Our target is rather the times when we feel – as indicated by Thoreau's phrase – mired in moods of 'quiet desperation':

而是那些讓我們感到如梭羅所寫的那般，深陷於寧靜的絕望感中：

a large, grey hinterland in which beneath an outward surface of endurance,

在外向堅忍的表面後方的大片灰白色腹地上，

we feel exhausted, close to tears, beyond the sympathetic understanding of others, easily irritated and daunted by the simplest tasks.

我們感到筋疲力竭，泫然欲泣，於旁人之同情理解之無法企及輕易的被最簡單的差事惹惱、擊退。

There will probably have been certain triggers for our melancholy:

我們的憂鬱多半來自一些事件的觸發：

an intimate rejection;

親密關係的受挫、

a humiliation around work;

工作上受到的羞辱、

the growing realisation that the ambitious plans of earlier years have come to very little...

過去的野心計畫隨著時間過去顯得越來越不切實際。

Unfortunately, sadness feels very taboo.

不幸的是，悲傷感覺很禁忌。

Societies tend slyly to insist on cheerfulness.

社會默默的偏好強調歡樂。

We end up not only struggling, but humiliated that we are in such difficulties.

結果我們不但陷於掙扎的處境，還因身處於這樣的難關中而感到羞辱。

Yet, in truth, there is nothing more natural or routine than grief.

但是，事實上，沒有什麼比悲傷更自然和一般的了。

We have so much to feel morose about:

有那麼多讓我們感到沮喪的事：

simply by virtue of being alive, we will inevitably so often feel badly misunderstood, unfairly criticised, overlooked and rejected.

單單是好好的活著而已，我們就不可避免的總是會覺得遭受到誤解、不公平的評判、忽略、拒絕。

We will be struck by our own stupidity and appalled by our inner ugliness and cowardice.

我們被自己的愚笨襲擊，驚駭於自己內在的醜惡與怯懦。

We will make some shockingly poor decisions, we will let others down, and we will witness those we love suffer and die before ourselves having to give up the keys to life.

我們會做出一些驚人的壞決定，我們會讓他人失望，然後在我們自己放棄生命之前，我們將看著所愛的人受苦、死去。

The reasons for feeling low and demoralised touch more or less every one.

大概所有人都會接觸到造成失落沮喪的那些原因。

It is the universality – the normality – of suffering that makes the sight of small happy children so poignant;

正是這種受苦的平常性、普遍性，讓快樂的孩童在我們眼裡看來如此辛酸，

we know, as they cannot yet, how much they are going to suffer – we don't know the precise details but we know that in some way or another a distinctive range of horrors will, in time, befall them.

我們知道，而他們還不知道，他們將會經歷多少苦痛我們不知道精確的細節，但我們知道總有一天可怕的事情會降臨在他們身上。

Every day, almost without noticing it, we have to fight off a range of incoming powerful reasons not to despair.

每天，幾乎沒有注意到的，我們得要與許多帶來憂鬱的強大理由戰鬥。

We rely on an internal engine or muscle of hope to pump out consoling thoughts.

我們依靠內在的引擎或希望之肌來汲取安慰的思緒。

Then one day the task seems too much; the muscle can't take it any more.

然後有一天，肌肉無法承受太多的苦差事了。

At such times, we need to keep a few ideas in mind:

在這種時候，我們必須記住幾件事。

For a start, that sorrow is not an individual failing; it is a basic reality for our entire species.

首先，憂傷不是個人的挫敗而是屬於我們整個物種的基本現實。

We are so extremely sensitive, such fragile constructions, constantly exposed to danger;

我們那麼極端的敏感，如此的纖細脆弱，又那麼經常的暴露在危險之中，

for the most part blind, hopeful without regard to reality and with unquenchable needs for love and sympathy.

時常盲目，無視於現實的樂觀，並且無法停止的需要愛和關懷。

Our tribulations are a symptom of being human, never just a curse attached to our sliver of existence.

我們的苦難正是生而為人的症狀，我們的存在所附帶的詛咒。

Others, who might seem successful, buoyant and composed will travel, at moments they shield us from,

其他人，看起來似乎成功，愉快和平靜，也會在我們不知道的時候，

to the same places of despair we have been exiled to.

去到和我們被放逐之處一樣的絕望之地。

We live so close to ourselves, we know so much about our own private failings, we miss that our flaws are general:

我們跟自己生活的如此緊密，我們知道那麼多自己的私密感受，我們忽略了我們的缺陷有多平凡，

present even in the outwardly placid, the beautiful, the rich, and the people next door.

同等的分布於那些表面平靜的、美麗的、富有的和鄰家的人身上。

If only we could see into their minds, we would feel so much less alone.

要是我們能夠看進他們的心思，我們就不會覺得那麼孤單了。

We are, it's true, sometimes hard to be around.

我們的確常常不好相處。

We're easy to caricature as grumpy and a pain.

我們很容易顯得易怒和討人厭。

But in truth, we're sad rather than mean, anxious rather than bad.

但事實上，我們是傷心而不是卑劣，焦慮而不是壞。

It's hard to make our despair sound charming, to present ourselves in the way that would win us the compassion we so require.

很難讓我們的絕望聽起來很迷人，以一種能夠贏得我們所需要的同情的方式來表現自己。

Yet we're being harder on ourselves than we would be on a friend.

但我們對自己總是比對待朋友更嚴厲。

We should – at the least – accord ourselves the same degree of forgiveness we wouldn't hesitate to direct to an acquaintance.

我們至少應該給予自己和我們毫不遲疑會給予同伴那樣的同等的寬恕。

In the end, however tempting it is, we can't just abandon our lives.

最後，無論感覺有多誘惑，我們不能放棄自己的生活。

There are too many people who rely on us (even if their presence doesn't feel real right now).

太多人依賴我們，儘管當下看來還不像是如此。

Above all, we don't know the future.

無論如何，我們不知道未來會如何。

It's the other side of our dependence on chance.

這同樣也是我們對機會的依賴。

Things can get slightly better for reasons it's hard to foresee.

事情可以因為現在還看不出來的原因而好轉。

Just as pleasures fade and can seem meaningless in retrospect, so pains (at least sometimes) can pass or soften.

如同樂趣的消逝，過往看起來失去意義一般，痛苦（至少有時候是如此）也會過去或減輕。

Things we thought we'd never be able to get over gradually become bearable;

我們原以為不能承受的事情也會慢慢變得能夠承受，

we adjust our mental posture, we stoop to accommodate a new reality.

我們適應我們的心理狀態，我們迎向新的現實。

Being miserable does not exclude us from the human community.

痛苦不幸並不會是我們異於人類社會。

It's a sure sign that we are very normal - and that life is progressing, in its own dark way, more or less exactly to plan.

反而正是我們非常正常的跡象，而生命將以它那黑暗的路線繼續照著計劃走下去 。