中英文本

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life:
三种激情，简单但是极度强烈地控制着我的生命：
the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.
对爱的渴望，对知识的探索，对人类苦难的难以忍受的怜悯。
These passions, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
这些激情，不可阻挡地，越过极度痛苦的海洋，直达绝境。
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy-ecstasy so great that I would often havesacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy.
我寻找爱，首先，因为它带来如此痴痴迷迷，常常使我愿意献出余生来换取几个小时的欣悦。

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.
我寻找爱，还因为它解除孤独，在这可怕的孤独中，颤抖的意志如穿过世界的边缘看到冰冷、无底、死寂的深渊。
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.
我寻找爱，最终，因为我看到爱的交融，神秘而微妙，圣者和诗人描绘的天堂景象。
This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what-at last-I have found.
这就是我要寻找的，虽然这对人生来说过于美好，但是我最终找到了。
With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
我以同样的激情寻找知识。
I have wished to understand the hearts of men.
我希望理解人类的心灵。
I have wished to know why the stars shine.
我希望知道星星为什么闪耀。
And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux.
我试图驾驭毕达哥拉斯的数字力量，它支配着消长变化。
A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
很少一点，我达到了。
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens.
爱和知识，唯有可能通向天堂。
But always pity brought me back to earth.
但是怜悯总把我带回人世。
Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart.
痛苦哭叫的回声激荡在我的内心。
Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their pain make a mockery of what human life should be.
忍受饥饿的孩子，惨遭摧残的灾民，被视为重负的无助老人，糟蹋着人类应有的生活。
I long to alleviate the evil, but I can't, and I too suffer.
我试图减轻这灾祸，但是我不能，而且我也在遭受。
This has been my life.
这就是我的生活。
I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
我发现它值得此生。如果再给我这机缘，我会很欣慰地再生活一次。
作者介绍

罗素即伯特兰罗素
伯特兰罗素（Bertrand Russell，1872—1970）是二十世纪英国哲学家、数学家、逻辑学家、历史学家，无神论或者不可知论者，也是上世纪西方最著名、影响最大的学者和和平主义社会活动家之一，罗素也被认为是与弗雷格、维特根斯坦和怀特海一同创建了分析哲学。他与怀特海合著的《数学原理》对逻辑学、数学、集合论、语言学和分析哲学有着巨大影响。1950年，罗素获得诺贝尔文学奖，以表彰其“多样且重要的作品，持续不断的追求人道主义理想和思想自由”。

词语解释

1.ecstasy n.狂喜；出神

This is what relief and ecstasy look like.
这才叫真正的解脱和狂喜。

Later, as a student at harvard, she self-medicated with drugs such as ecstasy and cocaine.
录取哈佛后，她自我调整，服用诸如摇头丸和可卡因之类的药物。

2.victim n.牺牲者，受害者

He described the lake and the victim in albania.
他描述了阿尔巴尼亚的那个湖和受害者。

How's it feel to be a disgruntled victim?
做个满腹愁怨的牺牲品感觉又如何呢？

3.alleviate v.减轻，缓和

The decision was meant to alleviate domestic economic hardship.
这一决定的本意是缓解国内经济困难。

We use memcached to alleviate database load.
我们利用memcached来减轻数据库的负担。

4.apprehend v.理解；担心

The officers rush to apprehend the truck, believing that langdon is on the roof.
军官们急着去逮捕卡车相信兰登是在屋顶上。

Stay in the desert long enough, and you could apprehend the absolute.
在沙漠中呆久了，你就能理解绝对。