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 for knowledge,and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.

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，这三种纯洁而无比强烈的激情支配着我的一生。

These passions, like great winds,

这三种感情，就像阵阵狂风，

have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course,over a great ocean of anguish,reaching to the very verge of despair.

卷着我四处飘荡，走上艰难的旅程，越过痛苦的海洋，直抵绝望的边缘。

I have sought love, first,because it brings enthusiasm-enthusiasm so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy.

我寻求爱情，首先因为爱情给我带来激情，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。

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.

我寻求爱情，其次是因为爱情可以排解孤独一那是一颗震颤的心，就好比在世界的边缘，俯瞰那冰冷死寂、毫无生气的深渊。

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.

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梦想的天堂景象的缩影，

This is what I sought,and though it might seem too good for human life,this is what-at last-I have found.

这正是我所追寻的人生境界。虽然它对一般的人类生活也许过于美好，但这正是我通过爱情所得到的最终发现。

With equal passion I have sought knowledge.

我以同样的热情寻求知识，

I have wished to understand the hearts of men.

我渴望了解人的心灵。

I have wished to know why the stars shine.

也渴望知道星光为何如此璀璨，

And I have tried to comprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux.

同时我还力图领悟毕达哥拉斯的力量，即数字驾驭一切不稳定的强大力量。

A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.

我在这方面略有成就，但不多。

Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible,led upward toward the heavens.

爱情和知识，尽其可能地把我引上天堂，

But always pity brought me back to earth.

可对人类苦难的同情经常把我带回现实世界。

Echoes of cries of pain echoed in my heart.

那些痛苦的呼喊经常在我内心深处回响，

Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors,helpless old people a burden to their sons,and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be.

饥饿中的孩子，受暴君压迫的人们，变成子女负担的孤苦无依的老人，以及全球性的孤独，贫穷和痛苦，变成了对人类生活理想的莫大讽刺。

I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.

我常常希望能减轻这些痛苦，但却无法做到，因此我自己也十分痛苦。

This has been my life.

这就是我的一生。

I have found it worth living,and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.

值得活着的一生，如果有机会能够再活一遍，我将欣然地接受。