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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 great 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 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 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 this 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.
我為何而生
三種情感，雖樸實卻無比強烈地主宰著我的生命：對愛情的渴望，對知識的求索，以及對人類所遭受苦難的不可遏制的同情。這些激情似颶風，肆意地使我飄忽不定的心靈掠過茫茫苦海，又墜落到絕望的邊緣。
我追尋愛，首先因為愛能使我神魂顛倒——這種體驗如此強烈，我甚至愿意以余生換取哪怕片刻的消魂。我追尋愛，因為它可排解孤獨——處在這可畏的孤獨之中，一顆顫抖的靈魂掠過世界的邊緣,能夠窺視冷酷荒寂的萬丈深淵。最后，我追尋愛，還因為在愛的交融中，圣賢和詩人們想象的天國的景象,像神秘的袖珍畫像一樣,映入眼簾.這就是我所尋找的，盡管它對人生來講可能太完美，但至少是我親眼所見。
我以同樣的激情追求知識。我希冀能夠了解人類的內心世界。我希望能夠知道群星為何閃爍。我試圖領悟畢達哥拉斯所景仰的數字的永恒力量,它統掌乾坤.在這方面我略有成就，但還不夠.
愛和知識是最有可能引領我升入天國。但憐憫之心總是把我拉回人世。我的心中回蕩著人類痛苦的呼喊。嗷嗷待哺的兒童，慘遭蹂躪的受難者，被兒女視為累贅的孤苦無助的老人，以及滿世界的孤獨、貧困和痛苦都是對人類理想生活的嘲弄。我期望減少邪惡，但力不從心，我自己也備受其害。
這就是我的人生。但我覺得頗有價值，如果再有機會，我將欣然重活一次。
簡評:
本文選自《伯特蘭·羅素自傳》的一篇優秀散文。人民大學等幾所高校研究生院曾把當作英語專業的翻譯試題,以前曾譯過,今又有人拿來詢問,索性把它整理出來罷.此文既是作者心靈的抒發，也是生命體驗的總結。作者以深刻的感悟和敏銳的目光，分析了人生中的三種激情，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，值得為此再活一次的人生。這篇散文似乎信手拈來，但卻耐人尋味。充滿激情，充滿感慨，充滿智慧，情文并茂，邏輯性和感染力極強。
作者簡介:
伯特蘭·羅素(Bertrand Russell,1872-1970)是英國聲譽卓著，影響深遠的哲學家、數學家、邏輯學家和散文家。他生于威爾士的特萊雷克，就讀于劍橋三一學院，在其漫長的一生中完成了40余部著作，涉及哲學、數學、倫理、社會、教育、歷史、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年曾來中國，在北京大學作過講座。他在1950年榮獲諾貝爾文學獎。在政治上，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。
