Must we wait for an individual to cry out to us in desperation, or for a nation of people to plead for help, before we are allowed to do what is obviously right?

我们难道必得等到一个人在绝望中向我们哭诉，或一国的人请求帮助，才被容许去做显然是对的事吗？

youdao

All that winter Eugene kept to his gloomy room, reading and musing. At last, in desperation, he called on Tatyana unannounced and surprised her rereading his letters.

整个冬天，叶甫盖尼守在他那阴暗的房间里读书和沉思。终于，在绝望之余，他未经通报就径直去见达吉雅娜，出其不意地撞见她正在重新阅读他给她的信。

youdao

When the fish was at the stern, plunging and cutting from side to side in desperation, the old man leaned over the stern and lifted the burnished gold fish with its purple spots over the stern.

等到这条带紫色斑点的金光灿烂的鱼给拉到了船梢边，绝望地左右乱窜乱跳时，老人探出身去，把它拎到船梢上。

youdao

But humans continue their violent and evil ways, And in desperation, God wipes them out, and starts again.

但人类继续他们暴力邪恶的行径，绝望时，上帝将他们消灭，重新开始。

耶鲁公开课 - 旧约导论课程节选

My belief in books had risen more out of a sense of desperation than from my abiding conviction of their ultimate value.

我对书的信仰更多的是来自一种绝望,而非我对其本质的长期依赖，“

耶鲁公开课 - 1945年后的美国小说课程节选

Again,getting rid of the negative does not guarantee us the positive, which is why already in the 1940s, wrote that most men lead lives of quiet desperation.

再强调一次，摆脱消极,不能保证我们变得积极，因此早在19世纪40年代，认为，大多数人都活在沉默的压抑中。

哈佛公开课 - 幸福课课程节选

In desperation, Sri Lanka sent out supersub Upul Chandana, with paceman Dilhara Fernando taking no part in the match.

BBC: SPORT | Cricket | Sri Lanka crumble to Pathan swing

In desperation I board a ferry to Junshan district, a farming area reclaimed from Dongting Lake in the late '50s.

CNN: DISPATCHES FROM FLOOD COUNTRY

The film follows the harrowing experiences of a handful of victims of harassment, including two who killed themselves in desperation.

WSJ: The Panic Over Bullies