《年轻》-德裔美籍人塞缪尔.厄尔曼短文

《年轻》-德裔美籍人塞缪尔.厄尔曼短文

德裔美籍人塞缪尔.厄尔曼70多年前写的一篇只有四百多字的短文。首次在美国发表的时候，引起全美国轰动效应，成千上万的读者把它抄下来当作座右铭收藏，许多中老年人把它作为安排后半生的精神支柱。
美国的麦克阿瑟将军在指挥整个太平洋战争期间，办公桌上始终摆着装有短文《年轻》复印件的镜 框，文中的许多的词句常被他在谈话或开会作报告时引用。
后来此文传到日本，文章的观点成为许多日本人生活哲学的基础。
松下公司的创始人松下幸之助说：“多年来，《年轻》始终是我的座右铭。”

文章全文如下：

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、炽热的感情；青春是生命的深泉在涌流。

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, vigor of the emotions.
It is the freshness of the deep spring of life·

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。

Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity,of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.
This often exits in a man of 60, more than a boy of 20.
Nobody grows merely by the number of years; we grow old by deserting our ideas.

岁月悠悠，衰微只及肌肤；热忱抛却，颓唐必至灵魂。忧烦、惶恐、丧失自信，定使心灵扭曲，意气如灰。

Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.
Worry, fear, self-distrust1 bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.

无论年届花甲，抑或二八芳龄，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。

Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being's heart the lure of wonders,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 infinite,so long as you are young.

一旦天线降下，锐气便被冰雪覆盖，玩世不恭、自暴自弃油然而生，即便年方二十，实已垂垂老矣；然则只要竖起天线，捕捉乐观的信号，你就有望在八十离龄告别尘寰时仍觉年轻。

When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with the 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.

所以只要勇于有梦，敢于追梦，勤于圆梦，我们就永远年轻，千万不要动不动就说自己老了，错误引导自己！年轻就是力量，有梦就有未来！

《年轻》-德裔美籍人塞缪尔.厄尔曼短文