里昂夜读英语美文[243]:三种激情
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life:
三种纯洁而无比强烈的激情支配着我的一生：
the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.
对爱情的渴望，对知识的追求，对人类苦难不可遏制的同情心。
These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither,
这三种激情，就像飓风一样，
in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
在深深的苦海上，肆意地把我吹来吹去，吹到濒临绝望的边缘。
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy
我寻求爱情，首先因为爱情给我带来狂喜，
ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy.
它如此强烈，以致我经常愿意为了几小时的欢愉而牺牲生命中的其他一切。
I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness
我寻求爱情，其次是因为爱情解除孤寂
that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss.
那是一颗震颤的心，在世界的边缘，俯瞰那冰冷死寂、深不可测的深渊。
I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen,
我寻求爱情，最后是因为在爱情的结合中，
in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined.
我看到圣徒和诗人们所想象的天空景象的神秘缩影。
This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what at last I have found.
这就是我所寻求的，虽然它对人生似乎过于美好，然而最终我还是得到了它。
With equal passion, I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men.
我以同样的热情寻求知识，我希望了解人的心灵。
I have wished to know why the stars shine.
我希望知道星星为什么闪闪发光。
And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux.
我试图理解毕达哥拉斯的思想威力，即数字支配着万物流转。
A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
这方面我获得一些成就，然而并不多。
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens.
爱情和知识，尽可能地把我引上天堂。
But always pity brought me back to earth.
但同情心总把我带回尘世。
Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart.
痛苦的呼号的回声在我心中回荡。
Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons,
饥饿的儿童，被压迫者折磨的受害者，被儿女视为可厌负担的无助的老人，
and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be.
以及充满孤寂、贫穷和痛苦的整个世界，都是对人类应有生活的嘲讽。
I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
我渴望减轻这些不幸，但是我无能为力，而且我自己也深受其害。
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
这就是我的一生，我觉得它值得活。如果有机会的话，我还乐意再活一次。
