:41
but it was during the time I was writing my last book,
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那时我正在写我的上一本书
02:44
and some people say that book is quite different.
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有些人说那本书很不同
02:48
I think that part of it also begins with a sense of identity crisis:
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还有一部分是从身份危机开始的：
02:53
you know, who am I, why am I this particular person,
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我是谁，为什么我是这个我
02:57
why am I not black like everybody else?
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为什么我不像别人一样是黑人？
03:02
And sometimes you're equipped with skills,
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有时候，你装备着那些技能
03:04
but they may not be the kind of skills that enable creativity.
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但它们可能不是一些能带来创造力的技能
03:08
I used to draw. I thought I would be an artist.
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我以前还会画画。我曾以为我会成为一个画家
03:11
And I had a miniature poodle.
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这是我画的迷你贵宾狗
03:13
And it wasn't bad, but it wasn't really creative.
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似乎还不坏，但实在算不上什么创意
03:15
Because all I could really do was represent in a very one-on-one way.
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因为我所能做的不过是把它们一个个画下来
03:20
And I have a sense that I probably copied this from a book.
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而且我很有可能还是从一本书上抄绘下来的
03:24
And then, I also wasn't really shining in a certain area that I wanted to be,
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但是我在我真正想要的地方又似乎表现的不是太出色
03:30
and you know, you look at those scores, and it wasn't bad,
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你知道，你看着那些成绩，是不很差
03:34
but it was not certainly predictive that I would one day make
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但也绝不可能让我预测到
03:38
my living out of the artful arrangement of words.
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有天我竟然能用写作来谋生
03:42
Also, one of the principles of creativity is to have a little childhood trauma.
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创意的其中一项原则是拥有童年的心理创伤
03:48
And I had the usual kind that I think a lot of people had,
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我想我有的创伤和一般人一样
03:52
and that is that, you know, I had expectations placed on me.
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来自父母对子女过分热切的期望
03:56
That figure right there, by the way,
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那具人体模型
03:59
figure right there was a toy given to me when I was but nine years old,
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是我在九岁的时候得到的一件玩具，
04:04
and it was to help me become a doctor from a very early age.
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以助我在童年时期就能踏上成为医生康庄大道
04:09
I have some ones that were long lasting: from the age of five to 15,
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还有一些持续比较久的心理创伤：从五到十五岁
04:14
this was supposed to be my side occupation,
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成为一个钢琴家理应变成我的第二职业
04:17
and it led to a sense of failure.
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但最终它只变成我感觉失败的来源
04:20
But actually, there was something quite real in my life
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但事实上在我人生中是有一些真实的心理创伤
04:23
that happened when I was about 14.
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发生在我十四岁的时候
04:25
And it was discovered that my brother, in 1967, and then my father,
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就是发现我的兄弟，在1967年，然后我的父亲
04:30
six months later, had brain tumors.
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六个月以后，双双长了脑瘤
04:32
And my mother believed that something had gone wrong,
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我母亲相信有些事情出错了
04:37
and she was gonna find out what it was, and she was gonna fix it.
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她想找出原因，然后解决它
04:40
My father was a Baptist minister, and he believed in miracles,
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我父亲是个牧师，他相信神迹
04:44
and that God's will would take care of that.
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他相信神会解决那些问题
04:47
But, of course, they ended up dying, six months apart.
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但当然，他们都过世了，中间隔了六个月
04:50
And after that, my mother believed that it was fate, or curses
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在那之后，我母亲相信那是命运，是诅咒
04:54
-- she went looking through all the reasons in the universe
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她找遍了宇宙间所有可能的理由
04:57
why this would have happened.
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为什么这件事会发生
04:59
Everything except randomness. She did not believe in randomness.
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除了偶然以外所有的理由。她不相信偶然
05:04
There was a reason for everything.
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每件事都有原因
05:06
And one of the reasons, she thought, was that her mother,
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她相信其中一件原因是在她的母亲
05:08
who had died when she was very young, was angry at her.
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她相信在她幼年就过世的母亲怨恨她
05:13
And so, I had this notion of death all around me,
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所以我总被死亡的阴影笼罩着
05:16
because my mother also believed that I would be next, and she would be next.
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因为我母亲还相信我会是下一个，或是她会是下一个
05:21
And when you are faced with the prospect of death very soon,
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当你面对死亡的时候
05:24
you begin to think very much about everything.
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你开始认真思考每件事情
05:29
You become very creative, in a survival sense.
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你开始非常有创造力，从一种争取生存的角度来说
05:33
And this, then, led to my big questions.
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这让我想到一个大问题
05:37
And they're the same ones that I have today.
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一些我今日仍然在想的问题
05:40
And they are: why do things happen, and how do things happen?
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为什么事情会发生，它们是怎么发生的？
05:45
And the one my mother asked: how do I make things happen?
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和我母亲问的那句：我怎么让这些事情发生的？
05:52
It's a wonderful way to look at these questions, when you write a story.
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在撰写故事的时候，这都是一些很重要的问题
05:57
Because, after all, in that framework, between page one and 300,
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因为你必须三百页的篇幅中回答这些问题：
06:03
you have to answer this question of why things happen, how things happen,
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为什么事情会这样发生，它是怎么发生的
06:07
in what order they happen. What are the influences?
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事情发生的顺序和影响
06:10
How do I, as the narrator, as the writer, also influence that?
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我，身为一个述说者，对这个故事又有什么影响？
06:14
And it's also one that, I think, many of our scientists have been asking.
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我想这也是所有科学家所问的问题
06:18
It's a kind of cosmology, and I have to develop a cosmology of my own universe,
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我在我的世界中发展出自己的宇宙观
06:24
as the creator of that universe.
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像一个宇宙的创造者。
06:26
And you see, there's a lot of back and forth
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这中间有许多的反复
06:30
in trying to make that happen, trying to figure it out
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尝试着创造，尝试着理出头绪
06:33
-- years and years, oftentimes.
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年复一年，往往。
06:37
So, when I look at creativity, I also think that it is this sense or this inability
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当我想到创作力的时候，我也认为
06:44
to repress, my looking at associations in practically anything in life.
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这来自一种对日常生活中每件事无法压抑的看法。
06:48
And I got a lot of them during what's been going on
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我在许多事件发生时做出观察
06:52
throughout this conference,
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在这个大会中，
06:55
almost everything that's been going on.
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几乎是所有发生的事情。
06:57
And so I'm going to use, as the metaphor, this association:
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让我在这里用量子力学做比喻：
07:01
quantum mechanics, which I really don't understand,
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虽然我并不理解量子力学，
07:05
but I'm still gonna use it as the process
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但我将以它做为一种过程
07:07
for explaining how it is the metaphor.
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来解释为何它是个比喻。
07:11
So, in quantum mechanics, of course, you have dark energy and dark matter.
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在量子力学中，有着暗能量和暗物质。
07:18
And it's the same thing in looking at these questions of how things happen.
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就像我们尝试解释事情为何会发生的时候
07:22
There's a lot of unknown, and you often don't know what it is except by its absence.
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有许多未知，你不知道那是什么，只知道它不在
07:28
But when you make those associations,
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但当你尝试找出关联性时
07:30
you want them to come together in a kind of synergy in the story,
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当你希望能在故事中把事件连接起来时
07:34
and what you're finding is what matters. The meaning.
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你突然发现了事物的核心。它的意义。
07:38
And that's what I look for in my work, a personal meaning.
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这就是我在我的作品中所想要找寻的，对我而言的意义。
07:42
There is also the uncertainty principle, which is part of quantum mechanics,
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在量子力学中还有测不准原理，
07:47
as I understand it. (Laughter)
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至少我想有。（笑）
07:49
And this happens constantly in the writing.
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同样的事也时常发生在写作中。
07:53
And there's the terrible and dreaded observer effect,
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还有一种可怕的观者效应，
07:56
in which you're looking for something, and
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当你在找寻一些事情的时候，
07:58
you know, things are happening simultaneously,
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那些同时发生的事情，
08:01
and you're looking at it in a different way,
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你尝试用不同角度去看它，
08:03
and you're trying to really look for the about-ness,
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你尝试找出它和其他事物的关联性，
08:07
or what is this story about. And if you try too hard,
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或是这个故事和什么有关。如果你过分强求，
08:11
then you will only write the about.
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最后你写下的只是“关联”。
08:14
You won't discover anything.
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却什么也没发现。
08:17
And what you were supposed to find,
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而你应该找到的，
08:19
what you hoped to find in some serendipitous way,
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你真正希望能找到的，在无意中，
08:22
is no longer there.
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却已经不在了。
08:25
Now, I don't want to ignore
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我并不想忽略
08:27
the other side of what happens in our universe,
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在宇宙另一边发生的事，
08:30
like many of our scientists have.
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像一些科学家所做的一样。
08:33
And so, I am going to just throw in string theory here,
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所以在这里我也要顺便谈谈弦理论，
08:36
and just say that creative people are multidimensional,
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证明创意人不仅是多维的，
08:39
and there are 11 levels, I think, of anxiety.
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还有着十一种层次的焦虑。
08:43
(Laughter) And they all operate at the same time.
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（笑）而且它们全部一起发生。
08:47
There is also a big question of ambiguity.
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再来还有模棱两可的问题。
08:50
And I would link that to something called the cosmological constant.
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像是你们说的宇宙常数。
08:56
And you don't know what is operating, but something is operating there.
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你不明白什么在运作，但有些事情在运作。
08:58
And ambiguity, to me, is very uncomfortable
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模棱两可是一种非常不舒服的感觉，对我的人生来说
09:02
in my life, and I have it. Moral ambiguity.
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但它仍然存在。道德的不确定性
09:05
It is constantly there. And, just as an example,
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总是存在着。举例来说，
09:09
this is one that recently came to me.
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最近刚发生了一件事。
09:12
It was something I read in an editorial by a woman
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在我从事编辑工作时，我读到
09:14
who was talking about the war in Iraq. And she said,
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一个女人在描写伊拉克战争时，
09:18
"Save a man from drowning, you are responsible to him for life."
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她使用了一句很有名的中国谚语
09:21
A very famous Chinese saying, she said.
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”救一个溺水者，你便得为他的一生负责。“
09:24
And that means because we went into Iraq, we should stay there
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意味着既然我们进入了伊拉克，我们便应该长驻
09:28
until things were solved. You know, maybe even 100 years.
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直到事情解决。你知道，就算要上百年
09:32
So, there was another one that I came across,
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还有另一个例子
09:37
and it's "saving fish from drowning."
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就是”救溺水的游鱼“
09:40
And it's what Buddhist fishermen say,
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来自一个信仰佛教的渔夫
09:42
because they're not supposed to kill anything.
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佛教相信人不该杀生
09:45
And they also have to make a living, and people need to be fed.
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但渔夫却仍得谋生，养家
09:48
So their way of rationalizing that is they are saving the fish from drowning,
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为了将杀生合理化，他们声称自己是在救溺水的鱼
09:52
and unfortunately, in the process the fish die.
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但鱼不幸地在过程中死了。
09:55
Now, what's encapsulated in both these drowning metaphors
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暗藏在这两个溺水故事中的比喻是
10:00
-- actually, one of them is my mother's interpretation,
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其中一个说法来自我母亲
10:03
and it is a famous Chinese saying, because she said it to me:
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中国人常说的
10:06
"save a man from drowning, you are responsible to him for life."
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”救一个溺水者，你便得为他的一生负责。“
10:09
And it was a warning -- don't get involved in other people's business,
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那是一种警告：别管别人的闲事
10:13
or you're going to get stuck.
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免得被缠上
10:15
OK. I think if somebody really was drowning, she'd save them.
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但我想如果真的有人溺水的话，她还是会救他们的
10:19
But, both of these sayings -- saving a fish from drowning,
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但这两种说法，不管是救溺水的鱼，
10:23
or saving a man from drowning -- to me they had to do with intentions.
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还是溺水的人，这取决与你的意图
10:27
And all of us in life, when we see a situation, we have a response.
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我们在人生中，都得对我们身边发生的事情做出反应
10:32
And then we have intentions.
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怀抱着各自的意图
10:34
There's an ambiguity of what that should be that we should do,
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在我们应该做的，和最后真正做了的两者之间
10:39
and then we do something.
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有一些模棱两可之处
10:41
And the results of that may not match what our intentions had been.
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而结果也不一定符合我们原本的意图
10:44
Maybe things go wrong. And so, after that, what are our responsibilities?
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说不定事情搞砸了。若当如此，我们的责任又在哪？
10:49
What are we supposed to do?
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我们该怎么做？
10:51
Do we stay in for life,
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我们该留下来负责
10:53
or do we do something else and justify and say, well, my intentions were good,
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还是尝试合理化我们的行为，说，我的本意是好的
10:58
and therefore I cannot be held responsible for all of it?
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所以我不应当负全责
11:04
That is the ambiguity in my life
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这便是我人生中很难接受的模棱两可
11:06
that really disturbed me, and led me to write a book called
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甚至让我因此写了本书，就叫做
11:10
"Saving Fish From Drowning."
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救一只溺水的鱼
11:12
I saw examples of that. Once I identified this question, it was all over the place.
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一旦你意识到这个问题，就发现它无所不在
11:19
I got these hints everywhere.
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在哪里都能看到它的痕迹
11:21
And then, in a way, I knew that they had always been there.
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同时我也知道，它们一直都在那里。
11:24
And then writing, that's what happens. I get these hints, these clues,
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在写作上，我看见这些暗示，这些线索
11:27
and I realize that they've been obvious, and yet they have not been.
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我意识到它们一直都在那，但又隐身不见
11:34
And what I need, in effect, is a focus.
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我需要的是焦点
11:38
And when I have the question, it is a focus.
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当我有一个问题要问的时候，它就是一个焦点
11:40
And all these things that seem to be flotsam and jetsam in life actually go through
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那些在人生中的灾难都会过去
11:45
that question, and what happens is those particular things become relevant.
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这些问题，和在这些事件中所发生的事都是有关联的
11:50
And it seems like it's happening all the time.
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而且它无处不在
11:52
You think there's a sort of coincidence going on, a serendipity,
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你以为它不过是偶发事件，或是碰巧发生的
11:55
in which you're getting all this help from the universe.
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或许是来自宇宙的帮忙
11:58
And it may also be explained that now you have a focus.
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也可以解释成，心中有了焦点以后
12:01
And you are noticing it more often.
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你更能发现它的存在
12:05
But you apply this.
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当你开始应用它
12:08
You begin to look at things having to do with your tensions.
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你开始检视那些令你紧张的事情
12:11
Your brother, who's fallen in trouble, do you take care of him?
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当你的兄弟遇上了麻烦，你该帮助他吗？
12:14
Why or why not?
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为什么要，又为什么不要？
12:16
It may be something that is perhaps more serious
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它或许比你想象的更为严肃
12:20
-- as I said, human rights in Burma.
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像缅甸的人权问题
12:23
I was thinking that I shouldn't go because somebody said, if I did, it would show
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我本来想着我是否不应该去，因为有人告诉我
12:27
that I approved of the military regime there.
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我在那里出现意味着我支持当地的军权统治
12:30
And then, after a while, I had to ask myself,
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但一阵子以后，我自问
12:33
"Why do we take on knowledge, why do we take on assumptions
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“为什么我们要在意他人对我们的想法
12:35
that other people have given us?"
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或认知？”
12:38
And it was the same thing that I felt when I was growing up,
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这和我在成长过程中的感觉很像
12:41
and was hearing these rules of moral conduct from my father,
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我身为牧师的父亲
12:46
who was a Baptist minister.
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给我们的所有规则和道德指标
12:48
So I decided that I would go to Burma for my own intentions,
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最后我决定为了我自己去缅甸
12:53
and still didn't know that if I went there,
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而我仍然不知道，到了那里
12:56
what the result of that would be, if I wrote a book --
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写一本书，结果又会如何
12:59
and I just would have to face that later, when the time came.
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但我只能等到时机出现的时候，再来面对这些问题
13:03
We are all concerned with things that we see in the world that we are aware of.
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我们总是在意这世界上我们所感知的事物
13:08
We come to this point and say, what do I as an individual do?
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我们对自己说：我能做什么？
13:13
Not all of us can go to Africa, or work at hospitals,
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不是每个人都可以去非洲，或是在医院工作
13:17
so what do we do, if we have this moral response, this feeling?
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我又该如何处理我里面的这个道德感？
13:24
Also, I think one of the biggest things we are all looking at,
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我想今日的一个重要议题是
13:27
and we talked about today, is genocide.
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种族灭绝
13:30
This leads to this question.
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我们再次回到同样的问题
13:33
When I look at all these things that are morally ambiguous and uncomfortable,
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当我遇见这些在道德上模棱两可，让我感觉不舒服的事件
13:38
and I consider what my intentions should be,
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我的心态又是如何？
13:40
I realize it goes back to this identity question that I had when I was a child
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我认知到这让我再次回到孩提时所遇见的身份认知议题
13:45
-- and why am I here, and what is the meaning of my life,
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为什么我在这里，人生的意义时什么
13:48
and what is my place in the universe?
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我在宇宙间的位置是什么？
13:50
It seems so obvious, and yet it is not.
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这看起来似乎很明显，但一点也不
13:53
We all hate moral ambiguity in some sense,
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我们都不喜欢道德上的不确定性
13:58
and yet it is also absolutely necessary.
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但这种不确定感确是绝对必要的
14:02
In writing a story, it is the place where I begin.
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在我写作的时候，这便是我开始的地方
14:06
Sometimes I get help from the universe, it seems.
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有时看上去似乎我受到宇宙的帮助
14:10
My mother would say it was the ghost of my grandmother from the very first book,
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我母亲说从第一本开始，灵感就来自我祖母的鬼魂
14:13
because it seemed I knew things I was not supposed to know.
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因为我似乎知道许多我不应该知道的事
14:16
Instead of writing that the grandmother died accidentally,
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我没有描写我的祖母
14:19
from an overdose of opium, while having too much of a good time,
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是因为吃了过量的鸦片而意外过世的
14:22
I actually put down in the story that the woman killed herself,
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而在故事里描写那女人自杀了
14:27
and that actually was the way it happened.
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那却是我本来不知道的事实
14:29
And my mother decided that that information must have come from my grandmother.
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我母亲认为这些资讯一定来自我祖母的鬼魂。
14:34
There are also things, quite uncanny,
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除此以外，还有一些离奇的事件
14:37
which bring me information that will help me in the writing of the book.
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在写作时为我带来了不同的写作资料
14:41
In this case, I was writing a story
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当时我正在写一个古代的故事
14:43
that included some kind of detail, period of history, a certain location.
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需要那个年代的历史和地理资料
14:47
And I needed to find something historically that would match that.
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来补足故事中的细节
14:50
And I took down this book, and I --
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我从书架上拿下这本书
14:52
first page that I flipped it to was exactly the setting, and the time period,
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我翻开的第一页便是我故事里的时代和地点
14:58
and the kind of character I needed -- was the Taiping rebellion,
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和我在描写太平天国时所需要的人物
15:01
happening in the area near Guilin, outside of that,
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在一个接近桂林的地方
15:05
and a character who thought he was the son of God.
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和一个认为他是神的儿子的人物。
15:08
You wonder, are these things random chance?
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你不禁想，这一切都是偶然的吗？
15:11
Well, what is random? What is chance? What is luck?
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但偶然是什么？机会是什么？运气又是什么？
15:15
What are things that you get from the universe that you can't really explain?
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那些从天而降的灵感又是什么？
15:19
And that goes into the story, too.
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这也成为故事的一部分
15:21
These are the things I constantly think about from day to day.
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这些就是我日复一日想着的事
15:24
Especially when good things happen,
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在好事发生的时候
15:26
and, in particular, when bad things happen.
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尤其，在坏事发生的时候
15:30
But I do think there's a kind of serendipity,
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但我是相信这种突发灵感的
15:32
and I do want to know what those elements are,
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我也想知道它们形成的元素是什么
15:35
so I can thank them, and also try to find them in my life.
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我才能感谢，和找到它们
15:40
Because, again, I think that when I am aware of them, more of them happen.
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因为，我想，我越能察觉它们，它们就发生的越频繁
15:44
Another chance encounter is when I went to a place
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还有一次是一个地方
15:48
-- I just was with some friends, and we drove randomly to a different place,
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我只是和朋友漫无目的地开着车
15:52
and we ended up in this non-tourist location,
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却到了这个旅游景点以外之地
15:56
a beautiful village, pristine.
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一个淳朴的，古朴的村庄
15:58
And we walked three valleys beyond,
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我们越过了三个山谷
16:00
and the third valley, there was something quite mysterious and ominous,
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在第三个山谷，我有些神秘的，不舒服的预感
16:03
a discomfort I felt. And then I knew that had to be [the] setting of my book.
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我知道这将成为我故事的场景。
16:09
And in writing one of the scenes, it happened in that third valley.
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故事里的其中一幕便发生在第三个山谷
16:12
For some reason I wrote about cairns -- stacks of rocks -- that a man was building.
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其中一幕我写到，一个男人，正摆着石堆
16:19
And I didn't know exactly why I had it, but it was so vivid.
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我不知道为什么我这样写，但那景象很鲜明
16:22
I got stuck, and a friend, when she asked if I would go for a walk with her dogs,
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我陷入了困境，一个朋友问我要不要和她去遛狗
16:27
that I said, sure. And about 45 minutes later,
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我说好。四十五分钟后
16:30
walking along the beach, I came across this.
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我在海滩上遇见了一个男人
16:34
And it was a man, a Chinese man,
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一个中国男人
16:36
and he was stacking these things, not with glue, not with anything.
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他正堆着这些东西。没有胶水，没有任何工具
16:39
And I asked him, "How is it possible to do this?"
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我问他，这怎么可能？
16:42
And he said, "Well, I guess with everything in life, there's a place of balance."
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他说，世间每件事 都有一个平衡点
16:46
And this was exactly the meaning of my story at that point.
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那便是我故事里所要讲的重点
16:51
I had so many examples -- I have so many instances like this, when I'm writing a story,
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在我的写作过程中 这样的事时常发生
16:56
and I cannot explain it.
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我无法解释
16:58
Is it because I had the filter that I have such a strong coincidence
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是否因为我有一种特殊的过滤法
17:02
in writing about these things?
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因为这些强烈的巧合正是我想写的事？
17:05
Or is it a kind of serendipity that we cannot explain, like the cosmological constant?
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或是这真是一些我们所不能解释的突发事件 从天而来？
17:12
A big thing that I also think about is accidents.
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我也时常想到意外
17:15
And as I said, my mother did not believe in randomness.
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如我所说 我母亲从不相信偶然
17:18
What is the nature of accidents?
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那意外又是什么？
17:20
And how are we going to assign what the responsibility and the causes are,
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对于那些法律以外的事件，我们又该如何处理面对
17:24
outside of a court of law?
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它们的责任归属？
17:27
I was able to see that in a firsthand way,
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我有一个切身的经验
17:30
when I went to beautiful Dong village, in Guizhou, the poorest province of China.
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我曾经到中国最贫穷的贵州省里的侗族
17:36
And I saw this beautiful place. I knew I wanted to come back.
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我看见这个美丽的地方 我知道我想再回来
17:38
And I had a chance to do that, when National Geographic asked me
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当国家地理杂志问我想不想写一些有关中国的文章
17:41
if I wanted to write anything about China.
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我知道我的机会来了
17:43
And I said yes, about this village of singing people, singing minority.
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我说好，我想写这个唱歌的少数民族
17:48
And they agreed, and between the time I saw this place and the next time I went,
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它们同意了。就在我两次拜访中间
17:53
there was a terrible accident. A man, an old man, fell asleep,
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一个悲惨的意外发生了。一个老人
17:57
and his quilt dropped in a pan of fire that kept him warm.
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在睡眠中把被子掉在了暖炉上
18:00
60 homes were destroyed, and 40 were damaged.
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六十户人家全毁，四十户遭到损坏
18:06
Responsibility was assigned to the family.
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这个家庭得担负责任
18:08
The man's sons were banished to live three kilometers away, in a cowshed.
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老人的儿子被放逐到三公里外的牛棚
18:12
And, of course, as Westerners, we say, "Well, it was an accident. That's not fair.
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西方人会说：但那是个不过是个意外，这不公平
18:16
It's the son, not the father."
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父债不该子还
18:18
When I go on a story, I have to let go of those kinds of beliefs.
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但当我下笔写这个故事的时候，我得放弃那些原来的想法
18:24
It takes a while, but I have to let go of them and just go there, and be there.
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这得花上一些时间，但是我必须克服自己，纯粹得去那里亲身经历。
18:28
And so I was there on three occasions, different seasons.
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所以我在不同的季节里去了三次
18:31
And I began to sense something different about the history,
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在这个贫穷的村庄里 我开始对历史
18:35
and what had happened before, and the nature of life in a very poor village,
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之前发生的事件 和人生的本质 有了不同的感受
18:39
and what you find as your joys, and your rituals, your traditions, your links
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什么是让你感到快乐的，你的仪式, 你的传统，我们和其他家庭产生关系的方式。
18:42
with other families. And I saw how this had a kind of justice, in its responsibility.
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我开始明白这样的责任归属中，有它自己的正义。
18:52
I was able to find out also about the ceremony that they were using,
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我也开始了解他们使用的仪式。
18:57
a ceremony they hadn't used in about 29 years. And it was to send some men
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一个二十九年没用过的仪式。
19:05
-- a Feng Shui master sent men down to the underworld on ghost horses.
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让一个风水师送一些人 乘着鬼马进阴间。
19:09
Now you, as Westerners, and I, as Westerners,
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你，身为一个西方人，如我，身为一个西方人，
19:12
would say well, that's superstition. But after being there for a while,
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会说：那不过是迷信。但在那里待了一段时间以后，
19:15
and seeing the amazing things that happened,
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亲眼见识到这些神奇的事，
19:18
you begin to wonder whose beliefs are those that are in operation in the world,
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你开始想，究竟是谁的信仰，运作在这个世界上，
19:23
determining how things happen.
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决定事情该如何发生。
19:26
So I remained with them, and the more I wrote that story,
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所以我决定留下来和他们一起 ，我写的越多，
19:29
the more I got into those beliefs, and I think that's important for me
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我便越相信这些信仰，这对我来说是重要的 －
19:33
-- to take on the beliefs, because that is where the story is real,
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去真正接受这些信仰，因为这样，故事才能真实，
19:36
and that is where I'm gonna find the answers
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那便是我找到的答案
19:38
to how I feel about certain questions that I have in life.
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来解决我人生问题的地方。
19:43
Years go by, of course, and the writing, it doesn't happen instantly,
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随着时间过去，我也写了很多作品，但这不是在一瞬间发生的，
19:46
as I'm trying to convey it to you here at TED.
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在这里，我想对你们说的是
19:50
The book comes and it goes. When it arrives, it is no longer my book.
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这些书来了又走。当它来到的时候，它已不再属于我，
19:55
It is in the hands of readers, and they interpret it differently.
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而在每个读者手中，他们有不同的解读。
19:59
But I go back to this question of, how do I create something out of nothing?
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但我仍然回到同样的问题，我如何无中生有？
20:05
And how do I create my own life?
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我如何创造自己的生命？
20:08
And I think it is by questioning,
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我对它提出问题，
20:10
and saying to myself that there are no absolute truths.
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并告诉我自己，它没有一个确定的答案。
20:15
I believe in specifics, the specifics of story,
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我相信那些具体的事，故事中的细节，
20:19
and the past, the specifics of that past,
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和往事，往事中的细节，
20:22
and what is happening in the story at that point.
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及当时故事中所发生的事。
20:26
I also believe that in thinking about things --
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我也相信，在我们考量着这些，
20:29
my thinking about luck, and fate, and coincidences and accidents,
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有关运气 、命运 、巧合和意外，
20:33
God's will, and the synchrony of mysterious forces --
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天意，和这些神秘力量的互动时，
20:37
I will come to some notion of what that is, how we create.
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我将会对我们的创造力有些概念。
20:43
I have to think of my role. Where I am in the universe,
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我思考自己的角色 在宇宙中的原因
20:47
and did somebody intend for me to be that way, or is it just something I came up with?
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是否有人要我成为现在这个样子，或是那完全出于我自己？
20:52
And I also can find that by imagining fully, and becoming what is imagined --
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我可以借着想象来找到答案，或成为自己想象的模样
21:00
and yet is in that real world, the fictional world.
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在那真实世界，虚构世界，
21:03
And that is how I find particles of truth, not the absolute truth, or the whole truth.
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这便是我找到部分真理的办法，不是绝对的，或是完全的真理，
21:11
And they have to be in all possibilities,
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它们仍有许多可能性。
21:13
including those I never considered before.
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包括那些我从未想到的
21:16
So, there are never complete answers.
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从没有完整的答案
21:19
Or rather, if there is an answer, it is to remind
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就算有，也是为了提醒我自己。
21:24
myself that there is uncertainty in everything,
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一切都是变化无常的
21:28
and that is good, because then I will discover something new.
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那是件好事 因为我总能发现新东西
21:33
And if there is a partial answer, a more complete answer from me,
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如果有一个片段的答案 一个更完整的答案
21:37
it is to simply imagine.
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便是简单的想象
21:40
And to imagine is to put myself in that story,
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想象便是将自己放进故事里
21:44
until there was only -- there is a transparency between me and the story that I am creating.
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直到我和我的故事间完全透明 毫无距离
21:50
And that's how I've discovered that if I feel what is in the story
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那便是我发现 若我能感觉到故事里的情节
21:56
-- in one story -- then I come the closest, I think,
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那么 我便接近了 懂得了什么是同感
22:02
to knowing what compassion is, to feeling that compassion.
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去完整的感受这同感
22:06
Because for everything,
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因为对每件事来说
22:08
in that question of how things happen, it has to do with the feeling.
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当我们问事情是怎么发生的 那便和感受有关
22:12
I have to become the story in order to understand a lot of that.
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我必须成为故事的一部分才能理解
22:18
We've come to the end of the talk,
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当我们来到演讲的最后
22:20
and I will reveal what is in the bag, and it is the muse,
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我将揭露袋子里的是什么，那是灵感
22:24
and it is the things that transform in our lives,
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是改变我们人生的事物
22:27
that are wonderful and stay with us.
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那些美好的 从不离弃的
22:37
There she is.
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它在这里。
22:38
Thank you very much!
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非常感谢！
22:40
(Applause)
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（鼓掌）
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Amy Tan - NovelistAmy Tan is the author of such beloved books as The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife and The Hundred Secret Senses.
Why you should listen
Born in the US to immigrant parents from China, Amy Tan rejected her mother's expectations that she become a doctor and concert pianist. She chose to write fiction instead. Her much-loved, best-selling novels have been translated into 35 languages. In 2008, she wrote a libretto for The Bonesetter's Daughter, which premiered that September with the San Francisco Opera.
Tan was the creative consultant for Sagwa, the Emmy-nominated PBS series for children, and she has appeared as herself on The Simpsons. She's the lead rhythm dominatrix, backup singer and second tambourine with the Rock Bottom Remainders, a literary garage band that has raised more than a million dollars for literacy programs.
Amy Tan | Speaker | TED.com