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 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.
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.
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.
Excerpt From What I Have Lived For
By Bertrand Russell
［参考译文］
三种激情
伯特兰·罗素
三种质朴而又十分强烈的激情一直支配着我的人生，这就是对爱的渴望、对知识的求索和对人类苦难的无限怜悯。这三种激情，有如狂飙挟我四海漂泊，游移不定，直至苦海的深渊，濒临绝望的边缘。
我寻求爱，首先在于爱能带来狂喜——它是如此令人心醉神迷，我愿舍弃余生来换取这片刻的欢乐；我寻求爱，还因为爱能消除孤独——那种当一个颤抖的灵魂从世界的边缘透视那冰冷、荒凉的无尽深渊时感到的那种孤独；此外，我所以寻求爱，还因为在爱的交融中，我看见了圣者和诗人所预想的天堂景象的神秘缩影，这正是我心中之所求，虽然人生似乎难臻此境，我最终却不负所求。
我怀着同样的激情来探索知识。我希望能够理解众人之心，我渴望了解星星缘何闪光，我也曾努力领会毕达哥拉斯赋予数的力量——主宰万物流变之力。我虽未创斐然之绩，却也还算小有所成。
爱和知识竭力引导我超凡入圣，但怜悯又把我拉回了凡尘。声声悲号在我心中回响不绝。饥饿的孩子、惨遭压迫者折磨的苦难者、因依附儿子而被视为可憎重负的老年人以及整个孤独、贫困和痛苦的世界都是对人们理想人生的嘲讽。我渴望减轻罪恶，却又无能为力，我也同样感到痛苦。
这就是我的人生。我觉得自己并未虚度此生，若有可能，我将欣然再一次度过如此人生。
［注释］
hither and thither ：到处，忽此忽彼
-ecstasy [ˈekstəsɪ] n. 欣喜若狂 intense joy or delight
-unfathomable [ʌnˈfæðəməbl] adj. 深不可测的 difficult or impossible to understand; incomprehensible
-miniature [ˈmɪnɪəʧə(r)] n. 缩图，缩影 something small of its class or in great reduced size
-Pythagorean [paɪˌθæɡəˈtiːən] adj. 毕达哥拉斯式的
-flux [flʌks] n. 不断变化，波动 constant or frequent change
-famine [ˈfæmɪn] n. 极度饥饿；饥饿 severe hunger; starvation
［作者简介］
伯特兰·罗素（Bertrand Russell, 1872-1970），20世纪英国著名的数学家、逻辑学家和哲学家，世界和平运动倡导者。无数人将罗素视为这个时代的先知，而与此同时罗素的许多政治立场却又是十分有争议性的。1950年，罗素获诺贝尔文学奖，主要著作有《数学原理》、《哲学问题》等。