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YOUTH
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.
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. We grow 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、恢宏的想象、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。
【 太平洋战争打得正酣之时,麦克阿瑟将军常常从繁忙中抬起头,注视着挂在墙上的镜框,镜框里就是塞缪尔.厄尔曼写的这篇《青春》。这篇文章一直伴随着他,也跟着他到了日本。后来,日本人在东京的美军总部发现了它,《青春》便开始在日本流传。在日本实业界,只要有成就者,没有哪一个不熟知、不应用这篇美文的,就连松下电器的创始人松下幸之助几十年来也把《青春》当作他的座右铭。《青春》一文为何有如此巨大的魅力呢?关键在于它昭示了朝气不灭、青春永驻的道理:青春是一种永恒的心态,只要我们以只争朝夕的精神,却探索追求新鲜的事物,就会永远青春焕发。】 |
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