There are no guarantees that the gap between is and ought can be closed.
没人能保证可以弥补现状和理想之间的鸿沟。
Every time someone tells you to "be realistic" they are asking you to compromise your ideals.
每当有人告诉你“现实一点”的时候,他们其实是在要你对自己的理想做出妥协。
Ms Neiman acknowledges that your ideals will never be met completely.
尼曼女士承认你的理想永远不可能完全实现。
But sometimes, however imperfectly, you can make progress.
但是有时候,你仍然可以取得进步,尽管不甚完美。
It is as if you are moving an unattainable horizon.
这就像你在朝着一个无法到达的地平线行进。
"Human dignity," she writes, "requires the love of ideals for its own sake, but nothing requires that the love will be requited." ...
“人的尊严,”她写道,“要求我们为理想本身而热爱理想,但是没有任何东西要求这种爱得到回报。
Ms Neiman asks people to reject the false choice between Utopia and degeneracy.
”……尼曼女士要求人们拒绝在乌托邦和堕落退化之间做虚假的选择。
Moral progress, she writes, is neither guaranteed nor is it hopeless.
她写到,道德的进步既不一定能实现也不是毫无希望,
Instead, it is up to us.
而是取决于我们自己。