◎ Samuel Ullman
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.
青春不是年華,而是一種心態(tài);青春不是紅潤的雙頰、鮮紅的雙唇、柔軟的雙膝,而是堅忍的意志、豐富的想象、熾熱的情感;青春是生命之泉在噴涌。
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.
青春是氣貫長虹的勇氣,它能戰(zhàn)勝怯弱;青春是勇于冒險的渴望,它打敗茍安。這股精神,二十歲的人身上有,但六十歲的人身上更多見。年歲的增加,并非真正的衰老。真正的衰老始于放棄理想的那一刻。
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spring back to dust.
悠悠歲月,老去的只是容顏;拋棄激情,衰敗的卻是靈魂。憂心、恐懼、缺乏自信會使心靈扭曲,意氣如灰。
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.
不論花甲之年,還是芳齡十六,奇跡的誘惑、生命的歡樂和孩童般的天真都永存心間。你我心中,都有一臺天線:只要你從天地間接收美好、希望、快樂、勇氣和力量,你便會青春永駐。
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.
一旦天線掉下來,這股精神就會被冰雪覆蓋,變得玩世不恭。即便你芳齡二十,實則早已老去。然而,只要你豎起天線,接收樂觀的信號,即使在八十歲時告別塵世,你仍會覺得年輕。