TED演讲:创意隐藏在哪里(8)
We are all concerned with things that we see in the world that we are aware of.
我们总是在意这世界上我们所感知的事物。
We come to this point and say, what do I as an individual do?
我们对自己说：我能做什么？
Not all of us can go to Africa, or work at hospitals, so what do we do, if we have this moral response, this feeling?
不是每个人都可以去非洲或是在医院工作，我又该如何处理我里面的这个道德感？
Also, I think one of the biggest things we are all looking at, and we talked about today, is genocide. This leads to this question.
我想今日的一个重要议题是种族灭绝，我们再次回到同样的问题。
When I look at all these things that are morally ambiguous and uncomfortable,
当我遇见这些在道德上模棱两可，让我感觉不舒服的事件，
and I consider what my intentions should be, I realize it goes back to this identity question that I had when I was a child
我的心态又是如何，我意识到这让我再次回到孩提时所遇见的身份认知议题，
and why am I here, and what is the meaning of my life, and what is my place in the universe?
为什么我在这里，人生的意义时什么，我在宇宙间的位置是什么？
It seems so obvious, and yet it is not.
这看起来似乎很明显，但一点也不。
We all hate moral ambiguity in some sense, and yet it is also absolutely necessary.
我们都不喜欢道德上的不确定性，但这种不确定感确是绝对必要的。
In writing a story, it is the place where I begin.
在我写作的时候，这便是我开始的地方。
Sometimes I get help from the universe, it seems.
有时看上去似乎我受到宇宙的帮助。
My mother would say it was the ghost of my grandmother from the very first book,
我母亲说从第一本开始，灵感就来自我祖母的鬼魂，
because it seemed I knew things I was not supposed to know.
因为我似乎知道许多我不应该知道的事。
Instead of writing that the grandmother died accidentally, from an overdose of opium, while having too much of a good time,
我没有描写我的祖母是因为吃了过量的鸦片而意外过世的，
I actually put down in the story that the woman killed herself,
而在故事里描写那女人自杀了，
and that actually was the way it happened.
那却是我本来不知道的事实。
And my mother decided that that information must have come from my grandmother.
我母亲认为这些资讯一定来自我祖母的鬼魂。
小说家谭恩美寻找她发展创意的过程，探讨创意从何而来。