青春

作者：塞缪尔·厄尔曼

译者：鹤潜

青春不是生命的年轮，

它是心灵的呼声。

它不是娇嫩迷人的脸庞；

不是婆裟轻盈的身段；

也不是玲珑剔透的红唇。

它是坚不可摧的意志；

是斑斓绚丽的想象；

是炙热跳跃的情感；

是生命中绵绵不息的甘泉，

深邃而永恒。

青春是无所畏惧的象征，

勇敢战胜着懦弱，

探索战胜着懒惰。

这种花甲之人常常呈现出的“青春”

在年轻人身上却有时荡然无存。

没有人仅仅因为时光变的衰老，

老迈不堪是因为我们

放弃了思索

停止了攀登。

悠悠岁月可以把皱纹刻在我们的脸上，

但心灰意懒却把皱纹刻进了我们的灵魂。

忧虑，恐惧，自疑会使我们的心灵扭曲，

让我们的精神沉沦。

无论年龄的长幼，每个人心中

都充满着对奇迹的憧憬，

充满着儿童般不息的好奇

和生命游戏中的笑语欢声。

有一座无线电台架设在你我的心田，

当来自人类和苍穹的信号向它传送着

美丽，希望，喜悦，勇气和力量，

那么你就正在拥抱着青春！

当天线折落，

当你的心灵被悲观厌世之雪冰封，

即便拥有花样的年华，

你已经变老，像一位垂暮的老人。

但如若天线高耸，

去捕捉那些乐观的波纹，

即便是耄耋之身，

你都会怀揣着青春迎接死神！

原文

YOUTH

By 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.