What I Have Lived
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 meHither and thither (Adv. Everywhere, to all Parties), InWayward ([Way · ward | 'we bought w today (r) D]Adj. willful, rigid, and indefinite)Course, over a deep oceanAnguish([An. guish | 'commandid GW packet loss] n. distressed; painful), reaching to the very verge ([v rd failed/V failed before D-] n. edge) of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it bringsEcstasy (EC. Sta. Sy | 'ekst ə s generation]N. Ecstasy, ecstasy, and ecstasy)--- Ecstasy so great that I wowould often have sacriiced all the rest of my life for a few hours for 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 coldUnfathomable ([UN · Fath · OM · A · ble | running n'f has been running M has BL]It's unmeasurable, hard-to-solve, and bottomless)Lifeless abys ([A. byss | comment 'B ɪ S] n. abyss, hell, bottomless pit ). I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mysticMiniature ([Min · I · A · ture |'m minutes n minutes t minutes ago R/-T minutes later]N. thumbnail, small portrait), 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 triedApprehend (comprehension)The Pythagorean power by which number holds sway abve 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 it brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of painReverberate([Re · ver · ber · ate | r comment 'v comment RB comment re comment t/-'v Comment comment-] v. echo; bounce back; reflection; response; make response, reflection, and echo) in my heart. children inFamine (Famine), Victims torturedOppressors ([Op's pres · sor | comment's pres values (r)]N. oppression; Suppression), Helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain makeMockery ([Mock · ER · y | M branch K branch R branch/M branch K branch R branch]N. ridicule, contempt, and smile)Of what human life shoshould be. I long to alleviate the edevil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and wocould gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.