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 great 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 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.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
三種激情，單純而強烈，支配著我的一生：對愛的渴望，對知識的探索，和無法忍受的憐憫人類的苦難。這些激情像狂風，吹得我忽東忽西，在一個任性的過程中，越過痛苦的海洋，直抵絕望的邊緣。
我尋找愛，首先是因為它帶來狂喜 - 狂喜如此之大，我愿意犧牲生命中的其他一切為這個歡樂的幾個小時。我尋求愛，還因為它解除孤獨 - 在可怕的孤獨中，一顆顫抖的靈魂從世界的邊緣，看到冰冷，無底深淵。我終于尋求愛，因為在愛我見過的工會，在一個神秘的縮影，圣人和詩人所夢想的天堂的眼光預(yù)告著。這就是我所追求的，雖然這似乎對于人類的生命來說過于完美，這就是 - 終于 - 我已經(jīng)找到。
以同樣的激情我探索知識。我希望能夠理解人類的心靈。我也想知道為什么星星會發(fā)光。我試圖領(lǐng)悟由數(shù)字支配著不斷變動的畢達哥拉斯的力量。一點點道理，但并不多，我已經(jīng)實現(xiàn)。
愛和知識，只要有可能，向上導往天堂。但是憐憫總把我?guī)Щ厝碎g。痛苦的呼喊聲回蕩在我的心臟。被壓迫被折磨的兒童在饑荒的受害者，無助的老人的負擔他們的兒子，以及孤獨，貧窮整個世界，和痛苦都是對人類應(yīng)該過的生活的嘲弄。我渴望能夠減少邪惡，但是我無能為力，我也感到很痛苦。
這一直是我的生活。我發(fā)現(xiàn)它值得活的，會很高興地再活一次如果有機會，給了我。
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 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.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
三種激情，單純而強烈，支配著我的一生：對愛的渴望，對知識的探索，和無法忍受的憐憫人類的苦難。這些激情像狂風，吹得我忽東忽西，在一個任性的過程中，越過痛苦的海洋，直抵絕望的邊緣。
我尋找愛，首先是因為它帶來狂喜 - 狂喜如此之大，我愿意犧牲生命中的其他一切為這個歡樂的幾個小時。我尋求愛，還因為它解除孤獨 - 在可怕的孤獨中，一顆顫抖的靈魂從世界的邊緣，看到冰冷，無底深淵。我終于尋求愛，因為在愛我見過的工會，在一個神秘的縮影，圣人和詩人所夢想的天堂的眼光預(yù)告著。這就是我所追求的，雖然這似乎對于人類的生命來說過于完美，這就是 - 終于 - 我已經(jīng)找到。
以同樣的激情我探索知識。我希望能夠理解人類的心靈。我也想知道為什么星星會發(fā)光。我試圖領(lǐng)悟由數(shù)字支配著不斷變動的畢達哥拉斯的力量。一點點道理，但并不多，我已經(jīng)實現(xiàn)。
愛和知識，只要有可能，向上導往天堂。但是憐憫總把我?guī)Щ厝碎g。痛苦的呼喊聲回蕩在我的心臟。被壓迫被折磨的兒童在饑荒的受害者，無助的老人的負擔他們的兒子，以及孤獨，貧窮整個世界，和痛苦都是對人類應(yīng)該過的生活的嘲弄。我渴望能夠減少邪惡，但是我無能為力，我也感到很痛苦。
這一直是我的生活。我發(fā)現(xiàn)它值得活的，會很高興地再活一次如果有機會，給了我。