Section III Translation

Most people would define optimism as being eternally hopeful, endlessly happy, with a glass that’s perpetually half full. But that’s exactly the kind of false cheerfulness that positive psychologists wouldn’t recommend. “Healthy optimism means being in touch with reality,” says Tal Ben-Shahar, a Harvard professor. According to Ben-Shahar, realistic optimists are those who make the best of things that happen, but not those who believe everything happens for the best.

Ben-Shahar uses three optimistic exercises. When he feels down — say, after giving a bad lecture — he grants himself permission to be human. He reminds himself that not every lecture can be a Nobel winner; some will be less effective than others. Next is reconstruction. He analyzes the weak lecture, learning lessons for the future about what works and what doesn’t. Finally, there’s perspective, which involves acknowledging that in the grand scheme of life, one lecture really doesn’t matter.

在大部分人眼中，乐观主义就意味着永远满怀希望、无忧无虑，遇事只往好的方面想。然而积极心理学专家认为这种乐观只是假象，不建议人们这么做。哈佛大学教授塔尔·本沙哈尔指出：“健康的乐观主义应该是切合实际的。”他认为，现实的乐观主义者会尽力让事事顺利，而不是迷信万事大吉。

本沙哈尔提出了“三步乐观法”。第一步：在碰到例如演讲表现糟糕这种让人沮丧的情况时，他首先会安慰自己人非圣贤，不是所有的演讲都能拿到诺贝尔奖，总会有些演讲的效果不如他人。第二步：重现场景。他会对这次失败的演讲进行分析，总结优缺点，为以后的演讲吸取经验教训。第三步：形成这样一个观念，要明白在生命的宏大蓝图中，一次演讲着实微不足道。

点评：原文是一篇有关“乐观”的议论文，在语言上并没有什么难度，但其中一些表达涉及到文化相关知识，比如“a half-full glass”以及“to be human”等，需要译者理解其中的文化内涵，在翻译时选择合适的策略，准确表达出原文的效果。因此，在平时的练习过程中要注意文化知识的积累，采用灵活的策略和技巧，保证译文内容上的忠实和语言上的流畅。