hither and thither adv到处
wayward adj 任性的，不规则的
ecstasy n 狂喜；欣喜若狂
unfathomable adj 深不可测的
apprehend v 理解
reverberate v 回响
alleviate v 减轻，缓和
abyss n 深渊

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（到处）, in a wayward（任性的，不规则的） course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
三种单纯然而极其强烈的激情支配着我的一生。那就是对于爱情的渴望，对于知识的追求，以及对于人类苦难痛彻肺腑的怜悯。这些激情犹如狂风任意地把我刮到了痛苦的海洋，刮到了绝望的边缘。
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy（狂喜，入迷） –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（深不可测的） 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.
我追求爱情，首先是因为它叫人销魂——这种喜悦之情如此强烈，使我常常宁愿为这几个小时的愉悦而牺牲生命中的其它一切。我追求爱情，又因为它能减轻孤独感——那种一个颤抖的灵魂望着世界边缘之外冰冷而无生命的无底深渊时所感到的可怕的孤独。我追求爱情，还因为爱的结合使我在一种神秘的缩影中提前看到了圣者和诗人曾经想像过的天堂。这就是我所追求的，尽管这对于我们的生活来说太完美了，但它毕竟是我最终找到的东西。

With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have tried to apprehend（理解） the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flu. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
我以同样的热情追求知识，我曾渴望着理解人心，我曾渴望知道为何星星会闪烁，我还企图弄懂毕达哥拉斯所谓的用数字控制变化的力量。我在这方面略有成就，但不多。

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（回想，反响） 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.
爱和知识的力量引我接近天堂，但同情之心往往又把我拉回现实。痛苦的呼喊在我心中回荡：饥饿的儿童，被压迫、受折磨的人们，被儿孙们讨厌的无助的老人们，充斥着整个世界的孤独、贫穷和苦难，所有这一切都是对人类生活原本该具有的样子的讽刺。我渴望能减少罪恶，可我做不到，因为我自己也处于苦难之中。

This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
这就是我的一生。我觉得这一生是值得活的，如果有机会，我很乐意再活一次。

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