除了愛｜活出生命的意義｜太多人推薦的必讀經典書

正文

A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers.

一個想法深深地震撼了我：這是我一生中第一次看到真理，它被許多詩人唱成歌，被許多思想家宣揚為最終的智慧。

The truth— that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire.

這個真理就是，愛是人類所能追求的最終和最高目標。

Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.

然後，我領悟到了人類詩歌、思想和信仰所傳達的最偉大的秘密：人的救贖在於愛，通過愛而達成。

I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved.

我明白了，即使一個人在這個世界上已經一無所有，仍然可以在對所愛之人的思念中，即使只是短暫的瞬間，感受到幸福。

In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way—an honorable way—in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment.

在絕望的境地中，當人無法透過積極的行動表達自己時，他的唯一成就可能就是以正確的方式忍受他的痛苦——一種光榮的方式。在這樣的境地中，透過對他所愛之人的思念和觀察，他能夠實現充實。

For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words, “The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory.”

這是我一生中第一次能夠理解“天使們沉浸在對無窮榮耀的永恆思考中”這句話的意義。

“Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds its deepest meaning in his spiritual being, his inner self. Whether or not he is actually present, whether or not he is still alive at all, ceases somehow to be of importance.”

「愛超越了所愛的人的身體存在。它在他的靈性存在、他的內在自我中找到了最深層的意義。無論他是否實際上在場，無論他是否仍然活著，這些都不再重要。 」

An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.

一個不正常的行為在不正常的環境，是正常的。

延申閱讀