2012-8-18可樂分享美文《What I ha…

What I Have Lived For 我为何而生

 

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong,have governed my life: the longing for love, the search forknowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. Thesepassions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in awayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the veryverge of despair.

 

I have sought love, first, because it bringsecstasy---ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed allthe rest of my life for a few hours for this joy. I have sought it,next, because it relieves loneliness---that terrible loneliness inwhich one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the worldinto the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it,finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mysticminiature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints andpoets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it mightseem too good for human life, this is what---at last---I havefound.

 

With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I havewished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know whythe stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagoreanpower by which number holds sway 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 it brought me back toearth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children infamine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hatedburden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty,and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long toalleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I toosuffer.

 

This has been my life. I have found it worthliving, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offeredme.

 

译文：

 

                          我为何而生

    我的一生被三种简单却又无比强烈的激情所控制：对爱的渴望，对知识的探索和对人类苦难难以抑制的屿。这些激情像狂风，把我恣情吹向四方，掠过苦痛的大海，迫使我濒临绝望的边缘。

    我寻求爱，首先因为它使我心为之着迷，这种难以名状的美妙迷醉使我愿意用所有的余生去换取哪怕几个小时这样的幸福。我寻求爱，还因为它能缓解我心理上的孤独中，我感觉心灵的战栗，仿如站在世界的边缘而面前是冰冷，无底的死亡深渊。我寻求爱，因为在我所目睹的结合中，我仿佛看到了圣贤与诗人们所向往的天堂之景。这就是我所寻找的，虽然对人的一生而言似乎有些遥不可及，但至少是我用尽一生所领悟到的。

    我用同样的激情去寻求知识。我希望能理解人类的心灵，希望能够知道群星闪烁的缘由。我试图领悟毕达哥拉斯所景仰的“数即万物”的思想。我已经悟出了其中的一点点道理，尽管并不是很多。

    爱和知识，用它们的力量把人引向天堂。但是同情却总把人又拽回到尘世中来。痛苦的呼喊声回荡在我的内心。饥饿的孩子，受压迫的难民，贫穷和痛苦的世界，都是对人类所憧憬的美好生活的无情嘲弄。我渴望能够减少邪恶，但是我无能为力，我也难逃其折磨。

    这就是我的一生。我已经找到它的价值。而且如果有机会，我很愿意能再活它一次。