伯特兰·罗素/Bertrand Russell

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. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the verge of despair.

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

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.

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 reverberated in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured 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.

This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and I would gladly live it again if the chance were offered to me.

对爱的期望，对知识的追求以及对人类苦难的深切怜悯之心——这三种质朴而不可抗拒的情感主宰着我的生活。这些情感像一阵阵飓风，把我吹得飘来**去，穿过痛苦的海洋，抵达绝望的彼岸。

我曾追求过爱，首先是因为爱可以使人欣喜若狂——它让人如此高兴。为了这片刻的快乐，我宁愿牺牲我的余生；我曾追寻过爱，其次是因为它能排解人孤独的感觉——置身于这无比可怕的孤独中，那让人战栗的感觉，会掠过这个世界的边缘，把人带入那无声无息而且寒气逼人的无底深渊；我曾追寻过爱，还因为在爱的结合、在这神秘的缩影中，我看到了圣人和诗人们曾经幻想的天堂美景。我追求的正是如此。尽管对凡人而言，这世间好像是一种奢望，但这是我最终所寻觅的。

带着同样的情感，我曾追寻过知识。我曾希望对人类的心灵有所了解，我曾想知道星辰为什么会发光，我曾试图理解毕达哥拉斯的力量，他认为数的力量驾驭着万物的变化。我得到了为数不多的一点知识。

爱和知识可以把人带入天堂。但是怜悯之心又常常把我拉回尘世之中，我的心中激**着痛苦的呼唤。嗷嗷待哺的孩子、受压迫者折磨的受害者、孤苦无助的老人——他们是儿女们憎恶的负担。还有那充满着孤独、贫穷和痛苦的世界，都在嘲弄着人类生活本应有的美好。我渴望减少人间的邪恶，对此却无能为力，因此也承受着煎熬。

这就是我的生活，我觉得值得活下去。如果天赐良机，我愿意再快乐地活一次。

The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for circumstances they want, and if they cannot find them, they make them.

—George Bernard Shaw

在这个世界上，取得成功的人是那些努力寻找他们想要的机会的人，如果找不到机会，他们就去创造机会。

——乔治·萧伯纳

anguish[???gwi?]n.苦闷；痛苦

Nothing can take away the anguish of losing a child.

什么都不能解除失去孩子的巨大悲痛。

verge[v?:d?]n.边缘

She was on the verge of telling all the secret.

她正想把全部的秘密讲给我听。

miniature[?minj?t??]n.缩图；小画像

She is just like her mother in miniature.

她简直是她母亲的缩影。

alleviate[??li:vieit]减轻；使……缓和

What good method can alleviate hypoglycemia low blood pressure?

有什么好方法能缓解低血糖和低血压？

对爱的期望，对知识的追求以及对人类苦难的深切怜悯之心——这三种质朴而不可抗拒的情感主宰着我的生活。

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但是怜悯之心又常常把我拉回尘世之中，我的心中激**着痛苦的呼唤。

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如果天赐良机，我愿意再快乐地活一次。

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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 cold unfathomable lifeless abyss.

look over：检查；查看；调查

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

so far as：只要

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