400字美文《青春》

海芬心语

萨缪尔美文《青春》一文，仅400字，原文译文皆精彩！   

     作者：萨缪尔·厄尔曼 1840 年生于德国，儿时随家人移居美利坚，参加过南北战争，之后定居伯明翰，经营五金杂货，年逾70 开始写作。

     行文如下：  

     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。

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.

青春气贯长虹，勇锐盖过怯弱，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。

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 body of twenty.  Nobody grows old merely by a number of years.  We grow old by deserting our ideals.

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。

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.

无论年届花甲，抑或二八芳龄，心中皆有生命之欢愉，奇迹之感召，孩童般天真久盛不衰。

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.

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。

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.

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，即使年方二十，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。

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.

此文一出，不胫而走，以至代代相传。二战期间，麦克阿瑟与日军角逐于太平洋时，将此文镶于镜框，摆在写字台上以资自勉。  
  

     日本战败，此文由东京美军总部传出，有人将它灌成录音带，广为销售；甚至有人把它揣在衣兜里，随时研读。
   

      多年后，厄尔曼之孙、美国电影发行协会主席乔纳斯·罗森菲尔德访问日本，席间谈及《青春》一文，一位与宴者随手掏出《青春》，恭敬说：“乃翁文章，鄙人总不离身。”主客皆万分感动。   
  

     1988 年，日本数百名流聚会东京、大阪，纪念厄尔曼的这篇文章。松下电器公司元老松下幸之助感慨的说：“20 年来，《青春》与我朝夕相伴，它是我的座右铭。”欧洲一位政界名宿也极力推荐：“无论男女老幼，要想活得风光，就得拜读《青春》。”