Unit10 For the Sake of Other Men

 

第十课 为别人而活

Strange is our situation here upon earth.

我们在地球上的处境真是奇妙。

Each of us comes for a short visit，not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.

我们每一个人都是为了一趟短暂的旅程而来，也不知道是为了什么，但有时候似乎又猜想是有其目的。

From the standpoint of daily life，however, there is one thing we do know:

然而从日常生活的观点来看，我们可以确知一点，

that man is here for the sake of other men-above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends，

那就是人生在世是为了别人而活，尤其是为了那些我们的快乐与否取决于他们的微笑及幸福的人而活;

and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy.

也为着无数不知名的人而活，他们的命运藉由同胞之情的维系与我们结合在一起。

Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men，

一天中有许多次我会认识到自已外在和内在的生活大多依赖国人的劳力，

both living and dead，and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.

不管他们是否在世或已过世，也认识到我必须要多么认真努力才能同等回报我所获得的一切。

My peace of mind is often troubled by the depressing sense that I have borrowed too heavily from the work of other men.

我对别人的付出亏欠太多了，而这种挫折感常困扰我心灵的平静。

To ponder interminably over the reason for one's own existence or the meaning of life in general seems to me， from an objective point of view, to be sheer folly.

对我而言，从客观的角度来看，不断思考自己为何会存在于世，或者生命的一般意义究竟为何，似乎是非常愚蠢的。

And yet everyone holds certain ideals by which he guides his aspiration and his judgment.

然而每个人都拥有某些理想，他藉由这些理想引导自己的愿望与判断力。

The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth.

这些一直在引导我且令我充满生活乐趣的理想便是真、善、美。

To make a goal of comfort and happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.

我从未想过要以过着舒适安逸的生活为日标;若以这个墓础来建立一套道德观的话，这种道德观仅适用于牛群