0102 The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation

2
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.  From the desperate city you go into the desperate country。
人们在绝望中默默地过日子。所谓听天由命，就是一种根深蒂固的 绝望。你从绝望之城走向绝望之乡。
A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.
甚至在人类所谓的游戏和娱乐下头，都隐藏一种陈旧的却是下意识 的绝望两者里头根本没有玩儿的，因为只有工作之后才能玩儿。不过 话又说回来，不做绝望的事才是智慧的一种特征。
When we consider what, is the chief end of man, and what are the true necessaries and means of life, it appears as if men had deliberately chosen the common mode of living because they preferred it to any other. 
我们使用教理问答式的语言思考什么是人生的宗旨，什么是真正的 生活必需品和生活资料时，仿佛人们已经深思熟虑地选择了这种生活的 共同方式，因为他们就是喜•欢这种方式，而别的则一概不喜欢。
Yet they honestly think there is no choice left. But alert and healthy natures remember that the sun rose clear. It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof. 
其实， 他们心里也明白，舍此以外，别无选择。不过，神志清醒的人都知道 日出山河清。捐弃我们的偏见，从来不算为时太晚。任何一种思考方式 或者行为方式，不管它有多么古老，如无确证都是不可信的。
What everybody echoes or in silence passes by as true today may turn out to be falsehood tomorrow, mere smoke of opinion,  which  some had trusted  for  a cloud that  would sprinkle fertilizing rain on their fields. 
今天人人 附和或者予以默认的真理，明天却有可能成为谬论，而这种谬论只不过 是缥缈的烟雾，有人却坚信，那是雨云，会把甘霖洒向他们的农田。
What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can… I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors. Here is life, an experiment to a great extent untried by me; but it does not avail me that they have tried it.
老 人说你不能做的事，你不妨试一试，却发现是你自己能做的。我在这 个星球上已生活过三十多年，还没有听到我的长辈说过一句话，可谓有价 值的乃至于热忱的忠告。这就是生活，一个在很大程度上我还没有尝试过的实 验；他们倒是尝试过了，但对我丝毫无益。
One farmer says to me, "You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones with"; and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying his system with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering  plow  along  in  spite  of  every  obstacle.  
有一个农夫对我说：“你不能光吃蔬菜过活，因为蔬菜对骨头毫无 营养可言。”于是，他虔诚地奉献一部分时间，给自己的骨骼系统提供 滋养；他一边说，一边跟在耕牛后头，而他的那头耕牛就靠蔬菜长成的 骨头，正不顾一切障碍，使劲儿拖着它和它的耕犁往前赶。
Some  things  are  really necessaries of life in some circles, which in others are luxuries merely, and in others still are entirely unknown.
有些东西在 某些人圈子里，确实是生命的必需品，但换了一个圈子，却仅仅成了奢 侈品，要是再换一个圈子，则完全成了未知之物。
The whole ground of human life seems to some to have been gone over by their predecessors, and all things to have been cared for. Hippocrates has even left directions how we should cut our nails; that is, even with the ends of the fingers,  neither  shorter  nor  longer. 
整个人类生活领域，不论山巅还是峡谷，在有些人看来，已被前 人涉足过，对所有问题也都关注过。希波克拉底。甚至给我们留下了如何剪指甲 的方法，就是说我们的指甲应剪得不可过长，也不可过短，与手指头并 齐。
 Undoubtedly  the very  tedium and  ennui which presume to have exhausted the variety and the joys of life are as old as Adam. But man's capacities have never been measured; nor are we to judge of what he can do by any precedents, so little has been tried.
有人认为如此枯燥与无聊会将生活的多样化和欢乐消耗殆尽，这种 看法毫无疑问如同亚当。一样古老。然而，人的各种能量从来还没有被 估量过；我们也不应该根据任何先例来判断人的能量，尝试过的事委实 太少了。
Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another? Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant? We should live in all the ages of the world in an hour; ay, in all the worlds of the ages.如同我们的各种体制一样，大自然和人生也是形形色 色的。有谁能说清楚别人的一生会有什么样的前景吗？我们在一瞬间彼 此两眼相望，难道说还有什么比这更伟大的奇迹吗？我们应该在一个钟 头里经历这个世界上所有的时代；是的，经历所有时代中所有的世界。
I know of no reading of another's experience so startling and informing as this would be.
我可不知道阅读别人的经验，会令人惊讶而又增长见闻呢°
The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well? 
凡是我的邻居说是好的，大部分在我心目中却认为是坏的，如果 说我有什么要反思，也许反思恰恰是我的正派作风。是给哪个恶魔缠住 了，使我的所作所为如此这般正派来着？
You may say the wisest thing you can, old man—you who have lived seventy years, not without honor of a kind—I hear an irresistible voice which invites me away from all that. One generation abandons the enterprises of another like stranded vessels.
老人啊，那些最睿智的话你尽 管念叨好了——毕竟活了七十岁，活得还算体面——可我听到一种不 可抗拒的声音，要跟这一切离得远远的。一代人抛弃上一代的劳绩，就 像抛弃搁浅了的船。