第21章 我为何而生 What I Have Lived for

遇见内心深处的你 Meet You in the Depth of Your Heart

伯特兰·罗素/Bertrand Russell

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable 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 verge of despair.

I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy— ecstasy so great that I would 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 cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, 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.

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 away above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.

Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to the earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberated 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 cannot, and I too suffer.

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

那纯朴却又无比强烈的三种**支配着我的一生：一是对爱情的渴望，二是对知识的求索，三是对人类苦难无尽的同情。这三种**，犹如疾风，吹得我四处飘零，肆意地将我置于痛苦的深海之上，直达绝望的边缘。

我一直在寻求爱情，首先是因为爱能让人狂喜——这种喜悦格外美妙，我经常甘愿付出余生为的就是享有这片刻的欢乐。我之所以寻求爱情，也在于爱能驱逐寂寞，那种可怕的寂寞令人不寒而栗，使人俯视世界边缘，望见绝望的无底深渊。我之所以寻求爱情还在于在爱的和谐中，我看到了圣贤和诗人幻想中神秘天堂的缩影。这就是我所寻求的。虽然这对于凡人而言，它似乎过于美好，遥不可及，但这就是我最终找到的。

心怀同样的**，我还一直在求索知识，我渴望了解人的内心，我想知道星星为何闪烁，我试图领悟毕达哥拉斯所景仰的“数即万物”的思想。虽然只是皮毛，但我也小有收获。

爱情与知识，尽其可能，引领着我通往天堂；然而怜悯总是把我带回现实。那些痛苦的呼唤在我内心深处回响。饥饿中的孩子，被压迫和折磨的人们，变成儿子重担的无助老人，以及孤独、贫穷、痛苦的整个世界，都是对人类理想生活的嘲讽。我渴望能减少这些不幸，但无能为力，我也经受着这些痛苦。

这便是我的生活，我觉得自己不枉此生。如果上天赐予我再生的机会，我甘愿这样重头再活一次。

记忆填空

1.These passions,____________great winds, have blown me hither and thither,____________a wayward course, over a deep____________of anguish, reaching to the verge of despair.

2.I have sought it,____________, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have____________. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good____________human life, this is what—at last—I____________found.

3.____________in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and____________make a mockery of what human life____________be.

佳句翻译

1.我一直在寻求爱情，首先是因为爱能让人狂喜——这种喜悦格外美妙，我经常甘愿付出余生为的就是享有这片刻的欢乐。

译___________________________________________________

2.心怀同样的**，我还一直在求索知识。

译___________________________________________________

3.如果上天赐予我再生的机会，我甘愿这样重头再活一次。

译___________________________________________________

短语应用

1.This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what—at last—I have found.

at last：最后；终于

造___________________________________________________

2.Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens.

so far as：只要；就……而言；在……范围内

造___________________________________________________