Short Story｜Nami（14）
14-1 "
Dreams don't tend to feel so real. 梦是不会这么真实的。 This is the conclusion she comes to—and yet, it must be a dream. 她是这么觉得的，但是，这只可能是在做梦吧—— There are incredible sights to be found in the waking world: fields of flowers painting a solid color over the entire expanse, enormous caverns and canyons carved through the earth by mere rivers, water frozen mid-fall in winter to make miraculous towers of shimmering ice... 姹紫嫣红，大地洇染上颜色；山高谷深，江河奔涌于其间；银装素裹，飞瀑凝结至半空……都是多么令人难以置信的景象啊。 Miraculous though they seem, they are not miracles. Dreamlike though they seem, they are ever reality. 仿佛有高人在此地施展了仙法，仿佛如此绚烂只能存在于虚幻之中，但并不——这并非什么奇迹，也不是什么梦境。 While these sights arrest the mind, heart, and imagination, they are, with thought, explainable. 尽管令人如痴如醉、流连忘返，稍加思索也还是能知晓其中奥秘： They are aspects of nature made possible by basic processes of the world... 最令人震撼的奇观也不过是在最简单的自然法则下诞生的。 What's more, an understanding of them is easily within reach, and she clearly remembers those grade school classes that taught her about plant growth, the water cycle, the effects of temperature... 如此一来的确说得通：她回想起学校课堂上学到的那些知识：关于植物如何生长、水如何循环、温度如何影响环境等等，这些景观是如何产生的完全可以得到合理可靠的解释。 But this is a miracle. This is a dream. No class, no lecture, and no amount of reading has ever told her about, or explained to her, the magic of glass flying through the sky. 但漂浮于空中的玻璃碎片……？她不曾记得在任何地方听闻或学习过任何相关知识。因此，这又只可能是一场梦，一场奇幻的梦。 The girl bears witness to the world of white for the first time in its entirety, standing on a cliff which overlooks the abandoned, or perhaps archived, buildings standing across the pale and still earth, some straight, some crooked. 少女站在悬崖顶端，第一次将这纯白的世界尽收眼底：苍白而又静止的广袤大地上矗立着不少建筑，有的笔直，有的歪斜；它们早已被废弃，尘封于历史这厚重的卷轴中。 "Arcaea" is the name in her mind, but no "Arcaea" exists within her memory. 少女的脑中浮现出它们的名字："Arcaea "，但有关这个名字的一切，她都不曾了解。 The shards of glass float through the air reflecting other people and other places, many of which at a glance seem like movies—surreal, like fantasy. These, too, are "Arcaea". 当然，还有另一种名为"Arcaea"的东西：那些漂浮在空中的、反映着其他地方的其他人们的事迹的玻璃碎片。这些碎片里存储着的影像一眼看去就像在观赏电影，虚幻而不真实…… Watching it all, she knows it must be a dream. 这不过是一场梦而已，这一定是一场梦。 And yet, dreams don't tend to feel so real. 但，又怎可能有如此真实的梦呢。 "..." "……" She is silent for a moment. 少女沉默了。 And then she flinches, a shock running through her. That of realization—that of another name. 时间静静流淌了一阵，直到少女突然哆嗦了一下，好似突然有什么点醒了她。 "That was it!" she yells over the landscape. "It's a 'lucid dream'!" "对哦，我明白了！"她出神的惊呼声从山顶一路传到山脚，"我一定是在做'清醒梦'！" And at once, the girl grows excited. She bounces on her heels. "恍然大悟"的一瞬间，她便兴奋地跳起来了。 "Can I? C-Can I...?" "天啊，那不就是说……我、我可以……" she whispers, loosely holding her hands before her chin—her mouth. 她捂着嘴，惊诧而又惊喜地小声慢慢吐出自己一直以来的心愿， "Can I—fly!?" "我可以飞起来了？！" She puts her foot over the cliff's edge— 说罢，她便迫不及待地迈步，来到悬崖边上，抬脚—— And she stops there. 然后立马把脚缩了回去。 Shying away, she squeals and shakes her head wildly, smiling to herself and asking, in her thoughts, just what is she thinking? "Noooo! No, no, no! Stop that! Ahhh!" she whines, fear and giddy elation muddled inside her. "停停停！你在想什么啊！"她拼命摇头，尬笑着自言自语道。抬脚的那一刻，她感到一阵眩晕。 The fear of falling had entered her gut in the moment she'd taken that step. 她害怕了，害怕自己会掉下去。 The world is not real, but it feels like it is. 虽然这世界不是真的，但给人的感觉却是如假包换。 "Ahh!" she moans, irritated. "But I've never had one before!" "哎呀！"她有些恼火地叹气道，"但好不容易才能做一次清醒梦啊！" A lucid dream: actualization amid sleep. To dream and, in the awareness that you're dreaming, gain incredible power over "reality": to fly through the sky, to experience the world as a bird or butterfly, to wish... 这是她第一次清醒地知晓自己在做梦。想想看，清楚地知道自己在梦中却还没醒来，这得是多么难得的一个好机会！这意味着你可以自如控制和操纵梦境的走向，做想做的任何事：颠覆常理，扭转乾坤，冉冉飞雁鸟般，栩栩然蝴蝶也，一切皆有可能。 But what a shame—her realization of her "self" seems to be directly in the way. 可惜的是，这位少女对"自我"的感知过于强烈。 She is not a witch or wizard. She is not a bird or butterfly. 她明白自己根本就不会什么魔法，也不是什么飞鸟，更不是什么蝴蝶。 Her name is Nami, and she is an ordinary high school girl. 她，奈美，只是一个普通到不能再普通的高中生罢了。 She searches the area, finds a path leading down, and begins to descend. 于是，她放弃了。找到下山的路后，她便转身，开始沿着道路下行。
14-2 "
If she cannot change the world or herself despite her awareness, then she may as well enjoy some exploration of her subconscious mind while still consciously aware. 如果不能仅凭意念改变自己、重塑世界的话，那不如就利用这段时间好好看看沿途这些代表着自己潜意识的风景吧，她如此想。 This is the conclusion she comes to as she walks down from the cliff where she previously stood. Like any path one can find in the world of white, this one is lined with coy glass; 缓缓沿着步道下行，她观察起了道路上的碎玻璃，它们铺满了这片雪白的世界中的每一条道路。 it leans away from one's touch, yet leans in against anyone's wishes. 伸手想去触碰这些碎片的时候，它们往往会远离你，但当你觉得它们烦了，它们又跟你作对似的靠近。 She can see well the sights within them—most are ordinary but, again, many are strange. 一如往常，每块碎片中都储存着一段影像，大部分都平平无奇，但也有不少甚是奇特， In one she sees what can only be called magic: shows of color sparking and smoking between the hands of people in robes. 比如这片：一群身着长袍之人的双手间是璀璨而又艳丽的色彩； In another she can see a cliff and valley similar to where she is now, though reversed in color. 又比如这片：她于其中窥见一处悬崖，一座山谷，与现在她所在的地方相似，但颜色相反。 A pair of horned humans—or maybe, demons—looks out over a glowing cyclone of energy... 两位长着犄角的人，也可能是恶魔，正站在高处俯瞰一片发光的能量漩涡…… "Cool..." she breathes. She reaches out to see this scene more closely—yet, again, this glass forbids her touch. "真壮观啊……"她感叹着，伸手想抓住碎片看得更仔细些，不料却遭到了碎片的拒绝。 She frowns, grumbles, and reluctantly continues making her way down. 她蹙眉，哼了一声，不甘地继续沿路下行。 For her own dream, it really doesn't seem to care about her input or will. 怎么自己的梦，自己说的还不算了呢。 While this colorless world is a first experience for her, she has walked on a cliffside before. 虽然这单色的世界她是第一次梦到，但她确实不是第一次走在悬崖边。 Her country is a mountainous one. She's familiar with green ridges—forested horizons bordering Heaven—that she can go to, if she ever wants. 她从小就在一个多山的国家长大，对这些绿色植被覆盖着的山脊和高耸到与蓝天相接壤的森林再熟悉不过。 She's rarely wanted to, but at the least, she's spent a vacation day within one with a friend and that friend's family. 对这些唾手可得的景观，她从不感到好奇和向往，但有次假期她也跟她朋友一家人在山中度过了美好的时光。 She keeps her hand to the white rock wall beside her now, and thinks—though it's white, it isn't limestone, is it? 她抚摸着沿途的石墙边走边想：这些白色的石头，应该并不是石灰岩吧？ She thinks about what she knows of geology. She doesn't know much. What are the categories again? Porous, sedimentary, metamorphic... 她回忆了一下地理课上学过的东西，岩石的种类都有哪些来着？岩浆岩、沉积岩、变质岩……？她知道的不多。 For her, school has been valuable outside of its classrooms, not during any lectures or labs. Sports are fun. Playing instruments is fun. Rocks are not. 反正对她来说，上课和做实验永远都不如学校的其他活动令人受益匪浅：体育活动能强身健体，弹奏乐器能陶冶情操，相比起来，一块破石头能好玩到哪里去？ Still, though, she can't deny the fascination brought by an alien landscape. 但不可否认的是，她的确被这陌生而又壮丽的景象深深吸引。 She mutters, "No wonder I'm thinking of rock class..." "难怪不由得想起了之前上的地理课……"她喃喃自语。 While moving down she comes to notice glass disappearing into the wall out ahead of her—as if it's phasing through, or there's a corner, or— 路途中她发现，玻璃碎片在漂浮至她前面的墙时突然消失了，就好像穿了过去，或是前方有个拐角，又或者—— "A cave...!" "没错，是一个洞窟！" she exclaims as soon as she comes up to it. She enters just as quickly. 寻得答案的一瞬间，她惊叫出声，下一秒就迫不及待地踏进了洞穴之中。 Nothing cooler than a cave, she thinks. 真是太酷了，没有什么能比大山洞还要酷。 She runs through heedlessly, thrilled. 她毫不犹豫地从中迅速穿过，极度兴奋的心情溢于言表。 The glass seems to guide her, bouncing with her steps, flying faster and faster the further she goes... 这些玻璃好像也在引导着她，跟随着她的脚步一同上上下下，不断地加速。 She goes to the end—to a great and wide atrium. To a place she's not sure could even conceivably fit within the cliff she'd been standing on just minutes ago. 一路走到底，映入眼帘的是一个宽广开阔的中庭，难以想象看似陡峭狭窄的悬崖之下竟存在着这么宽敞的地方。 And there, she finds another miracle. 在那里，她寻得了另一个奇迹。
14-3 "
Could you "think" a world into being? 仅凭"意念"，就能创造世界吗？ There are circles of thought that equate perception with reality. 有一种思想将感知等同于现实。 If you know what you are, then that is what you are. 它认为，如果你知道自己是什么，那么你实际上也就是什么。 If you dream of being a butterfly, do you become a butterfly? Or, of course, are you simply a butterfly that's dreaming of being human? Regardless... 如若此为真，又该如何解释"不知周知梦为蝴蝶与，蝴蝶之梦为周与"呢？ What you know encompasses your world, so fragments of what you know are pieces that comprise reality—a world. 不论你给出怎样的答案，你都不能否认，是你的全部认知构筑了自己眼中的世界，因此你的这些认知多多少少也是对现实——也就是世界——的真实反映。 You carry your world in your mind. If those thoughts and feelings and days gone could be made physical, could you link them together and create something new? 世界存在于你的意识中，那么这些过去的时日和所思所想又能否连系起来，创造出一个全新的事物呢？ All of this comes to mind as she witnesses what seems to be just that. An archive—a record... 想到这里，她明白了：这里是一个承载着过去的档案馆。 The inside of the earth has spread out into a secret library that is far too big. 这洞窟的内部可真是够大的，就像一个不为人知的巨大的图书馆—— To even call it something as simple as a "library" does it no justice. 不，如果只是把它简单地称作"图书馆"，难免也太小瞧它了。 As the girl walks deep into the earth, it's as if she's come across Heaven's gates, and those gates have opened unprompted. 越往深处走，少女越觉得她像是在经过一扇扇于无意间敞开的"天堂之门"， Light and glass fly out before her in a spiraling, crystal pathway leading to the hollow core of the mountain, and from there glass arranges itself. 透亮的光和玻璃碎片从那里倾泻而出，自动为少女铺开了一条螺旋形状的通路，指引着她继续前往山中洞窟的最深处。 She finds herself in an ever-sorting, ever gathering home of almost infinite "ideas". 而这所谓的最深处，同时也是无休止地收集和分类不计其数的"思想"的源头。 From behind her, new ideas set into glass drift in. Above her, light from glass illuminates the gargantuan space. 不断有嵌着新想法的玻璃碎片从她的身后飘来，万千碎片折射出来的光从上方点亮了这个巨大的空间。 When she steps forward, she finds that her eyes have tricked her; the path lit below is not glass, but an impossible and white cobblestone way. 当她继续迈步向前时，她发现她之前看错了：这向下延伸的道路根本就不是由玻璃构成的，而是由纯白色的鹅卵石铺就而成。 The inside of this mountain has been fused with a mishmash of man-made architecture. 沿路往下瞧，这座山的内部布满了杂乱无章的人造建筑。 At once she knows that this place both was and wasn't meant to be. 看来，这个地方可以说既是也不是命中注定的啊。 The dazzling world around her is inviting, and as she steps down new stone ways and past spiral staircases, shelves, and sideways towers, shards of Arcaea come down to her, following at her shoulders. 由万千折射光束点亮的耀眼的世界正邀请着她。她踏上延展向下的鹅卵石路，走过螺旋的楼梯、岩架和侧面的塔。不断有玻璃碎片从空中漂浮下来跟随着她，落于她的身边，她的肩上。 The light from those glass shards warms her skin. 玻璃碎片折射出的光打在她的肌肤上，温暖而不刺眼。 She stops beside an inner wall, brings her hands before her chest, and breathes as she looks above herself. 她在一处内墙边停下，抬起手至于胸前，平整一下呼吸，然后抬头—— "...Wow." "哇……" She exhales that word, out from her heart. And after— 她由衷地感叹道。 "I think I love this place..." "我真是太喜欢这里了……" A single piece of glass comes down from the flowering walls of shards. It comes to rest above and between her palms. 一片孤零零的碎片自万千玻璃组成的"花海"中剥离，飘落于她的掌心。 In its reflection is a world of waves and water. 她的瞳孔中倒映着碎片中的景象：一个由浪涛和水花构筑的世界。 She gulps. 她深深地吸了一口气。 She wants to go there. 她是多么渴望能亲自去那里一探究竟啊。 And this world—this dreamlike place that is no dream—will grant that wish. ——而这个世界，一个并非梦境却胜似梦境的地方，将会实现她的心愿。 As her wants resonate with glass... as she accepts the encroaching world... 当她心中泛起想要与玻璃碎片产生连接和共鸣的想法时，当她敞开怀抱去欢迎这个世界的"侵入"时—— ...the world of Arcaea also accepts her. 这个名为Arcaea的世界，也接纳了她。
14-4 "
A dream within a dream? No, not quite. This— 梦中梦？不，不太可能。这应该是—— Before her thoughts can complete, orange waters quickly surround her. It's twilight—sunset. 还没缓过神来，波光粼粼的橙色的海水便将她包裹——这是日落时分的暮光的杰作啊。 She dives in backward and beneath a hundred waves. 她向后潜入水中，将万千浪花留在上方。 She is submerged, and surprised, but surprised all the more that through some means she is able to breathe. 她完全没入水中了。与此同时她十分惊奇地发现，出于某种原因，自己竟能在水下呼吸。 Her head fills with thoughts, and though it feels natural, it is not. These thoughts are not hers. 无数思想淌进她的脑海。虽然有着身临其境之感，但它们并非她的思想—— Someone else had dove here. Someone else had experienced this. 过去有人也曾在这片水域中体验着她现正体验的一切。 And so lucky they had been. 他们可真是有福之人啊。 The cool water, the warmth of an undercurrent—the gentle churning all around her; she can't suppress her laughter. 清凉的海水，温暖的暗流，四周温和的搅动，都令她情不自禁地嘴角上扬。 "Where is this?" she asks aloud. "这到底是什么地方啊？"她大声地说出了自己的疑问， Her voice carries clear through liquid, and she remembers: she is not alone, here. 她的声音在流体中传播得更为清晰。她恍然发觉，自己并非孤身一人。 Nami turns her head as dozens of colorful fish begin to converge and swim around her. To her left is someone "she" knows: a young child, 五颜六色的鱼群聚集于她的身旁游动，奈美回过头，看见了"她"所熟知的那个人：一个小孩子。 easily making her way here. The child reaches out, and of course she takes that hand. 只见她轻松地朝奈美游来，朝她伸出了手。奈美紧紧地回握住那只小手。 It feels right—all of this. 这一切的一切，都是那么美好。 Not facing the sea floor, the two girls look instead up toward the sun. Its rays scatter through the waves above, spreading light brilliantly into countless beautiful fragments. 女孩们不再低头看向海底，而是抬头望向太阳——它的余晖洒在浪花上，点亮了无数细碎的泡沫。 The child beside her squeezes her hand and she squeezes it right back. The colors of sea life—the prism rays of the sun—the warmth—this heaven here... 两人将手握得更紧了些，一同感受这浩瀚的汪洋，这绚丽的阳光，这温润的暖流，这无忧无虑的天堂…… ...is a memory. 这久远的记忆。 It is an odd realization. Comfortable, but so strange... 意识到这点的时候，她感觉很奇怪……很安心，但很奇怪。 Yet the girl experiencing it puts that all aside, holding the other girl's hand more tightly... 体会到这一切的少女并没有因此乱了阵脚，而是更加握紧了身边那位孩童的手， until the sun fully falls. Until stars begin to dabble the darkening sky, shifted by the sea... 直到夕阳的身影完全消失于大海，直到群星升起点缀了逐渐黯淡的天空，直到…… This comfort is simply impossible to deny. 这种舒适的感觉是那么强烈，令人难以忽视。 It is a memory. 这确实是一段回忆。 That world "before"... was a world full of memories. "先前"的那个世界，是记忆的世界。 When the memory ends, she won't wake up; she will instead return to that world. 而当这段记忆走到尽头时，她也不会醒来，而是返回到那个世界中去。 But that is fine... 但没有关系。 There were so many other lives there, waiting to be seen. 因为那里还有无数其他生命的过去等待着她去发掘。 Her smile is bright—brighter than the sun. 她粲然一笑，这笑容是那么灿烂，比阳光还要耀眼。 And her heart, too, is light... 她的内心，此刻也无比轻盈。 This is satisfaction. 这就是所谓的"满足感"吧。 This is paradise. 而这里，就是所谓的"天堂"吧。 And yes... 那么…… She could live here forever. 这便是她的归宿了。
