Wonder of wonders, my friend O, too, has a translation of Calvino's Invisible Cities! He even found a brief section of the Chinese translation which, with not too much handholding, I was able to (sort of) read!“你是为了回到你的过去而旅行吗？”可汗要问他的话也可以换成：“你是为了找回你的未来而旅行吗？”
马可的回答则是：“别的地方是一块反面的镜子。旅行者能够看到他自己所拥有的是何等的少，而他所未曾拥有和永远不会拥有的是何等的多。”
Here's William Weaver's rendering of the same passage (it's the end of the first part of the second section, representative of the book's particular brand of melancholy):
"Journeys to relive your past?" was the Khan's question at this point, a question which could also have been formulated: "Journeys to recover your future?"
And Marco's answer was: "Elsewhere is a negative mirror. The traveler recognizes the little that is his, discovering the much he has not had and will never have."
