a small jabbing comment, a joke at our expense amidst a group of old friends,

微小刺耳的評論、老朋友針對你的玩笑

a line of sarcasm, a sneering assessment, a provocative comment on the Internet.

諷刺、冷嘲熱諷、網路上挑釁的話語。

These things hurt a lot, more than we're ever allowed to really admit.

可能難以承認，但這些三言兩語實在傷人。

In the privacy of our minds, we search for explanations,

在內心深處，我們尋求解釋，

but anything satisfying and soothing is usually hard to come by,

但通常難以得到令人滿意或安慰的答案，

which is left a puzzle at the casual inhumanity that circulates all around us

這讓我們對周遭隨處可見，不人道的行為感到困惑，

and suspect that perhaps it's we who are somewhere deep down to blame for falling victim to it.

懷疑是自己做錯了什麼才會成為受害者。

Here is what we should actually think, a truth as basic as it is inviolable.

但實際上，我們應該這麼想，這是個簡單但不容置疑的真理。

Other people have been nasty because they are in pain.

他人之所以作惡，是因為他身處痛苦之中

The only reason they have hurt us is because they are somewhere deep inside hurting themselves.

他們傷人唯一的原因便是，在內心深處，他們也十分受傷。

They've been catty and derogatory and foul because they are not well.

他們斤斤計較，貶損粗暴是因為他們過的並不好。

However outwardly confident they may look, however virile and robust they may appear,

無論他們看起來多自信，多有男子氣概及強壯，

their actions are all the evidence we need that they cannot in truth be in a good place.

其行為都證明了，實際上，他們的狀態並不好。

No one solid would ever need to do this.

沒有心緒穩定的人會需要去傷人。

The thought is empowering because nastiness so readily humiliates and reduces us.

這個想法十分強大，因為齷齪的惡意會讓人感到羞辱和低下。

It turns us into the small damaged party.

這些惡意會讓我們變成破碎不堪的個體。

Without meaning to, we begin to imagine our bully as potent and even somehow impressive.

不知不覺中，我們開始誤以為霸凌者強大無比，甚至令人欽佩。

Their vindictiveness demeans us.

他們的暴行使我們喪失尊嚴。

But the psychological explanation of evil at once reverses the power dynamic.

但心理學上對惡的解釋一下子扭轉了權力關係。

It's you who has no need to belittle, who is in fact a larger, steelier, more forceful party.

沒必覺得渺小，其實你更強大、更堅韌，也更有力量。

You, who feel so defenseless, who is all along actually in power.

感到無助的你，其實一直是掌權的一方。

The thought restores justice.

這個想法恢復了正義。

It promises that the guilty party has after all been punished along the way.

這保證了犯錯的一方終究會受到懲罰。

You might not have been able to write the scales personally.

你可能無法親自執掌天平。

They left the room already or kept the conversation flowing too fast for you to protest,

他們可能已經離開了現場，或是談話進行得太快，你無從抗議，

and in any case, you're not a sort to make a fuss.

又或者，你本就不是那種喜歡製造紛爭的人。

But, a kind of punishment has been delivered cosmically already.

但懲罰其實已在無形中實現了。

Somewhere behind the scenes, their suffering of which their needs to inflict suffering on others is simply incontrovertible evidence,

在檯面下，他們痛苦到需要去折磨他人這點，便是無可辯駁的證據。

is all you need to know that they have been served their just desserts.

你只需要知道，他們早已得到了應有的懲罰。

You move from being a victim of crime to being an audience to an abstract form of justice.

你從受害者轉變為這種抽象公道施行的旁觀者。

They may not be apologizing to you, but they haven't escaped freely either.

你可能沒能收到道歉，但他們也沒有全身而退。

Their suffer is proof they are paying a heavy price.

他們所承受的痛苦就是他們正付出沉重代價的證明。

This isn't merely a pleasant story.

說這些不只是想讓你有報復的快感。

A person who feels at ease with themselves can have no need to distress others.

自在的人，是沒有必要去為難別人的。

We don't have the energy to be cruel unless and until we are in inner torment.

如非內心備受煎熬，人是沒有多餘精力去傷害別人的。

Along the way, the theory gives hints at how we might when we're recovered from the blow deal with those who dealt it.

一路走來，該理論顯示了，人們從傷害中恢復後可能會如何處理加害者。

The temptation is to get stern and cruel back,

嚴厲、殘酷的報復可能看似誘人，

but the only way to diminish the vicious cycle of hate is of course to address its origins, which lie in suffering.

但切斷仇恨惡性循環的唯一方法是解決其根源，也就是苦難。

There is no point punching back.

沒有必要還擊。

We must as the old prophets always told us:

如智者所言：

learn to look upon our enemies with sorrow, pity, and, when we can manage it, a forgiving kind of love.

得學會悲憫你的仇敵，如果可以，便以寬容之心愛之。