TED演讲:创意隐藏在哪里(7)
Once I identified this question, it was all over the place.
一旦你意识到这个问题，就发现它无所不在。
I got these hints everywhere. And then, in a way, I knew that they had always been there.
在哪里都能看到它的痕迹。同时我也知道，它们一直都在那里。
And then writing, that’s what happens.
在写作上就会有这些问题。
I get these hints, these clues, and I realize that they’ve been obvious, and yet they have not been.
我看见这些暗示，这些线索，我意识到它们一直都在那，但又隐身不见。
And what I need, in effect, is a focus. And when I have the question, it is a focus.
我需要的是焦点，当我有一个问题要问的时候，它就是一个焦点。
And all these things that seem to be flotsam and jetsam in life actually go through that question,
那些在人生中的灾难都会过去，这些问题
and what happens is those particular things become relevant.
和在这些事件中所发生的事都是有关联的，
And it seems like it’s happening all the time.
而且它无处不在。
You think there’s a sort of coincidence going on, a serendipity, in which you’re getting all this help from the universe.
你以为它不过是偶发事件，或是碰巧发生的，或许是来自宇宙的帮忙。
And it may also be explained that now you have a focus. And you are noticing it more often.
也可以解释成，心中有了焦点以后，你更能发现它的存在。
But you apply this. You begin to look at things having to do with your tensions.
当你开始应用它，你开始检视那些令你紧张的事情。
Your brother, who’s fallen in trouble, do you take care of him? Why or why not?
当你的兄弟遇上了麻烦，你该帮助他吗？为什么要，又为什么不要？
It may be something that is perhaps more serious — as I said, human rights in Burma.
它或许比你想象的更为严肃，像缅甸的人权问题。
I was thinking that I shouldn’t go because somebody said, if I did, it would show that I approved of the military regime there.
我本来想着我是否不应该去，因为有人告诉我，我在那里出现意味着我支持当地的军权统治。
And then, after a while, I had to ask myself,
但一阵子以后，我自问
“Why do we take on knowledge, why do we take on assumptions that other people have given us?”
“为什么我们要在意他人对我们的想法或认知？”
And it was the same thing that I felt when I was growing up,
这和我在成长过程中的感觉很像，
and was hearing these rules of moral conduct from my father, who was a Baptist minister.
我身为牧师的父亲给了我们所有规则和道德指标。
So I decided that I would go to Burma for my own intentions, and still didn’t know that if I went there,
最后我决定为了我自己去缅甸，而我仍然不知道，到了那里
what the result of that would be, if I wrote a book — and I just would have to face that later, when the time came.
写一本书结果又会如何，但我只能等到时机出现的时候，再来面对这些问题。
小说家谭恩美寻找她发展创意的过程，探讨创意从何而来。