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Given the layers of emotion and the imprecision of language, it's perhaps no wonder that sad music lands as a paradox.
考虑到情感的多重层次和语言的不精确，悲伤的音乐最终成为一种悖论也许就不足为奇了。
But it still doesn't really explain why it can feel pleasurable or meaningful.
但这仍然不能真正解释为什么悲伤的音乐让人感到愉悦或有意义。
Some psychologists have examined how certain aspects of music -- mode, tempo, rhythm, timbre -- relate to the emotions listeners feel.
一些心理学家研究了音乐的某些方面--调式、速度、节奏、音色--与听众感受到的情感之间的关系。
Studies have found that certain forms of song serve nearly universal functions:
研究发现，某些形式的歌曲几乎具有普遍的功能：
Across countries and cultures, for instance, lullabies tend to share similar acoustic features that imbue infants and adults alike with a sense of safety.
例如，在不同的国家和文化中，摇篮曲往往有相似的声学特点，能让婴儿和成年人充满安全感。
"All our lives we've learned to map the relationships between our emotions and what we sound like," said Tuomas Eerola, a musicologist at Durham University in England and a researcher on the "Fifty Shades" study.
"在一生中，我们学会了把自己的情绪和自己的声音对应起来。"英国杜伦大学的音乐学家图玛斯·埃罗拉说，他也是"五十度蓝"的研究人员，
"We recognize emotional expression in speech, and most of the cues are used similarly in music."
"我们能识别言语中的情感表达，音乐中的大部分信号也有类似的用途。"
Other scientists, including Patrik Juslin, a music psychologist at Uppsala University in Sweden, argue that such findings clarify little about the value of sad music.
其他科学家，包括瑞典乌普萨拉大学的音乐心理学家帕特里克·尤斯林认为，这些研究发现几乎没有解释清楚悲伤音乐的价值所在。
He wrote in a paper, "They simply move the burden of explanation from one level, ‘Why does the second movement of Beethoven's Eroica symphony arouse sadness?', to another level, ‘Why does a slow tempo arouse sadness?'"
他在一篇论文中写道，"他们只是将解释的重担从一个层面转移到另一个层面，从‘为什么贝多芬的英雄交响曲的第二乐章会引起悲伤？'变成了‘为什么慢速会引起悲伤？'"
Instead, Dr. Juslin and others have proposed that there are cognitive mechanisms through which sadness can be induced in listeners.
相反，尤斯林博士和其他人提出，通过一些认知机制，音乐可以引起听众的悲伤情绪。
Unconscious reflexes in the brain stem; the synchronization of rhythm to some internal cadence, such as a heartbeat;
脑干的无意识反射，音乐节奏与身体内部节奏（如心跳）的同步，
conditioned responses to particular sounds; triggered memories; emotional contagion; a reflective evaluation of the music -- all seem to play some role.
对特定声音的条件性反应，音乐所触发的记忆，情绪的感染性，对音乐的反思性评估--所有这些似乎都起到了一定的作用。
Maybe, because sadness is such an intense emotion, its presence can prompt a positive empathic reaction: Feeling someone's sadness can move you in some prosocial way.
也许，因为悲伤是一种如此强烈的情绪，所以它的存在可以引发积极的共情反应：感受到某人的悲伤能让你以某种亲社会的方式受到感动。
"You're feeling just alone, you feel isolated," Dr. Knobe said. "And then there's this experience where you listen to some music, or you pick up a book, and you feel like you're not so alone."
"你感到很孤单，感到与人隔绝，"诺布博士说，"然后就有了这种体验，你听了一些音乐，或者拿起一本书，然后你觉得自己不是那么孤单了。"
To test that hypothesis, he, Dr. Venkatesan and George Newman, a psychologist at the Rotman School of Management, set up a two-part experiment.
为了验证这一假设，他和文卡蒂森博士，以及罗特曼管理学院的心理学家乔治·纽曼，一起设计了一个由两部分组成的实验。
In the first part, they gave one of four song descriptions to more than 400 subjects.
在第一部分实验中，他们给400多名受试者描述了四首歌曲的其中一首。
One description was of a song that "conveys deep and complex emotions" but was also "technically very flawed."
第一首歌"传达了深刻而复杂的情感"，但也"在技术上存在很大缺陷"。
Another described a "technically flawless" song that "does not convey deep or complex emotions."
第二首歌"技术上无可挑剔，但没有传达深刻或复杂情感"。
The third song was described as deeply emotional and technically flawless, and the fourth as technically flawed and unemotional.
第三首歌的描述是感情深沉，技术上无可挑剔。第四首歌的描述是技术上有缺陷，且没有感情。
The subjects were asked to indicate, on a seven-point scale, whether their song "embodies what music is all about."
受试者被要求以7分制打分，表明这首歌曲是否"体现了音乐的本质"。
The goal was to clarify how important emotional expression in general -- of joy, sadness, hatred or whatever -- was to music on an intuitive level.
这样做的目的是弄清楚，在直觉层面上，一般性的情感表达（包括欢乐、悲伤、仇恨等等）对音乐有多重要。
On the whole, subjects reported that deeply emotional but technically flawed songs best reflected the essence of music;
总体而言，受试者报告说，感情深沉但在技术上有缺陷的歌曲，最能反映音乐的本质，
emotional expression was a more salient value than technical proficiency.
情感表达比技术精湛度有更显著的价值。
