Feeling lonely can affect anyone, young or old. FILE PHOTO
美国作家亨利·罗林斯曾写道：“孤独为生活添色，使落日余晖更加独特，使夜晚空气更加香甜。”诚然，在艺术家们眼中，孤独似乎永不过时。许多画作呈现孤独，不少歌曲受其启发，就连众多文学作品都以这一主题为中心。
In the eyes of UK economist Rachel Reeves, however, loneliness is far from romantic. Instead, it’s a “giant evil” that’s become a serious problem in the country.
然而，在英国经济学家瑞秋·里夫斯看来，孤独一点也不浪漫，这个“巨大的恶魔”已经成为了英国社会的一大严峻问题。
So just how serious is it? On Jan 17, UK Prime Minister Theresa May appointed politician Tracey Crouch as the country’s very first “Minister for Loneliness”. Her job is to tackle the loneliness that the country’s been feeling – a problem which, according to UK government research, is affecting more than 9 million people in the country, and is more harmful to one’s physical and mental health than smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
那么问题到底有多严峻呢？1月17日，英国首相特雷莎·梅任命政治家特蕾西·克劳奇为英国首位“孤独大臣”，处理该国所面临的孤独问题。据英国政府调查发现，英国有900多万人深受孤独影响，对身心的危害更甚于每天吸15支香烟。
And the problem hasn’t just appeared recently. Back in 2014, the UK was given the title of the “loneliness capital of Europe” by The Telegraph. A survey carried out by the newspaper found that British people were less likely to get to know their neighbors or build strong relationships with people than those from other European countries.
而这一问题并非最近才开始出现。早在2014年，《电讯报》就将英国称为“欧洲孤独之都”。该报开展的一项调查发现，和其他欧洲国家相比，英国人不太愿意去认识自己的邻居，或者与他人建立起亲密关系。
“There is something British about wanting to deal with problems yourself,” Christian Guy, director of the Centre for Social Justice think-tank, told The Telegraph.
“英国人总想着自己解决问题，”智库社会公平中心主任克里斯蒂安·盖在接受《电讯报》采访时表示。
But this doesn’t mean that the problem only affects Britons. In fact, we’re all suffering from loneliness now more than ever, in spite of most of the world now having access to the internet, which has enabled us to be more connected than ever.
但并非只有英国人深受该问题影响。事实上，尽管如今世界上大多数地区都连上了互联网，令我们和以往相比联系更加紧密，但人人都在遭受前所未有的孤独。
What we need, according to Kim Leadbetter, sister of the late UK politician Jo Cox, is to have “proper human connections”.
已故英国政治家乔·考克斯的姐妹金姆·利百特认为，我们需要拥有“适当的人际关系”。
“Our lives nowadays are so busy. We spend the vast majority of our time on our phones, on our laptops. We need to press pause on that and actually sit down and speak to human beings,” Leadbetter said at an event last year.
“如今，我们的生活太忙碌了。我们在手机、笔记本电脑上消耗了大多数时间，需要暂停一下，好好坐下来，和身边人说说话，”利百特在去年的一场活动上说道。
But the first steps toward fighting this problem are to accept its existence and not be ashamed or intimidated by it. After all, without loneliness, many beautiful paintings, songs, and literary works wouldn’t even exist. And “evil” or not, being lonely is simply part of the experience of being human.
而抗击孤独的第一步便是正视这一问题，不要感到羞愧或者被其吓倒。毕竟，没有孤独，就不会有这么多美丽的画作、歌曲以及文学作品。不论其“邪恶”与否，孤独都只是生而为人的一种经历罢了。
