Ce soir, j'ai rencontré une fille à la sortie du métro.
Elle s'appelle Charlotte.
Charlotte s'est montrée très curieuse.
Elle m'a demandé si je parlais le japonais.
J'étais en train d'écrire dans mon cahier et j'ai lui répondu que non, que je ne parlais que le chinois.
Par la suite, Charlotte m'a demandé si j'étais mariée ou engagée, vous savez, prise.
J'ai dit que pas encore.
Elle a dit qu'elle connaît quelqu'un qui voudrait surement m'épouser et qu'elle allait me l'introduire.
Charlotte m'a demandé de fermer les yeux, de me tourner vers elle et d'enlever mes lunettes.
Elle a mis ses mains sur mon visage et ses doigts ont tracés le contour de mes sourcils et de mes lèvres.
Regardes, tu es belle.
Elle m'a montré ses mains, comme si elle tenait une mirroir.
Charlotte s'est emparé de mon IPod et ella a fouillé dans mes archives de musique oubliée.
J'ai essayé de lui faire écouter une chanson douce, mais j'ai très vite appris qu'elle aime sa musique plus rock que pop.
Charlotte a demandé mon numéro de téléphone.
Elle a écrit son nom à côté de mon nom, comme ça, ETTOLRAHC, Charlotte, à l'envers.
Je vais t'appeler et n'oublies pas de donner des bisous à ta mère.
On s'est dit au revoir.
Charlotte a six ans.
Des fois, je pense que moi aussi je ne suis qu'une petite fille de six ans, qui aime et agit sans passer par la tête. Mais le monde ne pardonne plus mes coups manqués, parce que mon âge a changé avec le temps.
Charlotte, tu es la petite fille la plus gentille que je connaise. Je te remercie de m'avoir montré comment le monde peut être vaste et beau quand on n'a que six ans.
Charlotte, je t'aime beaucoup beaucoup.
Transcript of TAL episode 238, "Lost in translation" , originally aired on 05.30.2003, first five minutes.
Host:Alex loved Russia, lived in Russia for a year, worked with Russian refugees in Chicago for two years, and his Russian teacher thought that he only needed one thing to make his life complete.
Alex: She thought that I needed a Russian girlfriend. She thought that only Russians would be able to stand up to me the way that I needed to be stood up to... or something... I don't know.
Host: Or American women are just too soft?
Alex: I don't know. I truly don't know. But anyway, that's the thought she had.
Host:So, she kept trying to fix him up with Russian women. And this once she had come out with a whole bunch of people, including this woman Alena, who was going to be his date.
Alex:And so, I meet them for dinner. Well, in the sushi restaurant, everybody's telling stories, funny stories and I am sitting across my date and my Russian teacher's turning to me and saying: you know, tell them this story, tell them that story. So I tell them the story and everybody is laughing except my date. And...so we leave the sushi restaurant and we go to this club and we are all dancing. Like my Russian teacher is dancing, all of her friends are dancing and everybody is sort of like exchanging partners. It's this fun scene and everybody is dancing except for my date, who is just sitting at the table and nursing a drink.
Host: And looking...
Alex: And looking, euh, bored, really bored.
[Music enters]
I keep on coming back from the dance floor and trying to say: you want to dance, are you sure you don't want to dance? She would smile bitterly and just shake her head. So then somebody else would drag me up. Finally I come back and I am sitting next to her, trying to strike up a conversation, something about dancing, or something like that. She sort of looks at the floor. People are having a great time all around. She nods a chin towards the floor and she's like: This is an American dance.
[Music zooms to first plane, fades, continues]
I drove away, thinking well that was a horrible date. Neither of us enjoyed eacher other, that was——
Host: that was a disaster, pretty much.
Alex: We were not going to be seeing each other again. I get to Russian class next week. My russian teacher says, hey are you going to call Alena? She had a great time! I was like, I was trying to figure out what that possibly could have meant.
It really became fascinating to me. I realized that I have a clear and perhaps culturally enforced idea of what a great date is. It has to do with what it is like to fall in love. In my head, what I think of as a great date was like in the movies, like falling in love montage of the movies.
[Old movie soundtrack]
You know, you go on a great date, it often involves some boardwalk, there's a great deal of throwing your heads back in laughter. You might chase each other around a tree.
Host: There's the splashing of water.
Alex: Splashing of water is always involved. (chuckle)
[Movie music]
I think for her, there's this thing I always noticed in Russia, for her, I think it's a totally different thing. In Russia, and in Russian literature, there's a lot of talk about the "soul" and "soulmates" and like...
[Russian music begins]
I think for her, falling in love means finding the one person on the planet who understands the misery of life as deeply and fully as you do，and then can talk to you about it.
Host: So, when she acted all depressed on a date, she was not actually blowing Alex off, like he thought at the time. She was flirting. So Alex decides to ask his Russian teacher about this theory, that Americans and Russians have completely different views of what it means to fall in love. Alex was a little nervous to try this out on her, because he's worried that maybe it's insulting, or it's stereotyping Russians. But he explains the theory to her.
Alex: She totally agreed. She was like:" that's absolutely right! You are right! Then, she just went on a rant about Americans. She was like: Americans, they have no understanding of what it is like to fall in love. Americans, I never understand, why do you always say: he makes me laugh? Why is that so important? 'He makes me laugh!' Every American I've ever met, all they say, you know, when you ask how their relationship is, they say 'He makes me laugh'. Is that the greatest thing in the world? What's so great about:'He makes me laugh'?"
She just, you know, went off.
This is something that I've actually said many times: I just want somebody who can make me laugh.
[Voice fades, Music regains volume and marches on]
宇宙的那一端有那么一间暗室，有人专职负责把过去的每一天挂起来风干。 那只是些薄薄的年糕似的切片，其中可以看到一道淡淡的弧形痕迹，是太阳在天空中轮回的轨迹。原本黏手而且微微发热的薄片挂久了就会变得坚硬。在那个地方，坚硬的东西和我们这里一样，都是冰凉的，像钻石，黄金和铁石心肠。每当一个星系死去或诞生，在暗室里工作的人就会踏上陨石堆积起的阶梯，沿着曲折隧道审查过去的时间的风干程度。如果有薄片到达了限定的程度的话，他就会把那一片摘下，释放出被占用的空间，然后半空中轻轻松手，却没有任何东西落地。什么声音都没有，也没有任何爆炸，烟雾或是气流。那已经丧失了所有温度的切片，只是。。。就这样。。。凭空消失掉。
宇宙的那一端很冷。那里没有光，没有热。什么都没有。连黑暗都没有。除了一处，就是那暗室。
宇宙的那一端，完全依靠暗室里那些过去还蕴藏的热量存在着。那些我们这里遗失的热量。
宇宙的这一端，随着每一天的过去，都变得更黯淡一点。
这里的笑容少了一点愉悦，泪水少了一点悲痛，连嫉妒都少了一点尖酸，仇恨也丧失了一点力度。
宇宙的这一端，随着每一天的过去，我的眼睛都变得更混浊一点，我的手指更迟钝一点。
生命不是一下子就凭空消失的，如同它不是一下子就凭空出现。
我们一天老一点，一天死一点。一天天，一点点。
宇宙的这一端，随着时间推移减少的活力，被一点点地传送到宇宙的那一端。
总有一天，宇宙的这一端会被宇宙的那一端所取代。
去年今日，我成年了。明年今日，我就即将奔三了。十九岁，最后一个teen的年头，走好。
白日里闲逛诸同学的博，却突然看到有那么沉重的一叹：“上了大学，就再也不能把生活当过家家了。”
对啊。。。以前没有觉醒的人，现在终于开始为将来做打算，而已经有目标的人，面对重重选择的迷宫也是肃然起敬。是不是从今天起，年轻已经是个不能博得同情的借口？我们犯下的错误，是不是已经会波及自己的余生？在麻烦出现之后，我们还能不能按下reset键，重新来过？
以旁观者的角度看来，尤其对长辈来说，我现在问这种问题过为戏剧化，完全就是在做姿态。他们会想，你们这种年纪，懂什么？如果你来不及了，那我们呢？是不是该下场歇息了？也是，励志书里说，机会虽然只给有准备的人，但是随时都可以做准备，没有来不及的时候。古人也曰：朝闻道，夕可死矣。
可是就因为我们还不熟悉着社会，所以我们冲向它的态度才如此重要。没有人可以避免失败，但是由于漫不经心导致的失误，和全力以赴后的挫折，完全是两样东西。 现在严肃一点没有错，只有背水一战的悲壮才能激励士气，这一点连泰戈尔也同意呢：让生如夏花般绚烂！括号（让死亡如秋叶般静美）括号完，之所以框起后半句，是因为时候未到，虽然同样是美丽的事情，不过如果在春天的年纪就感受到人生秋夜的寒霜，就是不尊节令，乱天道了。
又，夏日炎炎正好眠。
自从回来以后，我每天睡十小时还困。
其实睡眠是一件可疑的事。
每天晚上，人类以最无防备，最脆弱的姿态，全身心地沉入睡神那未知的国度。
如果把这想法凝固成一个意象，那就是一个初生婴儿躺在巨大的睡莲叶子上，一点一点地陷入沼泽里，如同回归母体。
我对魔幻文学传统里的平行世界说深信不疑。
嗯，在镜子这一边的我的笨拙和失态，都只是掩护，等到我闭上眼睛，就可以进入我真正的角色。
在科学家们拿出更多的脑电波研究和梦的解析之类的煞风景解说之前，请大家同我一起坚守这童年遗留下来的信念：
每晚卧倒在床上，闭上眼睛就可以启动的命运的暗门，一定会传送我们前往一种更有意义的存在。
新海诚
1999年 黑白短片 遥远的世界
1999年 黑白短片 她与她的猫
2002年 让他名噪一时的 星之声
2003年 动画MTV 笑颜
2004年 剧场 云之彼端，约定的地方
2005年 短篇漫画 塔的彼方
2007年 秒速5厘米
