精美英文欣赏:我的人生追求

What I Have Lived For

我的人生追求

Three passions, simple but 1)overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing¹ for love, the search for knowledge, and 2)unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, in a 3)wayward course, over a deep ocean of 4)anguish, reaching to the very 5)verge of despair.

有三种简单然而无比强烈的激情左右了我的一生：对爱的渴望，对知识的探索和对人类苦难的难以忍受的怜悯。这些激情像飓风，反复地吹拂过深重的苦海，濒于绝境。

I have sought love, first, because it brings 6)ecstasy², ecstasy so great that I would often have 7)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 rim³ of the world into the cold 8)unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic 9)miniature, the 10)prefiguring vision of the heaven that 11)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.

我寻找爱，首先是因为它使人心醉神迷——这种陶醉是如此的美妙，使我愿意牺牲所有的余生去换取几个小时这样的欣喜。我寻找爱，还因为它解除孤独——在可怕的孤独中，一颗颤抖的灵魂从世界的边缘看到冰冷、无底、死寂的深渊。最后，我寻找爱，还因为在爱的交融中，神秘而又具体而微地，我看到了圣贤和诗人们想象出的天堂的前景。这就是我所寻找的，而且，虽然对人生来说似乎过于美妙，这也是我终于找到了的。

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 12)apprehend the 13)Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux⁴. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.

以同样的激情我探索知识。我希望能够理解人类的心灵。我希望能够知道群星为何闪烁。我试图领悟毕达哥拉斯所景仰的数字力量，它支配着此消彼涨。仅在不大的一定程度上，我达到了此目的。

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 reverberate⁵ in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by 14)oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their pain make a 15)mockery of what human life should be. I long to 16)alleviate the evil, but I can't, and I too suffer.

爱和知识，只要有可能，通向着天堂。但是怜悯总把我带回尘世。痛苦呼喊的回声回荡在我的内心。忍饥挨饿的孩子，惨遭压迫者摧残的受害者，被儿女们视为可憎的负担的无助的老人，连同这整个充满了孤独、贫穷和痛苦的世界，使人类所应有的生活成为了笑柄。我渴望能够减少邪恶，但是我无能为力，而且我自己也在忍受折磨。

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。我发现它值得一过。如果再给我一次机会，我会很高兴地再活它一次。

1 longing   

n.（for）渴望

参考例句：

• Hearing the tune again sent waves of longing through her.再次听到那首曲子使她胸中充满了渴望。
• His heart burned with longing for revenge.他心中燃烧着急欲复仇的怒火。

2 ecstasy   

n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷

参考例句：

• He listened to the music with ecstasy.他听音乐听得入了神。
• Speechless with ecstasy,the little boys gazed at the toys.小孩注视着那些玩具，高兴得说不出话来。

3 rim   

n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界

参考例句：

• The water was even with the rim of the basin.盆里的水与盆边平齐了。
• She looked at him over the rim of her glass.她的目光越过玻璃杯的边沿看着他。

4 flux   

n.流动；不断的改变

参考例句：

• The market is in a constant state of flux.市场行情在不断变化。
• In most reactors,there is a significant flux of fast neutrons.在大部分反应堆中都有一定强度的快中子流。

5 reverberate   

v.使回响，使反响

参考例句：

• The decision will reverberate and will jar the country.这项决定将引起反响并震撼这个国家。
• Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my hear.痛苦呼喊的一遍遍的在我的心中回响。