At the pool, the conference, the aisles of a supermarket.

在泳池畔、會議中、超市的走道。

The dynamic is always the same: Very little knowledge, indeed complete ignorance, combined with a deep sense of knowing them absolutely.

其間的關聯性始終不變：我們對他們所知甚少，事實上應該是說完全無知，卻又結合了完全且深刻地理解的感覺。

And of being entirely certain, they would, if only circumstances allowed, be the one.

彷彿全盤確定那個人只要在情況允許之下，就是你的唯一。

It's been going on since early adolescence, at least, this madness.

這樣的瘋狂少說自青春期早期就已經開始了。

And even now, when one should know better, it happens.

即使到我們應該要更明白事理的現在，它還是持續上演。

These crushes, they show off our capacity for knowing how to make the most of the smallest details.

這種迷戀充分展現了我們知道如何將最微小細節發揮到極致的能力。

A wrist, a neck, an ankle, a pair of jeans worn a certain way.

手腕、頸部、腳踝，或是以某種方式穿著的牛仔褲。

They instantly become whole people with whom we can imagine years of a life together, full of profound mutual sympathy, tenderness, and laughter.

他們瞬間成了我們可以幻想共度一生的人，生活充滿深刻的相互體諒、溫柔與歡笑。

This blessed person will, we know, understand us and all the secret, complex, ignored parts of us.

我們確信這個與眾不同的人會了解我們，洞悉我們隱密、複雜，且被忽略的那些部份。

This capacity we have for elaborating a whole personality from a few small details, it's there when we look at sketches.

這種用寥寥幾筆詳細闡述一個人物完整性格的能力，可以透過一幅鉛筆素描看出。

This isn't someone who has no nostrils, eight strands of hair, and no eye lashes.

這不僅只是一個沒有鼻孔、擁有八根頭髮，而且沒有眼睫毛的人。

It's a beautiful creature we feel we understand at once.

這是一個我們覺得自己能瞬間理解的美麗生物。

The cynics say it's madness, this filling in of the gaps.

憤嫉者卻說，這種填補空白的迷戀是瘋狂的。

We're just projecting wild, reckless fantasies, but that's too sweeping.

我們不過是在投射自身瘋狂且魯莽的異想，但這樣講太籠統了。

We're probably right to be delighted; it's just not the whole story.

我們感到高興大概是正確的感受，但這並不是故事的全貌。

Perhaps that remarkably thin wrist with the leather band around it really does belong to someone who is skeptical, alternative, delicate, intelligent, wry.

也許這個戴著皮革手環的纖細手腕，真的屬於一個多疑、與眾不同、柔弱、聰慧或愛揶揄的人。

The error of the crush is to go beyond that insight, to think this could ever be the whole truth about a human being.

迷戀的錯誤在於過度渲染細節，認為我們的想像就是那個人的全貌。

Knocked off course by the crush's power, we forget one central, inviolable fact of human nature.

當我們被迷戀沖昏了頭，就會忘卻一個人性不可侵犯的中心事實。

That everyone is crazy and trouble to be around.

也就是，每個人都是瘋狂且難以相處的。

Everyone has something substantially wrong with them.

每個人在本質上都有不太對勁的部分。

Everyone is extremely hard to live with.

每個人都是難以共同生活的。

You can't know what from an ankle or a wrist, but it'll be something.

你無法從一個腳踝或手腕了解這些細節，但它仍有其價值。

Time will reveal it sure enough, because life has messed all of us up.

時間無疑地會揭開一切，因為生命都曾辜負我們。

Because we all grew up inadequately parented, and have all ended up terrified and anxious pretty much the whole time.

因為我們都在家庭教育不足地狀況下成長，一生也幾乎都是充斥著驚恐與焦慮。

That said, we shouldn't give up on having crushes at any age.

話雖如此，我們在任何年紀都不該放棄墜入情網。

We just shouldn't believe in what they appear to promise anymore.

我們只是不該全然相信它們看似承諾的事物。

Of course we haven't glimpsed complete perfection; it's just a pretty nice side or two coming to the fore.

我們當然無法窺見完美全貌，看到的充其量只是浮現到表層的一、兩項美好罷了。