TED演讲：温和的成功哲学(7)

 　　And I went to talk to them about certain of the great tragedies of Western art. 我去找他们聊聊西方艺术中最伟大的几个悲剧故事。

　　I wanted to see how they would seize the bare bones of certain stories, 我想知道他们会如何露骨地以新闻的方式，

　　if they came in as a news item at the news desk on a Saturday afternoon. 在周日下午的新闻台上呈现这些经典悲剧故事。

　　I mentioned Othello; they'd not heard of it but were fascinated. 我谈到他们从未耳闻的《奥赛罗》，他们啧啧称奇。

　　I asked them to write a headline for the story. 我要求他们以奥赛罗的故事写一句头条。

　　They came up with "Love-Crazed Immigrant Kills Senator's Daughter." Splashed across the headline. 他们写道，“移民因爱生恨，刺杀参议员之女”。大头条。

　　I gave them the plotline of Madame Bovary. Again, a book they were enchanted¹ to discover. 我告诉他们《包法利夫人》的故事，他们再一次感到惊异万分。

　　And they wrote "Shopaholic Adulteress Swallows Arsenic² After Credit Fraud." 他们写道，“不伦购物狂信用欺诈，出墙妇女吞砒霜”。

　　And then my favorite -- they really do have a kind of genius of their own, these guys 我最喜欢的是，这些记者真的很有才，

　　my favorite is Sophocles' Oedipus the King: "Sex With Mum Was Blinding." 我最喜欢的是索福克勒斯的《俄狄浦斯王》：“与母亲的盲目性爱”。

　　In a way, if you like, at one end of the spectrum³ of sympathy, you've got the tabloid⁴ newspaper. 如果同理心的一个极端是这些八卦小报，

　　At the other end of the spectrum, you've got tragedy and tragic⁵ art. 另一个极端便是悲剧和悲剧艺术。

　　And I suppose I'm arguing that we should learn a little bit about what's happening in tragic art. 我想说的是或许我们该从悲剧艺术中学习。

　　It would be insane to call Hamlet a loser. He is not a loser, though he has lost. 你不会说哈姆雷特是个失败者，虽然他失败了，他却不是一个失败者。

　　And I think that is the message of tragedy to us, and why it's so very, very important, I think. 我想这就是悲剧所要告诉我们的，也是我认为非常重要的一点。

　　The other thing about modern society and why it causes this anxiety, is that we have nothing at its center that is non-human. 现代社会让我们焦虑的另一个缘故是，我们除了人类以外没有其它重心。

　　We are the first society to be living in a world where we don't worship anything other than ourselves. 我们是从古至今的第一个无神社会，除了我们自己以外，我们不膜拜任何事物。

　　We think very highly of ourselves, and so we should; we've put people on the Moon, done all sorts of extraordinary things. 我们对自己评价极高，为什么不呢。我们把人送上月球，达成了许多不可思议的事。

　　And so we tend to worship ourselves. 我们习惯崇拜自己。

1 enchanted   

adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• She was enchanted by the flowers you sent her. 她非常喜欢你送给她的花。
• He was enchanted by the idea. 他为这个主意而欣喜若狂。

2 arsenic   

n.砒霜，砷；adj.砷的

参考例句：

• His wife poisoned him with arsenic.他的妻子用砒霜把他毒死了。
• Arsenic is a poison.砒霜是毒药。

3 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

4 tabloid   

adj.轰动性的，庸俗的；n.小报，文摘

参考例句：

• He launched into a verbal assault on tabloid journalism.他口头对小报新闻进行了抨击。
• He believes that the tabloid press has behaved disgracefully.他认为小报媒体的行为不太光彩。

5 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。