When we talk, sometimes we say things directly.
我们说话时，有时候会直接说。
"I'm going to the store.""I'll be back in 5 minutes."
“我要去商店。”“我5分钟内回来。”
Other times though, we talk in a way that conjures up a small scene.
有时，我们会换一种方式让人想象一个场景。
"It's raining cats and dogs out," we say, or "I was waiting for the other shoe to drop."
我们会说“外面正在下猫下狗，”(倾盆大雨)或“我在等另一只鞋扔下来。”(提心吊胆地等待最后结果)
Metaphors are a way to talk about one thing by describing something else.
隐喻就是通过描述别的东西来谈论一个事物。
That may seem roundabout, but it's not.
听起来像是绕圈子，但实际上不是。
Seeing and hearing and tasting are how we know anything first.
最初，我们通过看、听、尝来了解事物。
The philosopher William James described the world of newborn infants as a "buzzing and blooming confusion."
哲学家威廉·詹姆斯把新生儿的世界描述为：“嗡嗡作响的盛开的困惑”。
Abstract ideas are pale things compared to those first bees and blossoms.
抽象概念同最初的蜜蜂和花相比十分苍白。
Metaphors think with the imagination and the senses.
隐喻同想象和感觉相联系。
The hot chile peppers in them explode in the mouth and the mind.
隐喻像辣椒点燃了嘴巴和思想。
They're also precise.
它们还十分精确。
We don't really stop to think about a raindrop the size of an actual cat or dog, but as soon as I do,
我们不会停下来思考猫狗大小的雨滴，但是一旦思考的话，
I realize that I'm quite certain the dog has to be a small one, a cocker spaniel, or a dachshund,
自己就会明确知道狗一定很小——也许是可卡犬或者腊肠，
and not a golden lab or Newfoundland. I think a beagle might be about right.
一定不会是拉布拉多或者纽芬兰犬，大概是小猎犬那么大。
A metaphor isn't true or untrue in any ordinary sense.
比喻并不分真假。
Metaphors are art, not science, but they can still feel right or wrong.
比喻是艺术，不是科学，但仍能分出对错。
A metaphor that isn't good leaves you confused.
不好的隐喻让你困惑。
You know what it means to feel like a square wheel, but not what it's like to be tired as a whale.
你知道“觉得自己像一个方形轮”是什么意思，但不会明白“像蓝鲸一样累”。
There's a paradox to metaphors. They almost always say things that aren't true.
隐喻有一个悖论。他们总是用一些不真实的例子。
If you say, "there's an elephant in the room," there isn't an actual one, looking for the peanut dish on the table.
如果你说：“屋里有头大象。”(显而易见而又被忽略的事实)实际当然没有，看看桌上的花生就知道了。
Metaphors get under your skin by ghosting right past the logical mind.
隐喻从你的皮肤下直接连接逻辑思维。
Plus, we're used to thinking in images.
另外，我们习惯了形象思维。
Every night we dream impossible things. And when we wake up, that way of thinking's still in us.
每天晚上都梦到不可能发生的事。当我们醒来时，这种思维模式仍然存在。
We take off our dream shoes, and button ourselves into our lives.
我们离开梦境，一键进入现实生活。
Some metaphors include the words "like" or "as." "Sweet as honey," "strong as a tree." Those are called similes.
有些比喻里有“像”、“同”这样的字，“像蜂蜜一样甜”，“同树一样健壮”。这些是明喻。
A simile is a metaphor that admits it's making a comparison. Similes tend to make you think.
明喻运用了比较。明喻让你思考。
Metaphors let you feel things directly.
隐喻让你直接感受事物。
Take Shakespeare's famous metaphor,
拿莎士比亚最著名的比喻来举例：
"All the world's a stage." "The world is like a stage" just seems thinner, and more boring.
“世界是一个舞台。”“世界像一个舞台。”，看起来空洞，而且无趣。
Metaphors can also live in verbs.
动词中也存在隐喻。
Emily Dickinson begins a poem, "I saw no way, the heavens were stitched,"
艾米莉·狄金森的诗以“我看不到路，天空已被缝合，”
and we know instantly what it would feel like if the sky were a fabric sewn shut.
开头，我们马上就能明白天空变成一块织物是什么感觉。
They can live in adjectives too.
隐喻也可以用在形容词上。
"Still waters run deep," we say of someone quiet and thoughtful.
“静水流深”用来指表面不声不响的人却蕴藏着大的智慧。
And the deep matters as much as the stillness and the water do.
像水流一样，深度和平静都十分重要。
