原文出自于Samuel Ullman YOUTH,虽然篇幅不长,但不失为英语语言文学中不可多得的励志佳作之一。
Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.
青春并非生命中的一段时光,青春是一种精神状态。它无关乎面如桃花,唇似花瓣,敏捷如豹,它代表着坚定的意志力,优质的想象力,丰富细致的情感,青春是永不枯竭的生命之泉。
Youth means a tempera-mental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of 60 more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.
青春赋予你一鼓作气的精神,令你拿出勇气战胜胆怯,用冒险的欲望战胜对安逸的渴求。这种精神常常可以在年过花甲之人身上找到,20多岁的小伙子却未必拥有。没有人仅仅因为记录年龄的数字而衰老,人之所以会老是因为思想已枯竭。
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirits back to dust.
岁月能够在皮肤上刻下印记,却奈何不了一颗充满热情的灵魂。焦虑、恐惧、自暴自弃摧残了心灵,湮灭了士气。
Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being's heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing childlike appetite of what's next and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station: so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the Infinite, so long are you young.
不论你是六十岁还是十六岁,每个人的心中都渴望奇迹,对于未知的一切与生活中的愉快都有孩子般热切的期许。在你我的心底,有一台看不见的信号接收器,只要它还在不断接收美好、希望,喜悦、勇气以及来自人们的无穷大的力量,你就是年轻的。
When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at 20, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at 80.”
一旦接收信号的天线倒下了,你的精神就会被愤世嫉俗和悲观主义的大雪埋没,那么,即便你只有20岁,你也老了;但是,只要你还在不断接受乐观主义的电波,那么,你就极有可能在80高龄的青春中溘然长逝!
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