E08 What I have Lived for 我因何而活

▍课程导读

对爱情的渴望，对知识的追求，对人类苦难不可遏制的同情心，这三种纯洁但无比强烈的激情支配着伯特兰.罗素的一生。这三种激情，就像飓风一样，在深深的苦海上，肆意地把他吹来吹去，吹到濒临绝望的边缘。

▍英文原文

WhatI Have Lived For

ByBertrand Russell

Threepassions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longingfor love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering ofmankind. These passions, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish,reaching to the very verge of despair.

Ihave sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy -- ecstasy so great that Iwould often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. Ihave sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness -- that terribleloneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the worldinto the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, becausein the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, and prefiguring visionof the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, andthough it might seem too good for human life, this is what -- at last -- I havefound.

Withequal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the heartsof men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried toapprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. Alittle of this, but not much, I have achieved.

Loveand knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. Butalways pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in myheart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old peoplea hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, andpain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil,but I cannot, and I too suffer.

Thishas been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it againif the chance were offered me.

▍参考译文

我为什么而活着

[英]罗素

对爱情的渴望，对知识的追求，对人类苦难不可遏制的同情心，这三种纯洁但无比强烈的激情支配着我的一生。这三种激情，就像飓风一样，在深深的苦海上，肆意地把我吹来吹去，吹到濒临绝望的边缘。

我寻求爱情，首先因为爱情给我带来狂喜，它如此强烈，以致我经常愿意为了几小时的欢愉而牺牲生命中的其他一切。我寻求爱情，其次是因为爱情解除孤寂——那是一颗震颤的心，在世界的边缘，俯瞰那冰冷死寂、深不可测的深渊。我寻求爱情，最后是因为在爱情的结合中，我看到圣徒和诗人们所想象的天空景象的神秘缩影。这就是我所寻求的，虽然它对人生似乎过于美好，然而最终我还是得到了它。

我以同样的热情寻求知识，我希望了解人的心灵。我希望知道星星为什么闪闪发光，我试图理解毕达哥拉斯的思想威力，即数字支配着万物流转。这方面我获得一些成就，然而并不多。

爱情和知识，尽可能地把我引上天堂，但同情心总把我带回尘世。痛苦的呼号的回声在我心中回荡，饥饿的儿童，被压迫者折磨的受害者，被儿女视为可厌负担的无助的老人，以及充满孤寂、贫穷和痛苦的整个世界，都是对人类应有生活的嘲讽。我渴望减轻这些不幸，但是我无能为力，而且我自己也深受其害。

这就是我的一生，我觉得它值得活。如果有机会的话，我还乐意再活一次。