第607期:英語美文 Three Passions I have Lived for

New Words:
anguish n. 痛苦; 苦惱;
ecstasy n.狂喜; 無法自控的情緒;
unfathomable adj.深得無法到達底部的; 高深莫測的，難以瞭解的;
abyss n.深淵，無底洞;
miniature n. 微小模型; 微型畫;
reverberate vi. 迴響; 反射; 彈回;
alleviate vt. 減輕，緩和;

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 very verge of despair.

三種單純而極其強烈的激情支配着我的一生，那就是對於愛情的渴望，對於知識的尋求，以及對於人類苦難痛徹肺腑的憐憫。這些激情猶如狂風，把我伸展到絕望邊緣的深深苦海上空東拋西擲，使我的生活沒有定向。

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 for 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.
我追求愛情，首先因爲它叫我銷魂，愛情令人銷魂的魅力使我常常樂意爲了幾小時這樣的快樂而犧牲生活中的其他一切。我追求愛情，又因爲它減輕孤獨感--那種一個顫抖的靈魂望着世界邊緣之外冰冷而無生命的無底深淵時所感到的可怕的孤獨。我追求愛情，還因爲愛的結合使我在一種神祕的縮影中提前看到了聖者和詩人曾經想象過的天堂。這就是我所追求的，儘管人的生活似乎還不配享有它，但它畢竟是我終於找到的東西。

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…A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
我以同樣的熱情追求知識。我想理解人類的心靈。我想了解星辰爲何燦爛。我在這方面略有成就，但不多。

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, 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.
愛情和知識只要存在，總是向上導往天堂。但是對於人間的悲憫又將我拉回現實。這些痛苦的哭喊回蕩在我的內心。忍受饑荒的孩童，被壓迫者折磨的無辜者，被兒子們視作累贅的孤弱無助的老人，以及滿世的孤獨、貧困和痛苦--這些都是對人類生活的嘲弄。我渴望能減少罪惡，可我做不到，於是我也感到痛苦。

This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
這就是我的一生。我覺得這一生是值得活的。如果真有可能再給我一次機會，我將欣然再活一次。

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