TED演讲之幕后揭秘 伊丽莎白·吉尔伯特谈呵护创造力及减轻创作压力(7)
And for me, the best contemporary example that I have of how to do that is the musician Tom Waits,
就我所知的当代艺术家中，将这一问题处理得最好的是音乐家汤姆·威兹。
who I got to interview several years ago on a magazine assignment.
几年前，我就一个杂志工作采访过他，
And we were talking about this, and you know, Tom, for most of his life,
当时我们谈及了这一问题，
he was pretty much the embodiment of the tormented contemporary modern artist,
汤姆是备受创作压力折磨的现代艺术家的典型，
trying to control and manage and dominate these sort of uncontrollable creative impulses that were totally internalized.
大半生时间，他都在努力地控制，管理并主宰那不可控的内在创作灵感。
But then he got older, he got calmer, and one day he was driving down the freeway in Los Angeles, and this is when it all changed for him.
但随着年纪渐长，他变得沉静内敛了，他告诉我说：一天他在洛杉矶高速公路开车，这时发生了一件改变他一生的事情。
And he’s speeding along, and all of a sudden he hears this little fragment of melody,
他正在加速前行，突然，他隐约听到了一小段优美的旋律，
that comes into his head as inspiration often comes, elusive and tantalizing, and he wants it, it’s gorgeous,
这旋律莫名地进入他的脑海，就像灵感来临时那样，捉摸不定而诱人心弦，
and he longs for it, but he has no way to get it. He doesn’t have a piece of paper, or a pencil, or a tape recorder.
他急切地想要捕捉它，但是没有办法，他既没有纸笔，也没有录音机。
So he starts to feel all of that old anxiety start to rise in him like,
他感觉到那种熟悉的创作焦虑又在他体内集聚，
“I’m going to lose this thing, and I’ll be be haunted by this song forever.
“我就要失去这个灵感了，然后这首曲子会永世阴魂不散地折磨我”。
I’m not good enough, and I can’t do it.” And instead of panicking, he just stopped.
“我根本不行，我做不到” 突然，他奇异般地停止了。
He just stopped that whole mental process and he did something completely novel.
他没有了继续抓狂和焦躁的情绪，然后做了一件不寻常的事情。
He just looked up at the sky, and he said, “Excuse me, can you not see that I’m driving?”
他抬头望向天空，对它说道：“不好意思，您没看到我正在开车吗？”
“Do I look like I can write down a song right now?
我看上去像是能立马记下一首曲子的样子吗？
If you really want to exist, come back at a more opportune moment when I can take care of you.
如果你真想在世上流传，另挑个合适的时间再来吧，在我方便的时候。
Otherwise, go bother somebody else today. Go bother Leonard Cohen.”
或者，你可以今天去骚扰别人，去找莱昂纳德·科恩去。”
And his whole work process changed after that. Not the work, the work was still oftentimes as dark as ever.
自从那件事以后，汤姆的整个创作过程改变了，不是作品变了，他的作品仍是一如既往的黑暗。
But the process, and the heavy anxiety around it was released when he took the genie,
但当他把创作天才从自身剥离开来时，伴随着创作过程的严重焦虑也被化解了。
the genius out of him where it was causing nothing but trouble, and released it back where it came from,
将创作灵感归于自我，只是带来痛苦与麻烦，将它解放出来，倒像是放归原处。
and realized that this didn’t have to be this internalized, tormented thing.
同时他也意识到，他原本无需将创作灵感内化于自身，自我折磨。
It could be this peculiar, wondrous, bizarre collaboration,
创作灵感可以是他和这一外部未知存在之间奇异、奇妙又奇怪的合作关系，
kind of conversation between Tom and the strange, external thing that was not quite Tom.
那是一个自身以外的存在。
演讲简介：
对于那些不可思议的伟大艺术作品，当代社会常将之归功于创作者本身，人们从而对艺术天才抱有超乎寻常的期望，伊丽莎白.吉尔伯特对这一点进行了探索和思考，提出了对于创造天才的独到观点：与其认为某个个人是“天才”，不如说他/她在创作中获得了“天才”的帮助。这一演讲生动有趣、充满个人色彩、令人感动而充满启发。