罗素:我为什么而活（满意的译文）

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.

三种简单而又极其强烈的情感一直控制着我的生活：对爱的渴望、对知识的渴求和对人类苦难难以遏制的同情。

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.

这三种情感，就像三股飓风一样，任意地卷着我飘来荡去，倏忽不定，越过深深的苦海，抵达绝望的边缘。

I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy-ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for few hours of the joy.

我寻求爱，首先，因为它令人心醉神迷。这种沉醉如此美妙，以至于我愿意用我余下的生命来换取那几个小时的欢愉。

I have sought it, next, beacuse it relieves longliness—that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss.

我寻找爱，其次是因为它可以缓解孤独，置身于那种可怕的孤寂中，一颗颤抖的灵魂仿佛仿佛站在了世界的边缘，看到冰冷的、死寂的无底深渊。

I have sought it finally, beacause in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined.

我寻找爱，还因为在爱的结合里，我看到了圣徒和诗人们所幻想的天堂的神秘缩影。

This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what -at last-I have found.

这就是我所寻找的，尽管于都人们来说，这是一种奢求，我最终还是找到了。

With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the starts shine.

我曾以同样的热情来追求知识。我希望能理解人们的心，我想知道星星为什么会发光。

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 achived.

我也曾努力理解毕达哥拉斯用数字主宰万物此消彼长的能力。在探索知识方面，我只取得了一点成绩，不是很多。

Love and knowlege, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Ecoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart.

爱和知识，尽所其能地将人类带入天堂。可是，怜悯总会让我回到现实。回荡着的痛苦的哭声，在我心中久久无法散去。

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.

饥荒中的孩子们，饱受压迫的受难者们，已经成为子女负担的无助的老人们，满世界的孤单，贫穷和痛苦是人类本该拥有的美好生活的讽刺。我渴望消除人世间的罪恶，可是我无能为力，并且同样深受折磨。

This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the changce were offered me.

这就是我的人生。我觉得这一生是值得活的，如果真有第二次机会的话，我会欣然再活一遍。

Bertrand Russell

罗伯特 罗素