翻译天堂  2016-08-26

散文英译汉：Talking About Our Troubles

诉苦

We may talk about our troubles to those persons who can give us direct help, but even in this case we ought as much as possible to come to a provisional conclusion before consultation; to be perfectly clear to ourselves within our own limits. Some people have a foolish trick of applying for aid before they have done anything whatever to aid themselves, and in fact try to talk themselves into perspicuity. The only way in which they can think is by talking, and their speech consequently is not the expression of opinion already and carefully formed, but the manufacture of it.

我们可以向那些能为我们提供直接帮助的人诉苦，但即便如此，开口前我们应尽可能有一个暂时的结论，至少自己应完全了解自己的想法。有些人善耍一类愚蠢的把戏，自己不做任何努力以自助却先要开口求助，实则是借助倾诉理清思路。他们只会通过交谈来思考，因此他们说话的目的不是表达什么经过深思熟虑的观点，而是仅仅把话说出来。

We may also tell our troubles to those who are suffering if we can lessen their own. It may be a very great relief to them to know that others have passed through trials equal to theirs and have survived. There are obscure, nervous diseases, hypochondriac fancies, almost uncontrollable impulses, which terrify by their apparent singularity. If we could believe that they are common, the worst of the fear would vanish.

我们诉苦的对象还可以是那些自己也在受苦的人，假如这样做能为他们减轻些痛苦的话。了解到别人也经受了同样的折磨而且挺了过来，对他们会是个莫大的安慰。那些费解的精神疾患，忧郁症产生的幻觉、几乎无法抑制的冲动，因其貌似罕见而令人恐惧。要是我们可以相信这些都不足为怪，也就不至于那么害怕了。

But, as a rule, we should be very careful for our own sake not to speak much about what distresses us. Expression is apt to carry with it exaggeration, and this exaggerated form becomes henceforth that under which we represent our miseries to ourselves, so that they are thereby increased. By reserve, on the other hand, they are diminished, for we attach less importance to that which it was not worthwhile to mention. Secrecy, in fact, may be our salvation.

然而一般来说，出于自身考虑我们也需格外慎重，而不宜过多谈论自己的痛苦。表达总不免伴有夸张倾向，此后我们便会在这种夸张状态下想象自己的痛苦，这一来就加重了痛苦的份量。相反，如果保持克制就能减轻痛苦，因为一件事既然不值一道，我们也就不必那么重视。事实上，保持沉默或许对我们更有帮助。

It is injurious to be always treated as if something were the matter with us. It is health-giving to be dealt with as if we were healthy, and the man who imagines his wits are failing becomes stronger and sounder by being entrusted with a difficult problem than by all the assurances of a doctor.

总觉得自己有什么问题而别人同情我们，这对我们有害无益，而让自己被当作健康的人对待更利于我们的健康。对于一个自以为心智不济的人来说，无论医生怎么劝慰，都不如委其以重任能使他变得更加坚强有力。

They are poor creatures who are always craving for pity. If we are sick, let us prefer conversation upon any subject rather than upon ourselves. Let it turn on matters that lie outside the dark chamber, upon the last new discovery, or the last new idea. So shall we seem still to be linked to the living world. By perpetually asking for sympathy an end is put to real friendship. The friend is afraid to intrude anything which has no direct reference to the patient’s condition lest it should be thought irrelevant. No love even can long endure without complaint, silent it may be, against an invalid who is entirely self-centered; and what an agony it is to know that we are tended simply as a duty by those who are nearest to us, and that they will really be relieved when we have departed! From this torture we may be saved if we early apprentice ourselves to the art of self-suppression and sternly apply the gag to eloquence upon our own woes. Nobody who really cares for us will mind waiting on us even to the long-delayed last hour if we endure in fortitude.

总是渴求怜悯同情的人是可悲的。假如，我们生了病，我们宁可说点别的，什么都行，也不要谈论自己。把话题转到这个黑屋子外面发生的事情上去，谈谈最新的发现，或最新的想法，这样就显得我们和这个鲜活的世界尚未推动联系。无何止地索取同情，真正的友谊也会被葬送掉。任何与美人的病情没有直接关系的事情，作为朋友都不敢贸然提及，以免被当作不关痛痒的废话。一个人就算怀有觉悟厚谊，也无法长期容忍一个完全自我中心的病人而毫无怨言。尽管抵债的方式或许只是沉默。意识到我们最亲近的人照料我们不过是尽义务，我们一旦撒手而去对他们实际上是个解脱，这该是多么大的痛苦。倘若我们及早学会自我克制的艺术，坚决制止自己滔滔不绝地诉苦，这种痛苦就可以避免。如果我们坚忍起来，哪怕最后那一刻拖得太久，也没有哪个真正关爱我们的人会不情愿照料我们。

There is no harm in confronting our disorders or misfortunes. On the contrary, the attempt is wholesome. Much of what we dread is really due to indistinctness of outline. If we have the courage to say to ourselves, what is this thing, then? Let the worst come to the worst, and what then? we shall frequently find that after all it is not so terrible. What we have to do is to subdue tremulous, nervous, insane fright. Fright is often prior to an object; that is to say, the fright comes first and something is invented or discovered to account for it. There are certain states of body and mind which are productive of objectless fright, and the most ridiculous thing in the world is able to provoke it to activity. It is perhaps not too much to say that any calamity the moment it is apprehended by the reason alone loses nearly all its power to disturb and unfix us. The conclusions which are so alarming are not those of the reason, but, to use Spinoza’s words, of the “affects.”

勇于正视自己的病痛或不幸并不是件坏事，相反这样的努力有益于身心健康。我们所惧怕的，实际上大都是些我们茫然不解的事情。假如我们有勇气问自己：“那么这到底是怎么一回事？就算糟糕到无以复回的程度，又能怎么样？”如此我们便会常常发现事情其实并没有那么可怕。我们必须克服那使们战栗、紧张和发狂的恐惧。恐惧总是先于对象而来，换句话说，先有恐惧，而后某事才被虚构或查找出来以为佐证。某些身心状态易于产生毫无根据的恐惧。而世间最为荒谬的事情都能激发这种恐惧。这样说也许并不过分：任何灾难一经理性单独审视，就会丧失其几乎所有困扰和动摇我们的力量。那些耸人听闻的结论都不是出自更改，用斯宾诺莎的话讲，它们出自“情感”。