so you want to be a writer?
所以你想成为作家?
--Charles Bukowski,
查尔斯·布可夫斯基(1920 - 1994)
if it doesn’t come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don’t do it.
如果她没有不顾一切地
从你身体内涌出,
那就别写。
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don’t do it.
如果并非她不请自来
发自你的内心、你的灵魂、你的嘴和你的肺腑,
那就别写。
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don’t do it.
如果你需要花好几个小时,
紧盯着电脑屏幕,
或扑在打字机前,
搜肠刮肚寻找字句,
那就别写。
if you’re doing it for money or
fame,
don’t do it.
如果你只是为了金钱和名望,
就别写了。
if you’re doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don’t do it.
如果你这样做是为了泡妞,
那就别写。
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don’t do it.
如果你不得不坐在那里
一遍遍地重写,
那就别写。
if it’s hard work just thinking about doing it,
don’t do it.
如果你想着要写都觉得难,
那就别写。
if you’re trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
如果你想仿照别人那样去写作,
那就忘掉写作吧。
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.
如果你在等待她从你胸口喊出,
那就耐心等。
如果她还没喊出声响,
那就做点别的。
if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you’re not ready.
如果你还得先给你老婆,
你女朋友或男朋友,
爹妈或任何人看,
那说明你还没准备好。
don’t be like so many writers,
don’t be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don’t be dull and boring and
pretentious, don’t be consumed with self-
love.
不要像许多作家那样,
不要像许多称自己为作家的人一样。
不要变得无聊,沉闷,做作。
不要沉醉在自我陶醉中。
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don’t add to that.
这个世界书已经够多了,
不要让人们再为你的书额外打个哈欠。
don’t do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don’t do it.
除非她像火箭一样冲出你的灵魂,
除非她让你发疯让你想杀人或自杀,
否则就别写。
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don’t do it.
除非你体内的太阳正在燃烧你的内脏,
否则就别写。
when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by itself
and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.
当时候到了,
当你被选中了,
写作自会发生,持续进行
直到你死去,
或是她在你体内死去。
there is no other way.
没有其他的方式了。
and there never was.
从来就没有过其他的方式。
查尔斯·布可夫斯基(Charles Bukowski),德裔美国诗人、小说家、短篇故事作家。布可夫斯基的作品受家乡洛杉矶的地理和气候的影响很大。他喜欢描写处于美国社会边缘的的穷苦白人的生活,他热爱写作,嗜酒如命,离不开女人,干过苦差,喜欢跑马。布可夫斯基是一位多产的作家,他写了数千首诗歌,数百篇短篇故事,6部小说,总计出版了110本书。人们常常将他称为"贫民窟的桂冠诗人 "。