内容导读
一个人的一生该如何度过？罗素（1872—1970）指出，人生的支撑有三：爱情、知识和怜悯之心。爱情让孤独的灵魂有温暖的归宿；知识让渴求的眼睛得到满足；怜悯之心使人心生善念，行善举。爱情、知识是生命的馈赠，怜悯之心是个体对生命的回报。如此一生才算没有虚度光阴。
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英文正文
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 awayward course,over agreat ocean of anguish,reaching to the verge of despair.
I have sought love,first,because it brings ecstasy—ecstasy so great that Iwould have sacrificed all the rest of life for afew 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 Ihave seen,in amystic miniature,the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined.This is what Isought and thought it might seem good for human life.This is what—at last—I have found.
With equal passion Ihave sought knowledge.I have wished to understand the hearts of men.I have wished to know why the stars shine.And lhave tried to apprehend the Pythagorean[6]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 heaven.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 ahated burden to their sons,and the whole world of loneliness,poverty,and pain make amockery of what human life should be.I long to alleviate the evil,but Icannot,and Itoo suffer.
This has been my life.I have found it worth living,and Iwould gladly live it again if the chance were offered to me.
中文译文
我为何而活——伯特兰·罗素
三种简单但是无比强烈的感情支配着我的人生：对于爱情的渴望、对于知识的寻求和对于人类苦难的深切怜悯。这些感情犹如狂风，把我吹到这儿，吹到那儿，捉摸不定，越过痛苦的海洋，到达绝望的边缘。
我追求爱情，首先因为它让我着迷——这种沉迷如此美好，我宁愿放弃生命中的一切，只为换来片刻的这种快乐。我寻找爱情，又因为它会减轻孤独——在可怕的孤独中，颤抖的灵魂透过世界的边际望着冰冷的、了无生气的无尽深渊。我寻找爱情，还因为在爱情的结合中，我在一个神秘的缩影中隐约看到了圣者和诗人想象过的天堂。这是我所寻求的，并且我最终发现，它对于人类来说是再美好不过的东西了。
我以同样的热情追求知识。我曾想要理解人的心灵；我曾想知道星辰为何璀璨。我曾试图理解毕达哥拉斯的力量，他使数字凌驾于万物之上。在这些方面我略有成就，但并不多。
爱情和知识，只要可能实现，就会引领我走向天堂。但是怜悯常常将我拉回现实。痛苦的哭喊回荡在我的心中。孩子们饱受饥荒煎熬，无辜者被压迫者折磨，无助的老人被子孙视为可恶的累赘，以及世上触目皆是的孤独、贫困和痛苦——这些都在嘲讽人类生活的本来面目。我渴望减轻罪恶，但是我无法做到，于是我也感到痛苦。
这就是我的人生。我认为它值得拥有。如果可能再给我一次机会，我愿意重新再来一次。
词汇速记
anguish n. 痛苦；苦恼
ecstasy n. 狂喜；入迷；忘形
unfathomable adj. 深不可测的；无底的
abyss n. 深渊；无底洞
miniature n. 缩图；微型画
Pythagorean adj. 毕达哥拉斯的
reverberate v. 回响
美句欣赏
I have wished to understand the hearts of men.I have wished to know why the stars shine.And lhave tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds away above the flux.我曾想要理解人的心灵；我曾想知道星辰为何璀璨。我曾试图理解毕达哥拉斯的力量，他使数字凌驾于万物之上。