They're not the famous ones or the respected ones, the worthy ones and the powerful ones.

他們不是有名的人，也不是受人尊敬的人，不是有價值的人，也不是有權勢的人。

They're the ones you haven't really heard of, who long ago shed their pride, who can tell you frankly how lonely and sad they are, who can face their self-hatred and accept their regrets.

他們是那些你沒有真正聽說過的人，他們早已褪去了驕傲，可以坦率地告訴你他們有多麼孤獨和悲傷，可以直面自我憎恨，接受自己的遺憾。

They aren't just unhappy, there are plenty of boring and frightening ways to be that.

他們不只是不快樂，還有很多無聊和可怕的方式。

They've come to an optimal perspective on their unhappiness.

他們對自己的不快樂有了最佳的認識。

You could tell them about the strangest, oddest, most lamentable things about you and know that they understood it all at once from the inside.

你可以告訴他們關於你的最奇怪、最古怪、最可悲的事情，並且知道他們從內心一下子就理解了。

There are no follies around sex or status, love or money that they aren't fully acquainted with.

他們對性、地位、愛情和金錢都瞭如指掌。

They want to get to the howl inside you because they're so familiar with the howl inside them.

他們想了解你內心的嚎叫，因為他們太熟悉自己內心的嚎叫了。

They aren't remotely attached to seeming sane.

他們並不看重看起來是否理智。

They long ago ceased attempting to appear normal.

他們早已不再試圖表現得正常。

They know that life is mostly pain, mystery and error and they'll never try to persuade you otherwise.

他們知道，生活大多是痛苦、神祕和錯誤，他們永遠不會試圖說服你。

They will never be so mean as to try to cheer you up.

他們永遠不會吝嗇於讓你振作起來。

They can be trusted because they've had the courage to fathom their full propensities to cowardice and corruption.

他們之所以值得信任，是因為他們有勇氣摸清自己懦弱和腐敗的全部傾向。

They don't give a jot about your reputation because they know enough about what people in general are like.

他們根本不在乎你的名聲，因為他們知道一般人是什麼樣的。

They combine a thorough misanthropy for the group with a deep love and tenderness for the individual.

他們將對群體的徹底厭世與對個人的深愛和溫柔結合在一起。

They've been through their obsessions with love, public esteem, career, triumph and positivism and they've come out the other side.

他們經歷了對愛情、公眾尊嚴、事業、勝利和積極主義的迷戀，最終走到了彼岸。

They can let their humour get very dark because the gap between their hopes and their experience is so wide.

他們會讓自己的幽默變得非常陰暗，因為他們的希望和經驗之間的差距太大了。

They've gone into the weirdest bits of themselves and will therefore understand the oddest bits about you.

他們瞭解自己最奇怪的地方，是以也會理解你最奇怪的地方。

They don't expect life as a whole to go right and against a backdrop of despair, they can laugh with exceptional richness and glee.

他們並不指望整個生活都會順利，在絕望的背景下，他們可以笑得異常豐富和歡快。

These are the sort of people you want in the prison cell or on the way to the scaffold, in the trenches or in the bed next to you on the cancer ward.

你希望在監獄的牢房裡、在上斷頭臺的路上、在戰壕裡、在癌症病房的病床上看到的都是這樣的人。

These are the kinds of people we need so many more of in our lives and should try so hard to be for others.

我們的生活中需要更多這樣的人，我們也應該努力成為這樣的人。