名篇背诵：Three Passions 三种激情

Three Passions 三种激情

B. 罗素(B. Russel)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

hither and thither 到处，忽此忽彼

- ecstasy [ˈekstəsɪ] n. 欣喜若狂

- rim [rɪm] n. 边缘

- pythagorean [paɪˌθæɡəˈriːən] a. 毕达哥拉斯式的

- flux [flʌks] v. 不断地变化，波动变化

- famine [ˈfæmɪn] n. 饥饿

三种激情，质朴而强烈无比，一直主宰着我的一生：对爱的渴望，对知识的追求，对受苦受难的人类的强烈同情。这些激情像飓风，把我到处乱吹，任意地吹向深深的痛苦海洋，到达了绝望的边缘。

我追求爱情，首先是因为它带来狂喜——如此大的狂喜，以至于我时常愿意牺牲生命中剩下的时间换取几个小时的这种欢乐。其次是因为它解除孤独——在那可怕的孤独之中，一个人颤抖的意识透过世界的边缘，看到了寒冷的深不可测的无生命的地狱深渊。最后是因为，在美满的婚姻中，以一种神秘的微型缩影，我预见到了圣贤和诗人们所想象的天堂的圣境。这就是我的追求，虽然对于人生来说，它可能看来太美好了，难以如愿，而这正是——终于——我所发现的。

以同样的激情，我求索知识。我曾经希望理解人的内心世界。我希望知道为什么群星闪烁。我也试图领会毕达哥拉斯乘方，用乘方数掌握住斜边大小从而控制直角三角形高的上下不断变化。我取得的就这么一点点知识，不太多。

爱情和知识使人临近天堂，而同情则使人脚踏实地。痛苦的哭泣在我心里回荡。饥饿的儿童，受压迫者折磨的受害者，成了儿子拖累的无助老人，而这样整个孤独、贫困、痛苦的世界，构成了对人类生活应当是什么样的嘲弄。我渴望减轻这种邪恶，但是我办不到，而我本人也在遭罪。

这就是我经历过的人生。生活还是有价值的，如有机会，我将欣然再活一次。

伯特兰·罗素（Bertrand Russell），全名伯特兰·阿瑟·威廉·罗素（Bertrand Arthur William Russell），是20世纪最著名的英国哲学家、逻辑学家、数学家、历史学家、社会活动家和作家之一。他出生于1872年5月18日，逝世于1970年2月2日。

罗素在哲学、逻辑学和数学等多个领域都有深远的影响。在哲学上，他与阿尔弗雷德·诺斯·怀特海德（Alfred North Whitehead）合作撰写了《数学原理》（Principia Mathematica），试图将数学建立在逻辑的基础之上。在逻辑学方面，他发展了命题逻辑和谓词逻辑，对后来的逻辑学研究产生了重要影响。