(单词翻译:单击)
It is still tragically sometimes assumed
有时，人们仍然悲惨地认为，
that the best way to cheer someone up is to tell them that everything will be alright.
让一个人高兴起来的最好办法就是告诉他们一切都会好起来的。
To intimate that life is essentially a pleasant process
这暗示，生活本质上是一个愉快的过程，
in which happiness is no mirage and human fulfillment a real possibility.
在这个过程中，幸福不是海市蜃楼，人真的能获得满足。
However, we need only read a few pages of the book known as The Pensees by the great French 17th century philosopher Blaise Pascal
然而，我们只需阅读17世纪伟大的法国哲学家布莱士·帕斯卡所著的《思想录》一书中的几页，
to appreciate how entirely misguided this approach must be.
就能明白这种方法完全是误导。
Because Pascal pulls off the feet of being both one of the most pessimistic figures in western thought
因为帕斯卡既是西方思想中最悲观的人物之一，
and simultaneously one of the most cheering.
同时也是最令人振奋的人物之一。
The combination seems typical.
这种组合似乎很典型。
The darkest thinkers can, paradoxically, often be the ones who best lift our mood.
矛盾的是，最黑暗的思想家往往是最能鼓舞我们的人。
Pascal was born in Auvergne in central France in June 1623.
帕斯卡1623年6月出生于法国中部的奥弗涅。
And from the earliest days learnt to look at the glass of life as half empty.
他很早就学会了把生命的杯子看成是半空的。
His mother died when he was three, he had few friends, he was a hunchback, and he was always ill.
他三岁时母亲去世了，他没有什么朋友，驼背，而且总是生病。
Luckily, he was recognized from an early age - and by more than just his proud family - to be a genius.
幸运的是，他很小的时候就被公认为天才，而不仅仅因为傲人的家庭背景。
By 12, he'd worked out the first 32 propositions of Euclid.
到12岁时 他已推出欧几里德的前32个命题。
He went on to invent the mathematics of probability.
并继续研究创立了概率论。
He measured atmospheric pressure,
他测量了大气压强，
constructed a calculating machine,
建造了一台计算机，
and designed Paris's first omnibus.
设计了巴黎的第一辆公共汽车。
Then, at the age of 36, ill health forced him to set aside plans for further scientific exploration
后来，在他36岁的时候，孱弱的身体迫使他放弃了进一步科学探索的计划，
and led him to write a brilliant, intensely pessimistic series of aphorisms in defense of Christian belief
他为此写了一系列辉煌的、极度悲观的格言来捍卫基督教信仰，
which became known as the Pensees, the book for which we today chiefly remember and revere him
这本书后来被称为《思想录》，我们今天主要以此书纪念和尊敬他。
The purpose of the book was to convert readers to God
这本书的目的是让读者皈依上帝，
and Pascal felt the best way to do this was to evoke everything that was terrible about life.
帕斯卡觉得最好的办法就是唤起人们对生活中一切可怕的回忆。
Having fully considering the misery of the human condition,
在充分考虑了人类苦难的情况下，
he assumed his readers would then instantly turn for salvation to the Catholic church.
他认为他的读者会立即转向天主教会寻求救赎。
Unfortunately for Pascal, very few modern readers now follow the Pensees like this.
对帕斯卡来说，不幸的是，很少有当代读者像这样喜欢《思想录》。
The first part of the book, listing what's wrong with life,
这本书的第一部分，列出了人生的错误，
has always proved far more popular than the second,
事实证明，它比第二部分更受欢迎，
which suggests what's so right with God.
这表明了上帝的正确之处。
Pascal begins by telling us that earthly happiness is an illusion.
帕斯卡首先告诉我们，世俗的幸福是一种幻觉。
But he's especially keen to point out how much we hate being on our own, thinking and exploring our own condition.
但他特别热衷于指出，我们有多么讨厌独自一人，思考和探索自己的状况。
Pascal is perhaps best known for this aphorism of genius:
帕斯卡最著名的也许是这句天才格言：
"All of man's unhappiness comes from his inability to stay peacefully alone in his room."
“人的一切不幸都来源于一件事，就是不懂得安安静静地独处一室。”
This aphorism should be written in large letters in the departure lounges of all the world's airports.
这句格言应该用大字写在世界上所有机场的候机大厅里。
Pascal's charm lies in his bitterness and tart cynicism.
帕斯卡的魅力在于他的苦涩和尖刻的愤世嫉俗。
People will do anything rather than consider their dreadful reality, he thinks.
他认为，人们宁愿做任何事，也不愿考虑自己可怕的现实。
Man is so vain that the slightest thing,
人是如此虚荣，哪怕是最轻微的事情，
like pushing a ball with a billiard cue, is enough to divert him.
比如用台球杆推球，都足以使他分心。
At the same time for Pascal, people are tortured by their passions, especially the passion for fame.
同时，对于帕斯卡来说，人们被他们的激情所折磨，尤其是对名望的激情。
We are so presumptuous that we want to be known all over the world, even by people who will only come after we have gone.
我们太放肆了，想让全世界的人都知道我们，甚至想被那些我们离世后才到来的人所认识。
And perhaps the greatest source of suffering is the most banal:
也许最大的痛苦来源是最平庸的：
Boredom.
无聊。
We struggle against obstacles but once they are overcome,
我们与障碍作斗争，但一旦克服，
rest proves intolerable
停下休息却令人难以忍受。
because of the boredom it produces.
因为它产生的无聊。
Pascal's bitter conclusion:
帕斯卡苦涩的结论：
"What is man? A nothing compared to the infinite."
“人是什么？与宏观的无限相比根本不值一提。”
Pascal misses no opportunities to confront his readers with evidence of mankind's resolutely deviant, pitiful, and unworthy nature.
帕斯卡尔抓住一切机会向读者证明了人类顽固的、可悲的和不值得的本性。
In constantly seductive classical French,
他用充满诱惑力的古典法语，
he informs us that happiness is an illusion.
告诉我们幸福是一种幻觉。
"Anyone who does not see the vanity of the world is very vain himself."
“未见到世界渺小之人本身就是空虚的。”
That misery is the norm.
这种痛苦是正常的。
"If our condition were truly happy, we should not need to divert ourselves from thinking about it."
“如果我们真的幸福 就不必无视自己的想法。”
That true love is a chimera.
真爱是幻觉。
"How hollow and foul is the heart of man."
“人的内心是多么空洞和肮脏。”
That we are as thin-skinned as we are vain.
我们虚荣肤浅。
"A triffle consoles us because a trifle upsets us."
“一点小事就能安慰我们，因为一点小事就会刺痛我们。”
That even the strongest among us are rendered helpless by the countless diseases to which we're vulnerable.
即使是我们中最强壮的人也会因为无数的疾病而变得无助。
"Flies are so mighty that they can paralyse our minds and eat up our bodies."
“苍蝇太过强大，它们能麻痹我们的思想，吞噬我们的身体。”
That all worldly institutions are corrupt.
所有世俗的机构都是腐败的。
"Nothing is surer than that people will be weak."
“没有什么比人的软弱更确凿无疑。”
and finally, that we are absurdly prone to overestimate our own importance.
最后，我们总是荒谬地高估自己的重要性。
"How many kindoms know nothing of us!"
“多少王国都对我们一无所知！”
The very best we may hope to do in these circumstances, Pascal suggests,
帕斯卡建议，在这种情况下，我们最希望做的就是
is to face the desperate facts of our situation head-on.
直面我们处境中的绝望事实。
"Man's greatness comes from knowing he is wretched."
“人的伟大来自于了解自己的不幸。”
Given the tone, it comes as a real surprise to discover that reading Pascal is not at all the depressing experience one might have presumed.
即使语气悲观，但帕斯卡一点也不像人们想象的那样令人沮丧，这真是令人惊讶。
The work is consoling, heart-warming, and even at times pretty hilarious.
《思想录》让人感到安慰，让人心旷神怡，甚至有时还相当搞笑。
For those teetering on the verge of despair,
对于那些徘徊在绝望边缘的人来说，
there can paradoxically be no finer book to turn to than one which seeks to grind man's every last hope into the dust.
自相矛盾的是，没有什么比一本试图让人类最后的希望都破灭的书更好的了。
The Pensees, far more than any saccharine volume touting inner beauty, positive thinking, or the realization of hidden potential
《思想录》，远比任何宣扬内在美，积极思考，或实现隐藏的潜力的哗众取宠的书
has the power to coax the suicidal off the ledge of a high parapet.
都更具有能力哄劝自杀者离开护栏边缘。
If Pascal's pessimism can so effectively console us,
如果说帕斯卡的悲观主义能如此有效地安慰我们，
it's because we usually cast into gloom not so much by negativity as by hope.
那是因为我们通常不是因为消极而陷入悲观，而是因为希望。
It's hope with regard to our careers, our love lives, our children, our politicians, our planet
我们的事业，我们的爱情生活，我们的孩子，我们的政治家，我们的星球，
that's primarily to blame for angering and then embittering us.
这些都是让我们愤怒和痛苦的主要原因。
The incompatibility between the size of our aspirations and the mean reality of our condition generates the violent disappointments
我们的抱负之大与我们处境的卑鄙现实之间的不相容产生了强烈的失望，
which torture our days and etch themselves in lines of acrimony across our faces.
这些失望折磨着我们的生活，在我们脸上刻下了刻薄的神情。
We should honor Pascal and the long line of Christian pessimists to which he belongs for doing us the great favor
我们应该向帕斯卡和他所属的基督教悲观主义者群体致敬，因为他们帮了我们大忙，
of publicly and elegantly rehearsing the facts of our rather sinful and pitiful state.
使我们公然优雅地重复那罪恶卑鄙的状态
Reading Pascal reminds us that the secular are, at this moment in history,
阅读帕斯卡的书提醒我们，在历史的这个时刻，
a great deal more optimistic than the religious.
世俗的人比宗教的人乐观得多。
Something of an irony, given the frequency with which the latter have been derided by the former for their apparent naivety.
具有讽刺意味的是，后者经常被前者嘲笑过于天真。
It's the secular whose longing for perfection has grown so intense
正是世俗的人，他们对完美的渴望变得如此强烈，
as to lead them to imagine that paradise might be realized on this earth after just a few more years of financial growth and medical research.
以至于让他们想象，再过几年的经济增长和医学研究，天堂可能会在这个地球上实现。
With no evident awareness of the contradiction, they may in the same breath gruffly dismiss a belief in angels
在没有明显意识到矛盾的情况下，他们可能会同时粗暴地否定对天使的信仰，
while sincerely trusting that the combined powers of the IMF, the medical research establishment, Silicon Valley, and democratic politics
同时真诚地相信国际货币基金组织、医学研究机构、硅谷和民主政治的联合力量
will together cure the ills of mankind.
将共同治愈人类的弊病。
Religions have wisely insisted that we are inherently flawed creatures
宗教明智地坚持认为，我们是天生有缺陷的生物，
incapable of everlasting happiness, beset by troubling desires, obsessed by status,
无法获得永恒的幸福，被令人不安的欲望所困扰，被地位所困扰，
vulnerable to appalling accidents, and always heading for death.
容易遭受可怕的意外，而且总是走向死亡。
Why should any of this be so cheering?
这些又怎会如此鼓舞人呢？
Perhaps because pessimistic exaggeration is so comforting.
或许因为悲观的夸大令人安慰
Whatever our private disappointments, we can start to feel very fortunate when we compare our mood to Pascal's.
不管我们私下有什么失望，当我们把自己的心情和帕斯卡的相比时，我们会开始感到非常幸运。
Pascal wanted to turn us to God by telling us how awful life was.
帕斯卡想通过告诉我们生活有多糟糕来让我们信仰上帝。
But by sharing his pessimistic analyses, he ironically strengthens us to face the trouble of our own lives on this Earth with greater courage, forbearance, and occasional humor.
但是，通过分享他的悲观分析，他却赋予了我们以更大的勇气、忍耐力和偶尔的幽默来面对生活在这个地球上的麻烦，多么讽刺啊！
