A Game of Go
http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-stories-board-game-story.htm
Two people sit down opposite each other to play a game. Between them is a large wooden board. The board is rectangular in shape and it has black lines drawn on it in. There are 19 horizontal lines and 19 vertical lines, making 361 small black squares on the brown wooden board. Each player has some stones. The man has 180 white stones, and the woman has 181 black stones. All the stones are round and smooth. The white ones are made from the shells of clams; the black ones are made of slate. They have the stones in wooden bowls next to the board. When it is time to start playing, they slowly take the lids off the bowls. 两个人对面坐下来互相玩游戏。 他们之间是一个大木板。 木板是长方形 ， 而且上面绘有黑色的线条。有19英寸水平线和19条垂直线，在棕色木板上制造成了361黑色小方块。 每个玩家有一些石头。男子有180白色石块，女子有181黑色石头。 所有的石头都圆而光滑。 白色的均由蛤壳制成的，黑的是石板做的。 他们的石子在木板旁边的木碗里。 当它开始运行的时候，他们慢慢放下碗
One of the players is an old man. He is now 89 years old. He has spent all of his life playing this game, which is called Go. There are many other names for this game in the many parts of the world where it is played, but Go is the most common. The man has been playing Go since he was a small child. His father showed him how to place the big heavy stones on the board when he was three years old. He has never stopped playing since then. He is now the most famous player of Go in the world. People from all over the world call him “the Master”. People come from all over the world to play against him. Some people want to try and beat him; most people only want to watch and learn from him. The Master thinks that the game of Go is an art, and he thinks that he is an artist. He does not know how many games of Go he has played in his life, but thinks that even if he has played many thousands of games, then he has still not made anything near the number of possible combinations there are for this game. This game is very simple, and very, very complicated. 其中一个玩家是一个老头。 他现在89岁。 他的一生都玩这个游戏，被称为围棋。 在世界的许多地方这个游戏又有许多不同的名字，但围棋是最常见的。自从从小的时候这个男子就一直在玩围棋。 他的父亲在他3岁时就教他如何下围棋。 从那以后他从来没有停止。 他现在是世界上最出名的棋手。 世界各地的人们称他为“师父”。 来自世界各地的人们都和他比赛。 有些人想尝试 击败他，大多数人只是来观看和学习的。 大师认为围棋是一种艺术，他认为他是一个艺术家。 他不知道对他在他生活中的经历了多少场比赛，但认为即使他经历了成千上万的围棋比赛，那么他仍然没有搞清楚组合数。此游戏非常简单，非常，非常复杂。
The two players place the stones they take from their opponent in the upturned lid of the wooden bowls. It will continue like this until one player can take no more stones. Then they will start to play again. They will play many games, until they eventually know who the winner is. 两位选手从对手的木碗里拿棋子下 ，这样一直继续下去直到其中一位选手没有棋子。然后他们在开始下。 他们将进行许多场比赛，直到他们最终确定冠军。
The other person is a young woman. The young woman has only been playing Go for three years. This is not a very long time it takes years to become an expert in this simple but complicated game. Before this, the woman was an expert at playing computer games. She was a computer games champion, and she won competitions in all types of computer games. She played in tournaments in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Munich, as well as many online tournaments, with people from all over the world. When she thought she could not win any more computer games, she looked for other games to play. She enjoyed playing poker, she became an expert at chess, but nothing captured her imagination like the simplicity of placing black or white stones on a simple wooden board. She studied hard and practiced a lot, the way she always did. She played to win. She thought of the game as a science. She calculated all the possible variations, using a computer to analyze techniques and strategies. She became a human computer when she played. She played Go the same way she had played computer games – by becoming a machine herself. 对方是一个年轻女子。 这名年轻的女子下了三年围棋。 这不是一个很长的时间 ， 需要几年的时间就能成为这个简单而复杂的游戏专家。 在此之前，该名女子是玩电脑游戏的专家。 她是一个电脑游戏冠军，她赢得了所有类型的电脑游戏比赛。 她参加在洛杉矶，东京和慕尼黑的比赛，以及许多在线比赛，与来自世界各地的人们。 当她认为她不能赢得任何更多的电脑游戏，她希望寻找其他游戏。 她喜欢玩扑克，她成为一个在国际象棋的专家，但没任何事物能像木板上的黑白棋子捕捉到他的灵感。 她努力学习并进行很多实践，她总是这样做。她赢得比赛。 她认为这个游戏是一门科学。 她计算所有可能的变化，用计算机分析技术和战略。 当她下棋时她成了电脑 ， 她以同样的方式下围棋-自己变成机器。
Both players are dedicated. Both players are obsessed. Both players think about nothing else but the game of Go from the moment they wake up until the moment they sleep, and even then they do not stop thinking about Go, as they have dreams about great games, in which they always win. Neither is married, neither has ever been in love with anything except the game of Go. 两位选手都很执着。两名球员都是痴迷。 两位选手从早上醒来到晚上睡觉都除了想下棋其他从不考虑任何事，即使他们不停止对围棋的思考，因为他们对伟大的游戏梦想，而他们总是获胜。 也不是结婚，也没有过爱上了除围棋外东西。
“When I was your age, it would have been impossible for us to play together” he says to her. They speak very little during the game. 当我是你的年龄，对我们来说本来就不可能一起玩”，在比赛过程中他们小声的说着。
“Why?” she asks.（为什么，她问）
“Young lady, you have not studied the history of this game. In the past, women did not play Go.” There is silence again. She might be irritated by the old man’s comment, but now she is playing Go, and so she feels no emotions. Her mind is not listening to the man, but calculating all the possible ways of placing her next stone. The old man, on the other hand, tries to listen to the woman very carefully. He watches her and studies her, looks at the movements of her hands and of her face. This is not only because he thinks that she is very beautiful, it is also because by understanding a person he knows how they will play. When he understands how a person moves, he understands their character. And when he understands their character, he understands their game. This has always helped him to win. 小姐，你还没有研究过这个游戏的历史。 在过去，妇女不玩围棋。“再次陷入沉默。 她可能是被老人的观点激怒，但现在她正在下棋，所以她觉得没有任何情绪。 她的思想从不听男人，而是计算她的下一步所有可能放的棋子。 老人另一方面，试图非常仔细听女子。他看着她并研究她，看着她手的动作和她的脸。 这不仅是因为他认为她非常漂亮，也因为他通过理解这个人并知道他们下一步将走什么。 当他懂得一个人动作时，他理解它们的性质。 当他了解他们的性格，他理解他们的游戏。 这一直帮助他赢。
By placing the stones on the board, they both try to invade each other’s space, each other’s territory. White stones invade a black-bordered area; black stones try to fill a white-bordered area. At the end of each game, the board is a map of two countries, one black and one white. The board is map of their minds. Black and white mix together. Each player is learning something from the other. 通过在木板上布棋，他们都试图入侵对方的空间，对方的领土。 白棋子入侵一个黑边地区，黑棋子试着步入白边地区。 在每次比赛结束，棋板是两个国家，一黑一白。 棋板是他们心中的地图。 黑色和白色混合在一起。 每个选手都在从另一方学习其他东西
He wins the first game, and the second, and the third. The woman’s face shows no emotion, and the man is confused. He agrees to continue playing. She wins the next game, and the man is shocked. This has never happened to him before. He rarely loses, and he has never lost to a woman. 他赢得了第一场比赛，第二，第三。 这名妇女的脸没有情绪，而该男子迷惑了。 他同意继续比赛。 她赢得下一场比赛，而该男子很是震惊。 这从来没有发生过在他的身上。他很少输了，他从来没有输给女人。
The two players place their stones on the board using only their fingers, not their thumbs. It is necessary to think very carefully about where to put the stones, and to hold them properly. A long time passes between each move. They do not place the stones in the squares, this is not a game like chess or draughts, but on the corners where the lines meet. 两位选手只用他们的手指下棋，而不是他们的大拇指。 非常有必要仔细考虑该怎么走，并放得合适。 每一步都花了很长时间。 他们是在格子里走，这不是像下棋 ， 跳棋比赛
The old man worries about the way the young woman is playing the game. He does not recognize her style, her strategy. He can’t read her face; he does not understand her. Sometimes, he thinks that he does not understand the world around him any longer. 老人担心这个女子下棋的方式。 他辨别不出她的风格，她的战略。 他读不懂她的脸，他不理解她。有时候，无法理解他周围的世界了。
“The way I think about the game” says the woman, “is that it is a series of steps for getting what I want.” Again, the old man is surprised. For him, the game is a way of life, life itself, and not a model of life. He worries about the dignity of the game, the elegance of the board. She worries about getting points. “我比赛的思维方式”，女的说， 它是一个为得到我想要的一系列步骤。”而且，老人很吃惊。 对他来说，游戏是一种生活方式，生活本身，而不是生活模式。 他担心比赛的尊严，棋板的优雅。 她为得分而担心
“There is no more beauty any longer. Everything is science and rules. Everything is about winning. Nothing is about playing” he says. “再没有更美丽。 一切都是科学和规则。 一切都是如何赢得比赛。比赛没有什么“他说。
“What sense does a game have if you don’t win?”（如果你没有赢你是什么样的心情）
“The playing is the sense” replies the man.（比赛是一种感觉。他回答）
People have been playing this game for 3000 years. Sometimes, the two players think, this game will last 3000 years. The man feels like he has been playing Go for 3000 years. 人们一直在玩这个游戏玩了3000年。 有时，两名选手认为，这场比赛将持续3000年。 这个男子 ， 感觉自己已经下了3000多年围棋了
“This game was invented by generals. They used it to work out strategies for war. They used the stones to map out positions” he tells her. “And then they decided that is was better to have a game than have a war.” “这个游戏是将军们发明的。他们用它来为战争计算出战略。 他们用石头来制订的地图上的位置“，他告诉她。 “然后他们决定 ， 这显然是比战争更好的游戏。”
“ “Are we at war now?” she asks. He wants to say no, but does not know how to reply. 难道我们现在处于战争状态？”她问道。 他想说不是，但是不知道如何作答
“There is another story” says the young woman. “Go began when witches threw stones to tell fortunes.” 还有一个故事”年轻女子说。 “围棋始于巫婆扔石块算命
“Will this game tell our fortune?”这个游戏会告诉我们命运吗
“It is better to play a game than try to tell the future” she says, and he is surprised again. This time he is surprised by how wise her words are. 最好是玩游戏不是算命”，她说，他再次感到吃惊了。这一次他是被她的智慧的言谈所惊讶
“The future is a game that has already started. The future is waiting to see who the winner is” he says. “Every move you make determines what will happen in the future.” 未来是一个已经开始游戏。 未来是等待看看谁是赢家“他说。 “你走的每一步都会决定未来将会怎么
They play Go for six months. At the end of six months, they know that their final game is close. The final game will decide who the winner is, and who the loser. 他们下了6个月的围棋。在6个月结束时，他们知道他们的最后一场比赛就到了。最后这场比赛将决定谁是赢家，谁是输家
“A game is a metaphor for life.”游戏是生命的象征
“No, life is a metaphor for a game.” 不，生命是一个游戏”的比喻
They cannot agree; but it is not necessary. They both look at the Go board in silence. It looks like a work of art, and also a scientific document. It is a map, a map of the game they played, and a map of their thoughts. 他们可以不同意，但没有必要。 他们都看在棋盘沉默。 它看起来像一个艺术作品，也是科学的文件。 这是一张地图，是他们玩的游戏地图，以及他们的思想地图
“Change is a necessary part of life” thinks the man. 变化是生活的必要组成部分”，该名男子认为
“Playing is as important as winning” thinks the woman.下棋和胜利是一样重要。这个女子认为
They start to play their final game. 他们开始最后一场比赛