三種激情 伯特蘭·羅素

Three passions
三種激情

Bertrand Russell
伯特蘭·羅素

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.

三種激情，簡單卻異乎熱烈，左右著我的生命：對愛的渴望，對知識的追求，以及對人類遭受的苦難的難以承受的遺憾。這三種激情像狂風，變化莫測，肆虐地吹打著我，把我吹入苦難的深海，到了絕望的最邊緣。

I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy-ecstasy so great that I would often 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 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.

我曾經尋求過愛，首先是因為它能使我愉悅─這種愉悅之情強烈到使我常常寧願為得到幾個小時這樣的愉悅而犧牲生命中其他的一切。其次，我尋求過愛，是因為它能解除孤獨─那種可怕的孤獨，一顆顫抖的感覺從世界的邊緣，審視著下麵冰涼、毫無生機、無底的深淵。最後，我尋求過愛，因為在我所見到的愛的結合中，在一種神秘的圖像裏，有著曾被聖人和詩人想象過的天堂裏未來的景象。盡管它對於人類的生命來說，似乎過於完美， 但這是我所追求的。這的確是我最終尋覓到的。

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 sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.

懷著同樣的激情， 我尋求過知識，我曾渴望著理解人心，我曾希望了知道星星為何發光，曾想領悟用數字控製潮汐的畢達哥拉斯力量，但在這方麵，我隻知道一點點。

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.

愛和知識盡可能引領我接近天堂，但遺憾總把我拽回大地。痛苦的哭聲在我的心中回響、震蕩。饑餓的兒童，被壓迫、受折磨的人們，成為兒孫們痛恨的包袱的無助的老人，孤獨的氣氛，貧窮和痛苦，充斥著整個世界。這一切都是對原本該具有的人類生活的諷刺。我渴望消除一切邪惡，但我辦不到，因為我自己也在苦難之中。

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

這就是我的生活，我認為值得一活。而且，如果有第二次，我將樂意地再活一次。

注：伯特蘭·羅素(Bertrand Russell,1872-1970)，英國哲學家、數學家、邏輯學家和散文家。他生於威爾士的特萊雷克，就讀於劍橋三一學院，在其漫長的一生中完成了40餘部著作，涉及哲學、數學、倫理、社會、教育、曆史、宗教及政治等許多領域。他早年的成就主要在數學和邏輯學，中年關注倫理道德、教育、政治，激勵和啟發富有進取精神的人。在1921年曾來北京大學作過講座。1950年獲諾貝爾文學獎。他反對侵略戰爭，主張和平，晚年參加反戰示威。主要著作有《數學原理》、《哲學大綱》、《教育與美好生活》、《羅素自傳》三卷本。《三種激情》選自《伯特蘭·羅素自傳》。它是一篇優秀散文。作者分析了人生中的三種激情，即對愛的渴望，對知識的追求和對人類苦難的同情。對愛的渴望，使人欣喜若狂，既能解除孤獨，又能發現美好的未來。對知識的追求，使人理解人心，了解宇宙，掌握科學。愛和知識把人引向天堂般的境界，而對人類的同情之心又使人回到苦難深重的人間。作者認為這就是人生，值得為此再活一次。