最近，在圖書館借到一本年代久遠的好書─《英美散文觀止》，編者與譯者是王孔昭先生，我認為他的譯文非常優美呢。
其中一篇是烏爾曼(Samuel Ullman)的〈Youth〉一詩，如同散文詩般的雋永，且發人省思。
引用如下:
Youth is not a time of life;
it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of ripe rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees;
it is a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a vigor of the emotions;
it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.
Youth means the temperamental predominance of courage over timidity,
of the appetite of adventure over tho love of ease.
This often exists in a man of sixty more than in a boy of twenty.
Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years.
We grow old by deserting our ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles our soul.
Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair-these bow the heart and turn the spirit back to dust.
Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being's heart the love of wonder,
the sweet amazement at the stars and the starlike things,
the undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing child-like appetite for what-next,
and the joy of the game of living.
Your are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt;
as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear;
as young as your hope, as old as your despair.
In the central of your heart there is a wireless station ,
so long as it receives message of beauty, hope, courage, grandeur,
and power from the earth, from man and from the Infinite,
so long are you young.
When the wires are all down,
and all the central places of your heart are covered with snows of pessimism
and the ice of cynicism,
then, and only then, are you grown old indeed.
青春不是生命的一段時期，而是一種心智狀態；
它不是成熟的玫瑰色臉頰，紅潤的嘴唇，和靈活的雙膝，
而是一種堅強的意志，優越的想像力，充沛的情感；它是生命深泉的勃勃生氣。
青春意味激動的勇氣勝過怯懦，冒險的慾望勝過貪圖安逸。
這在一個年屆耳順的人身上比在二十歲少年身上更要常見。
沒有人只因為活了一些歲月而老化。我們變老是因為拋棄了我們的理想。
歲月可使人皮膚產生皺紋，但放棄了熱情則使人心靈萎縮。
憂慮、懷疑、缺乏自信、恐懼和絕望─這些都會使人垂頭喪氣和心灰意冷。
不論是六十歲或十六歲也好，在一個人的心中都有好奇心，
對星星或星狀物體產生美妙的驚喜之情，不畏懼一切事件的挑戰，
對未知的事物有著永不衰退的童稚般的愛好，以及對人生競爭的樂趣。
你有信心你就年輕，你有懷疑你就衰老;
你有自信你就年輕，你有恐懼你就衰老；
你有希望你就年輕，你有絕望你就衰老。
在你內心中央有一座無線電台，只要它能夠從地球、從人類，
以及從上帝處接收到美麗、希望、勇敢、高貴和力量的訊息，你就是一直的年輕。
當這些線路完全損壞時，在你內心的中央就完全被覆蓋上悲觀的白雪，
和憤世嫉俗的寒冰。那時，也只有那時，你才是真正的衰老了。
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