翻译考试优秀短文翻译：英译汉18

　　I have attempted to make the best of my material circumstances always; nor do I see to-day how any widely varying course could have been wiser or even feasible: but material things have nothing to do with that life which moves in me. Why, then, should they direct and heighten and provoke and curb every action of life? It is against the tyranny of matter I would rebel—against life's absolute need of food, and books, and fire, and clothing, and flesh, to touch and to inhabit, lest life perish. No, all that which I do here or refrain from doing lacks clarity, nor can I detect any symmetry anywhere, such as living would assuredly display, I think, if my progress were directed by any particular motive. It is all a muddling through, somehow, without any recognizable goal in view, and there is no explanation of the scuffle tendered or anywhere procurable. It merely seems that to go on living has become with me a habit.

　　我总想善用身边的物质环境，因时至今日我也不知有任何迥异之做法会更为明智可行。然身外之物与涌动于我心中的那种生命毕竟无关。既如此，为何人之一举一动又常为身外之物所引所趋，所扬所抑?我所厌恶的正是这种物质之主宰——这种为了生命苟存于世而对食物、书本、炉火、衣衫等身外之物以及灵魂借以寓居之肉体的纯粹需求。的确，我在世界之全部所为或忍而不为之事都不甚明了，无论何处我都看不到丝毫和谐，而我认为，我的人生历程若有任何特定目标之指引，定会显现出那种明澈和谐。但不知何故，我眼前无可辨之目标，一直在浑然度日，而且对这种蹉跎或茫然也无从解说。活下去似乎已成了我的一种习惯，仅此而已。