The Story of My Life 01-01

The Story of My Life -- Chapter 1 Clip 1

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(re-read on June 14, 2011)

It is with a kind of fear that I begin to write the history of my life. I have, as it were, a "superstitious hesitation" in lifing the veil that clings about my childhood like a golden mist. The task of writing an autobiography is a difficult one. When I try to classify my earliest impressions, I find that fact and fancy look alike across the years that link the past with the present. The woman paints the child's experiences in her own fantasy. A few impressions stand out vividly from the first years of my life, but "the shadows of the prison-house are on the rest". Besides, many of the joys and sorrows of childhood have lost their poignancy, and many incidents of vital importance in my early education have been forgotten in the excitement of great discoveries. In order, therefore, not to be tedious, I shall try to present in a series of schetches only the episodes that seem to me to be the most interesting and important.

我是怀着一种不安之心开始回顾我的生命历史的。对于揭开象金雾般地弥漫在我童年生活中的这层面纱，我实际上有一种几近迷信的犹豫。写自传是一件艰难的任务。当我试着整理那些早期印象时，我发现经过了连接过去和现在的岁月，事实和虚幻看起来已非常相似，一个成年人在用自己的想象描述一个孩子的经历。我生命最早时期的一些印象仍活灵活现，但另外一些，则象投影在牢狱上的影子[典故自苏格拉底的“The Allegory of the Cave”，喻不太真实]。而且许多儿时的欢乐和痛苦都已不再如当初般清晰，许多在我早期教育中至关重要的事件，已被淹没在巨大发现的激动中而被忘却了。因此，为了避免沉闷，我应当以一系列素描的方式，仅仅呈现那些在我看来最有趣和最重要的画面。