We don't know and are unlikely ever to meet again.

從某些角度來看，不可能再次見面的人，似乎是荒謬的高度。

Can from some perspectives seem like the height of absurdity.

也許我們在一家咖啡館裡，有人正在為我們準備飲料。也許我們已經穿過了

Maybe we're in a coffee shop and someone's preparing us a drink.

鄰居在走廊裡拿著我們的帖子。或者我們在火車上，等待著

Perhaps we've crossed the neighbor in the hallway while getting our post or we're on a train waiting for the doors to open.

門要打開。既然我們有這麼多事情，為什麼還要費力地耽誤我們的一天呢？

Why would we bother to hold up our day for a few moments?

已經需要做的事情，以及我們有多少好朋友，我們已經很久沒有看到了？我們

Given how many things we already need to do and how many good friends we already have that we haven't seen in far too long.

我們也可以為我們的沉默做一個更高的辯護：我們渴望成為深刻的人

We may also have a more high minded defense for our silence.

我們不可能和一個接近或完全陌生的人在一起得到任何有意義的東西。

We aspire to be profound people and there is no way that we can get anywhere meaningful with a near or complete stranger in a compressed amount of time, we shun the smaller chats because in the back of our minds, we tell ourselves that we are already sufficiently deeply committed to the long and consequential ones.

壓縮的時間。我們迴避小規模的哈拉，因為--在我們的腦海中--我們告訴自己

But this is to miss the point and the opportunities presented by minor social exchanges.

我們自己已經足夠深入地致力於長期和有影響的工作。

They stand in relation to lengthy friendships rather as Haikus do next to 1000 page novels.

但這是忽略了一點--和機會--所帶來的。

There are things a tiny poem can do that.

小的社會交流。相對於長期的友誼而言，他們是站在的、

A comprehensive narrative will miss.

而不是像俳句在1000頁的小說中那樣；有些事情一首小詩可以做到，而一本小說卻不能。

There are single sentences that can mark us as much as entire volumes.

全面的敘述會錯過。有一些單句可以給我們留下痕跡，就像

There are pictures that can stick with us in a way that a three hour film won't.

整卷。有些圖片能讓我們記憶猶新，而一部三小時的電影卻不能。

We can be disproportionately and yet powerfully touched by so called minor things, small sympathetic chats matter above all because few of us are ever very far from sadness and despondency.

我們可以被所謂的小事不成比例地、但卻有力地觸動。

There are so many reasons to dislike ourselves, to be paranoid about what other people think and to regret mistakes we've made when we are in a febrile or fragile mood, a short kindly exchange can be all that's needed to start to turn around a deeply dark day.

小小的同情性談話最重要，因為我們中很少有人會離悲傷很遠。

An enormous amount of sympathy and fellow feeling can be compressed in the most miniscule dialogue.

和惡性的絕望。有太多的理由讓我們不喜歡自己，偏執於什麼

They make them like that to torture us, don't they?

別人的想法，併為我們所犯的錯誤感到後悔。當我們處於發熱或脆弱的情緒中時，一個

We might say to a parent struggling to close the zip on a child's jacket and a sudden downpour thereby sending a modest sign that we know how difficult things can be and that we have in some ways been there or somewhere like there ourselves or we might on our way to a station exchange, one or two sympathetic words with a taxi driver about their elderly mother who we learn has just gone into a care home after having a fall.

短暫的善意交流可能是開始扭轉深陷黑暗的一天所需要的一切。一個巨大的

The chat won't change anything in an already tricky situation.

在最微不足道的對話中，可以壓縮出大量的同情心和同感。'他們

But the humanity on display might just, the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer remarked that we can never know for sure who around us may at any particular moment be thinking of ending their own life.

我們可能會對掙扎著關閉拉鍊的父母說："他們這樣做是為了折磨我們，不是嗎？

The thought usefully puts into relief, what might be at stake in any exchange we may at points.

在一場突如其來的大雨中，孩子們的外套上，從而發出一個適度的信號：我們知道，這有多麼困難。

And without any obvious warning, be the last thing between someone and their decision to despair.

事情可以是這樣的--而且我們在某些方面已經去過那裡--或類似那裡的地方--我們自己。

A charge often made against small chats is that we can surely only be pretending to be friendly.

或者我們可能--在去車站的路上--與計程車司機交換一兩句同情的話。

Yet this is to miss out how much and how deeply our hearts may go out to people whose lives we merely brush against.

我們瞭解到，他們的老母親在摔倒後剛進了一家護理院。我們瞭解到，他們的老母親在摔倒後剛進了護理院。

We can imagine our way into pains whose details we will never know we can if it doesn't sound too paradoxical love, a stranger.

在已經很棘手的情況下，哈拉不會改變什麼，但展示的人性可能會讓人注意到

And even more oddly, for only a minute or two, we are in all this so often held back by unhelpfully, grand ideas of what it means to change the world.

這是另一個關於希望的論點。哲學家阿瑟-叔本華說過，我們永遠無法

We imagine the requirements for improvement on such a large scale that along the way, we end up grievously neglecting what it is actually in our powers to achieve right now.

可以肯定的是，我們周圍的人在任何特定時刻都可能在考慮結束自己的生命。醫學

Today, the next time we go out, we suffer from an upside down view of where significance can lie.

這種想法有益地緩解了任何交換中可能存在的風險；我們可能--在某些方面

We are assembled out of small things and may live or die by their presence or absence.

而且沒有任何明顯的警告--是某人與絕望的決定之間的最後一件事。

We have in our hands, a very potent weapon already the power to say a warm, gentle, sympathetic, hello.

經常有人對小型聊天室提出的指控是，我們