想太多的危险；以及想太少的危险：英语精读讲义

Thinking about ourselves, our feelings, our past, our desires, and our hopes

思考我们自己、我们的感受、我们的过去、我们的渴望和我们的希望

is a hugely tricky task

是一项极其棘手的任务

that most of us spend a good deal of effort trying very hard to avoid. 短語搭配

我们大多数人都花费大量精力极力逃避。

We keep away from ourselves 習語

我们刻意远离自己

because so much of what we could discover

因为我们可能发现的很多东西

threatens to be painful.

可能会带来痛苦。

We might find that we were in the background 習語

我们可能会发现，在内心的角落里

deeply furious with and resentful about certain people 短語搭配

我们对某些人充满了深深的愤怒和怨恨

we were only meant to love. 語法

即使我们本该去爱他们。

We might discover how much ground there was

我们可能会发现，有很多理由

to feel inadequate and guilty

让我们感到不胜任和内疚

on account of the many errors and misjudgments 短語搭配

因为那些许多错误和误判

we've made.

都是我们亲手造成的。

We might find that though we wanted to be decent,

我们可能会发现，尽管我们想成为体面、

law-abiding people,

守法的人，

we harbored fantasies that went 短語搭配

但我们却在心里滋生了

in appallingly deviant and aberrant directions.

极其偏离正轨和反常的幻想。

We might recognize how much was

我们可能会意识到，到底有多少事物

nauseatingly compromised and needed to be changed

是令人作呕的妥协，且急需改变，

about our relationships and our careers.

包括我们的关系和我们的事业。

We don't only have a lot to hide.

我们不仅有很多需要隐藏的东西。

We are liars of genius. 習語

我们还是天才般的骗子。

It is part of the human tragedy

这是人类悲剧的一部分，

that we are such natural self-deceivers.

那就是我们天生就擅长自欺欺人。

Our techniques are multiple and close to invisible.

我们的手段多种多样，几乎不露痕迹。

Two are worth focusing on in particular: 表達脈絡

尤其有两个值得关注：

our habit of thinking too much

我们的想得太多的习惯

and our habit of thinking too little.

以及我们的想得太少的习惯。

When we think too much,

当我们想得太多时，

in essence, we're filling our minds 表達脈絡

从本质上讲，我们是在让大脑

with impressive ideas,

填满看似了不起的想法，

which blatantly announce our intelligence to the world, 表達脈絡

以此向世界明目张胆地炫耀我们的聪明才智，

but subtly ensure we won't have much room left

却又巧妙地确保我们不会留下太多空间

to rediscover long-distant feelings of ignorance or confusion

去重新发现那些久远的无知或困惑感，

upon which the development of our personalities 語法

尽管我们人格的发展

may nevertheless rest.

也许正是建立在这些感受之上。

We perhaps write dense books on the role of government bonds

我们可能会写出关于政府债券作用的厚重著作

in the Napoleonic Wars

背景是拿破仑战争时期

or publish extensively on Chaucer's influence

或者广泛发表有关乔叟影响力的文章

on the mid-19th century Japanese novel.

探讨他对19世纪中期日本小说的影响。

We secure degrees from institutes of advanced study

我们从高等研究院获得学位

or positions on editorial boards of scientific journals.

或在科学期刊的编辑委员会任职。

Our minds are crammed with arcane data. 短語搭配

我们的头脑中塞满了晦涩难懂的数据。

We can wittily inform a dining table of guests

我们可以机智地告诉餐桌上的客人们

who wrote the Enchiridion, Epictetus,

谁写了《手册》，即爱比克泰德，

or the Life and Times of Dogen,

或者是道元的《生平与时代》，

the founder of Zen Buddhism,

这位禅宗的创始人，

but we don't remember very much at all 語法

但我们却几乎不记得

about how life was long ago,

很久以前的生活是怎样的，

back in the old house when father left,

那是在老房子里，当父亲离开，

mother stopped smiling,

母亲不再微笑，

and our trust broke in pieces. 習語

我们的信任碎成一地的时候。

We deploy knowledge and ideas that carry enormous prestige

我们运用带有极大声望的知识和思想

to stand guard against the emergence 習語

来防范它们的出现——

of more humble but essential knowledge

那些更为谦卑却至关重要的知识，

from our emotional past.

源于我们的情感过去。

We bury our personal stories 習語

我们把个人故事埋葬在

beneath an avalanche of expertise.

铺天盖地的专业知识之下。

The possibility of a deeply consequential intimate inquiry

深入且至关重要的私人内省的可能性

is deliberately left to seem feeble and superfluous

被刻意地显得微弱和多余，

next to the supposedly grander task of addressing a conference

相比于那项看似更宏大的任务——在一次会议上发表演讲，

on the political strategies of Dona Maria the First

探讨玛丽亚一世的政治策略

or the life cycle of the Indonesian octopus.

或是印度尼西亚章鱼的生命周期。

We lean on the glamour of being learned 短語動詞

我们依仗着博学的魅力

to make sure we won't need to learn too much that hurts.

以确保我们不需要去了解太多会让人痛苦的事情。

Then there is our habit of thinking too little. 表達脈絡

然后就是我想得太少的习惯。

Here we pretend that we are simpler

在这里，我们假装自己很简单，

than we actually are

比实际情况要简单得多，

and that too much psychology might be nonsense

并且认为过多的心理分析可能是废话，

and fuss about nothing.

纯属无事生非。

We lean on a version of robust common sense

我们依赖一种看似强硬的常识

to ward off intimations of our own awkward complexity. 短語動詞

来抵御对我们自身尴尬复杂性的暗示。

We imply that not thinking very much

我们暗示着，不怎么去思考

is at base evidence of a superior kind of intelligence. 短語搭配

本质上是更高级智慧的证据。

In company, we deploy bluff strategies of ridicule 用詞

在社交场合，我们使用直率的嘲笑策略

against more complicated accounts of human nature.

来反对那些更为复杂的人性解读。

We sideline avenues of personal investigation 用詞

我们将个人探索的途径边缘化，

as unduly fancy or weird,

认为其过于花哨或古怪，

implying that to lift the lid on inner life 習語

暗示着揭开内心生活的盖子

could never be fruitful or entirely respectable.

绝不会有什么收获，甚至完全不体面。

We use the practical mood of Monday morning

我们用周一早上的务实情绪

9:00 a.m.

上午9点

to ward off complex insights of 3:00 a.m.

来抵挡凌晨3点的复杂领悟

the previous night,

在前一天的深夜，

when the entire fabric of our existence

那时我们整个存在的结构

came into question against the backdrop of a million stars 短語搭配

在一百万颗星星的背景下受到了质疑

spread like diamonds on a mantle of black velvet. 習語

那些星星像钻石一样洒落在黑色天鹅绒的披风上。

Deploying an attitude of vigorous common sense,

摆出强有力的常识态度，

we strive to make our moments of radical disquiet 語法

我们努力使极度不安的时刻

seem like aberrations rather than the central occasions

看起来像是异常情况，而不是核心的契机，

of insight they might actually be.

即使它们实际上可能是顿悟的时刻。

We appeal to the understandable longing 語法

我们诉诸于一种可以理解的渴望，

that our personalities be non-tragic,

即希望我们的人格是不带有悲剧色彩的，

simple, and easily comprehended

简单，且易于理解，

so as to reject the stranger 語法

从而去拒绝那些更陌生

but more useful facts of our real,

但更有用的真实真相，

intricate selves.

即我们错综复杂的自我。

A defense of emotional honesty

捍卫情感上的诚实

has nothing to do with high-minded morality. 短語搭配

与高尚的道德无关。

It's ultimately cautionary and egoistic.

它归根结底是处于谨慎和利己的考虑。

We need to tell ourselves a little bit more of the truth

我们需要告诉自己稍微多一点真相

because we pay too high a price for our lies. 習語

因为我们为谎言付出的代价太高了。

Through our self-deceptions,

通过自我欺骗，

we cut ourselves off from possibilities of growth. 短語動詞

我们切断了自己成长的可能性。

We shut off large portions of our minds

我们关闭了大脑的很大一部分，

and end up uncreative, tetchy and defensive, 短語動詞

结果变得缺乏创造力、易怒和有防御心，

while others around us have to suffer our irritability,

而我们周围的人却不得不忍受我们的暴躁、

gloom, manufactured cheerfulness, 用詞

阴郁、伪装的快活，

or defensive rationalizations.

或是防御性的找借口。

Our neglect of the awkward sides of ourselves

我们对自身尴尬面的忽视

buckles our very being, 習語

会让我们整个身心崩溃，

emerging as insomnia or impotence,

表现为失眠或阳痿，

stuttering or depression,

口吃或抑郁，

revenge for all the thoughts we've been so careful not to have. 習語

这是对所有我们曾极力避免去拥有的想法的报复。

Self-knowledge isn't a luxury so much as a precondition 語法

自我认知与其说是一种奢侈，不如说是一个先决条件

for a measure of sanity and inner comfort.

为了保持一定程度的理智和内心的舒适。

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