Sadness is part of the human experience,?but for centuries there has? been vast disagreement over what exactly it is and what, if anything, to do about it.

In its simplest terms, sadness is often thought of as the natural reaction? to a difficult situation.

vast?disagreement? ?巨大的爭(zhēng)論

You feel sad when a friend moves away or when a pet dies.

When a friend says, "I'm sad," you often respond by asking, "What happened?"

But your assumption that sadness has an external cause outside the self is a relatively new idea.

They believed it was a dark fluid inside the body. According to their humoral system, the human body and soul were controlled by four fluids, known as humors, and their balance directly influenced a person's health and temperament.

Melancholia comes from melaina kole, the word for black bile, the humor believed to cause sadness.

humor??n.幽默；詼諧? humors? 體液? ? ?humoral? 體液的

temperament? ?n.氣質(zhì)，性格；

Melancholia? ?n.<舊>憂郁，憂郁癥，抑郁癥

bile? ?n.膽汁；憤怒

By changing your diet and through medical practices, you could bring your humors into balance.

Even though we now know much more about the systems?that govern the human body, these Greek ideas about sadness resonate with current views, not on the sadness we all occasionally feel, but on clinical depression.

resonate? ?v.發(fā)出回響，回蕩；充滿，彌漫（某種特質(zhì)）；引起共鳴；產(chǎn)生（電或機(jī)械）共振

clinical? ?adj.診所的，醫(yī)務(wù)室的；臨床的，臨床診斷的；冷靜的，無(wú)感情的；簡(jiǎn)陋的，無(wú)裝飾的；精確的，嫻熟的

Doctors believe that certain? kinds of long-term, unexplained emotional states are at least partially related to brain chemistry, the balance of various chemicals? present inside the brain.

Like the Greek system,?changing the balance of these chemicals can deeply alter how we respond to even extremely difficult circumstances.

There's also a long tradition of attempting to discern?the value of sadness, and in that discussion, you'll find a strong argument that sadness is not only an inevitable part of life but an essential one.

If you've never felt melancholy, you've missed out on part of what it means to be human.

discern? ?v看出，覺(jué)察出；了解，認(rèn)識(shí)

Many thinkers contend that melancholy is necessary in gaining wisdom.

Robert Burton, born in 1577,?spent his life studying the causes and experience of sadness.

In his masterpiece "The Anatomy of Melancholy," Burton wrote, "He that increaseth wisdom increaseth sorrow."

The Romantic poets of? the early 19th century?believed melancholy allows us to more deeply understand other profound emotions, like beauty and joy.

To understand the sadness of the trees losing their leaves in the fall?is to more fully understand the cycle of life that brings flowers in the spring.

But wisdom and emotional intelligence seem pretty high on the hierarchy of needs.

Does sadness have value on a more basic, tangible,?maybe even evolutionary level?

profound??adj.（影響）深刻的，極大的；（感情）強(qiáng)烈的，深切的；（思想）深邃的，（見(jiàn)解）深刻的

emotional intelligence? 情商

?hierarchy??n.等級(jí)制度；統(tǒng)治集團(tuán)；等級(jí)體系

?tangible??adj.明確的，真實(shí)的；可觸摸的，可感知的

Scientists think that crying and feeling withdrawn is what originally helped our ancestors secure social bonds and helped them get the support they needed.

Sadness, as opposed to anger or violence, was an expression of suffering?that could immediately bring people closer to the suffering person, and this helped both the person and the larger community to thrive.

withdrawn??adj.沉默寡言的；與世隔絕的? withdraw? v.??提，取（銀行賬戶中的錢(qián)款）；停止提供，不再給予； 退出，不參加；

Perhaps sadness helped generate the unity we needed to survive, but many have wondered whether the suffering felt by others is anything like the suffering we experience ourselves.

The poet Emily Dickinson wrote, "I measure every Grief I meet With narrow, probing Eyes - wonder if it weighs like MIne - Or has an Easier size."

“我瞇著眼視察每個(gè)我所遇見(jiàn)的悲痛-心想它是否和我的一樣重-或者只是小如橡皮。”

And in the 20th century, medical anthropologists, like Arthur Kleinman, gathered evidence from the way people talk about pain to suggest that emotions aren't universal at all, and that culture, particularly the way we use language, can influence how we feel.

在20世紀(jì)，像Arthur Kleinman這樣的人類醫(yī)學(xué)家，收集了人們闡述自己悲傷的方式作為證據(jù)來(lái)證明感情其實(shí)根本不是普遍的，而且文化，尤其是我們使用語(yǔ)言的方式，都會(huì)影響到我們所感所受

When we talk about heartbreak, the feeling of brokenness? becomes part of our experience, where as in a culture that talks? about a bruised heart, there actually seems to be a different subjective experience.

Some contemporary thinkers? aren't interested in sadness' subjectivity? versus universality, and would rather use technology to eliminate suffering in all its forms.

bruised??adj.青腫的；瘀紫的

contemporary? ?adj.當(dāng)代的，現(xiàn)代的；

David Pearce has suggested that genetic engineering and other contemporary processes cannot only alter the way humans experience emotional and physical pain, but that world ecosystems?ought to be redesigned so that animals don't suffer in the wild.

He calls his project? "paradise engineering."

But is there something sad about a world without sadness?

Our cavemen ancestors and favorite poets might not want any part? of such a paradise.

In fact, the only things about sadness that seem universally agreed upon are that it has been felt by most people throughout time, and that for thousands of years, one of the best ways we have to deal with this difficult emotion is to articulate it, to try to express what feels inexpressable.

articulate? ?v.明確表達(dá)，清楚說(shuō)明；

In the words of Emily Dickinson, "'Hope' is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul -

"And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all -"

feather? ?n.羽毛

perch? ?v.（鳥(niǎo)）棲息，停留；（尤指人在高處或很窄的地方）稍坐，暫歇；（建筑物）坐落于……的上方（或邊緣）；把……平穩(wěn)置于，使坐落于

? ? ? ? ? n.（鳥(niǎo)的）棲木，棲枝；高處，高位；

用Emily Dickinson的話說(shuō)，“’希望‘是有翅膀的東西-在靈魂里窺視，它歌唱著沒(méi)有文字的旋律-而且永不停息-”?