三种激情 伯特兰·罗素

Three passions
三种激情

Bertrand Russell
伯特兰·罗素

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.

三种激情，简单却异乎热烈，左右著我的生命：对爱的渴望，对知识的追求，以及对人类遭受的苦难的难以承受的遗憾。这三种激情像狂风，变化莫测，肆虐地吹打着我，把我吹入苦难的深海，到了绝望的最边缘。

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

我曾经寻求过爱，首先是因为它能使我愉悦─这种愉悦之情强烈到使我常常宁愿为得到几个小时这样的愉悦而牺牲生命中其他的一切。其次，我寻求过爱，是因为它能解除孤独─那种可怕的孤独，一颗颤抖的感觉从世界的边缘，审视著下面冰凉、毫无生机、无底的深渊。最后，我寻求过爱，因为在我所见到的爱的结合中，在一种神秘的图像里，有着曾被圣人和诗人想象过的天堂里未来的景象。尽管它对于人类的生命来说，似乎过于完美， 但这是我所追求的。这的确是我最终寻觅到的。

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 above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.

怀著同样的激情， 我寻求过知识，我曾渴望着理解人心，我曾希望了知道星星为何发光，曾想领悟用数字控制潮汐的毕达哥拉斯力量，但在这方面，我只知道一点点。

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.

爱和知识尽可能引领我接近天堂，但遗憾总把我拽回大地。痛苦的哭声在我的心中回响、震荡。饥饿的儿童，被压迫、受折磨的人们，成为儿孙们痛恨的包袱的无助的老人，孤独的气氛，贫穷和痛苦，充斥著整个世界。这一切都是对原本该具有的人类生活的讽刺。我渴望消除一切邪恶，但我办不到，因为我自己也在苦难之中。

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

这就是我的生活，我认为值得一活。而且，如果有第二次，我将乐意地再活一次。

注：伯特兰·罗素(Bertrand Russell,1872-1970)，英国哲学家、数学家、逻辑学家和散文家。他生于威尔士的特莱雷克，就读于剑桥三一学院，在其漫长的一生中完成了40余部著作，涉及哲学、数学、伦理、社会、教育、历史、宗教及政治等许多领域。他早年的成就主要在数学和逻辑学，中年关注伦理道德、教育、政治，激励和启发富有进取精神的人。在1921年曾来北京大学作过讲座。1950年获诺贝尔文学奖。他反对侵略战争，主张和平，晚年参加反战示威。主要著作有《数学原理》、《哲学大纲》、《教育与美好生活》、《罗素自传》三卷本。《三种激情》选自《伯特兰·罗素自传》。它是一篇优秀散文。作者分析了人生中的三种激情，即对爱的渴望，对知识的追求和对人类苦难的同情。对爱的渴望，使人欣喜若狂，既能解除孤独，又能发现美好的未来。对知识的追求，使人理解人心，了解宇宙，掌握科学。爱和知识把人引向天堂般的境界，而对人类的同情之心又使人回到苦难深重的人间。作者认为这就是人生，值得为此再活一次。