Verb Master 動詞達人

I Dream For A Living , Steven Spielberg

Thank you very much. Oh George, how young we were, like the students here watching us tonight… and I think that, and like George, at the last moment I was told to come up here and say a few words, so I didn’t really prepare anything at home the night before. So let me just talk a little bit about something I said.

謝謝大家，喔George，我們曾經好年輕呀，就像今晚看著我們的學生們，我在想，George也一樣，我是臨時被叫上台說幾句話，所以昨天晚上在家以前真的都沒有準備，所以就讓我講一些我以前講過的話。

You know when a journalist asked me years ago a question, I really couldn’t answer. You know they said, “What do you do? Why do you do this?”

幾年前有個記者問我一個問題，我真的無法回答，他們問：「你的工作是什麼？為什麼要做這份工作？」

And I don’t know where it came from, but I sort of turned to the journalist in the flip kind of way. I said, “I dream for a living.” 

我到現在還不知道這個問題的意思是什麼，但當時我迅速轉身回答這位記者，我說：「我的工作是夢想。」

And years later I realized that that’s exactly what I do. I dream for a living. This is what I’ve done all my life. This is what I want to do with my life.

多年以後我終於明白，這就是我做的事，我的工作是夢想，這就是我一輩子在做的事情，這這份工作就是我的人生。

And yet, I never really had a career plan. We all have plans. We all make plans. It sometimes starts when you have to declare a major. And I of course was at a college that didn’t have the major that I would have declared which was film and television. So I was an “undeclared major”. 

直到現在我真沒有一個事業計畫，我們都有計劃，我們都做計劃，有時候我們是決定大學主修科系的時候開始做，而大學裡沒有我想主修的電影電視，所以我是沒有選擇科系的學生。

I majored in English because my father told me I needed a fallback career in case the movie-directing thing didn’t work out.

我主修的是英文，因為我父親告訴我，如果電影導演這件事情沒有成果，我需要一個備用事業。

And he said that if you major in English, you can teach, and teaching is a noble profession - something that I have come to understand is maybe the noblest profession in the world today. Teachers perhaps are also the most underpaid heroes in the world today.

我父親還說，如果你主修英文，你就可以教書，教書是一份高尚的職業，我後來漸漸明白，教書可能是今天這個世界最高尚的職業，老師，可能也是今天這個世界薪資待遇最差的英雄。

But as noble as it seemed to be, I wanted to be a movie director. And I thought I’d share with you how it all started. Everything I’m about to tell you happened completely by accident.

但即使再怎麼高尚，我還是想當電影導演，我想來跟大家分享，這一切是怎麼開始的，接下來我要告訴各位，一切的發生都純屬意外。

And I think it all started out when I was maybe 6 years or 7 years old, and my father came over to me and said, “I’m gonna take you to see the greatest show on earth.” And when you promise a six, seven, eight year-old young boy that you’re about to see the greatest show on earth, I couldn’t have been more excited. 

一切都是從我六七歲的時候開始，有一天我父親過來告訴我說：「我要帶你去看地球上最棒的表演。」當一個六七八歲的小朋友聽說可以看一場地球上最棒的表演，一定興奮到不行。

My father explain there were gonna be lion tamers and circus acts. There were gonna be clowns and trapeze artists. And I was absolutely delighted. And I looked forward to this for a week.

我父親告訴我說那裡有馴獸師、有馬戲團表演、有小丑、有空中飛人，我更加倍的開心了，足足盼望了一個星期。
 
On the weekend, we got in the car, we drove to Philadelphia. We lived in New Jersey – in Haddon Township, New Jersey. We drove into Philadelphia and it was very, very cold. It was winter time around the holiday season. 

周末，我們駕車前往費城，先住在紐澤西的Haddon Township，我們開車進入費城，天氣非常非常的冷，那是假期前後的冬天。

And we stood in a very long line, I remembered, against a solid, red brick wall for what seemed like hours. I think we actually stood in line for about 2.5 hours. The line just inched forward. I didn’t quite understand. I was waiting to see the tents and there was not a tent. There was a brick wall.

我記得我們排在很長的隊伍裡，背靠著硬梆梆的紅磚牆差不多有幾個小時，我相信足足排兩個半小時，隊伍龜速前進，當時我不太明白，怎麼沒有見到帳篷？連一個帳棚都沒有，就一道磚牆。

We walked into some rather large doors. And we walked into a very, kind of, dimly-lit room. I remember the room had a lot of pink and purple lights. And the ceiling looked like a church. It was a lot of rococo carvings. There wasn’t any kind of iconic symbology in the room, but it felt like a place of worship. A little bit like a synagogue actually. And I still didn’t quite understand the greatest show on earth. 

我們走進幾扇很大的門，然後進入一個燈光非常昏暗的房間，我記得那個房間有很多粉紅和紫色的燈光，天花板跟教堂一樣，有很多洛可可是的雕刻，房間裡面沒有任何象徵標誌，感覺像是一個做禮拜的地方，事實上有點像猶太教堂，這時候我還是不明白這些和地球上最棒的表演又什麼關係。

And I sat down on some seats and they were all facing forward, not bleachers but seats. There was a large red curtain opened, I won’t forget this, the lights went down, and a dimly-lit image came on the screen and it was flickering and it was kind of grainy ‘cause we’re sitting way in front.

我們找位子坐下，位子都是朝前的，而不是那種開放式的長椅，一幅巨大的紅色簾幕打開，我忘不了這一幕，燈光熄滅，昏暗的影像出現在銀幕上，畫面閃爍而且有點沙沙的，因為我們坐在很前面。
 
And suddenly I realized that my father had lied to me and had betrayed me. And he has taken me to a circus that wasn’t a circus. It was a movie about a circus. And I had never seen a movie before. That was the first movie I ever saw. Ceil B. DeMille’s “The Greatest Show on Earth.” I had never seen a motion picture before.

這時我才忽然發現，我爸爸在騙我，而且還背叛我，他帶我來看一場不是馬戲團的馬戲團表演，這是一部關於馬戲團的電影，在此之前，我從來沒有看過電影，這是我的第一部，Ceil B. DeMille拍的「The Greatest Show on Earth」，我以前從沒見過動畫片。

I had seen a lot of televisions ‘cause my dad was an electrical engineer and in his spare time when he wasn’t working for RCA, he was repairing the early television sets of the early fifties. So I’d knew television but I didn’t know movies. That was my first movie experience. And I think the feeling of disappointment and regret and betrayal lasted only about ten minutes. And then I became just one more victim of this tremendous drug called cinema. And I was no longer in a theater. I was no longer in a seat. I wasn’t aware of the surroundings. It was no longer a church. It was a place of equal devotion and worship, however. I became part of an experience and I became part of lives of a lot of people that I never would meet and I would only get to know in this one story but that became my life.

因為我爸爸是電機工程師，我看過很多電視節目，當他空閒不在RCA工上班的時候，他修理五零年代早期的電視機。所以我了解電視節目，但是我不了解電影，這次是我第一次電影的體驗。失望、後悔和背叛的感覺，僅維持大約十分鐘。之後我變成這種強力毒品的下一個犧牲者，這毒品叫做電影。我感覺自己已經不再電影院裡，我已經不再座位上，我已經完全不知道身邊周遭的事情(完全融入劇情)。這裡不再是教堂，而是熱愛和崇拜同時進行的地方。我成了親身經歷的一部份，我參與非常多人的生活，這些我不可能認識的人，我只能在電影故事裡了解他們，但這變成了我自己的生活。

Now in the center of this movie, if any of you remember the Cecil B. DeMille film, The Greatest Show On Earth, there’s a tremendous train wreck where a train speeding along the tracks is encountered by a car – a person trying to stop the train, to flag down the train. 

電影演到一半，如果有人記得Ceil B. DeMille這部電影”The Greatest Show On Earth”，有一場重大的火車事故，火車在鐵軌上飛馳，一輛汽車衝過來，有個人試圖揮手攔下火車。

And the train hits the car. The car flips over the top of the engine. And the train goes off the tracks. And it is a tremendous disaster where all the cars pile up. It was a special effect sequence. 

火車撞到汽車，汽車翻個四腳朝天，火車出軌，這是個重大災害，火車廂疊在一塊兒，這是一連串的特效。

Later I learned it was a miniature train, but it was as real as I’ve ever seen anything in my life. It was the greatest disaster I ever beheld and for me it began my interest not in making movies but in asking my dad to get me a Lionel electric train.

不久之後我知道那是縮小版的火車，但是就跟真的一樣，這是我見過最棒的災難，從此我開始對…不是對製作電影感興趣，而是要我爸爸買Lionel電動火車給我玩。

So I went from wanting to become part of this incredible experience to wanting to own my first electric train. And that holiday season my dad got me my first Lionel engine and a little coal car, and a caboose and a few passenger cars.

我從想要參與這場不可思地的體驗，變成想要擁有自己的電動火車，就在那假期，我爸爸送我第一輛Lionel火車頭，還有運煤車廂、車守廂、和幾個旅客車廂。

And the next year, I asked for the same thing. I said, “I’d like another engine.” So I had two trains. And as I got older, I began to collect every year, more and more cars, and people, and semaphores, and crossing signals. I became a complete electric train nut. 

隔年，我跟爸爸要一樣東西：「我要第二輛火車頭」，從此我兩輛火車，我更大以後，我每年開始蒐集，越來越多車廂、人、旗語、號誌燈，我完全變成一個火車狂人。

And I had a rather large layout in our – and by this time by the way we had moved from New Jerset to Phoneix, Arizona, which by the way when you’re about 12 years old, there is nothing to do in Phoenix, Arizona, nothing at all. So I had a lot of time on my hands. 

而且我有相當大的… 另外，再這時候我們家從紐澤西般去亞利桑那鳳凰城，對一個12歲的小朋友來說，鳳凰城實在沒什麼好玩，所以我手上有大把的時間。

And I was really interested in seeing what it would look like if I could recreate that memory , now several years older, of The Greatest Show On Earth, and could I recreate the train wreck? And I actually took my two trains and I just rammed them into each other. And they broke.

我很想親眼見到多年前The Greatest Show On Earth那幕場景，我能讓火車事故重現嗎？我還真拿我兩輛火車對撞，結果弄壞了。

And I told my dad the train had broken. And he said how did it happen? I said I ran them into each other. And my dad had them repaired, And the next week I crashed my trains into each other again, and the other train broke. And my dad said, “Look, you know, I’m gonna take the train set away if you crash these things into each other one more time. You’re not gonna have trains anymore.”

我告訴爸爸火車壞了，他問怎麼壞的？我說我讓兩輛車互撞，然後我爸修好它們，隔天我又讓兩輛互撞，壞了一台，我爸說：「給我聽清楚，如果你再讓兩輛車互撞，我就把玩具火車收起來，以後你就沒得玩了。」

There was something about whatever the primal sense of wanting to destroy something because of that movie. Whatever got into me, I needed to see those trains crash into each other. And so I also didn’t want to lose my train set. My dad had been sitting around the house, which I always had taken for granted. 

因為這部電影激起我想破壞東西的原始慾望(primal sense of wanting…)，不知道著了什麼魔(whatever got into me)，我需要看見火車互撞，但是我也不想失去我的火車玩具組，我爸爸整天待在家裡，我一直習以為常(had taken it for granted.)

This little eight millimeter Kodak film movie camera with a turret had three lens – kind of a wide, medium and close-up lens. I never really bothered with the camera, but I thought, “Well, I know what I can do.” What if I filmed the trains crashing into each other? I can just watch the film over and over again. And that’s how I made my first movie.

有台小小的八釐米柯達攝影機，有三個攝像頭(Camera Turret)，廣角、中等和近拍鏡片(lens)，我從來不把它掛在心上(I never bothered with it)，後來我想，「我知道我可以怎麼做了」，如果我把火車互撞拍下來，我就可以不斷的看影片，就這樣我拍了第一部電影。

I shot one train, just all in the camera. I didn’t have an editing machine. I just put the camera low to the track, the way we as children like to put our eyes close to the toys we’re playing with, so the scale seem to be, you know, the scale seems to be realistic. 

我先拍一部火車，大小剛好塞進畫面，我沒有剪輯設備(editing machine)，只是把攝像頭低低的靠近鐵軌，就和小朋友喜歡近距離看他們玩的玩具一樣，所以畫面比例大小，恩，就像真實大小。

I just filmed one train going left to right. I filmed the other train, cut the camera, turned it around the other train coming right to left. And intuitively I figured out that if I put my camera in the middle and they met in the middle, I’d have my train wreck. Well that’s exactly what I did. 

我只是拍一台火車從左到右跑，然後拍另一台火車，卡攝影機(cut the camera)，把另外一台火車掉頭準備從右道左跑，直覺地(intuitively)我想到如果把攝影機方在中間讓兩輛火車在中間相遇，我就拍成火車事故了(Train Wreck)，恩，我真的就這麼幹。

 
Luckily the trains didn’t break. But I looked at that train film over and over and over again, and then I thought, “I wonder what else I could do with this camera?” And that’s how it began. And that’s how I became a director.

幸好，火車沒壞，但我一看再看這部影片，然後想，我想知道(I wonder)我拿這台攝影機還能玩什麼(do with this camera)？一切就這麼開始(That’s how it began)，就這樣我成了一名導演。

The first time I sensed that an audience was kind of agreeing with my choice of profession was when I was a boy scout and I went out for the Photography Merit Badge, and I wanted to – and the requirements in the merit badge, simply said you have to tell a picture with still photographs.

第一次感受(sense)我選擇的專業(profession)受到觀眾認同(agree with)是童子軍時外出參加(went out for)「照片勳章(Photography Merit Badge)」活動，(我想這麼做)，得到勳章的條件是，簡單來說，就是要挑一張靜態照片(still photographs)並講述照片的故事(tell a picture)

Our still camera broke. I went to the scout master. I said I can tell a story with our home movie camera. He said yes to fulfill the requirements for the merit badge. And I made a little Western called Gunsmog. Yeah I’m really getting myself because, of course, James Arness and Gunsmoke was all the rage on television in those days.

我們的照相機(still camera)壞了，我去找童子軍教練，問他是不是能用我家的攝影機拍的影片來講故事，他同意用這方式達成我獲取勳章的資格(fulfill the requirements)，我拍了一部小西部片(Western)叫做Gunsmog(槍煙)，是的，我當時很迷(getting myself)西部片，因為當時的James Arness的Gunsmoke在電視上風靡一時(be all the rage on TV)。

And I made this little Western with my sisters and my friends, and my next-door neighbors, and some of the boy scouts, and we just, everybody, had cowboy suits ‘cause we lived in Arizona, my goodness, you know? 
我找我的姊姊、我的朋友、我的鄰居，還有一些童子軍小朋友一同來拍這部小西部片，我們每一個人都有牛仔裝(cowboy suits)，因為我們在亞利桑那，天哪，你們知道的(大家都很瘋西部牛仔)。
 
And so we all brought out cowboy suits out and I made this little Western movie and showed it to the boy scout troop on a Friday night when we had a meeting. And they went ballistic. They were screaming and clapping and laughing both with and at the movie. I didn’t care. It was a response. And the response set me on fire. It absolutely set me on fire and I never wanted to live without some kind of affirmation, some kind of collective feedback. 

所以我們都拿出我們的牛仔裝，我開拍這部小西部片，某天星期五童子軍開會，我放給大家看，大家瘋狂了(go ballistic)，尖叫(screaming)、拍手(clapping)、跟著電影笑(laugh with the movie)、笑這部電影(laugh at the movie)，我不在乎，這就是觀眾反應(response)，這樣的觀眾反應點燃我的熱情(set me on fire)。真的完完全全點燃我的熱情，此後我不能沒有這種肯定支持(affirmation)和大眾的批評指教(collective feedback)。

And maybe that’s why my early movies were all about you, my early movies were all soliciting you, making you my partners, thinking about you behind a camera, thinking about what would turn you on, what would get you excited., what would make you laugh, what would make you scream, how would I create suspense out of whole cloth when that darn shark never worked. And you were my partners.

或許這就是為什麼我早期的電影都是以觀眾為主(all about you)、勾引觀眾(solicit you)、讓觀眾有參與感，拍片的時候我在鏡頭後面想的都是觀眾，思考拍什麼東西才能讓觀眾興奮(turn you on)、什麼東西觀眾才會刺激(get you excited)、什麼東西大家才會大笑、什麼樣的東西大家才會尖叫，怎麼用一頭永遠不能得逞的(never work)該死的鯊魚(darn shark)來憑空(out of whole cloth)製造緊張懸疑(create suspense)，讓大家都有參與感(you were my partners)

My audience, you know I – I collaborated with you, you collaborated with me. And I think the beginning of my career I had this wonderful experience and the thing I really want to emphasize is: “I didn’t have a choice. I didn’t have a choice.”

我的觀眾們，我跟你們配合，你們也跟我配合，讓我能夠在事業的開始就能有這麼棒的經歷，而我真正的重點在(emphasize)：「我別無選擇，我真的別無選擇」

When you have a dream, and the dream isn’t something you dream and then it happens. The dream is something you never knew was going to come into your life. Dreams always come from behind you, not right between your eyes. It sneaks up on you. 

夢想，不是隨便做個夢然後就成真(happens)，夢想，是你自己不知道的未來，夢想總是在你的背後出現，而不是明晃晃的站在你眼前(right between your eyes)，它只是偷偷的靠近你(sneak up on you)。

But when you have a dream, it doesn’t often come at you, screaming in your face, “This is who you are! This is what you must be for the rest of your life.” 

夢想不會自己撲到你身上(come at you)，在你面前鬼叫(scream in your face)告訴你：「這就是你，你今後必須做這樣的人」。

Sometimes a dream almost whispers, and I’ve always said to my kids, “The hardest thing to listen to – your instincts, your human personal intuition – always whispers. It never shouts, very hard to hear. 

夢想幾乎都只是輕聲細語(whisper)，所以我總是這麼告訴我的孩子：「最難聽見的，是你的本能(instincts)，你人類天生直覺(intuition)，它們總是輕聲耳語，從不鬼叫，不容易聽見。

“So you have to, every day of your lives, be ready to hear what whispers in your ear. It very rarely shouts. And if you can listen to the whisper and if it tickles your heart and is sometimes you think you want to do for the rest of your life, then that is going to be what you do for the rest of your life, and we will benefit from everything you do.”

Thank you very much.

所以你們每天都必須聆聽這些耳語，它們很少喊叫(shout)，如果你們能聽見這些耳語，這耳語騷動你的心(tickle your heart)，而你相信是未來人生要做的事，這個夢想就是你的未來，我們大家都會因為你實現這個夢想而獲益(benefit)」。謝謝大家。