作者：Bertrand Russel
讲析：沈静
1. 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.
我的一生被三种简单却又无比强烈的激情所控制：对爱的渴望，对知识的探索和对人类苦难难以抑制的同情。
Overwhelmingly压倒性地，不可抵抗性地
The longing for love对爱的渴望
The search for knowledge对知识的探索
Pity for suffering对痛苦的同情
2. 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.
这些激情像狂风，把我恣情吹向四方，掠过苦痛的大海，迫使我濒临绝望的边缘。
句子主干：these passions have blown me hither and thither
In a wayward course以一种恣意任性的方式
Over a deep ocean of anguish掠过苦痛之海
Reaching to the very verge of despair补足语，到达绝望的边缘
Hither and thither到处，各处
3. I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy---ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours for this joy.
我寻求爱，首先因为它使我心为之着迷，这种难以名状的美妙迷醉使我愿意用所有的余生去换取哪怕几个小时这样的幸福。
Sacrifice…for…为...而牺牲
4. 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.
我寻求爱，还因为它能缓解我心理上的孤独中，我感觉心灵的战栗，仿如站在世界的边缘而面前是冰冷，无底的死亡深渊。
5. 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.
我寻求爱，因为在我所目睹的爱的结合中，我仿佛看到了圣贤与诗人们所向往的天堂之景.
6. 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，虽然对人的一生而言似乎有些遥不可及，但至少是我用尽一生所领悟到的。
7. With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
我用同样的激情去寻求知识。
8. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine.
我希望能理解人类的心灵，希望能够知道群星闪烁的缘由。
9. 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.
我试图领悟毕达哥拉斯所景仰的“数即万物”的思想。我已经悟出了其中的一点点道理，尽管并不是很多。
10. Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens.
爱和知识，用它们的力量把人引向天堂。
11. But always it brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart.
但是同情却总把人又拽回到尘世中来。 痛苦的呼喊声回荡在我的内心。
12. 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.
饥饿的孩子，受压迫的难民，被儿女当作负担的无助老人，贫穷和痛苦的世界，都是对人类所憧憬的美好生活的无情嘲弄。
Children in famine介词短语后置定语“饥饿的孩子”
Victims tortured by oppressors过去分词作定语“被压迫的受害者”
Helpless old people后接补充修饰成分a hated burden…被
13. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
我渴望能够减少邪恶，但是我无能为力，我也难逃其折磨。
Long to do渴望做…
Alleviate=reduce减轻
14.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。我已经找到它的价值。而且如果有机会，我很愿意能再活它一次。
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