Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life, the longing¹ for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable² pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions like great winds, have blown me hither and thither³, in a wayward course, over a great ocean of anguish⁴, reaching to the very verge⁵ of despair.

三种简单而强烈的情感支配着我的生活：对爱的渴望、对知识的追求和对受苦之人的同情？这些情感就像大风一样，把我随风卷起，飘忽不定地越过痛苦之海，来到了绝望的边缘。

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 rim⁶ 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-l have found.

我追寻过爱，首先，因为它给我带来了莫大的喜悦——这喜悦是如此的强烈，往往会让我牺牲生命中其他的一切只为了体验几个小时爱的喜悦j其次，它排遣了寂寞——在那种可怕的寂寞之中，一个颤抖的灵魂，越过世界的边际，进入那酷寒，深不可测而又了无生气的无底深渊，我追求过爱，最后是因为在爱的结合中我看过圣人和诗人所希冀的天堂的微缩景象这就是我所追寻的人生的境界，这似乎对人类而言太过美好，这是我最终所发现的。

With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished Lo understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend⁷ the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux⁸. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.

我对于知识有着同样的渴望二我希望能了解人类的•心灵，我想知道为什么星星在夜空闪烁：我试图去理解毕达哥拉斯学派的力量即用数字去统治那些不理性二在这个方面，我有点小小的成就。

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 reverberate⁹ 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 alleviate¹⁰ this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.

如果爱和知识是可能的，那么他们能带我们到达天堂：但是人类的苦难又使我回到了人间。忍饥挨饿的孩子，被压迫的人民，无助的老人成了孩子的负担，还有满世界的孤独，贫困和痛苦对于人类生活的理想进行了无尽的嘲弄二我想远离这个恶魔，但是我无能为力，所以也我痛苦着。

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

这就是我的生活。而且我觉得这样的生活很值得：如果能再给我一个机会，我会很高兴再活一次。