雙語(yǔ)對(duì)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(duì)愛(ài)情的渴望，對(duì)知識(shí)的探尋，對(duì)人類苦難無(wú)法遏制的同情，是支配我一生的單純而強(qiáng)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(shí)甚至拂過(guò)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(ài)情，有三個(gè)原因。首先，愛(ài)情給我?guī)?lái)狂喜。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(gè)小時(shí)的愛(ài)給我?guī)?lái)的喜悅。其次，我一直在尋找它，因?yàn)閻?ài)情讓我不再孤獨(dú)。那個(gè)經(jīng)歷過(guò)可怕孤獨(dú)的人，他總能穿過(guò)世界的邊緣，看到冰冷的、無(wú)趣的、深不見(jiàn)底的深淵。最后，在我見(jiàn)過(guò)的愛(ài)的結(jié)合中，圣人和詩(shī)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(duì)一般人的生活而言，它有點(diǎn)太美好了，但這就是愛(ài)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(shí)。我渴望讀懂人類的心。我渴望知道為什么星星會(huì)發(fā)光。而且我還渴望了解畢達(dá)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(ài)和知識(shí)盡可能地把我?guī)咸焯茫晌覍?duì)人類的憐憫又將我拉回現(xiàn)實(shí)世界。痛苦的哭喊聲時(shí)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(wú)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(duì)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(wú)能為力，因?yàn)槲乙彩鞘芎φ咧弧?

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(jué)得活著是有意義的。如果再給我一次機(jī)會(huì)，我會(huì)欣然接受這個(gè)來(lái)之不易的重生的機(jī)會(huì)。

美麗語(yǔ)錄

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

沒(méi)有人可以回到過(guò)去重新開始，但誰(shuí)都可以從現(xiàn)在開始，書寫一個(gè)全然不同的結(jié)局。

超多雙語(yǔ)閱讀，盡在聽(tīng)力課堂