壞時代，讀好書

壞時代，讀好書。

因為社會公共參與在中國坐了兩年牢的小夥伴，推薦了羅素的文章給我們。我睡前閱讀了一次，被最本真的思考打動，於是早上又讀了一次。By the way, 他的手寫版真是漂亮。

無論是親身經歷的他，還是失去家人的我們，我們都是wounded。如同經歷水火，卻依舊在黑暗中，似乎沒有盡頭的黑暗。如此，我們還能相信嗎？意義何在？坐牢的人，被消失的人，失去的人，如果，世界只是變得更糟，還能相信什麼？是否還找得到意義？我們都在找尋，壞時代不如讀讀書⋯⋯

《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 deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.

我的一生被三种简单却又无比强烈的激情所控制：对爱的渴望，对知识的探索和对人类苦难的难以抑制的怜悯。这些激情像狂风，把我恣情吹向四方，掠过苦痛的大海，迫使我濒临绝望的边缘。

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 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.

我寻求爱，首先因为它使我心为之着迷，这种难以名状的美妙迷醉使我愿意用所有的余生去换取哪怕几个小时这样的幸福。我寻求爱，还因为它能缓解我心理上的孤独中，我感觉心灵的战栗，仿如站在世界的边缘而面前是冰冷，无底的死亡深渊。我寻求爱，因为在我所目睹的结合中，我仿佛看到了圣贤与诗人们所向往的天堂之景。这就是我所寻找的，虽然对人的一生而言似乎有些遥不可及，但至少是我用尽一生所领悟到的。

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.

我用同样的激情去寻求知识。我希望能理解人类的心灵，希望能够知道群星闪烁的缘由。我试图领悟毕达哥拉斯所景仰的“数即万物”的思想。我已经悟出了其中的一点点道理，尽管并不是很多。

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 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，用它们的力量把人引向天堂。但是同情却总把人又拽回到尘世中来。痛苦的呼喊声回荡在我的内心。饥饿的孩子，受压迫的难民，贫穷和痛苦的世界，都是对人类所憧憬的美好生活的无情嘲弄。我渴望能够减少邪恶，但是我无能为力，我也难逃其折磨。

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。我已经找到它的价值。而且如果有机会，我很愿意能再活它一次。

作者简介：

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，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一，1950年诺贝尔文学奖得主，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”。