诗歌赏析—— Youth

Youth   

作者：塞缪尔·厄尔曼(1840-1924)

中译：王佐良

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，恢宏的想象，炙热的恋情；青春是生命的深泉在涌流。

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 60 more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.

青春气贯长虹，勇锐盖过怯弱，进取压倒苟安。如此锐气，二十后生而有之，六旬男子则更多见。年岁有加，并非垂老，理想丢弃，方堕暮年。

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.

岁月悠悠，衰微只及肌肤；热忱抛却，颓废必致灵魂。忧烦，惶恐，丧失自信，定使心灵扭曲，意气如灰。

Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonders, the unfailing child-like appetite for 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, courage and power from man and from the infinite, so long are you young.

无论年届花甲，拟或二八芳龄，心中皆有生命之欢乐，奇迹之诱惑，孩童般天真久盛不衰。人人心中皆有一台天线，只要你从天上人间接受美好、希望、欢乐、勇气和力量的信号，你就青春永驻，风华常存。

When your aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you’ve grown old, even at 20; but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there’s hope you may die young at 80. 

一旦天线下降，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；然则只要树起天线，捕捉乐观信号，你就有望在八十高龄告别尘寰时仍觉年轻。

【作品故事】：

优秀的作品能激励一代人，甚至是一个民族。塞缪尔·厄尔曼的《青春》就是这么一篇美文。虽只有短短四百多字，但历经100余年依然魅力不减，其优美的语句成为很多英文学习者必背的范文，并以其深刻的思想成为更多人的座右铭。

                

塞缪尔·厄尔曼(1840-1924)，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，他是一位五金制品商，热心公益六十七年如一日，年逾70开始写作。该文正是写于其古稀之后的年月。他的散文《青春》，后来因成为麦克阿瑟将军的毕生钟爱之作而出名。

《青春》首次在美国发表的时候，引起全美国轰动效应，成千上万的读者抄颂将其作为座右铭收藏，许多中老年人把它作为安排后半生的精神支柱。