讀點好英文:What I Have Lived for 我為什么活著

What I Have Lived for 我為什么活著

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 Pythagoreans 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 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.

我為什么活著

［英］伯特蘭·羅素

對愛的渴望、對知識的追求和對人類苦難難以忍受的憐憫之心——這三種樸素而不可抗拒的情感主宰著我的生活。這些情感似陣陣颶風(fēng)，任意地把我吹得飄來蕩去，穿過痛苦的海洋，抵達絕望的彼岸。

我曾尋求過愛，首先是因為愛可以使人欣喜若狂——它是如此令人狂喜，為了片刻的歡娛，我寧愿犧牲我的余生；我曾尋求過愛，其次是因為它能解除人的孤獨感——置身于這可怕的孤獨中，那令人震顫的感覺，會掠過這個世界的邊緣，把人帶入無聲無息的寒氣襲人的無底深淵；我曾尋求過愛，還因為在愛的結(jié)合，在這一神秘的縮影中，我看到了圣賢和詩人們所曾幻想的天堂景色。這也正是我追求的。盡管這對世間凡人而言似乎是一種奢望，但這是我最終所找到的。

帶著同樣的激情，我曾追求過知識。我曾希望了解人類的心靈，我曾想知道星辰為何發(fā)光，我曾試圖理解畢達哥拉斯的力量，通過他的力量，數(shù)駕馭了萬物的變化。我獲得了一點知識，但并不多。

愛和知識，它們可以把人引入天堂。但是憐憫之心又常常把我?guī)Щ貕m世。痛苦的呼喚在我心中回響激蕩。嗷嗷待哺的孩子，被鞭撻的受壓迫者，孤獨無助的老人——兒女們憎恨的負擔(dān)，還有那充滿著孤獨、貧窮和痛苦的世界，都在嘲弄著人類生活本應(yīng)有的美好。我渴望減少人間的邪惡，卻無能為力，也因此受著煎熬。

這就是我的生活，我覺得活得值。假若天賜良機，我愿高高興興地再如此活一次。

實戰(zhàn)提升

Practising & Exercise

導(dǎo)讀

伯特蘭·羅素（Bertrand Russell），二十世紀最有影響力的哲學(xué)家、數(shù)學(xué)家和邏輯學(xué)家之一，同時也是活躍的政治活動家。無數(shù)人將羅素視為這個時代的先知。1950年，羅素獲得諾貝爾文學(xué)獎，以表彰其“多樣且重要的作品，持續(xù)不斷的追求人道主義理想和思想自由”。

這篇散文體現(xiàn)了羅素作為哲學(xué)家的機智、作為數(shù)學(xué)家的求實和作為思想家的幽默。在文中，作者把對孤獨的恐懼擴大到了極致，這樣能突出表達對愛的渴望，也能和讀者產(chǎn)生情感上的共鳴。文中的字里行間飽含著巨大的激情，由此顯示出羅素博大的情懷和崇高的人格魅力。

核心單詞

overwhelmingly [??uv??welmi?li] adv. 壓倒地；無法抵抗地

ecstasy [?ekst?si] n. 狂喜；出神；入迷

apprehend [??pri?hend] v. 理解，領(lǐng)會

victim [?viktim] n. 受害者，受騙者

alleviate [??li?vieit] v. 減輕；緩和

翻譯

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.

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

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.