TED演讲:隐喻的艺术(2)

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　　Take this haiku by the 18th century Japanese poet Issa. "On a branch floating downriver, a cricket singing." 以18世纪日本诗人小林一茶的俳句为例。“树枝顺流而下，蟋蟀在上面歌唱。”

　　The first way to meet a metaphor¹ is just to see the world through its eyes: 发现隐喻的的第一种方法就是通过世界本身的眼睛看世界：

　　An insect sings from a branch passing by in the middle of the river. 树枝在河中央顺流而下，一只昆虫在上面歌唱。

　　Even as you see that though, some part of you recognizes in the image a small portrait of what it's like to live in this world of change and time, 即使你看到，你的一部分认出画面描绘的是生活在一个由变化和时间构成的世界里是什么感觉

　　our human fate is to vanish, as surely as that small cricket will, and still, we do what it does. We live, we sing. 人终有一死，蟋蟀也一样即便如此，我们依旧活着，歌唱。

　　Sometimes a poem takes a metaphor and extends it, building on one idea in many ways. 有时，诗歌里有一个隐喻并把它扩展用不同的方法描绘一个构思。

　　Here's the beginning of Langston Hughes' famous poem "Mother to Son."  这是兰斯顿·休斯最著名的诗《母亲致儿子》的开头：

　　"Well, son, I'll tell you. Life for me ain't been no crystal stair. “噢，儿子，我来告诉你：我的人生没有水晶般的阶梯。

　　It's had tacks³ in it, and splinters, and boards torn up, and places with no carpet on the floor." 那上面钉着钉子，有碎片，木板也是裂开的，地面没铺地毯——光秃秃的。”

　　Langston Hughes is making a metaphor that compares a hard life to a wrecked⁴ house you still have to live in. 兰斯顿·休斯将艰难的生活同不得已居住的年久失修的房子相比。

　　Those splinters and tacks feel real, they hurt your own feet and your own heart, 这些碎片和钉子十分真实，它们会划伤你的脚掌和内心，

　　but the mother is describing her life here, not her actual house. 但母亲是在描述自己的生活而不是房子。

　　And hunger, and cold exhausting work and poverty are what's also inside those splinters. 饥饿，寒冷令人疲惫的工作以及贫穷也在碎片之中。

　　Metaphors aren't always about our human lives and feelings. 隐喻并不总是同人类生活和情感相关。

　　The Chicago poet Carl Sandburg wrote 芝加哥诗人卡尔·桑德堡曾写道：

　　"The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches, and then moves on." “雾来了，轻轻地，踏着小猫的脚步。静静地，它坐下观看，观看城市和港口然后再重新上路。”

　　The comparison here is simple. Fog is being described as a cat. 这里的比喻十分简单。雾被形容成小猫。

　　But a good metaphor isn't a puzzle, or a way to convey hidden meanings, it's a way to let you feel and know something differently. 好的隐喻不是猜谜，不用来传达隐藏的含义，而是让你从不同角度感受了解事物。

　　No one who's heard this poem forgets it. 听过这首诗的人都不会忘。

　　You see fog, and there's a small grey cat nearby. 你看见大雾，附近伴随着一只小灰猫。

　　Metaphors give words a way to go beyond their own meaning. 隐喻让词语超越它们本来的意思。

　　They're handles on the door of what we can know, and of what we can imagine. 它们是门上的把手，是我们可以了解、想象的。

　　Each door leads to some new house, and some new world that only that one handle can open. 每扇门通向新的房子和新的世界，只有一个把手可以打开。

　　What's amazing is this: By making a handle, you can make a world. 最令人称奇的是这个：你可以通过造一个把手来制造一个世界。

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