雙語對照 ● What I Have Lived for　我為什么而活

What I Have Lived for　我為什么而活

◎ Bertrand Russell

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable[26]pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.

對愛情的渴望，對知識的探尋，對人類苦難無法遏制的同情，是支配我一生的單純而強烈的三種情感。這些情感就像陣陣狂風(fēng)，吹拂著四處飄零的我，有時甚至拂過痛苦的海洋，直抵絕望的邊緣。

I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy—ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness—that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature[27], the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what—at last—I have found.

我渴望愛情，有三個原因。首先，愛情給我?guī)砜裣?。這種狂喜是那樣有力，我不惜拋棄余下的光陰，只為享受幾個小時的愛給我?guī)淼南矏偂Ｆ浯?，我一直在尋找它，因為愛情讓我不再孤獨。那個經(jīng)歷過可怕孤獨的人，他總能穿過世界的邊緣，看到冰冷的、無趣的、深不見底的深淵。最后，在我見過的愛的結(jié)合中，圣人和詩人所幻想的便是神秘的天堂縮影，這也正是我所追求的。雖然對一般人的生活而言，它有點太美好了，但這就是愛情最終幫我找到的東西。

With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, have achieved.

我?guī)е瑯拥那楦刑綄ぶR。我渴望讀懂人類的心。我渴望知道為什么星星會發(fā)光。而且我還渴望了解畢達哥拉斯的力量。目前，我掌握的不多，就只有一些。

Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate[28]in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I can’t, and I too suffer.

愛和知識盡可能地把我?guī)咸焯?，可我對人類的憐憫又將我拉回現(xiàn)實世界。痛苦的哭喊聲時刻回蕩在我的心間。饑荒中的孩童，受統(tǒng)治者壓迫的受害者，被兒女視為負(fù)擔(dān)的無助老人，還有全球普遍存在的孤單、貧困和痛苦，這一切的存在都是對人類理想生活的嘲諷。我希望自己有力量減輕這些痛苦，可我無能為力，因為我也是受害者之一。

This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.

也許這就是我的生活吧！我覺得活著是有意義的。如果再給我一次機會，我會欣然接受這個來之不易的重生的機會。

美麗語錄

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start now and make a new ending.

沒有人可以回到過去重新開始，但誰都可以從現(xiàn)在開始，書寫一個全然不同的結(jié)局。

超多雙語閱讀，盡在聽力課堂