美國詩人厄爾曼的散文詩《青春》的譯文
英文原文
YOUTH
Samuel Ullman
Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of
mind; it is not a matter ofrosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees;
it is a matter of the will, aquality of the imagination, a vigor of
the emotions; it is the freshness ofthe deep springs of life.
Youth means a tempera-mental predominance of
courage over timidity, of theappetite 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. Wegrow old by
deserting our ideals.
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.
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.
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.
中文譯文
青春不是年華，而是心境；青春不是桃面、丹唇、柔膝，而是深沉的意志、恢宏的想像、熾熱的感情；青春是生命的深泉涌流。
青春氣貫長虹，勇銳蓋過怯懦，進取壓倒茍安。如此銳氣，二十后生有之，六旬男子則更多見。年歲有加，并非垂老；理想丟棄，方墮暮年。
歲月悠悠，衰微只及肌膚；熱忱拋卻，頹唐必致靈魂。憂煩、惶恐、喪失自信，定使心靈扭曲，意氣如灰。
無論年屆花甲，抑或二八芳齡，心中皆有生命之歡樂，奇跡之誘惑，孩童般天真久盛不衰。
人的心靈應(yīng)如浩淼瀚海，只有不斷接納美好、希望、歡樂、勇氣和力量的百川，才能青春永駐、風(fēng)華長存。
一旦心海枯竭，銳氣便被冰雪覆蓋，玩世不恭、自暴自棄油然而生，即便年方二十，實已垂垂老矣；然則只要虛懷若谷，讓喜悅、達觀、仁愛充盈其間，你就有望在八十高齡告別塵寰時仍覺年輕。
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