so you want to be a writer?
by Charles Bukowski
if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
if you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.
if you're doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don't do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
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.
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.
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.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
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.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.
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.
there is no other way.
and there never was.
--From sifting through the madness for the Word, the line,
the way by Charles Bukowski.
Charles Bukowski 文学
- RE: so you want to be a writer? (Charles Bukowski)posted on 03/05/2016
Reply mayati, 小肖,喜欢这首诗歌吗?如果喜欢,干脆翻译出来吧。
- RE: so you want to be a writer? (Charles Bukowski)posted on 03/05/2016
Reply #1 mayacafe好诗。对我有启发。
最精彩的是这几句:
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in
you.
加一个qualifier: 即使满足所有这些条件,写出来的也不一定是好东西,所以写的时候也不要指望它是好东西。
- RE: so you want to be a writer? (Charles Bukowski)posted on 03/05/2016
Reply #2 huan想起张中行用《庄子》中的一句话说写作的原则:彼其充实,不可以已。意思是话已经到了嘴边,堵都堵不回去。表达的也是这个意思。
- RE: so you want to be a writer? (Charles Bukowski)posted on 09/09/2017
Reply #2 huan把这篇再次提上来,送huan 与ming。这篇时常我会翻上来看看。
- RE: so you want to be a writer? (Charles Bukowski)posted on 09/09/2017
Reply #4 mayacafe谢谢玛雅。好诗,千真万确。真实有价值的写作或艺术,多出自文学家艺术家们的痛苦绝望无奈。优秀文学家艺术家们的功成名扬,并非有意追求,似乎只是这苦难不幸生活的副产品。
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