时隔十年,再次与这篇文章相遇。这是这次相遇是我特地安排的,我从网上搜到了它,然后又一次贴在自己blog上。
正文开始:
Youth (Samuel Ullman)
Youth is not a time of life, it is a state of mind ; it is not rosy cheeks , red lips and supple knees, it is a matter of the emotions : it is the freshness ; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life .
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 60 more than a boy of 20 . Nobody grows old merely by a number of years . We grow old by deserting our ideals.
Years 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 .
Whether 60 of 16 , there is in every human being ‘s heart the lure of wonders, 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’s a wireless station : so long as it receives messages of beauty , hope ,cheer, courage and power from men and from the infinite, so long as you are 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.
Thank you!
附:
本来还找到了一篇中文译文,但是却不是我十年前看到的那一篇。可惜,现在的译文版本很多,读之无味,至少是找不到十年前的味道了。于是宁可不放别人的译文,删除了中文的部分。