然后在短促的过去的回顾中却有一盏明灯，照彻了我的灵魂的黑暗，使我的生存有一点光彩。
However, whenever I look back on my brief past life, I find a beacon illuminating my soul and thereby lending a little brightness to my being.
这盏灯就是友情。
That beacon is friendship.
我应该感谢它，因为靠了它我才能够活到现在；
I should be grateful to it because it has helped me keep alive up to now and clear away the shadow left on me by my old family.
世间有不少的人为了家庭抛弃朋友，至少也会在家庭和朋友之间换一个界限，把家庭看得比朋友送过若干倍。
Many people forsake their friends in favor of their own families, or at least draw a line of demarcation between families and friends, considering the former to be many times more important than the latter.
这似乎是很自然的事情。
That seems to be a matter of course.
我也曾亲眼看见一些人结婚以后就离开朋友，离开事业。
I have also seen with my own eyes how some people abandon their friends as well as their own careers soon after they get married...
朋友是暂时的，家庭是永久的。
Friends are transient whereas families are lasting -- that is the tenet, as I know, guiding the behavior of many people.
这个信条在我实在是不可理解的。
To me, that is utterly inconceivable.
对于我，要是没有朋友，我现在会变成怎样可怜的东西，我自己也不知道。
Without friends, I would have been reduced to I don't know what a miserable creature.
然而，朋友们把我救了。
Friends on my saviors.
他们给了我家庭所不能给的东西。
They give me things which is beyond my family to give.
他们的友爱，他们的帮助，他们的鼓励，几次把我从深渊的边缘救回来。
Thanks to the fraternal love, assistance and encouragement, I have time and again been saved from falling into an abyss while on its verge.
他们对我表示了无限的慷慨。
They have been enormously generous towards me.
我的生活曾经是悲苦的，黑暗的。
There was a time when my life was miserable and gloomy.
然而朋友们把多量的同情，多量的爱，多量的欢乐，多量的眼泪分给了我，这些东西都是生存所必需的。
My friends then gave me in large quantities sympathy, love, joy and tears -- things essential for existence.
这些不要报答的慷慨的施舍，使我的生活里也有了温暖，有了幸福。
It is due to their bountiful free gifts that I also have my share of warmth and happiness in my life.
我并不曾说过一句感激的话，我也没有做过一件报答的行为。
I accepted their kindnesses quietly without ever saying a word of things and without ever doing anything in return.
但是朋友们却不把自私的形容词加到我的身上。
In spite of that, my friends never used the epithet "self-centered" when referring to me.
对于我，他们太慷慨了。
They are only too generous towards me.
这一次我走了许多新地方，看见了许多新朋友。
I visited many new places and met many new friends on my recent trip.
但是我不曾遇到一点困难，朋友们给我准备好了一切，使我不会缺少什么。
But I never ran into any trouble because my friends had done their utmost to make sure that I would be short of nothing.
我每走到一个新地方，我就像回到我那个在上海被日本兵毁掉的旧居一样。
Whatever new places I called at, I always felt at home as if I were back in my old residence in Shanghai which had already been raged to the ground by Japanese troops
每一个朋友，不管他自己的生活是怎样苦，怎样简单，也要慷慨地翻一些东西给我，虽然明知道我不能够报答他。
No matter how hard up and frugal my friends themselves were, they would unstintingly share with me whatever they had, although they knew I would not be able to repay them for their kindness.
有些朋友，连他们的名字，我以前也不知道，他们却关心我的健康，处处打听我的"病况"， 直到他们看见了，我那被日光晒黑了的脸和膀子，他们才放心地微笑了。
Some, whom I did not even know by name, showed concern over my health and went about inquiring after me.