在他的《会饮篇》中，写了在一个晚宴上，一位喜剧作家阿里斯托芬，用下面的故事来取悦客人：人类曾是拥有四只手臂，四条腿和两张脸的生物。有一天，他们激怒了众神，于是宙斯就把他们都一劈两半。从此以后，每个人都缺失着自己的另一半。爱是渴望找到一个让我们再次感到完整的灵魂伴侣，至少，这是柏拉图所相信的一位喝醉的喜剧作家在派对上讲的话。
Love tricks us into having babies.
【爱情诱使我们有了小宝宝】
Much, much later, German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer maintained that love based in sexual desire was a voluptuous illusion. He suggested that we love because our desires lead us to believe that another person will make us happy, but we are sorely mistaken. Nature is tricking us into procreating, and the loving fusion we seek is consummated in our children. When our sexual desires are satisfied, we are thrown back into our tormented existences, and we succeed only in maintaining the species and perpetuating the cycle of human drudgery. Sounds like somebody needs a hug.
很久很久以后，德国的哲学家亚瑟·叔本华（禁欲主义者） 坚称爱是基于性欲的， 是一种纵情享乐的幻想。他提出：「我们相爱是因为我们的欲望让我们相信另一个人能让我们快乐──但这是大错特错。」「本性诱使我们繁衍後代，我们所寻找的爱情融合。最後得到的就是孩子。当性慾得到满足时，我们回到了痛苦的现实，而我们所成就的只是延续物种，之後继续循环这人生的痛苦。」听起好像有人需要抱抱了呢。
Love is escape from our loneliness.
【爱让我们从孤单中解脱】
According to the Nobel Prize-winning British philosopher Bertrand Russell, we love in order to quench our physical and psychological desires. Humans are designed to procreate, but without the ecstasy of passionate love, sex is unsatisfying.
根据诺贝尔获奖者，英国哲学家伯特兰·罗素所言，我们用爱来慰藉身体和心理上的欲望。人类生来就是为了繁衍，若没有充满激情的爱来做迷幻剂的话，性也是无法令人满足的。
Our fear of the cold, cruel world tempts us to build hard shells to protect and isolate ourselves. Love's delight, intimacy, and warmth helps us overcome our fear of the world, escape our lonely shells, and engage more abundantly in life. Love enriches our whole being, making it the best thing in life.
我们对冰冷残酷世界的恐惧促使我们修炼出坚硬的外壳，来保护并隔绝我们自己。
爱情的愉悦、亲密和温暖帮助我们克服对这世界的恐惧，逃脱我们孤独的外壳，
让我们更投入人生。爱让我们整个人感到富足，它是生命中最美好的事物。
Love is a misleading affliction.
【爱情是一种误导的痛苦】
Siddhārtha Gautama, who became known as the Buddha, or the Enlightened One, probably would have had some interesting arguments with Russell. Buddha proposed that we love because we are trying to satisfy our base desires. Yet, our passionate cravings are defects, and attachments, even romantic love, are a great source of suffering. Luckily, Buddha discovered the eight-fold path, a sort of program for extinguishing the fires of desire so that we can reach Nirvana, an enlightened state of peace, clarity, wisdom, and compassion.
悉达多·乔达摩，是众人皆知的佛陀，也就是开悟者，或许能和罗素有一段很有趣的争论。
佛陀说，我们相爱是为了满足最基本的欲望。但是，充满激情的渴望反而成为我们的缺陷，依恋。即使是浪漫爱情，也会成为强大的痛苦源头。幸运的是，佛陀领悟到「八正道」，一种能消除欲望之火的修行之道， 让我们能达到「极乐世界」，一种平和、清静、智慧与慈悲的觉悟境界。
The novelist Cao Xueqin illustrated this Buddhist sentiment that romantic love is folly in one of China's greatest classical novels, "Dream of the Red Chamber." In a subplot, Jia Rui falls in love with Xi-feng who tricks and humiliates him. Conflicting emotions of love and hate tear him apart, so a Taoist gives him a magic mirror that can cure him as long as he doesn't look at the front of it. But of course, he looks at the front of it. He sees Xi-feng. His soul enters the mirror and he is dragged away in iron chains to die. Not all Buddhists think thisway about romantic and erotic love, but the moral of this story is that such attachments spell tragedy, and should, along with magic mirrors, be avoided.
在中国最伟大的古典小说之一，《红楼梦》中，小说家曹雪芹阐述了这样一种佛教信仰：「浪漫的爱情是愚昧的」在次要情节里提到，贾瑞爱上了王熙凤，尽管她戏弄又羞辱了他。爱与恨的矛盾情绪，让他生不如死，後来一位道士给他一面可以治癒他的魔镜──只要他不看这面镜子。当然，他还是看了。他在镜子中看到了王熙凤。他的灵魂进入了这面镜子，肉体便被死神的锁链拉走了。并非所有佛教徒这样理解浪漫的爱情和性欲，但这个故事的寓意指出这种依恋会招致不幸，和这个邪恶的魔镜一样，应该被消除。
Love lets us reach beyond ourselves.
【爱情让我们找到更棒的自己】
Let's end on a slightly more positive note. The French philosopher Simonede Beauvoir proposed that love is the desire to integrate with another and that it infuses our lives with meaning. However, she was less concerned with why we love and more interested in how we can love better.
让我们在一个更积极一点的理论中结束。法国哲学家西蒙娜·德·波伏娃指出，爱情是探索彼此的欲望， 而它让我们的生命更有意义。然而，她并没怎么解释相爱的原因，她更关心我们「如何能更好地相爱」。
She saw that the problem with traditional romantic love is it can be so captivating, that we are tempted to make it our only reason for being. Yet, dependence on another to justify our existence easily leads to boredom and power games. To avoid this trap, Beauvoir advised loving authentically, which is more like a great friendship. Lovers support each other in discovering themselves, reaching beyond themselves, and enriching their lives and the world together.
她发现了爱情中常见的问题，那就是爱情让人过于沉沦，我们会情不自禁地把爱情视为人生的唯一目的。这种彼此依靠当做自身存在的理由，很容易引起厌倦和控制欲。为了避免这个问题，波伏娃建议人们应该相爱地更真实，把爱情看成更高层次的友谊。恋人们彼此协助对方找到自身潜力，达到更好的自己，充实自己的生活并让这世界变得更好。
Though we might never know why we fall in love, we can be certain that it will be an emotional rollercoaster ride. It's scary and exhilarating. It makes us suffer and makes us soar. Maybe we lose ourselves. Maybe we find ourselves. It might be heartbreaking, or it might just be the best thing in life.
尽管我们不知道我们为何相爱，但可以肯定的是，这将会是一场起伏颇多的旅程，令人既害怕又兴奋。爱情让我们受苦，让我们飘飘欲仙。也许我们会迷失自己，也许我们会找到真正的自己。爱情也许会令我们心碎，又或许它就是生命中最美好的事物。
Will you dare to find out?
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