汉译外竞赛原文：

什么限制了想象力？

By what is our Imagination Fettered?

鲁迅曾讲过一个笑话：大热天的正午，一个农妇做事做得很辛苦，忽而叹道：“皇后娘 娘真不知道多么快活。这时还不是在床上睡午觉，醒过来的时候，就叫道：‘太监，拿个柿 饼来！’”这就是所谓“贫困限制了想象力”，含辛茹苦，没见过世面的山乡农妇，就是绞 尽脑汁，也只能把皇后的幸福生活想到这个高度。

There is a rib-tickler from Lu Xun.It is a funny story about a farmer’s wife.The noon,a real scorcher,and her moil made her sigh suddenly,”Oh,I’m wondering how happy the empress is!She must be taking a siesta in bed now.When she wakes up she commands,’Get me a persimmon cake,eunuch!’”This punch line is what is soi-disant--”Poverty puts a limit on imagination”.Hardworking but unsophisticated from the countryside,she beats her brains out and just worries this out.

记不得是哪个小品，扮演穷汉的演员一脸羡慕地憧憬着富人的日子，说：“等将来咱有了钱，就天天喝豆浆吃油条，想蘸白糖蘸白糖，想蘸红糖蘸红糖。豆浆买两碗，喝一碗， 倒一碗！”贫困卑微限制了他的想象力，他无从知道富人生活要远比这精彩奢华得多。

There is a certain skit about an actor who plays a poor man.With stars in his envious eyes,he gives a description of a rich man’s life,”Just wait till my income runs to my daily luxuries like twisted jammy crullers that can go with my pleasure-- white sugar or/and brown sugar,and two bowls of soya milk --One I’ll drink up and pour the other away.”It is his poverty and humbleness that circumscribe his imagination.What the rich lives like,far beyond what the actor knows, is by far dazzlingly  action-packed and de luxe.

其实，不仅贫困会限制想象力，豪富同样也会限制想象力。从小锦衣玉食，在蜜罐里 长大的贾宝玉，根本就不知道穷人是咋过日子的，他去探视卧病在家的晴雯，看到满屋子 破破烂烂，家徒四壁，脏得要命，连个坐的地方也没有，让他大吃一惊也大开眼界。这也 就是迅翁说的那句名言：“煤油大王哪会知道北京捡煤渣老婆子身受的酸辛。”

Actually,not only poverty does it but also opulence does it.Jia Baoyu lived off the fat of the land since he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.He didn’t know how poor people were making out at all.He was thunderstruck by the eye-opening sight of the chamber of Qingwen,one of his servant girls--a sparsely furnished structure all in tatters looked a mess,where he couldn’t find a place to sit down when she was ill and he paid her a visit.It exactly happens to prove the proverb from Lu Xun,”How can the Kerosene Giant feel the hard graft of an old cinder-picking Peking woman .” 

高高在上，也会限制人们的想象力。最典型的自然是晋惠帝的“何不食肉糜”，生在深 宫，享尽荣华富贵的晋惠帝，能问出这样流传千古的奇葩问题，一点也不奇怪，当然他也有点弱智。但即使精明博学如乾隆皇帝，因久居深宫，对民间生活不甚了了，对海外世界 更是一抹黑，照样受困于想象力的贫乏，不仅屡被下臣蒙蔽却不自知，也无法相信海外发 生的科学经济巨变，错失了与世界接轨的大好时机。

Having a certain de haut en bas style will confine our imagination.The prime example is Jihui emperor,who lived in the palace,basking in luxury.It’s small wonder that the sovereign ,sort of feeble-minded,raised such a weird question  recorded for posterity--why don’t my people eat meat congee?

Even Qianlong emperor,the lord of the palace with great sagacity and erudition,knew nothing about the outside of his palace,let alone the rest of the world in the dark.He was also confined in his poor imagination.He had been repeatedly blinded by his courtiers as well as he was hardly able to believe the great changes in the overseas science and economy. Then he missed out on the link between his kingdom and the whole world.

道理很简单，存在决定意识，对客观世界的认知条件决定一个人的思想深度、高度、 广度，而每个人都会囿于一定空间，局限于一定条件，其想象力生发的基础也不同，想象力的发挥也大相径庭。曹雪芹能写出《红楼梦》，是因为他曾经有过这样的豪富生活，知道什么叫烈火烹油，骄奢淫逸，再加上丰富的想象力，天才的创造力，于是就有了这部巨著的横空出世，辉耀古今。而这样的题材，蒲松龄、吴承恩、施耐庵是无法驾驭的，不是才气使然，而是缺乏想象力的必要基础。

The rationale is reasonable and easily comprehensible--social existence determines social consciousness.The cognition conditions of the objective world determine and interpret the depth,height,width of one man’s thinking,which is constrained by a certain space and incarcerated in a certain condition.The foundations of their imaginations vary and their displays disagree.

It’s his jet-set past that formed Cao Xueqin’s Dream from the Red Mansion.He knew the rakishness,pomps and vanities of this world like pouring oil on the flames.His ability of lively imagination and his gifted creativity brought forth this time-honoured magnum opus. It is not their talent,but lack of the essential foundation of their imagination that will lead to the failure of Pu Songling,Wu Chengen and Shi Nai-an to rein in such a story.

要破解想象力受限的怪圈，别无他法，关键就是一句话：实践出真知。见多识广的人， 肯定要比孤陋寡闻的人想象力丰富得多；常接地气的人，肯定要比闭门造车的人想象力丰 富得多；博览群书的人，肯定要比不学无术的人想象力丰富得多。因而，要使我们的想象力少受限制，就只有读万卷书，行万里路。

To access the revolving door of the imagination restraints,there is nothing for it but to master the key idea of the remark---Genuine knowledge comes from practice.Those who are cosmopolitan,down-to-earth and erudite are more imaginative than those who are small-minded,divorced from practice and incompetent.Therefore,we should read extensively and travel worldwide to ensure that our imagination is less fettered.

相比较而言，穷人、富人的想象力受困，都是其个人私事，可能会影响其生活质量或发财速度。而官员领导的想象力受限，则会影响一个部门、地区属下百姓的发展前途与幸福指数，譬如决策失误，瞎乱指挥；心血来潮，自以为是；因循守旧，不求进取，其中都有想象力受困的因素。化解之策，就是要跳出文山会海，多下来走走，勤深入基层，听听群众呼声，了解百姓疾苦，自然会开阔思路，想象力丰富，进而谋划合理，决策科学，措施得力，政绩扎实。

It is their personal circumstances that the imagination of the people,both rich and poor,is entombed.It will impact the quality of their lives and their fortune rate.Comparatively,if the imagination of government officers is leashed,it will touch the future and the happiness index of their subordinates of a certain department and their people in a certain district.What will entomb their imagination includes their decision problems by their backseat-driver instructions,their opinionated flights of fancy,and their conformity with their shiftless mind.To remedy it,they should jump out of a daily avalanche of their papers and meetings,make more frequent bottom inspections to get touch with the grass roots and know their pleading and sufferings.Naturally,their mind will be broadened and their imagination will liven up so that their reasonable engineering,their scientific decisions,their solid measures and their effective success will follow.

什么限制了我们的想象力？多思考一下这个问题很有好处。

By what is our imagination fettered?There is a great deal of profit in getting involved in the outworking of this subject.

（注：根据赛事所设项目，本汉语原文可被译为英语、法语、俄语、西班牙语、阿拉伯 语，参赛者可任选一项或多项。）