Suppose someone gave you a sealed, solid-colored pen. You couldn't see how much ink it had. It might run dry after the first few tentative words or last just long enough to create a masterpiece （or several） that would last forever and make a difference in the scheme of things. You don't know before you begin. Under the rules of the game, you really never know. You have to take a chance!
Actually, no rule of the game states you must do anything. Instead of picking up and using the pen, you could leave it on a shelf or in a drawer where it will dry up, unused. But if you do decide to use it, what would you do with it? How would you play the game? Would you plan and plan before you ever wrote a word? Would your plans be so extensive that you never even got to the writing? Or would you take the pen in hand, plunge right in and just do it, struggling to keep up with the twists ? Would you write cautiously and carefully, as if the pen might run dry the next moment, or would you pretend to believe that the pen will write forever and proceed accordingly?
And of what would you write: of love? Hatred? Fun? Misery? Life? Death? Nothing? Or everything? Would you write to please just yourself, or others, or yourself by writing for others? Would your strokes be tremblingly timid or brilliantly bold? Fancy with a flourish or plain? Would you even write? Once you have the pen, no rule says you have to write. Would you sketch? Scribble? Doodle or draw? Would you stay in or on the lines, or see no lines at all, even if they were there? There's a lot to think about here, isn't there?
譯文
假設有人給你-一個密封的，純色的鋼筆。你不能看到它有多少墨水。它可能會幹枯後寫上幾個字就足夠長的時間來創建一個傑作（或幾個）會持續到永遠，影響事物的變化。在你開始之前你不會知道。在這個遊戲規則下，你真的不知道。你必須抓住每一個機會！
事實上，這個遊戲裡沒有規則指定你必須要做什麼。而不去使用鋼筆，你可以把它放在書架上或抽屜里就幹了，沒有任何用處。但是，如果你決定要用它的話，你會做什麼？你怎么玩這個遊戲？你會在你開始寫字之前計畫嗎？或者你的計畫是非常廣泛的，你永遠不會動筆呢？或者你會把手中的筆，一頭扎進去就去做，努力跟上的曲折？你會小心謹慎的寫字，好象這支筆在下一個時刻就沒有墨水了，或者你會假裝相信筆可以寫到永遠？
那你會寫些什麼呢：愛？仇恨？好玩嗎？痛苦？生活嗎？死亡？什麼？或一切嗎？你寫作只是為了愉己，或其他人，或由別人為你寫的？你的落筆會是顫抖膽怯的還是鮮明果敢的？花里胡哨還是樸實無華？你會寫嗎？你一旦有了這支筆，沒有規則說你必須寫作。你會素描？塗鴉？信筆塗鴉？你會留在還是線上，或者根本看不到線，即便他們在那裡？有很多值得思考的事情，不是嗎？