生活是一條沒辦法選擇的路，人需要美妙的事物。大家或許會為了某一刻的美妙怡人的感覺而一個人心醉神迷，或許會為了某一次的慷慨悲歌而痛哭流涕，發現了生活的短暫。

《我為什么而活》簡單的介紹了羅素的一生，旨在讓讀者對羅素其人獲得一個較為感性的認知。但羅素的最大收獲仍是在邏輯和哲學范圍，對于感興趣知道羅素生活觀的讀者，可以參閱本書。

Who am I living for

我為什么而活

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.

三種簡單卻極其強烈的情感主宰著我的生活：對愛的渴望、對常識的追求、對人類痛苦的很難承受的憐憫之心。這三種情感，像一陣陣颶風一樣，任意地將我吹的飄來蕩去，越過痛苦的海洋，抵達絕望的彼岸。

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 least ? I have found.

我探尋愛，第一，由于它讓人心醉神迷，這種沉醉是這樣美妙，以至于我想用余生來換取那幾個小時的快樂。我探尋愛，第二是由于它會減輕孤獨，置身于那種可怕的孤獨中，顫抖的靈魂在世界的邊緣，看到冰冷的、死寂的、無底深淵。我探尋愛，還由于在愛水乳?交融時，在一個神秘的縮影中，我見到了先賢和詩大家所想象的、預覽的天堂。 這就是我所追求的，盡管對于凡人來講，這仿佛是一種奢望。但這是我最后找到的。

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 apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway over the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.

我曾以同樣的熱情來追求常識。我期望能理解人類的心靈，期望能了解為何星星會發光。我也過去努力理解畢達哥拉斯學派的理論，他們覺得數字主載著萬物的此消彼長。我知道了一點常識，但不多。

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.

愛和常識，可以最大可能地，將人帶入天堂。可是，憐憫一直將我帶回地面。大家因痛苦而發出的哭聲在我心中久久回響，那些饑荒中的孩子們，被壓迫者摧殘的受害者們，被子女視為可憎負擔的、無助的老大家，與那無處不在的孤單、貧窮和無助都在諷刺著人類所本應該有些生活。我渴望可以消除人世間的邪惡，可是心有余而力不足，我一個人也同樣遭受著它們的折磨。

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

這就是我的生活。我感覺活一場是值得的。假如給我機會的話，我想高興地，再活一次。

學會詞語

overwhelmingly [???v??w?lm??l?] 壓倒性地，不可抵抗地

unbearable [?n?b??r?b?l] 很難承受的

wayward [?we?w?d] 任性的，固執的

miniature [?m?n?t??] 微型的；小規模的

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