Author: Bertrand Arthur William Russell
人的一生有大大小小很多個願望，小到考試拿第一，找個好工作，擁有自己的別墅；大至找到一個相知相惜的愛人，成為一個名人，能夠周遊世界……
談及願望，英國著名哲學家羅素這樣說：我的一生中有三個願望，淳樸而激越。渴望愛情、求索知識和對人類苦難的無限悲憫。
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.
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.
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.
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.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872 - 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, essayist, and social critic, best known for his work in mathematical logic and analytic philosophy.
From: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/language_tips/
我的一生追尋（《我為什麽活著》）
——羅素自傳的序
翻譯：文學城 宋哲學
三種情感，
簡單而又洶湧澎湃，
占據了我的一生：
對愛的渴望，
對知識的尋訪，
還有那難以壓抑的對人類苦難的憐傷。
這些情感吹打著我，
就像那狂風一樣，
來回晃蕩，
反複無常，
越過痛苦的海洋，
來到絕望的身旁。
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我追尋愛，
因為它令人陷入沉醉——
是那麽的令人沉醉，
以至於我，
願意以我剩下的全部生命，
來換取那僅僅幾個小時的甜美。
我追尋愛，
還因為它讓人遠離孤單——
是那麽可怕的孤單
好似一個戰栗的靈魂，
從那世界的邊緣，
探向那冰冷又毫無生氣的無底深淵。
我追尋愛，
更因為在愛的結合中，
我看到了神秘的景象：
那景象，
就是聖徒和詩人們所想象著的——天堂。
這就是我追尋著的，
雖然它或許，
對人的一生太過美妙，
然而最終，
我已尋到。
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以同樣的情感，
我追尋知識。
我想看到人們的內心的深處，
我想探究星星的為什麽發光。
我還想領略畢達哥拉斯的力量——
那種支配著萬物變化的數字力量。
一點點的，
不多的，
我已追上。
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愛和知識，
盡其可能地引領著我通向天堂；
然而憐傷，
又總是將我帶回塵世之上。
痛苦的呼號在我的內心回蕩：
忍饑挨餓的孩童，
備受欺壓者折磨的受害者，
被自己子女視為累贅的無助老人，
連同著這整個充滿了孤獨、貧窮、痛苦的世界，
讓人類的生活，
淪落成為笑談的對象。
我想減少這樣的罪惡，
然而我無能為力——
我也在忍受創傷。
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這就是我的一生，
值得一過的一生。
如果能再給我一次機會，
我願意再來一次——
這樣的一生。
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