塞缪尔·乌尔曼的散文诗“青春”

2019年开始了。和所有的人一样我又将老了一岁！每年在这种时候，我都有一种对新的一年到来的兴奋，同时又交杂着对未知的将来的一点点焦虑。不知道是不是上天的安排，昨天我偶然读到了塞缪尔·乌尔曼的散文诗“青春”。散文诗 “青春”表达了一种对生命积极乐观的态度，一种对理想的坚持，一种对生命挑战的勇气。它还告诉我们，心态才真正体现了你的年纪，而不是你实际的年龄。这首诗激发了人们的热情。它让我们理解了“青春”的真正含义。下面是英文的原文及我翻译。

 

““YOUTH” ““青春””

Samuel Ullman  塞缪尔 乌尔曼

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.

青春并非生命的一段时光; 青春是一种心态; 它不是粉颊，红唇和柔软的膝盖; 它是意志, 是想象力的素质, 是情感的活力, 是清新的生命深泉。

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 sixty more than a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.

青春意味着超越怯懦欲望的一种卓越勇气的气质，喜欢冒险胜于喜欢安乐。六十岁的男人通常比二十岁的男孩有这种卓越勇气的气质。没有人因为年龄而变老。我们是因为抛弃我们的理想而变老。

Years may 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.

岁月可能会使皮肤皱纹，但放弃热情会使灵魂皱纹。忧虑，恐惧，自我不信任是心灵的弓箭，它们使精神变为尘埃。

Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing child-like 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.

无论是六十岁还是十六岁，每个人的心中都有对未知的好奇，有对即将发生的事情像孩子般的无穷无尽的可望，以及对游戏般人生的乐趣。在你和我的心中都有一个无线电台，只要它能接收到来自人类和宇宙中美好，希望，欢乐，勇气和力量的信息，你就会年轻。

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 twenty, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.

当接受天线倒了，当你的精神被玩世不恭的雪和悲观的冰覆盖时，你就变老了，即使你是二十岁。但只要你的天线矗立，捉取乐观向上的电波，你就有希望八十岁时仍然年轻。

@中文翻译版权