英語美文:青春(Youth)

　　英語美文:青春(Youth)

　　YOUTH

　　Samuel Ullman

　　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.

　　青春

　　塞繆爾·厄爾曼

　　青春不是年華，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

　　象，炙熱的戀情；青春是生命的深泉在涌流。

　　青春氣貫長虹，勇銳蓋過怯弱，進取壓倒茍安。如此銳氣，二十后生而有之，六旬男子

　　則更多見。年歲有加，并非垂老，理想丟棄，方墮暮年。

　　歲月悠悠，衰微只及肌膚；熱忱拋卻，頹廢必致靈魂。憂煩，惶恐，喪失自信，定使心

　　靈扭曲，意氣如灰。

　　無論年屆花甲，擬或二八芳齡，心中皆有生命之歡樂，奇跡之誘惑，孩童般天真久盛不

　　衰。人人心中皆有一臺天線，只要你從天上人間接受美好、希望、歡樂、勇氣和力量的

　　信號，你就青春永駐，風華常存。

　　一旦天線下降，銳氣便被冰雪覆蓋，玩世不恭、自暴自棄油然而生，即使年方二十，實

　　已垂垂老矣；然則只要樹起天線，捕捉樂觀信號，你就有望在八十高齡告別塵寰時仍覺希望。