Found this in Midland Book Store, South Extension
The translation has all the artifacts of being - a translation - but still manages just enough so that Kierkegaards' voice shines through
"... In the latter case such a despairer will then plunge into life, perhaps into the distractions of great undertakings, he will become a restless spirit which leaves only too clear a trace of its actual presence, a restless spirit which wants to forget, and inasmuch as the noise within is so loud stronger means are needed, though of a different sort, than those which Richard III. employs in order not to hear his mother’s curses. Or he will seek forgetfulness in sensuality, perhaps in debauchery, in desperation he wants to return to immediacy, but constantly with consciousness of the self, which he does not want to have.
...
One could imagine such a demoniacal tyrant who felt the need of talking to a fellow-man about his torment, and in this way consumed successively a whole lot of men; for to be his confidant was certain death.—It would be the task for a poet to represent this agonizing self-contradiction in a demoniac man who is not able to get along without a confidant, and not able to have a confidant, and then resolving it in such a way as this." (Translation by Walter Lowerie)
Kierkegaard explores the age old adage of what has been called in Indian philosophy as 'dukkha', i.e. suffering - the last kind of pleasure (from Udyotakara's list), but from the viewpoint of the biblical statement 'this sickness is not unto death'.
"Is despair an advantage or a drawback? If one were to stick to the abstract notion of de-
spair, without thinking of any concrete despairer, one might say that it is an immense advantage. The possibility of this sickness is man’s advantage over the beast, and this ad-
vantage distinguishes him far more essentially that the erect posture, for it implies the infinite erectness or loftiness of being spirit. The pos sibility of this sickness is man’s advantage over the beast;"
I am not sure whether the word 'beast' is used to represent 'animal' in the original text' or 'savage'. But Kierkegaard nevertheless keeps on emphasises that despair is the key identifier of the civilized person (over the 'natural man'). Maybe one day I will read the original.
https://ia601400.us.archive.org/32/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.189042/2015.189042.The-Sickness-Unto-Death_text.pdf
