麗思的部落格

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.

對愛情的渴望，對知識的追求，對人類苦難那難以平復的同情，三種單純卻出奇強烈的感情始終支配著我的生命。它們如陣陣巨風，夾帶著我的心境此起彼伏，飄蕩不定，拂過痛楚的汪洋，抵達絕望的邊緣。

羅素：我為什麼而活    雙語對照 

伯特蘭·羅素(Bertrand Russell ， 1872-1970)一生跨越了幾乎一個世紀，是個涉及廣泛的博學家及社會活動家。是20世紀最重要的自由主義思想家之一，哲學家之一，以及無數人們心目中的先知。看看他這篇著名的我為什麼而活....

英國哲學家、數學家、現代邏輯學奠基人、1950年諾貝爾文學獎獲獎者，羅素撰寫《婚姻與道德》（Marriage and Morals）一書，贊成更多與更好的性教育，贊成婚前與婚外性行為的權利，也贊成無子女夫婦要求離婚的權利。與其妻子朵拉· 羅素一起，他還開辦了一所男女合校的學校，給予年輕學生充分的自由。該書提出的論斷：“假如不導致生小孩的話，兩個成年人的性行為只是這兩個人的私事，社會、法律、宗教和任何他人無權干涉”，是現代性革命的重要啟蒙和指導思想。

羅素：我為什麼而活

對愛情的渴望，對知識的追求，對人類苦難那難以平復的同情，三種單純卻出奇強烈的感情始終支配著我的生命。它們如陣陣巨風，夾帶著我的心境此起彼伏，飄蕩不定，拂過痛楚的汪洋，抵達絕望的邊緣。

我所以追求愛情，首先是因為它帶給我狂喜——這狂喜，讓我甘願獻出人生其他所有作為犧牲，只為體驗幾個小時的歡愉。我所以追求愛情，還因為它讓我擺脫孤獨——這恐怖的孤獨，讓身在其中戰慄的靈魂，眼神能洞穿世界的邊緣，直面冰冷死寂的萬丈深淵。我所以追求愛情，是因為我在愛的結合中，預見了天堂的縮影，這是古今聖賢和文人墨士曾魂牽夢縈的畫面。這就是我所追求的。儘管它可能是人生不堪承受之美好，但這是我最終的所有發現。

我曾懷著同樣的激情探求知識。我渴望瞭解人類的內心，渴望知道星星為什麼發光。我曾試圖領悟畢達哥拉斯數論的力量，借此力量，數字能掌控萬物變遷。然而，我只掌握了其中不多的一點知識。

愛情和知識，在我能企及的範圍之內，把我引向天堂。而對眾生的憐憫卻將我拉回現實。痛苦的哭號在我內心迴響。忍饑挨餓的孩子們，慘遭折磨壓迫的窮人，如同累贅被子孫拋棄的無助老人，連同充斥著世界的孤獨、貧窮和痛苦，無情地嘲弄著人類對生活的理想。我渴望能盡綿薄之力去此疾苦，卻無能為力，而這又讓我倍受煎熬。

這便是我的一生。我自覺這樣的人生是值得去活的，也欣然願意再活一遍——倘若有幸得此良機。

Bertrand Russell: 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, 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.

麗思:

   大概十四五歲就讀羅素的書 中譯本

   二十多年後再翻到那本書

   上面竟然還畫了重點 寫了眉批

   再後來讀過羅素的傳記 據說他是個很嚴苛的父親

   終於更相信 寫作的人

   實際生活和作品並不一致

   所以後來看到  林清玄 苦苓的現實生活曝光  讓許多讀者偶像幻滅

   而我還是要感謝羅素給我的前衛思想和人生哲學的啟蒙

   這三個熱情確實支配著我的人生  

   雖然我沒有因此變的像羅素一樣偉大