你需要有秘密生活，其原因

Why you need to have one

并不比你看到一个刚出生的丑陋婴儿

is not much more mysterious than

却不直言心中所想的道理

why you don't say what you think

更神秘莫测。

at the birth of an ugly baby.

或者，刚做完爱

Or, you've just made love

但你宁愿刚才是身处

and feel you'd rather have been

幽暗的小包间里，

in a dark booth where your partner

你的伴侣频频点头，轻声说好，好，

was nodding, whispering yes, yes,

你真棒。秘密生活

you're brilliant. The secret life

很早就会开始，会因为你身上

begins early, is kept alive

不合时宜的一切，还会因为

by all that's unpopular

你明明知道某个浸会教徒或另外某个

in you, all that you know

专门记账的人会反感的一切

a Baptist, say, or some other

而生生不息。

accountant would object to.

你会千方百计地保护它，

It becomes what you'd most protect

如果政府说你只可以保护

if the government said you can protect

一个东西，其余都是我们的。

one thing, all else is ours.

当你在深夜写作，

When you write late at night

它就像空地里的

it's like a small fire

一小簇篝火，它

in a clearing, it's what

散发光芒，也会把你灼伤

radiates and what can hurt

若是凑得太近。

if you get too close to it.

这就是为什么你的沉默也是一种真话。

It's why your silence is a kind of truth.

甚至当你跟最好的朋友交谈

Even when you speak to your best friend,

一个永远都不会出卖你的朋友

the one who'll never betray you,

总有一件事你会避而不谈：

you always leave out one thing;

私密生活就是如此重要。

a secret life is that important.