翻译考试优秀短文翻译：英译汉17

　　I want my life, the only life of which I am assured, to have symmetry or, in default of that, at least to acquire some clarity. Surely it is not asking very much to wish that my personal conduct be intelligible to me! Yet it is forbidden to know for what purpose this universe was intended, to what end it was set a-going, or why I am here, or even what I had preferably do while here. It vaguely seems to me that I am expected to perform an allotted task, but as to what it is I have no notion. And indeed, what have I done hitherto, in the years behind me? There are some books to show as increment, as something which was not anywhere before I made it, and which even in bulk will replace my buried body, so that my life will be to mankind no loss materially. But the course of my life, when I look back, is as orderless as a trickle of water that is diverted and guided by every pebble and crevice and grass-root it encounters. I seem to have done nothing with pre-meditation, but rather, to have had things done to me. And for all the rest of my life, as I know now, I shall have to shave every morning in order to be ready for no more than this!

　　我愿此生，我唯一确知的此生，能和谐地度过;若此愿不遂，至少也该活得有几分清醒。希望自己之所作为能被自己了解，这肯定不算要求过分。不过有些奥秘却不容你去了解，诸如宇宙宏旨之所在，乾坤归宿在何方，我为何置身于此间，于此间该做何事等。我隐约觉得此生被指望去履行一项既定使命，但这是项什么使命，我却一无所知。而且真正说来，我在过去的岁月里又有过什么作为呢?有那么几本书可显示为生命之赢余，可显示为在我创作其之前这世间未曾有过的东西，其体积甚至可置换我入土后的那副躯壳，从而使我生命之结束不致给人类造成物质损失。但当回首往昔，我发现自己的生命历程就像溪流之蜿蜒漫无定向，触石砄草根则避而改道，遇岩缝土隙则顺而流之。我似乎做任何事都未经事先考虑，而是任凭事务来摆布自己。且据我眼下所知，在我的整个余生，我每日清晨得剃须也仅仅是为了翌日清晨得剃须。