The Story of My Life 01-01

The Story of My Life -- Chapter 1 Clip 1

450） this.width=450" controls="ControlPanel" loop="false" autostart="false" volume="100" initfn="load-types" mime-types="mime.types" />

450） this.width=450" onload="javascript:if(this.width>450) this.width=450" />
(re-read on June 14, 2011)

It is with a kind of fear that I begin to write the history of my life. I have, as it were, a "superstitious hesitation" in lifing the veil that clings about my childhood like a golden mist. The task of writing an autobiography is a difficult one. When I try to classify my earliest impressions, I find that fact and fancy look alike across the years that link the past with the present. The woman paints the child's experiences in her own fantasy. A few impressions stand out vividly from the first years of my life, but "the shadows of the prison-house are on the rest". Besides, many of the joys and sorrows of childhood have lost their poignancy, and many incidents of vital importance in my early education have been forgotten in the excitement of great discoveries. In order, therefore, not to be tedious, I shall try to present in a series of schetches only the episodes that seem to me to be the most interesting and important.

我是懷著一種不安之心開始回顧我的生命曆史的。對於揭開象金霧般地彌漫在我童年生活中的這層麵紗，我實際上有一種幾近迷信的猶豫。寫自傳是一件艱難的任務。當我試著整理那些早期印象時，我發現經過了連接過去和現在的歲月，事實和虛幻看起來已非常相似，一個成年人在用自己的想象描述一個孩子的經曆。我生命最早時期的一些印象仍活靈活現，但另外一些，則象投影在牢獄上的影子[典故自蘇格拉底的“The Allegory of the Cave”，喻不太真實]。而且許多兒時的歡樂和痛苦都已不再如當初般清晰，許多在我早期教育中至關重要的事件，已被淹沒在巨大發現的激動中而被忘卻了。因此，為了避免沉悶，我應當以一係列素描的方式，僅僅呈現那些在我看來最有趣和最重要的畫麵。