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Soren Kierkegaard was a brilliant, gloomy, anxiety-ridden, often hilarious Danish 19th century philosopher.
索伦·克尔凯戈尔是位才气焕发，带着忧郁、焦虑，却又带点喜感的19世纪丹麦哲学家。
The author of 22 books, of which 3 continue to make his name.
他一共出版了22本书，至今持续以其中三本书闻名。
He was born in an immensely wealthy family in Copenhagen in 1813, the youngest of 7 children.
他1813年出生于哥本哈根的一个富裕家庭，在7个孩子中排行老幺。
Death was around him constantly from a young age, and was to obsess him throughout his career.
他自小对死亡不陌生，这个主题也持续出现在他的著作中。
It is, in a sense, his only theme.
“死亡”在某种意义上来说，是他唯一拿手的题材。
Not only was he extremely physically frail, by the time he was 22, all his siblings had died except for he and a brother.
他不只体弱多病，22岁时，除了他和一个哥哥，其他手足都纷纷离开人世。
It drove him to furious production of books over 15 years.
历经这般痛苦的他在接下来的15年间疯狂地写作出书。
On a single day in 1843 he published no less than 3 works.
1843年中的某一天中他就出版了不止三本文学作品。
He wasn't writing for the money; he was working to save himself, and, he thought, humanity.
他并非为钱而作，他写作的目的是想要救赎自己，救赎人性。
As it happened, he made it to the age of 42, then died of an excruciating spinal disease.
不巧地，他活到42岁，之后就死于让他痛苦万分的脊椎疾病。
In "Either Or" and "Fear and Trembling", what Kierkegaard wants to do above all is wake up and give up our cozy sentimental illusions.
《非此即彼》与《恐惧与战栗》两本著作中，克尔凯戈尔最想做的即是摇醒世人，要我们扬弃安逸的生活态度，并抛下那些多愁善感的错觉。
He systematically attacks the pillars of modern life:
他有条不紊地攻击现代生活的核心：
our faith in family, our trust in work, our attachment to love, and our general sense that life has purpose and meaning.
我们对家庭的信仰，对工作的死忠，对爱情的依恋以及认为人生有所意义的普世价值。
His enemies were the smug in all their guises, particularly, the prosperous Danish haute bourgeoisie, and the members of the established Danish church.
他的敌人是那些自命不凡的伪君子，尤其是丹麦富有又时髦的中产阶级，以及天主教堂的成员。
He tells us, "As I grew up I opened my eyes and saw the real world, and I began to laugh and I haven't stopped since.
克尔凯戈尔告诉世人：“我长大，张开我的双眼，看到了真实的世界，我开始大笑，并且再也没停止过。
I saw that the meaning of life was to get a livelihood, that the goal of life was to be a High Court judge,
我所看到人生的意义是为了生计奔波，人生的目标就是成为高等法院法官，
that the brightest joy of love was to marry a well-off girl, that wisdom was what the majority said it was,
而谈恋爱最令人开心的就是能找到一位有钱的女孩结婚，‘智慧’是大多数人都相信的那些道理，
that passion was to give a speech, that courage was to risk being fined ten dollars, that cordiality was to say 'you're welcome' after a meal,
‘热情’是起立并大声发表自己的看法，‘勇气’是冒一个被罚十块钱的风险，‘亲切’是在餐后说声‘不客气’，
and that the fear of God was to go to communion once a year. That's what I saw and I laughed."
并以每年参加一场圣餐礼拜表达对上帝的敬畏，这些是我所见到的真实，因此我笑了出来。”
Kierkegaard was especially caustic about the 19th century understanding of love,
克尔凯戈尔认为19世纪人们对于爱情的认知特别迂腐，
and the new ideology of passionate marriage, which aimed to unite desire with prudence,
此时出现一个认为婚姻必须热情的新思想，结合欲望与慎重的概念，
and suggested that one could enjoy all the thrills of a love affair, and, at the same time, all the stability for long-term relationship.
并指出人们可以尽情享受恋爱所带来的刺激感，同时享受长期关系中拥有的稳定性。
But, Kierkegaard mocked the notion that one could ever fuse romantic laugh with marriage, that one could have passion and sex,
克尔凯戈尔嘲讽这样的观念：人们把爱情跟婚姻混为一谈，认为自己可以享受热情如火的性爱关系，
and, at the same time, children, stability, and routine.
同时养育孩子，过着稳定、一成不变的生活。
He respected both, he just couldn't believe you could have them both at the same time - in a cozy marriage sanctified by the state and the neighborhoods.
两者他都尊重，但是当婚姻是在国家与左邻右舍见证下所结成时，他不相信人们能够两者兼顾。
His belief arose out of his own tortured love life.
克尔凯戈尔如此的信仰源自于自身坎坷的爱情路。
He fell in love with a beautiful, precocious, and talented 18-year-old girl, called Regine Olsen,
他爱上了年轻貌美，心智成熟且才华洋溢的18岁女孩蕾吉娜·奥尔森，
only then to break off the engagement as he realized that to try and live with her forever would also mean killing the love that had drawn him to her.
最终取消了结婚的计划，因为他认清一个事实，如果要试着与她生活一辈子，就意味着当初吸引他的种种情愫终将消失殆尽。
Everywhere he turned, Kierkegaard saw intolerable incompatibilities, and impossible choices.
无论如何，克尔凯戈尔都无法忍受两人之间的不契合，以及困难的选择。
It led him to one memorable explosion in "Either Or": "Marry and you will regret it. Don't marry; you will also regret it."
这也促使他在《非此即彼》中爆发性地写出一段经典语录：“一旦结婚，你就会后悔；不结婚，你也会后悔。”
"Marry or don't marry; you will regret it either way."
“结不结婚，你都会后悔。”
"Laugh at the world's foolishness; you will regret it."
“嘲笑世人的愚蠢，你会后悔。”
"Weep over it; you'll regret that too."
“为此而哭，你也会后悔。”
"Hang yourself; you'll regret it. Don't hang yourself and you'll regret that too."
“上吊吧，你会后悔的；不上吊，你也会后悔。”
"Whether you hang yourself or don't hang yourself, you will regret both."
“上不上吊，你都会后悔。”
"This, gentlemen, is the essence of all philosophy."
“这，各位，就是哲学的精髓。”
The mention of laughter is not a coincidence; key to Kierkegaard's philosophy is that:
他提起“笑”这件事并非巧合，克尔凯戈尔哲学的关键就是：
the only intelligent tactical response to life's horror is to laugh defiantly at it.
面对人生当中的惊悚，唯一有效的策略就是肆无忌惮地大笑响应。
Rarely has a philosopher taken humor as seriously.
很少有哲学家把幽默看得如此重要。
Kierkegaard is often described as the founder of the philosophical movement known as "existentialism",
克尔凯戈尔常被称为存在主义哲学的先驱，
because, in him, we find all the themes that would so interest later thinkers, like Sartre, Camus, and Heidegger.
因为在他的作品中我们看见后世存在主义哲学家感兴趣的题材，这些哲学家包括萨特、加缪和海德格尔。
The book that fascinated the existentialists was Kierkegaard's, "The Concept of Anxiety", published in 1844,
让所有存在主义哲学家都为之着迷的一本书即是克尔凯戈尔在1844年所出版的《恐惧的概念》，
in which he emphasized a new word, "angest", or "angst", as we know it in English, a condition where we understand how many choices we face,
他在书中强调了一个新词“angest”，也就是“焦虑”，这种状态下，我们知道自己面临多少抉择，
and how little understanding we can ever have of how to exercise these choices wisely.
同时却也知道自己永远对于如何有智慧地选择一知半解。
As Kierkegaard wrote, "Life can only be understood backwards, but must be lived forwards".
克尔凯戈尔写道：“若想理解人生，就得往回看；但想体验人生，却得向前看。”
Our constant angst means that unhappiness is more or less written into the script of life, as he wrote,
我们永无止尽的焦虑代表着人生剧本里或多或少都包含着不幸福，他写道：
"anyone who has given the matter any serious thought will know that I'm right when I say,"
“任何一个认真思考过这个问题的人都会同意我所说，”
"it's not possible for anyone to be absolutely, and in every conceivable way, completely content,"
“任何人都不可能绝对、彻底地感到真正且完全的满足，”
"not even for a single half hour of his life."
“就连只是人生中的半小时也不可能。”
"No one has come into the world without crying. No one asks when you want to enter the world; no one asks when you want to leave."
“所有人来到世上时都在哭泣，没有人问过你何时想诞生在这个世界上，也没有人问你何时想离开。”
"How empty and meaningless life is; we bury a person, throw three shovels of earth over him,"
“人生是多么的空虚、无意义；我们埋葬一个人，把几铲土倒在他身上，”
"drive out in a coach, drive back in a coach, and console ourselves that we still have life enough left to live."
“驾着马车，去了又回，并且安慰自己，我们还剩下足够的时间可以活。”
"But really, how long is three score and ten; why not just get it over with straight away?"
“说实在的，人生也没多长，为何不早点了结就好？”
For Kierkegaard there was, however, one answer that he put forward ever more stridently in his later works: Jesus Christ.
然而，克尔凯戈尔的心中有一个答案，他也在晚期的著作中强力提倡，也就是“耶稣基督”。
Kierkegaard loathed the Christianity of the established Danish church,
克尔凯戈尔鄙视丹麦教会所倡导的基督教精神，
but he adored the simple truths of the Gospels that his father taught him as a boy.
却爱好从小父亲教导他关于福音里那些简单的事实。
For him, Christianity was a religion of extreme surrender to a theology of almost peasantlike simplicity:
对他来说，基督教的创立是一个神学上很大的让步，教义简单得一般市井小民都能理解：
one was to be ready to die for Christ, to give up all attachment to worldly things, and to love all humans like one's siblings.
人们必须随时准备好为上帝牺牲，放弃世俗所有羁绊，并且像对待自己手足般友爱所有世人。
Kierkegaard wasn't interested in justifying his attachment to Christianity through rational means;
克尔凯戈尔并不想将自己对于基督教的情感理性化，
instead, he recommended a dramatic and now famous 'leap of faith',
取而代之，他提出一个戏剧性的概念，也就是现在著名的“信仰的跳跃”，
wherein one wouldn't apply one's puny mind to attempting to prove the existence of God, one would merely switch off one's faulty rational faculties,
即一个人不以自己微弱的心智力量，来尝试证明上帝的存在，他会停止使用自己那本身就有瑕疵的判断能力，
and jump into the idea of God as the total solution.
直接将上帝当作所有疑难杂症的解答。
As he put it, "To have faith is to lose your mind and to win God".
克尔凯戈尔写道：“想拥有信仰，就必须抛弃理智，并赢得上帝的认同。”
Like Marxist communism, Kierkegaard's solutions to the problems of being human are far less convincing and interesting than the diagnoses of our ills;
就像马克思的共产主义，克尔凯戈尔对于人生烦恼的解决方案远远不比他对于人生所做微妙且贴切的观察，
few of us now make that leap, but Kierkegaard deserves our attention for the beautifully bitter, caustic look he casts on the human condition.
现在很少人会做出信仰的跳跃了，但是克尔凯戈尔值得我们留意，他为人生写下的注释，美丽却又带点苦涩，其中充满忧郁气息。
He's one of the few philosophers one can turn to when the world has badly let us down, and we're in need of a friend who can fully understand the dark places we're in once the sentimental illusions, that normally keep us going, fall away.
当这个世界令我们心灰意冷，需要朋友支持时，他是少数能帮助我们的哲学家之一，他能全然了解，一旦那些平常身为精神支柱的梦幻泡影都逐渐淡去之后，我们所处的黑暗深渊。
