文/塞缪尔·厄尔曼(德裔美籍人)
年轻,并非人生旅程中一段时光,它是心灵中的一种状态,并非粉颊红唇和体魄的矫健,而是头脑中的一个意念,是理性思维中的创造潜力,是情感活动中的一股勃勃朝气,是人生春色深处的一缕清新。
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 refreshness of the deep springs of life.
年轻,意味着甘愿放弃温馨浪漫的爱情去闯荡生活,意味着超越羞涩、怯懦和欲望的胆识与气质。而六十岁的男人可能比二十岁的小伙子更多地拥有这种胆识和气质。没有人仅仅因为时光的流逝而变得衰老,只是随着理想的毁灭,人类才出现了老人。
Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite, for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than a body of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.
岁月可以在皮肤上留下皱纹,却无法为灵魂刻上一丝痕迹。忧虑、恐惧、缺乏自信才使人佝偻于时间的尘埃之中。
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.
无论是六十岁还是十六岁,每个人都会被未来所吸引,都会对人生竞争中的欢乐怀着孩子般无穷无尽的渴望。在你我心灵的深处,同样有一个无线电台,只要它不停地从人群中、从无限的时空中接受美好、希望、欢欣、勇气和力量的信息,你我就永远年轻。
Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being's heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing child-like 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.
一旦这无线电台坍塌,你的心便会被玩世不恭和悲观绝望的寒冰酷雪所覆盖,你便衰老了--即使你只有二十岁,但如果这座电台始终矗立在你的心中,捕捉着每一个乐观向上的电波,你便有希望死于年轻的八十岁。
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 twenty, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.
所以只要勇于有梦,敢于追梦,勤于圆梦,我们就永远年轻!
千万不要动不动就说自己老了,错误引导自己!年轻就是力量,有梦就有未来!
作者简介:
塞缪尔·厄尔曼(1840.4.13-1924.3.21)美国作家l840年生于德国,儿时随家人移居美利坚,参加过南北战争,之后定居伯明翰,经营五金杂货,年逾70开始写作。
70年前,德裔美籍人塞缪尔·厄尔曼写下了这篇只有四百多字的短文。首次在美国发表的时候,引起轰动效应,成千上万的读者把它抄录下来作为座右铭,更有不少中老年人把它当作后半生的精神支柱。据说美国的麦克阿瑟将军在指挥整个太平洋战争期间,办公桌始终摆着装有短文《青春》复印件的镜框。此文传到日本后成为许多日本人生活哲学的基础,他们甚至将此文装在随身带的皮夹子里,有空就读一遍。著名的松下公司的创始人松下幸之助说:“多年来,《青春》始终是我的座右铭。”
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