青 春 赋
萨缪埃尔·沃尔曼(牛继华 译)
青春不是人生某一时期的标志,它是指人应有的心理状态。要永葆青春,既要有坚强的意志、丰富的想像和激荡的热情,还必须有战胜胆怯的勇气和不向困难妥协而敢于去冒险的精神。
人不是因岁月的流逝而老朽,当理想之火泯灭的时候,人生的暮年就开始了。岁月的流逝会在皮肤下刻下皱纹,而热情的消失则在心灵上留下痕迹。担心、疑惑、不自信、恐慌、绝望——这些东西正是夭折精神之树的元凶。
无论是到了古稀之年的老人,还是尚未成熟的少年,在人们心目中,他们应该有对奇迹的憧憬,对人生乐趣的寻觅,对竞赛的追求,以及对灿若星群的事物和思想的感知,还要有不屈不挠的斗志和像孩子期待即将出现的事物一样的追求……
人与他的信念成比例地年轻,与疑惑成比例地衰老,与信心和希望成比例地年轻,与恐惧和绝望成比例地衰老。
谁能够从自然界、人类社会或神灵那里领悟到美丽、喜悦、勇气、高尚、力量……谁就富有青春的活力。
当失去所有的梦幻,心灵的花蕊被悲观之雪和沮丧之冰覆盖的时候,他就真正地“衰老”了。这样的人,只有去乞求神灵的怜悯。
原文:(补充于10月4日)
YOUTH
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 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 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.
萨缪埃尔·沃尔曼(牛继华 译)
青春不是人生某一时期的标志,它是指人应有的心理状态。要永葆青春,既要有坚强的意志、丰富的想像和激荡的热情,还必须有战胜胆怯的勇气和不向困难妥协而敢于去冒险的精神。
人不是因岁月的流逝而老朽,当理想之火泯灭的时候,人生的暮年就开始了。岁月的流逝会在皮肤下刻下皱纹,而热情的消失则在心灵上留下痕迹。担心、疑惑、不自信、恐慌、绝望——这些东西正是夭折精神之树的元凶。
无论是到了古稀之年的老人,还是尚未成熟的少年,在人们心目中,他们应该有对奇迹的憧憬,对人生乐趣的寻觅,对竞赛的追求,以及对灿若星群的事物和思想的感知,还要有不屈不挠的斗志和像孩子期待即将出现的事物一样的追求……
人与他的信念成比例地年轻,与疑惑成比例地衰老,与信心和希望成比例地年轻,与恐惧和绝望成比例地衰老。
谁能够从自然界、人类社会或神灵那里领悟到美丽、喜悦、勇气、高尚、力量……谁就富有青春的活力。
当失去所有的梦幻,心灵的花蕊被悲观之雪和沮丧之冰覆盖的时候,他就真正地“衰老”了。这样的人,只有去乞求神灵的怜悯。
原文:(补充于10月4日)
YOUTH
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 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 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.