'Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.'

“人性这根曲木，决然造不出任何笔直的东西。”

So, it's your job as a writer and a speaker of English to make of this crooked timber something straight, to borrow a phrase and then mangle it.

所以，作为一个作家和一个说英语的人，你的工作就是把这根歪歪扭扭的木头弄直，借用一个短语，然后把它搞砸。

It's a slightly daunting and long German phrase but a hugely arresting and redemptive one, central to the spirit of Western philosophy: to translate, 'Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.'

这是一个有点令人生畏的冗长的德语句子，但却是引人注目、具有救赎意义的句子，是西方哲学精神的核心，译为：“从人类弯曲的木材中 从来没有制造出任何正直的东西”。