英國作家艾倫狄波頓(Alain de Botton)創辦的The School of Life有一系列趣味雋永的哲思影片，鑑於有許多影片尚未有中文字幕，縱使我看得點頭如搗蒜，心有戚戚焉，親友們因語言隔閡而不了解影片內容，總令人心中有那麼一絲遺憾。所以我打算著手替這些值得一看再看再思考的影片上中文字幕（也順便當練功，哈哈哈），希望這些充滿智慧、幽默與美感的思想能讓更多人看見。
英文字幕逐字稿／Lingyuzi Alufai 中文翻譯／Lingyuzi Alufai
We are often taught that the best way to
prove attractive is to smile. The idea feels logical, and for the most part,
highly appropriate. But it shouldn’t blind us to the occasional claims of a
contrary minority approach.
社會一再地教育我們，微笑是魅力的最佳證明。這種思維乍看合理，甚至挺有正當性。但我們不能因此忽視另一種截然不同的少數聲音。
This one is founded on an awareness that
friendship between people is ultimately based not on boosterish accounts of
recent triumphs, but on possibility of shared grief, sadness and melancholy.
This may explain the surprisingly intense charm of attractive people who are resolutely
not smiling, but instead look lost in thoughts, absorbed by their own sorrows,
and taken up with an internal dialogue around pain and loss. They may well pull
a smile if asked, but it would be obviously rather strained, brief, like a
moment of sunshine between dark grey clouds. They are beautiful not despite
their sadness, but however curious it sounds, precisely because of it.
這個聲音認為，短期內的歡騰與勝利不足以建立友誼，一同分享悲傷與哀愁才有可能凝聚人與人之間的情誼。
也許這解釋了，為什麼某些人看來迷失在思緒，沈溺於哀傷，以及圍繞著痛苦與失落的內在對話中，縱使他們堅決不笑，也出乎意料地散發著巨大的魅力。他們也許會應他人要求而強顏歡笑，但是那笑容是明顯不安且短暫的，一如陽光匆匆從烏雲縫隙間露臉的剎那。即使懷有哀傷，他們依舊美麗，甚至可以這麼說，他們正是因為哀傷而美麗。
In the Western artistic tradition, the most
prominent beautiful sad person was, for many centuries, the mother of Jesus. In
many representations, Mary was elegant, serene, and poised. She was also quite
obviously sunk in sorrow and concern. But the sadness did not detract from her
appeal. Rather, it made the viewer feel in the presence of someone who would be
in a position to understand their own sorrows, someone around whom it would not
be necessary to put up a front in the name of seeming normal. Our longing for
love is at heart powered by a desire to be understood and to understand. Given
how much of life is tragic in structure, it follows that, for many of us, the
sort of people we feel readiest to love are not going to be those who find the
business of living obvious or easy, but those who are as puzzled and saddened
by it as we are, those who feel a regular need to withdraw from the sentimental
bonhomie of daily life, those who are alive to anxiety and catastrophe, and who
may, like us, frequently feel close to tears at so much that is regretful and
sad.
這種因哀傷而美麗的人物，在西方的藝術傳統裡，最著名的就是耶穌的母親：聖母瑪莉亞。在許多作品中，瑪莉亞顯得優雅、平靜、沈著，同時也深深沈陷於憂傷。但憂傷絲毫不減她的魅力。觀看者反而會因此覺得，眼前此人了解他們的悲傷，在她面前，沒有必要為了顯得正常而有所偽裝。說穿了，因為我們想要被瞭解，也想去瞭解他人的渴望，所以產生了對愛的嚮往。有鑒於生命不可避免的悲劇性質，對大多數的我們來說，我們最容易愛上的人，不是那些將活著這件差事視為輕而易舉之輩，而是那些和我們一樣，被生命所困惑、傷心的人。他們需要定時抽離日常生活中令人傷感的幸福快樂；他們對焦慮和災難有所意識；而且或許和我們一樣，常常因許多令人悔恨與傷感的事物，幾乎潸然淚下。
We have been keen to pathologize and medicalize
expressions of unhappiness. And our ideals of physical beauty have kept pace
with our prejudices. Our billboards and movies loudly proclaims the virtues of
glowing contentment, but we are in danger of missing out one of the richest
sources of beauty, which is when our faces drop their usual masks, and visually
acknowledge the pain of existence – a moment of honesty and vulnerability on
the basis of which true friendship and love can arise.
我們急切地想將所有不快樂的徵象病態化、醫療化。我們對美麗體態的理想同樣也帶有這種偏見—— 我們的看板和電影大肆宣揚熱情洋溢、快樂滿足的美好，但是這樣的危險之處在於，我們將忽略「美」最豐富深刻的源頭之一，也就是當我們的臉龐放下平時的偽裝，並且認可生存之痛的時刻—— 一個屬於誠實與脆弱的時刻，也是真實的友誼與愛能夠發生的時刻。
