美国诗人厄尔曼的散文诗《青春》的译文
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.
中文译文
青春不是年华，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、炽热的感情；青春是生命的深泉涌流。
青春气贯长虹，勇锐盖过怯懦，进取压倒苟安。如此锐气，二十后生有之，六旬男子则更多见。年岁有加，并非垂老；理想丢弃，方堕暮年。
岁月悠悠，衰微只及肌肤；热忱抛却，颓唐必致灵魂。忧烦、惶恐、丧失自信，定使心灵扭曲，意气如灰。
无论年届花甲，抑或二八芳龄，心中皆有生命之欢乐，奇迹之诱惑，孩童般天真久盛不衰。
人的心灵应如浩淼瀚海，只有不断接纳美好、希望、欢乐、勇气和力量的百川，才能青春永驻、风华长存。
一旦心海枯竭，锐气便被冰雪覆盖，玩世不恭、自暴自弃油然而生，即便年方二十，实已垂垂老矣；然则只要虚怀若谷，让喜悦、达观、仁爱充盈其间，你就有望在八十高龄告别尘寰时仍觉年轻。
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