男人间无声的友谊

        The silence of men in general is overtalked about and overcriticized. To be sure, men never open up as much as women want them to, but there is a wordless understanding in which we function fairly well especially in friendships.
　　男人的沉默往往被过多地谈论且过分指责。（但）可以肯定的是，男人从未像女人所希望的那样开诚布公地说出自己的心里话，但我们却能很好地运用无言的理解，尤其是在维持彼此的友谊的过程中。

　　I believe, in fact, that most women would prefer a man to be glumlyuncommunicative than to [1] spill his guts at the drop of a hat.
　　事实上，我相信大多数女人都宁愿男人可以忧郁地不言不语，而不喜欢男人就像竹筒倒豆子，什么都说。

　　The push for men to express their feelings presumes that we have feelings, and we do have a few, but they remain submerged, and the [2] airing of them often violates their authenticity.
　　男人被认定为应表达感情，这就是他们表达情感的推动力。不错，我们确实有一些，但隐而不露，若要表达出来就会破坏其真实性。

　　I am no biologist, but my guess is that the male human animal was programmed for silence. I would go so far as to argue that men were programmed to be isolated from one another and that aloneness is our natural state. Silence in male friendships is our way of being alone with each other.
　　我不是生物学家，但我猜想男人这种动物天生就是沉默寡言的。我甚至认为男人天生就是彼此孤立的，孤独是我们的自然状态。男人间的友谊表现为沉默寡言，正是我们彼此独自生活方式的表现。

　　Once men have established a friendship, that itself is the word. The affection is obvious, at least to us. A main component of our silence is an appreciation of the obvious.
　　一旦男人间建立起友谊，友谊本身就已说明了一切。情感是明显的，至少对我们来说，我们沉默的一个主要组成部分就是对这明显情感的欣赏。

　　注解：
　　1. spill one’s guts本意是“告密”，和”spill the beans”意思相近，但是后者包含“不慎泄露风声”的意思，而前者则是刻意泄露。“ At the drop of a hat”是“突然”的意思。在这里，“spill his guts at the drop of a hat”指一个人藏不住心里的话，经常不经觉地就把许多话告诉别人。
　　2. airing是由air派生出来的，作名词用时是“风干”的意思。它同时也是air的动名词，有“张扬”的意思。在这个句子中，airing指代的也就是feeling,即感情的张扬。