OWNED BY PARROT01

Now in the nature area, we look at whether or not we are innately equipped with something,

在天份的方面，我们必须要检视我们是否生来就有这天赋，

perhaps in our brains, some abnormal chromosome that causes this muse-like effect.

或者在我们的大脑里，是否有些一些不正常的染色体带来了这些像是灵感的效应。

And some people would say that we’re born with it in some other means.

有些人会用别的方法说这是我们与生俱来的。

And others, like my mother, would say that I get my material from past lives.

还有一些人，像我的母亲，会说我是从前世里找到这些写作材料的。

Some people would also say that creativity may be a function of some other neurological quirk — van Gogh syndrome

有些人会说创作力是一种精神异常的副作用–类似梵高症候群，

that you have a little bit of, you know, psychosis, or depression.

就是你有一点精神失常，或是忧郁症。

I do have to say, somebody — I read recently that van Gogh wasn’t really necessarily psychotic,

但我必须告诉这些人–最近我才读到梵高其实不一定是精神病患，

that he might have had temporal lobe seizures, and that might have caused his spurt of creativity,

而更可能得了一种颞叶癫痫症，造成了他这种突然性的创作力，

and I don’t — I suppose it does something in some part of your brain.

我想那的确会影响你一部分的大脑。

And I will mention that I actually developed temporal lobe seizures a number of years ago,

我也必须提到，事实上数年前我也有过这种颞叶癫痫，

but it was during the time I was writing my last book, and some people say that book is quite different.

那时我正在写我的上一本书，有些人说那本书很不同。

I think that part of it also begins with a sense of identity crisis:

还有一部分是从身份危机开始的：

you know, who am I, why am I this particular person, why am I not black like everybody else?

我是谁，为什么我是这个我，为什么我不像别人一样是黑人？

And sometimes you’re equipped with skills, but they may not be the kind of skills that enable creativity.

有时候，你装备着那些技能，但它们可能不是一些能带来创造力的技能。

I used to draw. I thought I would be an artist. And I had a miniature poodle.

我以前还会画画。我曾以为我会成为一个画家。这是我画的迷你贵宾狗。

And it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t really creative.

似乎还不坏，但实在算不上什么创意。

Because all I could really do was represent in a very one-on-one way.

因为我所能做的不过是把它们一个个画下来。

And I have a sense that I probably copied this from a book.

而且我很有可能还是从一本书上抄绘下来的。

And then, I also wasn’t really shining in a certain area that I wanted to be,

但是我在我真正想要的地方又似乎表现的不是太出色，

and you know, you look at those scores, and it wasn’t bad,

你知道，你看着那些成绩，是不很差，

but it was not certainly predictive that I would one day make my living out of the artful arrangement of words.

但也绝不可能让我预测到有天我竟然能用写作来谋生。

小说家谭恩美寻找她发展创意的过程，探讨创意从何而来。