假设有人给了你一次生命

Suppose someone gave you a pen — a sealed, solid-colored pen. You couldn’t see how much ink it had.

假设有人给了你一枝笔，一枝密封的、纯色的水笔，里面有多少墨水你看不到。

It might run dry after the first few tentative words or last just long enough to create a masterpiece (or several) that would last forever and make a difference in the scheme of things. You don’t know before you begin.

很可能刚刚试写几字便用干耗尽；也可能足以完成一部或几部杰作，永存于世，使世事为之大变。而这一切你在动笔之前却是一无所知。

Under the rules of the game, you really never know. You have to take a chance!

根据游戏的规则，你确实永远也不会知道，只能冒一下险。

Actually, no rule of the game states you must do anything. Instead of picking up and using the pen, you could leave it on a shelf or in a drawer where it will dry up.

而事实上，也没有规则说你就一定要做些什么。你大可以把笔搁在架子上、放在抽屉里，弃置不用，任墨水蒸发干净。

But if you do decide to use it, what would you do with it? How would you play the game?

然而，如果你真的决定使用，心情，你会做什么？怎么来做这个游戏？

Would you plan and plan before you ever wrote a word?

你会左计划、右计划，然后才慢慢下笔吗？

Would your plans be so extensive that you never even got to the writing?

计划会不会太泛太多，根本就达不到写作这一步？

Or would you take the pen in hand, plunge right in and just do it, struggling to keep up with the twists and turns of the torrents of words that take you where they take you?