評論
打印
Writing biography is a strange thing to do.
撰寫傳記是一件不可思議的事情
It's a journey into the foreign territory of somebody else's life,
記下別人的一生就如異國旅程一樣
a journey, an exploration that can take you places you never dreamed of going
這段旅程讓你探索那些從未想過的地方
and still can't quite believe you've been, especially if, like me, you're an agnostic Jew
即使曾去過那里，你自己都不敢相信，尤其當你像我一樣，是一位不可知論者、一位猶太人
and the life you've been exploring is that of Muhammad.
而你所探索的旅程就是“穆罕默德”的生平
Five years ago, for instance,
舉例來說，五年前
I found myself waking each morning in misty Seattle to what I knew was an impossible question:
當每天在晨霧彌漫的西雅圖醒來時，我常想到一個很困難的問題
What actually happened one desert night, half the world and almost half of history away?
隔著半個地球，半頁歷史，在沙漠中某個夜晚到底發生了什么事？
What happened, that is, on the night in the year 610
公元610年的某個夜晚，
when Muhammad received the first revelation of the Koran on a mountain just outside Mecca?
當穆罕默德在麥加郊外一處山上第一次領受古蘭經啟示時，到底發生了什么事？
This is the core mystical moment of Islam, and as such, of course, it defies empirical analysis.
這是伊斯蘭教最關鍵的神秘時刻，那當然啦，是無法對其進行實例分析的
Yet the question wouldn't let go of me.
然而這問題揮之不去
I was fully aware that for someone as secular as I am, just asking it could be seen as pure chutzpah.
我完全了解像我這樣的非宗教人士，問這樣的問題真是放肆無禮
And I plead guilty as charged, because all exploration, physical or intellectual,
我承認這一點，因為肉體上或精神上的任何探索
is inevitably in some sense an act of transgression, of crossing boundaries.
都無法避免地有褻瀆且冒犯之意
