"I'm going to the store. I'll be back in five minutes."

「我要去商店，五分鐘內回來。」

Other times though, we talk in a way

不過其他時候，我們會用一種

that conjures up a small scene.

讓人聯想到一個小場景的方式說話。

"It's raining cats and dogs out," we say, or,

我們會說：「外面正在下貓與狗。」（外面正在下著傾盆大雨），

"I was waiting for the other shoe to drop."

或說：「我正在等另一隻鞋掉下來」（我正提心吊膽地等待結果）。

Metaphors are a way to talk about one thing

隱喻就是透過描述別的東西

by describing something else.

來談論某項事物。

That may seem roundabout, but it's not.

這聽起來似乎像在繞圈子，但實際上並不是。

Seeing and hearing and tasting are how we know anything first.

最初，我們就是透過觀看、聆聽與品嚐來了解所有事物。

The philosopher William James described the world of newborn infants

哲學家威廉．詹姆士曾形容新生兒的世界為

as a "buzzing and blooming confusion."

「嗡嗡作響且繁盛的困惑。」

Abstract ideas are pale things compared to those first bees and blossoms.

比起初見的蜜蜂和花朵，抽象概念顯得暗淡無力。

Metaphors think with the imagination and the senses.

隱喻用想像力及感官進行思考。

The hot chili peppers in them explode in the mouth and the mind.

隱喻像辣椒般引爆了嘴巴和思想。

They're also precise.

它們還十分精確。

We don't really stop to think about a raindrop the size of an actual cat or dog,

我們不會停下來去思考雨滴是否與真實的貓或狗大小相同，

but as soon as I do, I realize that I'm quite certain the dog has to be a small one—

但只要我真的去想，我會明確知道一定是小型的狗──

a cocker spaniel, or a dachshund—and not a golden lab

可卡犬、臘腸狗──而不會是黃金獵犬

or Newfoundland. I think a beagle might be about right.

或紐芬蘭犬。我想大概會像小獵犬那麼大。

A metaphor isn't true or untrue in any ordinary sense.

隱喻在任何的一般常理中並無真假之分。

Metaphors are art, not science, but they can still feel right or wrong.

隱喻是藝術，不是科學，但還是可以體會出對或錯。

A metaphor that isn't good leaves you confused.

不好的隱喻會讓你困惑。

You know what it means to "feel like a square wheel,"

你知道「感覺像方正的輪胎」是什麼意思，

but not what it's like to be "tired as a whale."

卻不明白什麼是「累得像鯨魚」。

There's a paradox to metaphors.

隱喻有一個悖論。

They almost always say things that aren't true.

它們幾乎總是描述不真實的事物。

If you say, "there's an elephant in the room,"

如果你說：「那裡有一隻大象在房間裡」（顯而易見卻被忽略的問題），

there isn't an actual one, looking for the peanut dish on the table.

其實並不是有一頭真的大象在尋找桌上的花生盤。

Metaphors get under your skin by ghosting right past the logical mind.

隱喻繞過了邏輯思維，讓你有深刻的理解。

Plus, we're used to thinking in images.

此外，我們習慣了用畫面去思考。

Every night we dream impossible things.

每晚我們都夢見不可能發生的事。

And when we wake up, that way of thinking's still in us.

而當我們醒來時，那種思考模式還在我們腦中。

We take off our dream shoes,

我們脫去夢境之鞋

and button ourselves into our lives.

然後扣上鈕扣重回現實生活。

Some metaphors include the words "like" or "as."

有些隱喻會用「像」或「如同」。

"Sweet as honey." "Strong as a tree."

「和蜂蜜一樣甜。」「和樹一樣強壯。」

Those are called similes.

那些叫作明喻。

A simile is a metaphor that admits it's making a comparison.

明喻是直接表明它在做比喻的一種隱喻。

Similes tend to make you think.

明喻往往令你思考。

Metaphors let you feel things directly.

隱喻則讓你直接感受事物。

Take Shakespeare's famous metaphor,

以莎士比亞著名的隱喻為例，

"All the world's a stage." "The world is like a stage" just seems thinner,

「全世界就是個舞台」。「世界就像個舞台」就似乎感覺力道較為薄弱，

and more boring.

也比較無聊。

Metaphors can also live in verbs.

動詞中也存在隱喻。

Emily Dickinson begins a poem: "I saw no way, the heavens were stitched,"

艾蜜莉．狄更生有一首詩的開頭是：「我看不到路，天堂已被缝合」，

and we know instantly what it would feel like if the sky were a fabric sewn shut.

而我們馬上就知道如果天空是一塊被縫合的布是什麼感覺。

They can live in adjectives too.

隱喻也可以用在形容詞上。

"Still waters run deep," we say of someone

「靜水流深」，是我們在描述

quiet and thoughtful. And the "deep" matters as much

靜默卻深藏不露的人。而「深」的隱喻作用

as the "stillness" and the "water" do.

不亞於「靜」和「水」。

One of the clearest places to find good metaphors is in poems.

最明顯能找到好隱喻的地方之一就是詩。

Take this haiku by the 18th century Japanese poet Issa.

以小林一茶這首 18 世紀的日文俳句詩為例。

"On a branch floating downriver, a cricket singing."

「一根漂浮的樹枝順流而下，有隻蟋蟀停在上面歌唱。」

The first way to meet a metaphor is just to see the world through its eyes.

發現隱喻的第一個方法是僅從蟋蟀的角度看世界。

An insect sings from a branch passing by in the middle of the river.

一根樹枝流經河流中央，一隻昆蟲在上面歌唱。

Even as you see that though, some part of you recognizes in the image

但即便你看見了那幅畫面，某部分的你仍能認出該畫面

a small portrait of what it's like to live in this world of change and time.

描繪出活在由變化和時間構成的世界是什麼感覺。

Our human fate is to vanish, as surely as that small cricket will.

我們人類注定會消逝，就像那隻小蟋蟀一樣。

And still, we do what it does. We live. We sing.

但我們仍舊會做牠做的事。我們活著。我們唱歌。

Sometimes a poem takes a metaphor and extends it,

有時詩會產生一個隱喻並延伸它，

building on one idea in many ways.

以許多種方式塑造一個概念。

Here's the beginning of Langston Hughes' famous poem "Mother to Son."

這是朗斯頓．休斯的著名詩〈母親致兒子〉的開頭

"Well, son, I'll tell you. Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

「兒子啊，我告訴你。我的人生中從沒有水晶般的樓梯

It's had tacks in it, and splinters,

有的只是釘子、破碎木片，

and boards torn up, and places with no carpet on the floor."

以及裂開的木板，很多地方連地毯都沒有。」

Langston Hughes is making a metaphor that compares

朗斯頓．休斯做了一個隱喻，

a hard life to a wrecked house you still have to live in.

將艱辛的生活對比成一間不得不居住的破碎屋子。

Those splinters and tacks feel real.

那些破碎木片和釘子感覺很真實。

They hurt your own feet and your own heart,

它們劃傷了你的腳掌和內心，

but the mother is describing her life here,

但這位母親在這裡所描述的是她的生活，

not her actual house.

而不是她真正的房子。

And hunger, and cold exhausting work and poverty are what's also inside those splinters.

而飢餓、又冷又累的工作和貧窮也在那些碎片當中。

Metaphors aren't always about our human lives and feelings.

隱喻並不總與我們的生活和感受有關。

The Chicago poet Carl Sandburg wrote

芝加哥詩人卡爾．桑德堡曾寫道

"The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches, and then moves on."

「踮著小貓的細步，霧來了。它靜靜地拱腰坐下並俯視海港和城市，然後走了。」

The comparison here is simple.

這裡的比喻很簡單。

Fog is being described as a cat.

霧被形容是一隻貓。

But a good metaphor isn't a puzzle,

但一個絕妙的隱喻並非謎語，

or a way to convey hidden meanings.

或傳達隱藏意義的方式。

It's a way to let you feel and know something differently.

隱喻是讓你用不同感受去了解事物的一種方式，

No one who's heard this poem forgets it.

聽過這首詩的人都不會遺忘它。

You see fog, and there's a small grey cat nearby.

你看見霧，而它附近伴隨著一隻灰貓。

Metaphors give words a way to go beyond their own meaning.

隱喻讓詞語超出它們本身的意思。

They're handles on the door of what we can know,

它們像門上的把手，是我們所知道

and of what we can imagine.

且可以想像的。

Each door leads to some new house,

每扇門都通往某間新房子，

and some new world that only that one handle can open.

而某個新世界就只有唯一那個門把能打開。

What's amazing is this:

真正令人讚嘆的是：

By making a handle, you can make a world.

藉由做出門把，你就可以創造出一個世界。