What has been the most challenging aspects of the current Coronavirus foryou? For some, it has been thedevastating losses that they’ve endured. Is there any meaning to their suffering and loss? This is eternal question that bedevils usall. For the majority of us, thechallenge has been how to live our lives during this crisis? If we broaden the scope of our reflection,the challenge and opportunity has always been, how to live out this precious gift of life that we’ve been given? It’sjust that this current crisis has brought this challenge into a more immediate focus.
對于當下冠狀病毒疫情，你覺得最為挑戰的有哪些呢？
對于一些人來說，最為挑戰之處就在于，他們經受著此次疫情帶來的毀滅性的損失，那這些人的苦痛和損失又意味著什麼呢？
這是一個問題，一直困擾著世間眾人。而對于我們大部分人來說，最為挑戰的就是如何在這次疫情中生存下來。若是我們將反思范圍不斷擴大，就會想到一直以來，我們的機遇挑戰就是：怎樣將上天賜予的寶貴生命活出精彩來。當下，這次疫情讓這個挑戰變成了大家都關心的問題。
For many, myself included, the living out our lives during this currentcrisis has been compared to a jail house experience. Though if we are honest, the experience ismore like that of a house arrest as opposed to a full-on prison experience. But don’t tell that to the thousands of individuals confined to the Diamond Princess, currently docked in Yokohama,Japan. Many of them are going out oftheir minds and regard their cruise ship as a floating prison. For a fortunate few, they have a balcony totake in fresh air. Others paid more fora small window sea view for which I imagine they are now quite gratefulfor. Then there are those who are locked in internal cabins without a view. How intolerable. And all of them are residing in rooms that are slightly larger than a jail cell. But even so, they are living in more comfort than the vast crew who are living below the waterline in quarters that are much more compact. It is my sincere hope that the people stuck in Wuhan and the Diamond Princess will be able to end their confinement soon!
對于大多數人來說，當然也包括我自己，應對疫情時的生活可謂是“家中蹲牢”。不過憑心而論，這更像是一種居家憩息，而非全天候坐牢。
但是對于鉆石公主號船上被困住的一千人來說，可千萬別用這樣的說辭。目前，鉆石公主號停靠在日本的橫濱港。船上的大多數人們都已經瘋了，并把他們乘坐的郵輪看作一個漂浮著的監獄。
對于少數幸運的乘客來說，他們在船上的房間還配有陽臺，可以呼吸新鮮空氣。還有一些乘客，當時加錢要了一個配有觀海景小窗子的房間，估計他們現在很慶幸當時選了這樣房間。當然，還有一些乘客住在沒有任何窗戶的房間中。
無論如何，這樣的日子總歸是難熬的，因為所有乘客所住的房間其實比那一方囹圄大不了多少。即使如此，船上職員們還是只有擠在水平面下的更為密集小房間里，與這些人相比，乘客們的住宿環境要舒適的多了。我誠摯的希望，被困在武漢和鉆石公主號的人們都能早日結束這樣的閉關時日！
As for the rest of us, we can now empathize more with those who are incarcerated. Even though to varying degrees, we are freeto leave our residences to go outside, doing so is not without risk. So for the majority of us, we are confined to our homes with lots of time>
What the prisoners at Shawshank Prison are facing is the same thing that we are all facing: Existential Vacuum. The concept of existential vacuum is advanced by Victor Frankl, the founder of Logotherapy. Frankl was a psychiatrist who knows a thingor two about prison time. He survivedthe concentration camps but lost his entire family to the holocaust. Frankl believed that existential vacuum is awidespread phenomenon of the twentieth century. Another term for this phenomenon of emptiness is “Sunday Neurosis,” akind of depression which affects people who become aware of the lack of contentin their lives when the rush of the busy week is over and the void within themselves become manifest. Not a fewcases of suicide can be traced back to this existential vacuum. In his best-selling book Man’s Search for Meaning Frankl wrote:
此時，我們正面臨著與肖申克監獄里的犯人所面臨的同樣問題：“存在空虛”。這個概念最早由意義治療法創始人維克多·弗蘭克爾提出。
弗蘭克爾是一名對納粹監獄生活略知一二的精神病醫生。他在納粹集中營里幸存了下來，但他的家人都在一次大屠殺中死去了。弗蘭克爾認為存在真空是二十世紀普遍存在的一種現象。
這種空虛現象又被稱為是“星期天神經官能癥”，這是一種抑郁癥，當忙碌的一周結束時人們會變得十分空虛，并意識到自己在生活中所缺乏的東西。但這種抑郁癥很少引起患者自殺。弗蘭克爾在他的的暢銷書《活出生命的意義》中談道：
At the beginning of human history, man lost some of the basic animalinstincts in which an animal’s behavior is imbedded and by which it is secured(such security, like Paradise, is closed to man forever; man has to make choices. Think Adam and Eve and theGarden of Eden). No instinct tells himwhat he has to do, and no tradition tells him what he ought to do; sometimes he does not even know what he wishes to do. Instead, he either wishes to do what other people do (conformism) or he does what other people wish him to do (totalitarianism).
在人類歷史的開端，人類失去了一些動物的基本本能，而這些本能是動物行為的基礎和保證（這就像天堂永遠不會對活人開放；人類必須做出選擇。想想亞當、夏娃以及伊甸園吧）。沒有本能告訴他該做什麼，也沒有傳統告訴他該做什麼；有時他甚至不知道他自己想做什麼。相反，他要麼希望做別人做的事（順應主義），要麼做別人希望他做的事（極權主義）。
Both conformism and totalitarianism were powerfully portrayed in Shawshank Redemption. Andy Dufresne, the protagonist in the movie serves as a beacon for us as to how to deal with>
Furthermore, Man’ssearch for meaning may arouse inner tension rather than inner equilibrium. Such tension is an indispensable prerequisiteof mental health. Frankl taught that:
除此之外，人們對意義的探尋可能會引起內心的緊張而不是平和，這種緊張是心理健康不可或缺的先決條件。弗蘭克爾說：
Mental health is based on a certain degree of tension, the tension between what one has already achieved and what one still ought to accomplish, or the gap between what one is and what one should become. Such tensionis inherent in the human being and therefore is indispensable to mentalwellbeing. We should not, then, be hesitant about challenging man with a potential meaning for him to fulfill.
心理健康是建立在一定程度的緊張之上的，這種緊張在于一個人已經取得的成就和他應該取得的成就之間，或者在于他現在的樣子和他應該成為的樣子之間。這種緊張是人類固有的，因此它對心理健康來說必不可少。我們應該毫不猶豫地挑戰一個具有潛在意義去實現自我的人。
What man actually needsis not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for aworthwhile goal, a freely chosen task.
人真正需要的不是一種毫無緊張的狀態，而是一種為一個有價值的目標，一個有自由選擇的任務而奮斗的狀態。
And one should not think that this holds true only for normal conditions; in neurotic individuals,it is even more valid. If architects want to strengthen a decrepit arch, the increase the load which is laid uponit, for thereby the parts are joined more firmly together. So if therapist wish to foster their patient’s mental health, they should not be afraid to create a sound amount oftension through a reorientation toward the meaning of one’s life.
人們不應該認為這只適用于正常情況;對于神經質的人來說，這甚至更有效。如果建筑師想要加固一個破舊的拱門，就要增加施加在其上的荷載，因為這樣各個部分才能更牢固地連接在一起。因此，如果治療師希望促進他們的病人的心理健康，他們則不應該害怕通過對人生意義的重新定位來制造適量的緊張感。
According to Frankl,there is nothing in the world, that would so effectively help one to surviveeven the worse conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’slife. There is much wisdom in the wordsof Nietzsche: “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” In Frankl’s Nazi concentration camp experience, he could see that those who knew that there was a task waiting forthem to fulfill were most apt to survive.
弗蘭克爾認為，世界上沒有什麼比讓一個人知道生命的意義，更能有效地幫助他在最惡劣的環境中生存下來的事了。尼采的話中有很多智慧:“一個人知道自己為什麼而活,就可以忍受任何一種生活。”從弗蘭克在納粹集中營的經歷中，他可以得知，那些知道有一項任務正等著他們去完成的人最容易活下來。
So as may of us arestruggling to come up with how we will pass our time, have we found the whyfor which we are struggling? As for me,as written in the previous essay, I have tried my best to take advantage ofthis extended time of solitude to work on additional writing and video lectureprojects. This current essay is an extension of one of my writing projects. And I’m embracing my nerdiness for in addition to catching up on moviesand videos that I’ve compiled in my “To-Watch” List, I also I enjoy producing educational videos. Some play video games, I enjoy producing educational videos. Is this the best use of my time?
就像有相當一部分人可能總是在如何消磨時光這個問題上掙扎一樣，我們并不了解人們為什麼要為這個問題掙扎的原因，難道不是嗎？
對我來說，像之前論文所寫的一樣，我總是力圖充分利用獨處所多出來的時間去完成更多一些的寫作和視頻課程項目的制作。現在這個論文就是我的寫作項目中的一個部分的延伸。我的書呆子氣使我不但要趕著完成“要看”的清單上堆列的電影和視頻的觀看，還要迫使我盡力的享受著制作教育視頻的樂趣！這是最好的利用時間的方式嗎？
Consider the followingthought experiment proposed by the well-known existential philosopher FredrichNietzsche. In his first book Thus Spake Zarathustra, Nietzsche posed a challenge: What if you were to livethe identical life again and again throughout eternity – how would that changeyou?
思考和分析一下由著名的存在主義哲學家弗里德里希·威廉·尼采提出的以下思想實驗。尼采在《查拉圖斯特拉如是說》中提出了一個挑戰：假如你一遍又一遍地生活在完全相同的生活里，直至不朽– 那會如何改變你?
What if some day or night, a demon were to steal after you into yourloneliest loneliness and say to you: “This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to liveonce more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, butevery pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterable small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence – even this spider and this moonlight between the treesand even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and youwith it, speck of dust!” Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: “You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.” If this thought gained possession of you, it would change you as you are, or perhaps crush you.
假如惡魔在某一天或某一個晚上，闖入你最難耐的寂寞中，對你說：
“你現在的生活，和你曾經經歷過的生活，你將必須再一次的經歷，周而復始的經歷；絕無新意，你生活中的每一樣痛苦、快樂、思想、嘆息，一切渺小或偉大的事情都會重返你的身上，并以同樣的順序降臨 – 甚至是這只蜘蛛，這林間的月光，甚至是你我現在交談的瞬間。存在的不朽沙漏反復的上下倒置，你仿佛一顆沙粒置身其中。”
你會不會不把自己扔入這個深淵，并咬牙切齒的咒罵這個跟你說這些話的惡魔？還是你曾經歷過一個重大的時刻，所以你回答他：“你是一個神，我從來沒有聽到比這更神圣的了。”如果這個想法壓制了你，那麼它會改變你，說不定會把你碾的粉碎。
What Nietzsche proposed as a thoughexperiment is to some extent being actualized now. Given the limitations imposed through thepractice of self-quarantine, I find that I am living pretty much the same dayover and over again without knowing when it will end. What Nietzsche is challenging us to think about or reflect upon now is, how am I finding it such that I am living the same day over and over again? We often hear the phrase to live everyday as if it was my last. Nietzsche’s iteration is can I truly be happy to live the same day over a thousand times. For me, the experience has not been as divine or blissful as Nietzscheproposed. I enjoy writing and video editing, but frankly it has gotten old and stale. Not that I would make other choices for writing and video editing is my form of building a library in prison. But at the same time, I yearn to go and play tennis and resume my ballroom dance lessons – pastime activities that I’ve taken for granted before. Similarly, I’mitching to travel abroad, especially since my Spring Festival Retreat in thePhilippines was cancelled. The funny thing is, if I were not so confined and restricted, I probably would simply choose to stay home and pass my days with the same routines that I’m basically engaged in now. However, the limitation of an experience increases the enjoyment of that experience. It’s more meaningful and desirable because it is limited. The poet Rainer Maria Wilkewrote, “beauty is but the start of terror.” We all desire what we cannot have. There is an existential abyss between I Want and I Must. Now that I “Must” stay home, my desire (Want)to get away from home is ever increased. If I had no such limitations, my experience of staying at home remain sun reflected, meaningless, and taken for granted. This is the gift of confinement, limitationand what death awareness can bring to us. If we are willing to reflect, perhaps this is the hidden gift concealedin the current Coronavirus Crisis. Whatever the case, I know I’m going to enjoy that first pizza I have(insert your favorite thing that is being kept from you during this crisis) whenall this is over. Until then, let’s allbuild our libraries in the midst of confinement.
尼采提出的實驗在某種程度上現在正在實現著。由于自我隔離的限制，我發現自己一次又一次地過著同樣的日子，卻不知道它何時會結束。尼采讓我們思考和反思的是，我是如何發現我一直重復著同樣的日子？
我們經常聽到“把每一天都當作生命的最后一天”這句話。尼采的迭代是，我能真正快樂地生活在同一天一千次以上嗎？對我來說，這段經歷并不像尼采所說的那樣神圣或幸福。
這段時間，我享受著寫作和視頻編輯，但坦率地說，它已經過時了。并不是說我在寫作和視頻編輯之外沒有其他選擇，我的方式是“在監獄里建立一座圖書館”。
但與此同時，我渴望去打網球，重新開始我的交際舞課——這在以前我理所當然地認為是消磨時間的活動。同樣，我也渴望出國旅游，尤其是我在菲律賓的春節休假被取消以來。有趣的是，如果我沒有那麼被限制和束縛，我可能只會選擇呆在家里，用我現在基本上正在從事的、同樣的例行公事來度過我的日子。
然而，一種體驗的局限性增加了這種體驗的樂趣。它更有意義，更令人向往，因為它是有限的。
詩人賴內·馬利亞·里爾克（Rainer Maria Wilke）寫道：“美不過是恐怖的開始。”（原句典出《杜伊諾哀歌第一首》：“美不是什麼，而是我們剛好可以承受的恐怖的開始。”——譯者注）我們都渴望得不到的東西。
在“我想要”和“我必須”之間有一個存在的深淵。既然我“必須”呆在家里，我想離開家的愿望就越來越強烈。如果我沒有這些限制，我呆在家里的經驗仍然沒有反映，沒有意義，被認為是理所當然的。這是禁閉、限制的禮物，也是死亡意識可以帶給我們的。如果我們愿意反思，也許這就是目前冠狀病毒危機中隱藏的禮物。
無論如何，我知道當這一切結束后，我將會享用我的第一個披薩（此處可改寫為你最喜歡的、但在危機期間一直遠離的東西）。在那之前，讓我們所有人都在監禁中建造我們的圖書館。
