Youth 青春
By Samuel Ullman 塞缪尔.厄尔曼

山定子  译

Youth is not a time of life—it is a state of mind. It is not a matter of red cheeks, red lips and supple knees. It is a temper of the will; a quality of the imagination; a vigor of the emotions; it is a freshness of the deep springs of life. Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over a life of ease. This often exists in a man of fifty, more than in a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years; people grow old by deserting their ideals.
青春不是一段生命年华，而是一种心态。青春不是樱唇粉面和腿脚灵活，而是不拔的意志、超凡的想象和澎湃的激情。青春是从生命之泉深处洋溢出来的清新与活力。青春意味着战胜怯懦的勇气和摒弃安逸、崇尚冒险的无畏精神。一个60岁的人往往可能比一个20岁的人更充满生机。人们不仅因为年事增长而变老，更多的是因为放弃了理想而失去生机。

Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair—these are the long, long years that bow the head and turn the growing spirit back to dust.
岁月可使皮肤产生皱纹，而失去激情则使人心灰意冷。忧虑、疑惑、畏缩、恐惧和失望常年累月剥蚀人的心灵，使人的热情化为乌有。

Whether seventy or sixteen, there is in every being’s heart a love of wonder; the sweet amazement at the stars and starlike things and thoughts; the undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing childlike appetite for what comes next, and the joy in the game of life.
无论是60还是16岁，你应拥有这样的心境：永保一颗好奇心；赞叹日月星晨，探索宇宙万物；敢于挑战困难；富有孩童般打破沙锅问到底的求知欲和感受人生的乐趣。

You 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.
青春与信念相伴，衰老与疑虑相依；青春与自信牵手，衰老与恐惧相随；青春与希望相拥。

In the central place of your heart there is a wireless station. So long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, grandeur, courage, and power from the earth, 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 twenty, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.
在你我心底，都有一座无线电台，只要它能收到来自人类和万物传来的美好、希望、欢乐、鼓舞和力量的信息，你就会青春永驻。当你心中的天线倒毁、心灵被愤世嫉俗和悲观厌世的冰雪覆盖时，即使你只有20岁，也会未老先衰；而只要你的天线巍然矗立，鼓起自信乐观的风帆，你就可以在80岁故去时依旧青春不逝。

Exercise:
Youth is a state of mind，a temper of the will，a quality of the imagination，a vigor of the emotions，and a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over a life of ease. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years; people grow old by deserting their ideals.

Giving up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. If your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at twenty.