Some years ago, writing in my diary used to be a usual activity. I would return from school and spend the expected half hour recording the day’s events, feelings, and impressions in my little blue diary. I did not really need to express my emotions by way of words, but I gained a certain satisfaction from seeing my experiences forever recorded on paper. After all, isn’t accumulating memories a way of preserving the past?
曾几何时，写日记是我的一项日常行为。从学校回来，我会花半小时在我的蓝色小日记本中记录当天发生的事情、感受和印象。我并没有用语言表达我的情感，但看到我的经历永远记录在纸上，我就获得了某种满足感。毕竟，积累记忆不就是保存过去的一种方式吗？

When I was thirteen years old, I went on a long journey on foot in a great valley, well-equipped with pens, a diary, and a camera. During the trip, I was busy recording every incident, name and place I came across. I felt proud to be spending my time productively, dutifully preserving for future generations a detailed description of my travels. On my last night there, I wandered out of my tent, diary in hand. The sky was clear and lit by the glare of the moon, and the walls of the valley looked threatening behind their screen of shadows. I automatically took out my pen…
我十三岁时，带上钢笔、日记本和照相机在一个大山谷里徒步旅行。旅途中，我忙着记录我遇到的每一件事、每一个人和走过的每一处地方。我很自豪，我的时间很有成效，尽职尽责地为后代保存了一份关于我旅行的详细记录。在那里的最后一个晚上，我拿着日记本走出帐篷。天空晴朗，月光皎洁，山坡在阴影下显得很危险。我自动拿出我的钢笔…

At that point, I understood that nothing I wrote could ever match or replace the few seconds I allowed myself to experience the dramatic beauty of the valley. All I remembered of the previous few days were the dull characterizations I had set down in my diary.
在这一刻，我明白了我所写的一切都无法与我亲身体验山谷刻骨铭心的美景相媲美，哪怕只有几秒。前些天我所记得的只是日记里那些无聊的描述。

Now, I only write in my diary when I need to write down a special thought or feeling. I still love to record ideas and quotations that strike me in books, or observations that are particularly meaningful. I take pictures, but not very often—only of objects I find really beautiful. I’m no longer blindly satisfied with having something to remember when I grow old. I realize that life will simply pass me by if I stay behind the camera, busy preserving the present so as to live it in the future.
现在，我只在需要记录一个特别的想法或感觉的时候才写日记。我仍然喜欢记录给我留下深刻印象的想法和引语，或者记录一些特别有意义的观察。我拍照，但不经常——只拍我觉得很美的东西。我不再盲目地满足于在我变老的时候能记住一些东西。我意识到，如果我呆在照相机后面，忙于保存现在，以便在未来感受，那么生活就会从我身边溜走。

I don’t want to wake up one day and have nothing but a pile of pictures and notes. Maybe I won’t have as many exact representations of people and places; maybe I’ll forget certain facts, but at least the experiences will always remain inside me. I don’t live to make memories—I just live, and the memories form themselves.
我不想有一天醒来，除了一堆照片和笔记什么都没有。也许我不会有那么多关于人和地方的精确描述；也许我会忘记某些事实，但至少这些经历会一直留在我的心里。我活着不是为了制造记忆——我只是活着，记忆让它随缘。