評論
打印
Culture
文藝版塊
Book review
書評
Loneliness
孤獨
All by myself
獨身一人
Three books examine the drawbacks and benefits of being alone.
三本書探究了孤獨的好處和壞處。
All the Lonely People. By Sam Carr.
《所有孤獨的人》，薩姆·卡爾著。
Solitude. By Netta Weinstein, Heather Hansen and Thuy-vy Nguyen.
《孤獨》，奈塔·韋恩斯坦、希瑟·漢森、阮翠薇著。
The Triumph of the Slippers. By Pascal Bruckner.
《拖鞋的勝利》，帕斯卡爾·布魯克納著。
William shakespeare, that great coiner, is given credit for the word “lonely”.
偉大的詞匯創造者威廉·莎士比亞因為“孤獨”這個詞而受到贊揚。
Coriolanus, one of his heroes, compares going into exile to a “lonely dragon” retreating to his lair.
科利奧蘭納斯是莎劇的主角之一，他將被流放比作“孤獨的龍”退回自己的巢穴。
The Roman general was talking about a physical state: someone who was lonely was simply alone.
這位羅馬將軍談論的是一種身體狀態：孤獨就是一個人待著。
Then, thanks to the Romantic poets, the word took on emotional overtones.
之后，浪漫主義詩人讓這個詞有了情感色彩。
Loneliness became a condition of the soul.
孤獨成了靈魂的一種狀態。
For William Wordsworth, who famously “wandered lonely as a cloud”, the natural world offered a reprieve from negative feelings of isolation—a host of daffodils could provide “jocund company”.
威廉·華茲華斯有一句著名的詩：“孤獨地漫游，像一朵云。”對他來說，大自然讓他暫時擺脫了孤獨的負面感覺，一大片水仙花也可以是“愉快的伴侶”。
By the early 20th century loneliness was considered one of the defining afflictions of urban life.
到了20世紀初，孤獨被認為是城市生活中最本質的痛苦之一。
Hannah Arendt, a political theorist, lamented that a feeling that was “once a borderline experience usually suffered in certain marginal social conditions like old age, has become an everyday experience of the ever-growing masses”.
政治理論家漢娜·阿倫特哀嘆：“孤獨曾經是一種邊緣體驗，人們通常在老年等邊緣的社會情況下才會有孤獨感，現在這已成為越來越多的人的日常體驗。”
Her concerns resonate today, as loneliness is frequently identified as a serious public-health problem, an epidemic even, that besets the elderly and young alike.
她的擔憂在現在引起了共鳴，因為孤獨經常被認為是一個嚴重的公共健康問題，甚至是一種流行病，困擾著老年人和年輕人。
During the covid-19 pandemic half of Britons reported often feeling lonely; those aged between 16 and 24 struggled the most.
在新冠肺炎期間，有一半的英國人經常感到孤獨，16歲至24歲的人孤獨感最深。
Smartphones, social media, online dating and working from home are all blamed for feelings of alienation.
智能手機、社交媒體、在線約會和居家辦公都因為會帶來孤獨感而受到責備。
Three recent books have taken on the subject.
最近出版的三本書就討論了這個主題。
In “All the Lonely People” Sam Carr, a psychologist, collects stories of individuals who feel cut off or forsaken.
在《所有孤獨的人》中，心理學家薩姆·卡爾收集了那些感覺被孤立或被遺棄的人的故事。
A teenage Afghan refugee struggles to blend in at school in Somerset.
在薩默塞特郡，一名十幾歲的阿富汗難民努力融入學校。
An octogenarian languishes in a retirement home.
一位八十多歲的老人在養老院里日益衰老。
Mr Carr handles this material sensitively, weaving their experiences together with his own, in particular his role as a single parent.
卡爾帶著細膩的情感去處理這些材料，將他們的經歷與自己的經歷結合，特別是他作為單親父親的角色。
The author evokes the pain of bereavement, heartbreak and childhood trauma and underlines the stigma attached to being withdrawn and friendless.
作者喚起了失去親人、心碎和童年創傷帶來的痛苦，并強調了性格孤僻和沒有朋友所附帶的羞恥感。
Somehow, the book is not an unbearably bleak read, but you do wonder whether loneliness is just an unavoidable part of the human condition.
不知何故，這本書讀起來并不是陰郁到讓人無法忍受，但你確實想知道，孤獨是否只是人類境況中不可避免的一部分。
The range of testimonies also suggests that loneliness is not a single feeling so much as a name for a medley of emotions and unsatisfied appetites.
書中的一系列自述還表明，孤獨不是一種單一的感覺，而是各種混雜的情緒和未滿足的渴望的名字。
