英文美文欣賞：What I Have Lived for我為何而生

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Three passions, simple but overwhelminglystrong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearablepity 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 very verge of despair.

對(duì)愛(ài)情的渴望，對(duì)知識(shí)的探求和對(duì)人類(lèi)苦難不可遏制的同情，是支配我一生的單純而難以抗拒的三種情感。這些情感如陣陣颶風(fēng),隨意地把我吹得飄來(lái)蕩去，有時(shí)吹過(guò)深沉痛苦的海洋，直抵絕望的邊緣。

I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my 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 - I have found.

我曾經(jīng)追求過(guò)愛(ài)情，首先是因?yàn)閻?ài)情可以給我?guī)��?lái)狂喜，這種狂喜竟如此強(qiáng)烈，以至于我常常會(huì)為了體驗(yàn)幾小時(shí)愛(ài)的歡娛，而寧愿犧牲生命中的其他一切。我曾經(jīng)追求過(guò)愛(ài)情，其次是因?yàn)閻?ài)情可以擺脫孤寂——置身于那可怕的孤獨(dú)之中，那令人戰(zhàn)栗的感覺(jué)，有時(shí)會(huì)掠過(guò)世界的邊緣，把人帶到寒氣襲人且沒(méi)有生命的無(wú)底深淵。我曾經(jīng)追求過(guò)愛(ài)情，還因?yàn)樵趷?ài)的結(jié)合中，我看到了古今圣賢以及詩(shī)人們夢(mèng)想中天堂的神秘縮影。這也正是我所追尋的人生境界。雖然它對(duì)一般的人類(lèi)生活也許太美好了，但這正是我透過(guò)愛(ài)情最終所找到的。

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

我曾以同樣的感情追求知識(shí)。我一直渴望去了解人類(lèi)的心靈，也渴望知道星星為什么會(huì)發(fā)光，同時(shí)我還想理解畢達(dá)哥拉斯的力量，通過(guò)它的力量，數(shù)駕馭了萬(wàn)物的變化。我學(xué)到了一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)知識(shí)，但僅是皮毛而已。

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, victimstortured 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.

愛(ài)情與知識(shí)，總是可以把我引領(lǐng)到天堂的境界。可對(duì)于人類(lèi)苦難的同情經(jīng)常把我?guī)Щ噩F(xiàn)實(shí)世界。那些痛苦的呼喚經(jīng)常在我內(nèi)心深處回響激蕩。嗷嗷待哺的孩童，壓迫者折磨之下的受害者，給子女造成重負(fù)的孤苦無(wú)依的老人，以及那充滿(mǎn)孤獨(dú)、貧窮和痛苦的世界，是對(duì)人類(lèi)所應(yīng)該擁有的生活的無(wú)視和嘲弄。我常渴望能盡自己的微薄之力去減輕這不必要的痛苦，但是卻無(wú)能為力，而我也因此受著痛苦的煎熬。

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，我覺(jué)得是值得活的。如果有誰(shuí)再給我一次生活的機(jī)會(huì)，我將欣然接受這難得的賜予。