有聲雙語(yǔ)閱讀 | 我為什么活著？

What I Have Lived For 我為什么活著

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 great ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.

三種簡(jiǎn)單而強(qiáng)烈的情感支配著我的生活：對(duì)愛(ài)的渴望、對(duì)知識(shí)的追求和對(duì)受苦之人的同情。這些情感就像大風(fēng)一樣，把我隨風(fēng)卷起，飄忽不定地越過(guò)痛苦之海，來(lái)到了絕望的邊緣。

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, 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-l have found.

我追尋過(guò)愛(ài)，首先，因?yàn)樗o我?guī)?lái)了莫大的喜悅——這喜悅是如此的強(qiáng)烈，往往會(huì)讓我犧牲生命中其他的一切只為了體驗(yàn)幾個(gè)小時(shí)愛(ài)的喜悅。其次，它排遣了寂寞——在那種可怕的寂寞之中，一個(gè)顫抖的靈魂，越過(guò)世界的邊際，進(jìn)入那酷寒，深不可測(cè)而又了無(wú)生氣的無(wú)底深淵，我追求過(guò)愛(ài)，最后是因?yàn)樵趷?ài)的結(jié)合中我看過(guò)圣人和詩(shī)人所希冀的天堂的微縮景象，這就是我所追尋的人生的境界，這似乎對(duì)人類(lèi)而言太過(guò)美好，這是我最終所發(fā)現(xiàn)的。

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, I have achieved.

我對(duì)于知識(shí)有著同樣的渴望。我希望能了解人類(lèi)的心靈，我想知道為什么星星在夜空閃爍。我試圖去理解畢達(dá)哥拉斯學(xué)派的力量即用數(shù)字去統(tǒng)治那些不理性。在這個(gè)方面，我有點(diǎn)小小的成就。

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 in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a 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 this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.

如果愛(ài)和知識(shí)是可能的，那么他們能帶我們到達(dá)天堂。但是人類(lèi)的苦難又使我回到了人間。忍饑挨餓的孩子，被壓迫的人民，無(wú)助的老人成了孩子的負(fù)擔(dān)，還有滿(mǎn)世界的孤獨(dú)、貧困和痛苦對(duì)于人類(lèi)生活的理想進(jìn)行了無(wú)盡的嘲弄。我想遠(yuǎn)離這個(gè)惡魔，但是我無(wú)能為力，所以也我痛苦著。

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

這就是我的生活。而且我覺(jué)得這樣的生活很值得：如果能再給我一個(gè)機(jī)會(huì)，我會(huì)很高興再活一次。