【每天读一点英文：生而为赢Born to Win英文经典短文】gnuhpc注释版: What I have Lived for 我为何而生

What I Have Lived For

 

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（adv. 到处，向各方）, in a wayward（[way·ward || 'weɪwə(r)d]adj.  任性的, 刚愎的, 不定的） course, over a deep ocean of anguish（ [an·guish || 'æŋgwɪʃ]n.  苦恼; 痛苦）, reaching to the very verge（ [vɜrdʒ / vɜːd-]n.  边缘） of despair.

 

I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy（ec·sta·sy || 'ekstəsɪ]n.  狂喜, 忘形, 心醉神迷）---ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours for 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（[un·fath·om·a·ble || ʌn'fæðəməbl]adj.  深不可测的, 难解的, 无底的） lifeless abys（[a·byss || ə'bɪs]n.  深渊, 地狱, 无底洞）. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature（[min·i·a·ture || 'mɪnətʃʊr /-tʃə]n.  缩图, 小画像）, 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（领悟） 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 it brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate（ [re·ver·ber·ate || rɪ'vɜrbəreɪt /-'vɜː-]v.  回响; 弹回; 反射; 反响; 使反响, 反射, 使回响） in my heart. Children in famine（饥荒）, victims tortured by oppressors（ [op'pres·sor || ə'presə(r)]n.  压迫者; 压制者）, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery（[mock·er·y || mɑkərɪ /mɒkərɪ]n.  嘲弄, 蔑视, 笑柄） 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.