<p class="ql-block">《YOUTH（年轻）》是德裔美国人Samuel Ullman（塞缪尔·厄尔曼）70多年前写的一篇短文。</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">试译如下：</p><p class="ql-block">《年轻》</p><p class="ql-block">年轻，</p><p class="ql-block">并非人生旅程的一段时光，</p><p class="ql-block">而是一种心灵的状态；</p><p class="ql-block">并非桃面丹唇和身手矫健，</p><p class="ql-block">而是意志、想象力和情感的活力；</p><p class="ql-block">年轻是从生命深泉中涌出的清流。</p><p class="ql-block">年轻意味着勇气多于怯懦，对冒险的渴望多于对舒适的追求。与二十岁的年轻人相比，这种年轻的状态往往在六十岁的成人身上更为明显。人并不会仅仅因岁月流逝而变老，我们变老是因为放弃了自己对美好人生的憧憬。</p><p class="ql-block">岁月或许会使皮肤起皱，但放弃热情却会使灵魂褶皱。 </p><p class="ql-block">忧虑、恐惧、自我怀疑会使心灵弯曲，并将生命的春天化为尘埃。 </p><p class="ql-block">无论是六十岁还是十六岁，每个人心中都怀有对奇迹的向往，对生活充满孩童般的好奇心。</p><p class="ql-block">在你我心灵的深处，都有一台天线，只要它还能接收到来自人类和天国的信息，那些美丽、希望、欢欣、勇气和力量，你就依然年轻。一旦天线傾頹，心田被冰雪覆盖，遂生玩世不恭、自暴自弃之惰气，即使只有二十岁，你已然衰老；然而，只要天线高扬，能捕捉到乐观信号，你就有望在八十高龄告别尘寰时仍觉年轻。</p> <p class="ql-block">麦克阿瑟将军在指挥整个太平洋战争期间，办公桌上始终摆着装有短文《年轻》复印件的镜框；松下公司的创始人松下幸之助说：“多年来，《年轻》始终是我的座右铭。”</p> <p class="ql-block">久经沙场的将军或纵横商场的精英从何种角度汲取“年轻”的精髓，我们不得而知。然而，纵观古今，孟德有“烈士暮年，壮心不已”之慨，东坡有“老夫聊发少年狂”之举，黑塞年迈，仍能“眼睛映满星光，耳朵装满音乐”……文中所言非虚，此等青春之志，往往至花甲之年尤显。</p> <p class="ql-block">哈兰·山德士（Colonel Harland Sanders）65岁而始创大业，退而不休，推广秘制炸鸡之法。虽屡遭拒绝，然百折不回，终成一世之伟业，在晚年创立了全球知名的肯德基连锁餐厅，实创业之典范。 </p><p class="ql-block">朱晓玫40多岁才重拾钢琴。50多岁时，以演奏《哥德堡变奏曲》享誉国际。</p><p class="ql-block">杨绛50岁以后才开始文学创作，60多岁时翻译了《堂吉诃德》，译文典雅，堪称翘楚。 </p><p class="ql-block">“骑行奶奶”李素丽在60岁时开始骑车，70岁时已经骑行了十多个省份，总行程超过两万公里。</p><p class="ql-block">“跑马爷爷”陈俊生60岁开始跑步，至今已跑了几十场马拉松。他晨跑不辍，寒暑无间，年逾八十，体康神健。 </p><p class="ql-block">名人也好，普通人也罢，他们共同的特点就是“年轻”。如果你也有那心灵的天线，何不摄其灵气？我能接受身体的老去，但更希望保有一颗年轻的心！</p>