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Just for a moment, focus on your breath.
只要一小会儿，请凝神于你的呼吸。
In slowly. Out slowly. In slowly. Out.
慢慢吸气。慢慢呼气。慢慢吸气。慢慢呼气。
The same pattern repeats within every one of us and consider your pulse.
每个人都在重复同样的模式，想想你的脉搏。
The beat is built into the very fabric of our being.
这个跳动深植于我们的生命结构之中。
Simply put, we're creatures of rhythm and repetition.
简单来说，我们是节奏和重复的产物。
It's central to our experience, rhythm and repetition, rhythm and repetition.
这是我们活动的中心，节奏和重复，节奏和重复。
On, and in, and on, and out.
吸气。呼气。
And we delight in those aspects everyday, in the rhythm of a song, the beat of the drum, the nod of your head,
我们每天都从这些节奏和重复中获得快乐，比如一首歌的节奏，鼓点，点头，
or in the repetition of soup cans, the rows of an orchard, the artistry of petals.
或者是重复的汤罐头，果园里一排排果树，花瓣的艺术性。
Pattern can be pleasure.
模式是让人愉悦的。
In language, rhythm and repetition are often used as the building blocks for poetry.
在语言中，节奏和重复常常被用来作为诗歌的构建模块。
There's the rhythm of language, created by syllables and their emphasis,
这是语言的节奏，由音节和重音构成，
such as, "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see."
比如，“只要还能呼吸或者眼睛还能看见”。
And there's the repetition of language at multiple levels:
语言的重复有多个层次：
the repetition of letters, "So long lives this and this gives life to thee,"
字母的重复“我就能长久地活下去，并且给你生命。”
of sounds, "breathe," "see," "thee," and of words.
音节的重复 “breathe”、“see”、“thee”，以及单词的重复。
With so many uses, repetition is one of the poet's most malleable and reliable tools.
重复的用途极为广泛，是诗人们最具可塑性和最可靠的工具之一。
It can lift or lull the listener, amplify or diminish the line, unify or diversify ideas.
它可以让听者的情绪跌宕起伏，可以强化或削弱句子，可以统一或分散观点。
In fact, even rhythm itself, a repeated pattern of stressed syllables, is a form of repetition.
事实上，节奏本身就是重音节的重复模式，节奏是重复的一种形式。
Yet for all its varied uses, too much repetition can backfire.
虽然用途多样，但太多重复会带来负面效果。
Imagine writing the same sentence on the blackboard twenty times, again, and again, and again, and again,
想想看，在黑板上写20遍同一个句子，一遍，一遍，一遍，一遍，
or imagine a young child clamoring for her mother's attention, "Mom, mom, mommy, mom, mom."
或者孩子大声吵闹要引起母亲的注意，“妈妈，妈妈，妈咪，妈妈，妈妈”。
Not exactly what we might call poetry.
这可不是我们心目中的诗歌。
So what is poetic repetition, and why does it work?
那么，诗歌中的重复到底是什么，为什么它们具有艺术性？
Possibly most familiar is rhyme, the repetition of like sounds in word endings.
最常见的重复也许是韵脚，单词结尾的音节重复。
As with Shakespeare's example, we often encounter rhyme at the ends of lines.
以莎士比亚为例，我们经常在句子结尾读到韵脚。
Repetition in this way creates an expectation.
这种重复制造了一种期待。
We begin to listen for the repetition of those similar sounds.
我们开始仔细聆听这些相似音节的重复。
When we hear them, the found pattern is pleasurable.
当我们听见音节、发现模式时，会感到愉悦。
Like finding Waldo in the visual chaos, we hear the echo in the oral chatter.
就像在视觉混乱的画幅中找到沃尔多，我们在纷繁对话中听见了重复。
Yet, rhyme need not surface solely at a line's end.
不过韵脚不必只出现在句末。
Notice the strong "i" sound in, "So long lives this and this gives life to thee."
请注意有力的“i”音，“我就能长久地活下去，并且给你生命。”
This repetition of vowel sounds is called assonance and can also be heard in Eminem's "Lose Yourself."
元音的重复发音被称为元韵，埃米纳姆的《迷失你自己》中也能听到元韵。
Notice how the "e" and "o" sounds repeat both within in and at the end of each line:
注意在每句中间和结尾“e”和‘o’音是如何重复的。
"Oh, there goes gravity, Oh, there goes rabbit, he choked, he so mad but he won't give up that easy,
“脚像灌了铅一般，噢！Rabbit他哑巴了，他很羞恼，但他却没有轻易的放弃，
no, he won't have it, he knows his whole back's to these ropes."
不，他不会放弃，他知道这儿的规矩，已经没戏了。”
The alternating assonance creates its own rhythm, and invites us to try our own voices in echoing it.
交替的元韵创造了自身的节奏，让我们试图用自己的声音去重复它。
Similarly, consonance is the repetition of like consonant sounds, such as the "l" and "th" in,
类似的，和音是类辅音的重复，比如“I”和“th”音。
"So long lives this and this gives life to thee."
“我就能长久地活下去，并且给你生命。”
In fact, this type of specific consonance, which occurs at the beginning of words may be familiar to you already.
实际上，这类特殊的和音出现在单词的开头，你们可能都听过。
It's called alliteration, or front rhyme. Great examples include tongue twisters.
它叫做头韵或前押韵。最好的例子就是绕口令。
Betty bought some butter but the butter was bitter so Betty bought some better butter to make the bitter butter better.
贝蒂买黄油，黄油是苦油，又买好黄油，苦油变好油。
Here, the pleasure in pattern is apparent as we trip over the consonance both within words and at their start.
当我们读到和音时，不管是出现在单词中间或开头，模式带来的愉悦感很明显。
Yet tongue twisters also reflect the need for variation in poetic repetition.
绕口令也反映出对诗歌重复的多样性的需求。
While challenging to say, they're seen by some as lesser imitations of poetry, or gimmicky
但不得不说，在有些人看来，绕口令是对诗歌的低级模仿，或只是噱头，
because they hammer so heavily on the same sounds, closer to that blackboard-style of repetition.
因为它们在相同音节上的重复如此强烈，近似于在黑板上抄写相同句子的重复。
Ultimately, this is the poet's balancing act, learning when to repeat and when to riff,
从根本上说，只有诗人才能找到平衡，学习何时重复，何时即兴重复，
when to satisfy expectations, and when to thwart them,
何时满足人们的期待，以及何时打破期待，
and in that balance, it may be enough to remember we all live in a world of wild variation
在这种平衡中，也许只需要记住我们都生活在一个极度多样化的世界中，
and carry with us our own breath and beat, our own repetition wherever we go.
我们都有自己的呼吸和心跳，不管身在何方，我们都有自己的重复节奏。
