You may have heard about the Koran's idea of paradise being 72 virgins, and I promise I will come back to those virgins.
你可能听过古兰经里对天堂的描述，那里有72个处女。我保证待会儿会回到处女这个话题。
But in fact, here in the Northwest, we're living very close to the real Koranic idea of paradise,
事实上，在我们东北部，我们生活在跟真正古兰经里的天堂极为相似的地方，
defined 36 times as "gardens watered by running streams."
（在书中）它的定义出现过36次，即“流水灌溉的花园”。
Since I live on a houseboat on the running stream of Lake Union, this makes perfect sense to me.
因为我恰好住在同盟湖水流经的船房里，所以说我太理解这个定义了。
But the thing is, how come it's news to most people?
但问题是，为什么绝大多数人对这一点却很陌生？
I know many well-intentioned non-Muslims who've begun reading the Koran, but given up, disconcerted by its "otherness."
我知道很多怀着善意的非穆斯林试着开始读古兰经，但最后还是放弃了，因为它的另类而不安。
The historian Thomas Carlyle considered Muhammad one of the world's greatest heroes,
史学家托马斯·卡莱尔认为默罕默德是世界上最伟大的英雄之一，
yet even he called the Koran "as toilsome reading as I ever undertook; a wearisome, confused jumble."
可即便是他也认为古兰经“是我有生以来读得最费劲的读物，叫人厌烦，而且含糊不清。”
Part of the problem, I think, is that we imagine that the Koran can be read as we usually read a book
部分原因，我认为，是我们把古兰经想象成一本像我们平时信手拈来就可以读的书
as though we can curl up with it on a rainy afternoon with a bowl of popcorn within reach, as though God
仿佛我们可以在一个细雨蒙蒙的下午，蜷缩在椅子里悠闲品读，手边还放着一碗爆米花，仿佛上帝...
and the Koran is entirely in the voice of God speaking to Muhammad -- were just another author on the best-seller list.
古兰经完整记录了上帝对默罕默德的话语--仅仅是另一本畅销书榜单上的作者。
Yet, the fact that so few people do actually read the Koran is precisely why it's so easy to quote -- that is, to misquote.
然而事实上，只有极少数人真正研读古兰经，这就是为什么古兰经这么容易被引用--或者说，错误地被引用。
Phrases and snippets taken out of context in what I call the "highlighter version,"
人们断章取义截出我称之为“划重点版”的章节，
which is the one favored by both Muslim fundamentalists and anti-Muslim Islamophobes.
穆斯林原教旨主义者和反穆斯林的恐伊斯兰教者都乐衷于此。
So this past spring, as I was gearing up to begin writing a biography of Muhammad,
所以在过去的这个春天，当我正筹备着开始撰写默罕默德传记的时候，
I realized I needed to read the Koran properly -- as properly as I could, that is.
我意识到我必须好好地读一读古兰经--当然，尽可能好地。
My Arabic is reduced by now to wielding a dictionary,
我的阿拉伯语已经退化到要靠翻字典才能过活的地步，
so I took four well-known translations and decided to read them side by side, verse by verse,
所以我找了四本著名的（古兰经）译本，决定把它们并排并放一起读，一行一行地读，
along with a transliteration and the original seventh-century Arabic. Now, I did have an advantage.
同时参考一本音译本和一本七世纪阿拉伯语的原版。我的确有个优势。
My last book was about the story behind the Shi'a-Sunni split,
我最近的一本书讲的是关于叶什和逊尼两派纷争的故事，
and for that, I'd worked closely with the earliest Islamic histories,
因为它，我跟伊斯兰的早期历史打过交道，
so I knew the events to which the Koran constantly refers, its frame of reference.
所以我很熟悉那些历史事件，古兰经里反复提及的事件，即它的历史背景。
I knew enough, that is, to know that I'd be a tourist in the Koran -- an informed one, an experienced one, even,
我知道得足够多，或者说会知道，我会像一个游客，游历古兰经--我至少是一个见识过的游客，甚至是一个有经验的游客，
but still an outsider, an agnostic Jew reading someone else's holy book.
但无论如何始终是一个局外人，一个阅读其他宗教的神圣经文、不知可论的犹太人。
So I read slowly. I'd set aside three weeks for this project,
所以我读得很慢。我打算用三个星期完成这个计划，
and that, I think, is what is meant by "hubris" -- because it turned out to be three months.
而这，就是所谓的自大。因为最后我花了三个月的时间才完成。
I did resist the temptation to skip to the back, where the shorter and more clearly mystical chapters are.
在读到那些较短的、但明显更神秘的章节时，我有抵制住翻到最后看结局的诱惑。
But every time I thought I was beginning to get a handle on the Koran -- that feeling of "I get it now"
但每次我以为我开始要对古兰经开窍的时候--那个“我终于明白了”的感觉，
it would slip away overnight, and I'd come back in the morning, wondering if I wasn't lost in a strange land.
在一夜之间又会悄然而逝。第二天早晨醒来，我会纳闷我是否曾在一个陌生的领地迷了路。
And yet, the terrain was very familiar. The Koran declares that it comes to renew the message of the Torah and the Gospels.
而那个地带却又很熟悉。古兰经声明了它是来更新律法和福音的（基督教经文）。
So one-third of it reprises the stories of Biblical figures like Abraham, Moses, Joseph, Mary, Jesus.
所以它的三分之一都在重新叙述圣经里人物的故事，像阿伯拉罕、摩西、约瑟夫、玛利、耶稣。
God himself was utterly familiar from his earlier manifestation as Yahweh, jealously insisting on no other gods.
上帝本身是绝对的熟悉，从一开始以雅威为化身--心存嫉妒，坚持世上除他之外再没有其他神明。
The presence of camels, mountains, desert wells and springs took me back to the year I spent wandering the Sinai Desert.
书中出现的骆驼和高山、绿洲和泉水，都把我带回了我在西奈沙漠游走的那年。

And then there was the language, the rhythmic cadence of it,
还有语言，那带着韵律的抑扬顿挫，
reminding me of evenings spent listening to Bedouin elders recite hours-long narrative poems entirely from memory.
让我回想起那些夜晚，倾听贝都因老人完全凭记忆背诵几小时的长篇叙事诗。
And I began to grasp why it's said that the Koran is really the Koran only in Arabic.
然后我开始明白，为什么说只有阿拉伯语的古兰经才是真正的古兰经。
Take the Fatihah, the seven-verse opening chapter that is the Lord's Prayer and the Shema Yisrael of Islam combined.
拿Faatihah来说，七行的开篇，由主祷文和伊斯兰的施玛篇组成。
It's just 29 words in Arabic, but anywhere from 65 to 72 in translation.
它只是29个阿拉伯语单词，但翻译都至少要用到65至72个单词。
And yet the more you add, the more seems to go missing.
然而添加的越多，本意似乎也丧失得越多。
The Arabic has an incantatory, almost hypnotic quality that begs to be heard rather than read, felt more than analyzed.
阿拉伯语有一种咒语般的、近乎于催眠的特质，它祈求被聆听而非阅读，被感受多于解析。
It wants to be chanted out loud, to sound its music in the ear and on the tongue.
它希望被大声吟咏，让它的旋律传出舌尖，传进耳朵。
So the Koran in English is a kind of shadow of itself, or as Arthur Arberry called his version, "an interpretation."
所以英文版的古兰经只不过是它的影子，或者如亚瑟·阿伯里所说，“一种释义”。
But all is not lost in translation.
但不是所有都会在翻译中被丢失。
As the Koran promises, patience is rewarded, and there are many surprises -- a degree of environmental awareness, for instance,
正如古兰经承诺的那样，耐心会得到回报，（读古兰经）会带来很多惊喜--譬如一定程度上对环境的认知，
and of humans as mere stewards of God's creation, unmatched in the Bible.
人类仅仅是上帝创造的副手，这些都是圣经无法比拟的。
And where the Bible is addressed exclusively to men, using the second- and third-person masculine,
相对于圣经里那些仅仅是对男同胞的讲解，即以第二和第三男性人称的叙述部分，
the Koran includes women -- talking, for instance, of believing men and believing women, honorable men and honorable women.
古兰经顾及到了女同胞--例如，信男和信女--可敬的男人和可敬的女人。
Or take the infamous verse about killing the unbelievers.
再比如那句臭名昭著的关于杀死异教徒的句子。
Yes, it does say that, but in a very specific context:
是的，古兰经里有这么说，但是是在一个非常特定的情况下才被允许的：
the anticipated conquest of the sanctuary city of Mecca, where fighting was usually forbidden.
对麦加圣城的入侵计划--圣城通常是禁止打斗的。
And the permission comes hedged about with qualifiers.
而且这许可是带有限制的。
Not "You must kill unbelievers in Mecca," but you can, you are allowed to, but only after a grace period is over,
不是说，你一定要杀死麦迦城的异教徒，而是说，你可以，你被允许这么做，但只有等到宽限期结束之后，
and only if there's no other pact in place, and only if they try to stop you getting to the Kaaba, and only if they attack you first.
只有当没有其他条约存在的时候，只有当他们企图阻止你到达克尔白天房，只有当他们先攻击你。
And even then -- God is merciful; forgiveness is supreme -- and so, essentially, better if you don't.
就算到了那个时候--上帝还是仁慈的，宽恕至上--所以，本质上，最好不杀。
This was perhaps the biggest surprise -- how flexible the Koran is, at least in minds that are not fundamentally inflexible.
这也许是最大的惊喜--古兰经是多么变通啊，至少对那些不是完全固不可化的人来说是这样的。
"Some of these verses are definite in meaning," it says, "and others are ambiguous."
“有些语句很明了”，它说，“而另一些则有歧义。”
The perverse at heart will seek out the ambiguities, trying to create discord by pinning down meanings of their own.
心术不正的会去寻找有歧义的部分，用他们自己扭曲了的解释，企图制造不和。
Only God knows the true meaning. The phrase "God is subtle" appears again and again,
只有上帝才知道真正的意义。“上帝是不可捉摸的”这句话出现了一次又一次。
and indeed, the whole of the Koran is far more subtle than most of us have been led to believe.
事实上，整个古兰经比我们中大多数所相信的要难以琢磨得多。
As in, for instance, that little matter of virgins and paradise. Old-fashioned orientalism comes into play here.
就像在处女和天堂的那个小议题中。老式的东方主义发挥了它的作用。
The word used four times is "houris," rendered as dark-eyed maidens with swelling breasts, or as fair, high-bosomed virgins.
有个词被用了四次，那就是Houris，意为有着深色眼睛、丰盈乳房的少女，或者是白皙而又胸部高挺的处女。
Yet all there is in the original Arabic is that one word: houris. Not a swelling breast or high bosom in sight.
然而在阿拉伯语原版中，有的仅仅是那一个词：Houris。根本没有任何提及丰盈的乳房或高挺的胸部的暗示。
Now this may be a way of saying "pure beings," like in angels, or it may be like the Greek "kouros" or "kore," an eternal youth.
它也许是用来描述纯洁生物--如天使--的一种方式，或者它是类似于希腊语中的Kouros，亦写作kore，即长生不老的青年。
But the truth is, nobody really knows. And that's the point.
但它真正的释义没人知道，那就是它的本质。
Because the Koran is quite clear when it says that you'll be "a new creation in paradise,"
因为古兰经很明确地说你将会成为“出现在天堂的一个新的生命体”，
and that you will be "recreated in a form unknown to you," which seems to me a far more appealing prospect than a virgin.
你将被“重新创造成一种未知的形式，”在我看来比成为一个处女更具有吸引力。
And that number 72 never appears. There are no 72 virgins in the Koran.
还有，72这个数字从未出现过。在古兰经里，没有72个处女这么一说。
That idea only came into being 300 years later,
这种说法是在古兰经写成后过了300年才出现的，
and most Islamic scholars see it as the equivalent of people with wings sitting on clouds and strumming harps.
大多数伊斯兰教学者把它等同于那些坐在云上、弹着竖琴、带着翅膀的人儿。
Paradise is quite the opposite. It's not virginity; it's fecundity; it's plenty.
天堂其实恰恰相反。它和童贞无关，它是富饶，是富庶。
It's gardens watered by running streams. Thank you.
它是一处被潺潺流水滋养着的花园。谢谢。