The history of philosophy has an interesting take on the choice.

直面する大きな疑問の1つは

Two of the greatest thinkers of ancient Greece were Democritus and Heraclitus.

泣くべきか？笑うべきか？ということでしょう。

Both men, who lived to a very old age, had a deep knowledge of people and the world but responded to what they knew in strikingly different ways.

哲学の歴史を見てみると、その選択について面白いことが分かります。

Heraclitus couldn't stop weeping.

古代ギリシャで最も偉大な思想家の2人と言えば

Democritus couldn't stop laughing.

デモクリトスとヘラクレイトスです。

It's obvious why Heraclitus cried.

2人とも長生きし、人々や世界に関して深い知識を持っていましたが

Once we open our eyes fully to the reality of existence it's astonishing we can ever carry on.

知っている事柄に対して

There is simply so much to be sad about.

著しく異なる反応を示しました。

The human animal is a benighted, deluded, uncontrolled monster, perfectly suited to the error, meanness and suffering.

ヘラクレイトスは嘆くのを止めることができず

The greater question is how and why one would ever laugh.

デモクリトスは笑うのを止めることができませんでした。

There is of course always the option of idiotic laugh, the plastic laugh, the sentimental callous fool.

ヘラクレイトスが泣いたのには明確な理由があります。

But this wasn't the philosopher Democritus' way,

この世に存在しているという現実に向き合って

he laughed richly and generously not because some privileged position led him to naively misunderstand how bad things could be.

それでもなお前進できるというのは、すごいことなのです。

His good humor wasn't delusional nor was it simply a random quirk of temperament.

悲しくなるようなことは山ほどあります。

Democritus, laughed in a very particular and highly admirable style because of the way he thought about the world.

人間という動物は、無知で、騙されやすく、コントロールの効かないモンスターで

He was a profound realist.

間違いや卑劣さ、苦しみといったものに相応しい存在なのです。

He knew everything there is to know, about the human tendency to greed, murder and lust and of our constant exposure to random accident and misfortune.

もっと大きな疑問と言えば、どのように、そしてなぜ、人は笑うのかということです。

And ultimately Democritus was so convinced of the darkness, he knew so much about suffering and risk,

間抜けた笑いや、うわべだけの笑いはいつだってできます。

he no longer felt he had to register this constantly at the front of his mind in order to do them justice.

感情的で無情で間抜けな笑いです。

They seem to him an entirely obvious baseline fact about existence.

でも、哲学者デモクリトスの笑いはこうではありませんでした。

He could be cheerful, because anything nice, sweet or charming that came his way, was immediately experienced as a bonus, a gratifying addition to an originally bleak starting point.

彼は豊かに、そして寛容に笑いました。

By keeping the dark backdrop of life always in mind, Democritus sharpened his appreciation of whatever stood out against it.

そういう笑い方をしたのは、自身の特権的な地位に甘んじて、状況の深刻さを単純に誤解していたからではありません。

A pleasant thing that happened to him wasn't taken to be a feeble compensation for his larger dashed hopes.

彼のユーモアは妄想的なものでも

It was a delightful, slightly improbable, but very noteworthy backing of an always expected tragic trend.

気まぐれによるものでもありませんでした。

Democritus who's learned to be enjoying parties wine and drinking.

デモクリトスの笑い方は、非常に特殊で

"A life without festivity is a long road without an inn" he wrote.

尊敬すべきものでした。それは、彼なりの世界の見方を反映したものだったのです。

He didn't believe that he had to feel constantly sad to prove that he recognized life to be sad.

デモクリトスは根っからの現実主義者でした。

He danced and drank because of a rightful confidence that he had already done justice and would in the future again have to fully do justice to the sadness of things.

彼はあらゆることを心得ていました―人が持つ傾向や欲望、殺人や熱情そして思いがけない事故や不運に、頻繁に見舞われることに至るまで。

Democritus was aiming at an intelligent kind of cheerfulness one that admits from the outset that life is fundamentally grim but that uses this despair as a catalyst for a more vivid engagement with the beautiful or kind moments that do come ones way.

最終的にデモクラテスは、世の暗黒を強く確信し

Like an English person who is especially adept to drawing value from the last day of summer or a condemned man who perfectly savors the last meal before being led to the firing squad.

苦しみや危険について知識を蓄えました。

Democritus was a master practitioner of that highly admirable state of mind: Cheerful despair.

これ以上、そのような暗いことを頭で考え続けなくたって

Once we've acquired the skill of cheerful despair life acquires a distinctive new kind of sweetness in all its pleasant structures.

真正面から向き合うことができる、と思ったのです。

Every pain-free day is a blessing.

デモクラテスにとってこれらは、この世に存在するうえで、非常に明白な基本事項でした。

We're amazed and touched when once in a while someone seems to understand a few things we say or does something unexpectedly kind.

彼が前向きでいられたのは、何か良いこと、素敵なこと、嬉しくなるようなことがあれば

We enjoy the distinctive cheerfulness of those who've done all the crying they can and are determined, for a while at least, to hold on to the light.

それらをすぐに、思いがけない幸運と捉えることができたからです。