Quietude Undisturbed 心如止水

10.It's universal knowledge that plastic wrap is used as food packaging to reduce the loss of nutrients; bear in mind the quest for fresh delights so as to keep fervent our passion for life.  
             ——Ninety-nine Soliloquies by Gusian Yu

我们给食物套上保鲜膜，因为我们知道这样有助于减少营养的流失；也别忘了给生活找些新鲜的乐趣，如此才好维系我们对生活持久的热爱。                     ——余古轩《99条心理暗示》

11. The past two years, 2010 and 2011, have seen a shift from a rough ride and bubble-like desires to burgeoning brightness and good-deemed rainstorm, while next year sees a peaceful prayer and a fulfilled life.                        ——Ninety-nine Soliloquies by Gusian Yu

2010年跌宕沉浮，憧憬无非泡沫；2011年柳暗花明，风雨亦是阳光；2012年静心祈祷，想往完整生活。                                             ——余古轩《99条心理暗示》

12. A brand new year is a perfect time for new resolutions and a perfect occasion to fulfil them all; based on a marked change completed over the past twelve months another one for the better would be more accessible. Relentless pensiveness almost deserting his eyes, the hero is now on the track to his ideal land.              ——Ninety-nine Soliloquies by Gusian Yu

崭新的一年是制定新计划并付诸实践不可多得的时机。 十二个月的轮回见证一场华丽的蜕变，也奠定了下一场更为耀眼的转身。双眸习惯的落寞已不多见，因为他正迈进他憧憬的世界。                                                       ——余古轩《99条心理暗示》

7. Music seizes your senses, for, in a melodic pattern of ups and downs, she never fails to breed emotional swings, fresh desires and innermost surprises and sympathies. Music is a novel in her most abridged form. She comforts you like a you-hold-tight pillow as you cry hard, and she encourages you like a lend-you-ears friend as you smile; she is a trump that perks you up, and a pain-killer that heals your wounds.
                                                       ——Ninety-nine Soliloquies by Gusian Yu
音乐之所以摄人心魂，是因为她总能在跌宕起伏的瞬间激起波澜，催生渴望，萌动心间的惊喜与共鸣。音乐是世间最精悍的小说，她是你痛哭流涕紧抱怀中聊以宽慰的枕头，是你眉开眼笑友人耳边轻道的一声加油；她是你重整旗鼓的号角, 她是你治愈心疾的良药。
                                                        ——余古轩《99条心理暗示》

8.Amongst some right-looking chances, a man invariably fails to decide which to grab; the truth is that whatever choice you make, if only it entails your merits and engages your interest, you shall be greeted by fragrance of success that springs from a garden that nothing but steady steps forward lead to.                                              ——Ninety-nine Soliloquies by Gusian Yu
人们常常在若干看似不错的机会面前手无足措，难于取舍。事实上，只要是自己优势所在、兴趣所趋，任何选择都将迎来成功的馨香，而只有坚定前行的脚步，你才能抵达芬芳逸散的花园。             
                                                                  ——余古轩《99条心理暗示》

9. Moods are a palette of sombre colors and bright ones. If being blue right now, you are, sure enough, supposed to keep to the faith, rather than lose hope, that here lies a broader, better world for you to explore, to observe and to experience. Surrender not all room to blue; there are moods in more than one color.                  ——Ninety-nine Soliloquies by Gusian Yu

心情是一块调色板，既有暗色也有亮色。如果此刻的你是忧郁的蓝色，不要绝望，因为你一定一定要坚信，还有一个更广阔更美好的世界等着你去探索，去发现，去体悟。别让忧郁占据所有的位置，因为心情远不止一种颜色。
                                                           ——余古轩《99条心理暗示》

摩天大楼指数——如影随形的经济危机
 Skyscraper Index —— Shadow-like Economic Crisis
                          ——Translated by Gusian Yu

作为一种以巨大的经济力量为支撑的建筑物，摩天大楼常被民众和政客视为展示经济繁荣、社会进步的标志。有些经济学家则持完全相反的看法，认为摩天大楼的出现，特别是摩天大楼的纪录被刷新，往往预示着经济即将衰退。
Skyscrapers, propped up by an immense economy, are usually regarded by the public and politicians as an emblem of economic prosperity and social progress, which goes diametrically against the theory held by some economists that the rise of skyscrapers, especially if record-breaking, more often than not serves as a predictor of an impending economic recession.

“高楼建成之日，即是市场衰退之时”，这是德意志银行的证券分析师安德鲁·劳伦斯于1999年发表的判言。2006年2月15日，雷曼兄弟公司在北京召开全球经济会议，其全球首席经济学家卢埃林Llewellyn向我国客户提及“摩天大楼指数”的预言：“如果全球有发生经济危机的可能性，那很可能会在2007年或2008年。”
"Tall buildings go up as the economy goes down," asserted Andrew Lawrence in 1999, a securities analyst at Deutsche Bank. “If a global economic crisis is likely to occur, that would be in 2007 or 2008,” said Llewellyn, a global chief economist at Lehman Brothers, when mentioning to Chinese clients what the "Skyscraper Index" predicted in its international economic conference held in Beijing on February 15th, 2006.

雷曼的首席经济学家预见了2007年到2008年的经济危机，但却不曾想到，雷曼的百年基业正是在这场危机中化为泡影。对于经济而言，摩天大楼是荣耀还是诅咒？其与经济危机之间是否真的存在这样密切的联系呢？
The economic crisis between 2007 and 2008 this Lehman's global chief economist did have foreseen, yet beyond his expectation was that it was during this crisis that the five-score-year efforts of Lehman collapsed; in terms of economy, the skyscraper is an honor or a curse? Does it really bear such a close relation to economic crisis?

1999年，安德鲁·劳伦斯经过研究验证了摩天大楼与经济危机的关联，并将这种关联称为“摩天大楼指数”。每一幢刷新世界纪录的摩天大楼的崛起，往往都伴随着经济的衰退。自20世纪初以来，全球共出现了四轮摩天大楼热，而每一次，都伴随着经济危机或金融动荡。   
The Skyscraper Index is a correlation between skyscraper building and economic crisis tested and verified through research by Andrew Lawrence in 1999, which shows that the world's tallest buildings have risen on the eve of economic downturns. Since the early 20th century, there have been four skyscraper booms sweeping across the globe, each of which coincided with the economic crisis or financial turmoil.
 
20世纪20年代，美国经济转好，证券市场再度空前繁荣，民用、商用房产建设高歌猛进。这期间，三座刷新纪录的摩天大楼先后兴建。纽约的华尔街40号、克莱斯勒大厦和帝国大厦相继于1929年至1931年的三年中落成，但随之而来的不是新的繁荣，而是空前的大萧条。在经历了被美国人称之为“黄金时代”的20世纪60年代强劲、持续的经济繁荣后，纽约的世贸中心和芝加哥的西尔斯大厦开始兴建。1972年和1974年，两座再次刷新世界纪录的摩天大楼相继落成，随后，全球经济发生了严重滞胀。
The 1920s witnessed the recovery of the US economy, the unparalleled renaissance of the securities market and the great leap forward marked by the real estate development for civil or commercial use. During this period, a string of supertall towers — 40 Wall Street, Chrysler Building, Empire State Building — was launched successively yet not completed until between 1929 and 1931, followed by the unprecedented Great Depression rather than a new boom. After the 1960s, named the "golden time" by the Americans, featured by a strong and enduring economic boom, the next record holders, New York City’s World Trade Center and Chicago’s Sears Tower, began to be launched and were completed in 1972 and 1974 respectively, in the wake of which a severe stagnation struck the world economy.
 
摩天大楼与经济危机的关联如此密切，很难用巧合来理解，那么究竟是什么原因让经济危机总是与摩天大楼如影随形呢？
In such a way do economic crisis and skyscraper construction correlate that a mere coincidence fails to explain. Then what accounts for the shadow-like relation these two bear?

首先，人性使然。人性当中有盲目自信的一面。具体体现在对客观事物认识不足，偏执于对事物的主观看法上。劳伦斯把他发现的经济危机与摩天大楼的联系称为“百年病态关联”，但此类现象，在人类社会中又何止只存在了百年。以史为鉴，我们不难发现，在我国历史的长河中，此类现象早有体现。商朝兴盛时，纣王兴建造鹿台，引得民怨四起最终于鹿台自焚；清代鼎盛时，乾隆帝大举修建园林，导致国力衰落最终丧权辱国。
First of all, human nature takes the blame. Blind confidence is part of the human nature that manifests itself in people's tendency to base their subjective judgements on insufficient knowledge of objective reality. Lawrence describes as "unhealthy 100 year correlation" the link he has found between economic crisis and skyscraper building, yet human society has seen such phenomena  more than a century. A mere look at the history brings us a realization of their existence that can be tracked in the long, long history of China. When the Shang Dynasty reached its peak, King Zhou ordered to launch the construction of Lu Tai (Deer Platform), thus sparking off a wave of widespread public discontent, and at last he burned himself to death there. The Emperor Qianlong constructed imperial gardens on a large scale during the height time of Qing Dynasty, resulting in the decline of national power and eventual disgraceful loss of its national sovereignty.

其次，利益推动。在商业行为中，逐利是前提条件。在经济繁荣之前，通常有一个低利率的过程，这也是经济向繁荣周期转化的一个先决条件。而在经济繁荣的过程中，利率相对于人们对于未来收益的预期来说，一直都是低的。所以，就会产生一系列的利益传导途径，也就是前面所提到的利益链条。经济的繁荣和相对较低的利率，对土地价值和资本成本有着直接的影响。在土地价格、企业需求和资金支撑三个因素所构成的利益链的作用下，可以刷新世界纪录的摩天大楼计划，就应运而生了。
Second comes the drive of profits. Seeking profits is the prerequisite of conducting business activities. There is often a period of low interest rates before an economic boom arrives, which paves the way for a prosperous business cycle; in booms, the interest rates remain low in terms of people’s expectation for future yields. Therefore, a train of channels for transmission of profits, or a profit chain mentioned above, is generated A prosperous economy and relatively low interest rates exert a direct impact on the value of land and the cost of capital. And when the profit chain consisting of the land price, the enterprise demand and the capital support exercises its influence, a record-breaking project of skyscraper building may then come into being.
 
就像日有昼夜、季有冬夏一样，经济也是存在景气周期的。任何商品的价格，都会受到供需关系的影响。否极泰来，盛极而衰，低廉的利率、膨胀的需求、上涨的资本价格，以及大多数人盲目乐观的心态，所集合产生的“黄金状态”构成了摩天大楼的需求，但这种状态是不可持续的。
As the day and the season have their cycles, economy has its own business cycles, likewise. Prices of every conceivable commodity are under the influence of the supply and demand. A turn comes as things go to extremes— a composite of the low rate of interest, the soaring demand, the rising cost of capital and unreasonable optimism most people hold makes up what skyscraper construction requires, the "golden state", which, however, is far from sustainable.

所以，通常是在经济已经步入衰退的时候，摩天大楼才刚刚竣工；在它真正投入使用的时候，经济很可能已经深陷困境。这就导致了经济危机总是与摩天大楼的兴建如影随形，也常使全球第一建筑成为逝去繁荣的纪念碑。
Hence, it is the usual case that buildings may not be completed until the onset of the recession; when put into actual use, the economy may have gone bogged down in trouble. And this spawns the shadow-like relation between economic crisis and skyscraper construction, and makes the world-top architecture a usual monument of vanished prosperity.

4.Confidence in excess becomes conceit, modesty inferiority. With weights of confidence and those of modesty respectively placed on scalepans, according to the dial of self-reflection, one naturally makes his psychological beam as close to equilibrium as possible. 自信过度，即成自大；自谦过度，即成自卑。将自信和自谦的砝码放上托盘，参照自省的标尺把握刚刚好的分寸，自然而然间，心态的横梁便能趋于平衡。

5.The extreme gloom of grey skies is greeted by the most glorious sunshine, the extreme helplessness of sere leaves the most burning hope. Learn to acquaint yourself with a wild smile when in a rain, a merry pain when in a wind, an intuition to feel in a handful of earth bundles of flowers and an intuition to see in a withered stick a world of springtime. 最黯淡的阴霾，预见最放晴的阳光。最无助的败叶，孕育最殷切的希望。学会雨里笑着癫狂，学会风中痛着开心；学会手握一把泥土，如捧百束鲜花；学会嗅着一根枯枝，如见一世芳华。

6. Communication deadens agony; self-expression, based on a channel to be known, gives birth to much understanding, much freedom, and much brightness of an answer that fails a closed mind, and that's what the very secret of leading a blissful life lies in. 沟通是烦躁的止痛剂。表达自己，给予他人了解自己的渠道，你会收获体谅，收获自由，收获封闭心灵所无法得到的正面答案，而这也正是人生常乐的秘诀之一。

——Ninety-nine Soliloquies by Gusian Yu

1. A man neither mean in enterprise nor imagination succumbs not to what devastates the weak; death daunts him not, neither do critics. With the power of love, that of poetry, and that of music, he may be hurt, yet can't ever be devastated. 弱者饱受挫折的蹂躏，而敢于进取、富有创见的强者从不向挫折妥协；死亡并不可怕，批评亦不骇人。有爱护航，有诗作伴，有音乐抚慰，他只可能受伤，不可能被击溃。

2. Powers that impress I cherish with care; light that beckons you attain in me. All the way, bound for the best of dreams, with much work and some luck, we make marvels part of each other's life. 那些触动我心灵的能量，我都会小心珍藏；我努力用自己的存在，为需要的人送一缕光。 加油，好运，朝最美的梦想前行，一路见证彼此的奇迹。

3. Life that fails to imagine succumbs to reality; eyes that imgaine well forsee a better realm. He fulfils one after another originally built delighted dreams whom imgaination propels.  无力憧憬的人生，是向现实妥协的人生。善于憧憬的眼睛，能预见一个比现实更美好的世界。憧憬，激发人奋进向前并将最初的愿想一个个开心地实现。

                                                 ——Ninety-Nine Soliloquies  by Gusian Yu

1.  内心深处某块枯竭的荒地，终于得到了雨水的临幸，好熟悉，好陌生，好惬意，好忧郁。relish the moment 无论这场雨能坚持多久，just dance in the rain as it rains.

2. Honeysweet it was; the desire for an abrupt kiss, in the end, gave way to the impulse to rest the arm on your shoulder, which, however, filled my thirst for what the best of life could afford, a perfect example in accordance with the golden motto "Less is more", perchance.

3. What kept me warm was more than an elaborate meal on a fairly cool day, but a sweet private discourse between us that could never repeat in history: thank you for being part of my day.

4. To move out is but a matter of money earned, to let love in fate sealed. To indulge himself in this shower of love does entail some sacrifices—the distraction from work and the shrinkage of time spent with several best friends—yet it puts an end to the endless lonely gloom.

5. 人与人之间的不同在于：你是真的生活了一万多天，还是仅仅生了一天，却重复了一万多次？One distinguishes himself from others in whether he has been living for more than ten thousand veritable days or simply duplicating more than ten thousand times one day he once lived for.

7. We shall live for nothing but joyance, both joyance of our own and joyance of those who matter to us, otherwise our life may well fall prey to self-centeredness or self-torture. 乐己亦乐人，在我看来，才是人生的真正意义所在。

8. 我们的存在因为有亲情、友谊和爱情的参与而温暖备至，我们彼此让彼此快乐；我们用善意、用真诚、用乐观、用上进不断感染彼此。我们是彼此人生部分形式的存在，也因为这样那样的温馨的存在，我们的人生过得非常有意义。