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One of the strangest but also most intriguing and redemptive things that humans get up to, in almost any culture one cares to study,
在人们研究的所有文化中，人类最奇怪但也最具有治愈力的行为之一就是
is occasionally to gather in large groups, bathe in the rhythmic sounds of drums and flutes, organs and guitars, chants and cries, and move their arms and legs about in complicated and frenzied ways, losing themselves in the bewilderment of a dance.
他们偶尔聚集起一大群人，沐浴在鼓声和长笛、管风琴和吉他的节奏声中，吟唱和哭泣，用复杂而疯狂的方式舞动胳膊和腿，迷失在纷乱的舞蹈中。
Dancing has a claim to be considered among the most essential and salutary activities we ever partake in.
舞蹈被认为是我们参加过的最基础、最有益的活动之一。
Not for nothing did Nietzsche, a painfully inhibited figure in day to day life, declare
尼采对舞蹈的宣传可以说功不可没，身处痛苦压抑的生活中时，他说：
“I would believe only in a God who could dance
“我只相信会跳舞的上帝
(a comment that stands beside his equally apodictic pronouncement: ‘Without music, life would be a mistake’).”
(这句话与他同样具有启示性另一个声明‘没有音乐，生活将是一个错误’齐名)。”
But dancing is at the same time an activity that many of us, arguably those of us who might most need to do it,
但与此同时，我们中的许多人，尤其是我们中最需要跳舞的人，
are powerfully inclined to resist and deep down to fear.
都强烈地倾向于压抑自己并从内心深处对这种行为感到恐惧。
We stand on the side of the dance floor appalled at the possibility of being called to join in,
我们站在舞池的一边，因或许会得到加入舞蹈的召唤而恐慌，
we attempt to make our excuses the moment the music begins,
我们试图在音乐开始的那一刻找借口，
we take pains that no one will ever, ever see our hips unite with a beat.
煞费苦心地确保永远没有人会看到我们的臀部随着节拍律动的模样。
The point here is definitely not to learn to dance like an expert,
跳舞的重点不是要你练习到专业的舞者的水平，
it is to remember that dancing badly is something we might actually want to do and,
而是要你知道，即使跳的很烂，跳舞也是我们想要做的事，
equally importantly, something that we already well know how to do to –
同样重要的一点是，我们已经很清楚如何去跳舞——
at least to the level of appalling proficiency we need to possess in order to derive key benefits.
至少要达到我们自以为的“跳得很丑”的熟练程度，才能从中获得关键的好处。
In almost all cultures and at all points of history (except oddly enough perhaps our own),
在几乎所有的文化和历史的各个阶段(奇怪的是，我们的文化除外)，
dancing has been widely and publically understood as a form of bodily exercise with something very important to contribute to our mental state.
舞蹈一直被广泛和公开地理解为一种身体锻炼的形式，它对我们的精神状态有非常重要的贡献。
Dancing has had nothing to do with dancing well, being young or revealing one’s stylishness.
跳舞与跳得好、年轻或展现一个人的时髦无关。
Summed up sharply we might put it like this:
简而言之，我们可以这样说：
dancing has been valued for allowing us to transcend our individuality and for inducing us to merge into a larger, more welcoming and more redemptive whole.
舞蹈之所以受到重视，是因为它允许我们超越个人，并诱导我们融入一个更大、更受欢迎、更具治愈力的整体。
The Ancient Greeks were for the most part committed worshippers of the rational mind.
古希腊人很大程度上是理性思维的忠实崇拜者。
Their foremost God, Apollo, was the embodiment of cool reason and disciplined wisdom.
他们最重要的神，阿波罗，是象征着理性和规则的智慧化身。
However, the Greeks understood – with prescience – that a life devoted only to the serenity of the mind could be at grave risk of desiccation and loneliness.
然而，希腊人有先见之明地认识到，只专注于心灵的宁静的生活可能会面临精神枯竭和孤独的严重风险。
And so they balanced their concern with Apollo with regular festivals in honour of a quite different God,
因此，他们用定期的节日来平衡他们对阿波罗带来的影响的担忧，那就是纪念一个完全不同的神，
Dionysus, a god that drank wine, stayed up late, loved music and danced.
酒神狄俄尼索斯，一个喝葡萄酒、熬夜、热爱音乐和跳舞的神。
The Greeks knew that the more rational we usually are, the more important it is – at points –
希腊人知道，越理智的人，
to fling ourselves around to the wild rhythms of pipes and drums.
越需要沉浸在风笛和鼓声的狂野节奏中。
At the festivals of Dionysius, held in Athens in March every year,
每年3月，在雅典举行的狄奥尼修斯节日上，
even the most venerable and dignified members of the community would join into unrestrained dancing that,
即使是最受人尊敬和最体面的社群成员也会加入到无拘无束的舞蹈中，
irrigated by generous amounts of red wine, lasted until dawn.
在大量红酒的催化下，一直跳到黎明。
A word often used to describe such dancing is ‘ecstatic’.
常用来形容这种舞蹈的一个词是“欣喜若狂（ecstatic）”。
It’s a telling term.
这是一个很能说明问题的术语。
Ecstatic comes from two Latin words:
“欣喜若狂”一词来源于两个拉丁语单词：
ex (meaning apart) and stasis (meaning standing) –
ex(意为分开)和stasis(意为站立)——
indicating a state in which we are symbolically ‘standing apart’ from ourselves
它象征着一种“远离”自我的状态，
separated from the dense, detailed and self-centered layers of our identities which we normally focus on and obsess over and reconnected with something more primal and more necessary: our common human nature.
从我们通常关注和痴迷的密集、细腻、中心的自我身份中分离出来，重新连接到更原始和更重要的人类共有的本能中去。
