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What I Have Lived For
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.
Mine:我为何而生
三种激情,虽然简单但异常强烈,它已经统治了我的生活:对爱的渴求,对知识的追求,对人类苦难的巨大怜悯。这些激情如大风般任性地刮我到各个地方,经过了一个痛苦的深洋,最后到达绝望的边缘。
我曾经寻找爱,首先因为它带给我狂喜——狂喜到甚至可以让我放弃我所有剩下的生命开换取几个小时爱的乐趣。再者,我寻找爱是因为它可以缓解孤独——这种孤独可怕到可以让人的意识会感到这个世界是一个深不可测的无生命的深渊而害怕到发抖。最后,我寻找爱是因为在我已见到的爱中,在神秘的缩影中,我看到了圣人和诗人想象的天堂。这就是我所寻找的,虽然它似乎在人类的生命中太完美了,但是最后是我还是发现的。
Conference answer:三种激情虽然简单,却异常强烈,它们统治着我的生命,那便是:对爱的渴望,对知识的追求,以及对人类苦难的难以承受的同情。这三种激情像变化莫测的狂风任意地把我刮来刮去,把我刮入痛苦的深海,到了绝望的边缘。
我曾经寻找爱,首先是因为它能使我欣喜若狂——这种喜悦之情如此强烈,使我常常宁愿为这几个小时的愉悦而牺牲生命中的其他一切。我寻求爱,其次是因为爱能解除孤独——在这种可怕的孤独中,一颗颤抖的良心在世界的边缘,注视着下面冰凉、毫无生气、望不见底的深渊。我寻求爱还因为在爱的融合中,我能以某种神秘的图像看到曾被圣人和诗人想象过的天堂里未来的景象。这就是我所追求的东西,虽然这似乎对于人类的生命来说过于完美,但这确实是我最终发现的东西。
[ 本帖最后由 Hefen 于 2008-10-31 22:27 编辑 ] |
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