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I had this encounter recently where I met the extraordinary American poet Ruth Stone,
比方说，我最近见到杰出的美国诗人露丝.斯通，
who's now in her 90s, but she's been a poet her entire life and she told me that when she was growing up in rural Virginia,
露丝已经九十多岁，她一直是一位诗人，她对我说她少年时生活在弗吉尼亚乡间的事情。
she would be out working in the fields, and she said she would feel and hear a poem coming at her from over the landscape.
她会在田间劳作着，然后突然听到并感觉到一首诗，从远处冲她而来。
And she said it was like a thunderous train of air. And it would come barreling down at her over the landscape.
像一股雷鸣般的气息，朝她倾泻而下。
And she felt it coming, because it would shake the earth under her feet.
她可以感受到它的来临，因为这股力量会撼动她脚下的大地。
She knew that she had only one thing to do at that point, and that was to, in her words, "run like hell."
每当此时，她唯一能做的只有一件事，用她的话说，就是“死命地狂奔”。
And she would run like hell to the house and she would be getting chased by this poem,
她会狂奔回家里，这首诗则会一路追逐着她。
and the whole deal was that she had to get to a piece of paper and a pencil fast enough so that when it thundered through her,
她需要飞快地找到纸笔，从而在这股力量穿过她时，
she could collect it and grab it on the page. And other times she wouldn't be fast enough,
捕捉住那首诗，把它记在纸上，有些时候她则不够快。
so she'd be running and running, and she wouldn't get to the house and the poem would barrel through her
她拼命地跑，还没到家，那首诗已经奔腾而过，
and she would miss it and she said it would continue on across the landscape, looking, as she put it "for another poet."
于是她便错过了那首诗，她说那首诗会继续在田野间穿行，寻找“下一位诗人” 。
And then there were these times -- this is the piece I never forgot --
在另一些时候，这是最叫我难忘的部分：在另一些时候，这是最叫我难忘的部分：
she said that there were moments where she would almost miss it, right?
她说有些时候她几乎就要错过一首诗了，
So, she's running to the house and she's looking for the paper and the poem passes through her,
她飞奔回家，寻找纸笔，而那首诗即将穿越她而去，
and she grabs a pencil just as it's going through her, and then she said,
她在它正要穿过之际抓住了笔，而那首诗即将穿越她而去，
it was like she would reach out with her other hand and she would catch it.
然后她会伸出另一只手，抓住那首诗的尾巴。
She would catch the poem by its tail, and she would pull it backwards into her body as she was transcribing on the page.
然后她会伸出另一只手，抓住那首诗的尾巴，把它顺势拉回来，另一只手则一边将诗句誊写在纸上，把它顺势拉回来，
And in these instances, the poem would come up on the page perfect and intact but backwards, from the last word to the first.
每当这种时候，诗会完好无缺地呈现在纸上，只不过顺序是颠倒的，从最后那个词开始，由后往前，一直到第一个词。
So when I heard that I was like -- that's uncanny, that's exactly what my creative process is like.
我听了她的故事后，心想：太不可思议了，这和我的创作过程一模一样！
That's not at all what my creative process is -- I'm not the pipeline!
当然这并非我创作过程的全部，我不是管道，
I'm a mule, and the way that I have to work is I have to get up at the same time every day,
我的工作方式更像是一头骡子。
and sweat and labor and barrel through it really awkwardly.
我必须每天同一时间起床，然后笨拙地，勤恳地工作。
But even I, in my mulishness, even I have brushed up against that thing, at times.
不过即使古板如我，偶尔也会意外地得到不可思议的灵感，
And I would imagine that a lot of you have too.
在坐很多人或许也有类似经历。
You know, even I have had work or ideas come through me from a source that I honestly cannot identify.
你想，即使像我这样墨守成规的人，也会遇到不知何处而来的灵感。
And what is that thing? And how are we to relate to it in a way that will not make us lose our minds,
这到底是怎么回事呢？我们要以怎样的方式看待它，才不会丧失理智呢？
but, in fact, might actually keep us sane?
我们要以怎样的方式看待它，才不会丧失理智呢？
