<p class="ql-block">《YOUTH（年輕）》是德裔美國人Samuel Ullman（塞繆爾·厄爾曼）70多年前寫的一篇短文。</p> <p class="ql-block">《YOUTH》</p><p class="ql-block">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.</p><p class="ql-block">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.</p><p class="ql-block">Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.</p><p class="ql-block">Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spring back to dust.</p><p class="ql-block">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.</p><p class="ql-block">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.</p> <p class="ql-block">試譯如下：</p><p class="ql-block">《年輕》</p><p class="ql-block">年輕，</p><p class="ql-block">并非人生旅程的一段時光，</p><p class="ql-block">而是一種心靈的狀態(tài)；</p><p class="ql-block">并非桃面丹唇和身手矯健，</p><p class="ql-block">而是意志、想象力和情感的活力；</p><p class="ql-block">年輕是從生命深泉中涌出的清流。</p><p class="ql-block">年輕意味著勇氣多于怯懦，對冒險的渴望多于對舒適的追求。與二十歲的年輕人相比，這種年輕的狀態(tài)往往在六十歲的成人身上更為明顯。人并不會僅僅因歲月流逝而變老，我們變老是因為放棄了自己對美好人生的憧憬。</p><p class="ql-block">歲月或許會使皮膚起皺，但放棄熱情卻會使靈魂褶皺。 </p><p class="ql-block">憂慮、恐懼、自我懷疑會使心靈彎曲，并將生命的春天化為塵埃。 </p><p class="ql-block">無論是六十歲還是十六歲，每個人心中都懷有對奇跡的向往，對生活充滿孩童般的好奇心。</p><p class="ql-block">在你我心靈的深處，都有一臺天線，只要它還能接收到來自人類和天國的信息，那些美麗、希望、歡欣、勇氣和力量，你就依然年輕。一旦天線傾頹，心田被冰雪覆蓋，遂生玩世不恭、自暴自棄之惰氣，即使只有二十歲，你已然衰老；然而，只要天線高揚，能捕捉到樂觀信號，你就有望在八十高齡告別塵寰時仍覺年輕。</p> <p class="ql-block">麥克阿瑟將軍在指揮整個太平洋戰(zhàn)爭期間，辦公桌上始終擺著裝有短文《年輕》復印件的鏡框；松下公司的創(chuàng)始人松下幸之助說：“多年來，《年輕》始終是我的座右銘?！?lt;/p> <p class="ql-block">久經(jīng)沙場的將軍或縱橫商場的精英從何種角度汲取“年輕”的精髓，我們不得而知。然而，縱觀古今，孟德有“烈士暮年，壯心不已”之慨，東坡有“老夫聊發(fā)少年狂”之舉，黑塞年邁，仍能“眼睛映滿星光，耳朵裝滿音樂”……文中所言非虛，此等青春之志，往往至花甲之年尤顯。</p> <p class="ql-block">哈蘭·山德士（Colonel Harland Sanders）65歲而始創(chuàng)大業(yè)，退而不休，推廣秘制炸雞之法。雖屢遭拒絕，然百折不回，終成一世之偉業(yè)，在晚年創(chuàng)立了全球知名的肯德基連鎖餐廳，實創(chuàng)業(yè)之典范。 </p><p class="ql-block">朱曉玫40多歲才重拾鋼琴。50多歲時，以演奏《哥德堡變奏曲》享譽國際。</p><p class="ql-block">楊絳50歲以后才開始文學創(chuàng)作，60多歲時翻譯了《堂吉訶德》，譯文典雅，堪稱翹楚。 </p><p class="ql-block">“騎行奶奶”李素麗在60歲時開始騎車，70歲時已經(jīng)騎行了十多個省份，總行程超過兩萬公里。</p><p class="ql-block">“跑馬爺爺”陳俊生60歲開始跑步，至今已跑了幾十場馬拉松。他晨跑不輟，寒暑無間，年逾八十，體康神健。 </p><p class="ql-block">名人也好，普通人也罷，他們共同的特點就是“年輕”。如果你也有那心靈的天線，何不攝其靈氣？我能接受身體的老去，但更希望保有一顆年輕的心！</p>