《The road less traveled》开篇第一页、第一句就吸引了我的注意力，一下子让我想起了小学三年级，语文老师教的“开门见山”的作文写作手法，当然，接下来的解释也很清晰明了。我试着把第一页翻译一下：
Life is difficult.
This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. * It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it-then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.
Most do not fully see this truth that life is difficult. Instead they moan more or less incessantly, noisily or subtly, about the enormity of their problems, their burdens, and their difficulties as if life were generally easy, as if life should be easy. They voice their belief, noisily or subtly, that their difficulties represent a unique kind of affliction that should not be and that has somehow been especially visited upon them, or else upon their families, their tribe, their class, their nation, their race or even their species, and not upon others. I know about this moaning because I have done my share.
Life is a series of problems. Do we want to moan about them or solve them? Do we want to teach our children to solve them?
Discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve life's problems. Without discipline we can solve nothing. With only some discipline we can solve only some problems. With total discipline we can solve all problems.
生活困难重重。
这是一个伟大的事实，是最伟大的事实之一。 一旦我们真正领会这个事实，我们就会超越它。 一旦我们真正认识理解生活是困难的，并真正接受它，生活就不再困难。 或者说一旦被接受，生活困难重重这个事实就不再那么困扰我们了。
大多数人并不完全看到生活是困难的这个事实。 相反，他们或多或少地喋喋不休地抱怨他们生活中的问题、负担和困难，仿佛人生本该是顺利容易的。 他们认为自己的困难是独特的，是专门针对他们或者他们的家庭、部落、阶级、国家、种族，甚至他们这个的物种，而不是其他人。 我非常了解这些抱怨，因为我也曾是其中一员。
生活是一系列的问题。 我们是抱怨这些问题？还是来解决这些问题？ 我们是否需要教育我们的下一代来解决这些问题？
自律是我们解决生活问题所需的基本工具。 没有自律，我们什么都不能解决。有一部分自律，我们就能解决一部分问题。有了全面严格的自律，我们可以解决所有的问题。（我觉得“自律”就是自我约束，去做自己从内心深处觉得应该做的、“对”的事。）
脚注：
有意思是，作者在第一页的脚注里提到，佛陀所讲的 “四大真谛” 第一个是“Life is suffering.”。看到这个脚注，我很好奇作者为什么不用“Life is suffering”作为开篇第一句呢？阅读过程中我慢慢体会到，“Life is suffering.”描述的多是“人的感受、情绪”，比较主观；而“Life is difficult.”表述的多是“事的特性”，相对要客观一点儿。我体会，这个恰好就是作者的写作基调，他期望读者在阅读的过程中，尽量客观分析理解，不要过多地被情绪左右。
