When we are thrust out into the world just as we are, we first have to identify with that particular throw of the dice, with that accident organized by the divine computer:to get over our surprise that precisely this (what we see facing us in the mirror) is our self.
(在这个世界中的存在,犹如上帝掷出的一粒骰子,充满了偶然。不仅如此,存在本身还是个奇迹,它于个体而言是个令人眩晕的事实。)
Without the faith that our face expresses our self, without that basic illusion, that archillusion, we cannot live, or at least we cannot take life seriously.
(人与人的面目各不相同,所以在某种意义上face是个标签,将个体存在的唯一性予以认定。唯一性,即有别于他人,是个体存在的必要理由。然而,人是终有一死的动物,在人的范畴中全部的追求超脱(transcendence)的努力终归幻灭,独特性于人而言不过是幻影而已。但是,人又怎么能够不把唯一性当作自我支撑的最后一根稻草呢?人如何甘愿接受自我泯于众人的事实呢?如果那样,人会丧失维持存在的全部勇气,至少不再能够郑重其事地对待自我的存在。)
And it isn't enough for us to identify with our selves, it is necessary to do so passionately, to the point of life and death. Because only in this way can we regard ourselves not merely as a variant of a human prototype but as a being with its own irreplaceable essence.
(若个体将存在的理由寄放在那个幻影之中,那么没有理由不以全部的激情来捍卫之,因为那事关生死。没有人情愿淹没在大众的海洋里,即便他事实上就是在那片浩瀚之中挣扎。谁都更情愿幻想自已是在波涛之间飞翔的海鸟,独享超脱大众的自由。自我或者世界,或者自我和世界,大概是个体的终极之梦。)