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Yet it costs nothing to the performer, any more than if it were a mere mechanical deception with which he had nothing to do,
然而，對表演者來說，靈巧算不了什么。如果它只是呆板的騙術的話，一點價值也沒有，
but to watch and laugh at the astonishment of the spectators.
只是在觀看者的驚訝中博得一笑而已。
A single error of a hair's breadth, of the smallest conceivable portion of time, would be fatal;
一個極其細微的失誤，哪怕是時間上最不經意的錯位，都是致命的；
the precision of the movements must be like a mathematical truth; their rapidity is like lightning;
動作的精確必須像數學公理一樣，如閃電般快捷；
To catch four balls in succession, in less than a second of time, and deliver them back so as to return with seeming consciousness to the hand again;
在一秒鐘之內連續接住四個球，然后將它們再拋向空中，通過表面上意識的連續性造成連續不斷的假象；
to make them revolve around him at certain intervals, like the planets in their spheres;
這種假象就是為了使球以一定的間歇圍著他轉，就像行星在軌道上轉一樣；
to make them chase each other like sparkles of fire, or shoot up like flowers or meteors;
使它們像火花一樣彼此追逐，或者像花和流星一樣綻放；
to throw them behind his back, and twine them round his neck like ribbons, or like serpents;
將球拋到身后，像緞帶或蛇一樣繞著脖子；
to do what appears an impossibility, and to do it with all the ease, the grace, the carelessness imaginable;
做似乎不可能的事情，一切都顯得那樣從容、優雅，淡定得令人難以想象；
to laugh at, to play with the glittering mockeries, to follow them with his eye as if he could fascinate them with its lambent fire,
嬉笑著，玩著表面令人炫目實則無甚價值的把戲，讓人們眼睛圍著他轉，目不暇接，仿佛他能用閃爍的火光令他們著迷似的，
or as if he had only to see that they kept time with the music on the stage,
抑或仿佛只有他自己能發現他們在舞臺上隨著音樂的節拍亦醉亦癡，
there is something in all this which he who does not admire may be quite sure he never really admired anything in the whole course of his life.
所有這些都有一個要素，不會對這一切表示贊賞的他也許相當確定的是，在他的整個生涯里他從未真正對什么表示過贊賞。
