那人却在灯火阑珊处

林语堂篇

Four characteristics of Human Dignity

1. a playful curiosity 一种嬉戏的好奇心

2. a capacity for dreams 一种梦想的能力

3. a sense of humor to correct those dreams 一种纠正这些梦想的幽默感

4. a certain waywardness and incalculability of behaviour

一种在行为上任性的,不可测度的质素

Human wisdom cannot be merely the adding up of specialized knowledge or obtained by a study of statistical average; it can be achieved only by insight, by the general prevalence of more common sense, more wit and more pain, but subtle, intuition.

True study cannot be merely the adding up of time or obtained by effort inputting; its can be achieved only by insight, by the the general prevalence of more common sense,more wit and more plan, but subtle, intuition.

For a Westerner, it is usually sufficient for a proposition to be logically sound. For a Chinese it is not sufficient that a proposition be logically correct, but it must be at the same time in accord with human nature.

correct=sound

(彼之蜜糖，吾之砒霜)

For a student of talent, it is usually sufficient for him to obtain such difficult knowledge. For a student lack of that it is  not sufficient that he can accomplish that, but it must be at the same time in accord with student's emotions and feeling.

那人却在灯火阑珊处

We face the gradual or not so gradual waning of our strength. And ultimately, as the parable of the open and closed hand suggests, we must confront the inevitability of our own demise, cosing ourselves as it were,all that we were or dreamed to be.

Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine,but lost time is gone forever.

(用对比的方式强调一个东西的重要性)

林语堂的生死观

Brief in our morality, the sense that we are eventually going to crack up and be extinguished like the flame of a candle, I say, is a gloriously fine thing. It makes us sober; it makes us a little sad; and many of us it makes poetic.

But above all, it makes it possible for us to make up our mind and arrange to live sensibly, truthfully and always with a sense of our limitations. It gives peace also, becasue true peace of mind comes from accepting the worst.

林语堂比喻人生

I think that, from a biological standpoint, human life almost reads like a poem. It has its own rhythm and beat, its internal cycles of growth and decay.

我以为从生物学的观点看起来，人生几乎像一首诗。它有韵律和拍子，也有生长和腐蚀的内在循环。

I think that, from a sensorial standpoint, love almost reads like the four seasons. It has its own spring and autumn, summer and winter, its internal cycles of zeal and chill.

虽然全老徐娘了，但她依然风采依旧。

Her beauty has not decayed with age.

moral decay      physical decay 健康衰退

It begins with innocent childhood, followed by awkward adolescence trying awkwardly to adapt itself to mature society, with its young passions and follies, its ideals and ambition，then it reaches a manhood  of intense activities, profiting from experience and learning more about society and human nature.

Love begins with happy romantic infatuation, followed by unbridled longing for affectionate expression, with no regard to solitary time of each other, then it reaches to a stage of relatively intense activities, profiting from getting along for a while and having a profound understanding of each other.

the follies of youth 小时候干过的傻事

an act of folly 愚蠢之举

A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into supersitation, and art into pedantry.

那人却在灯火阑珊处

描述中年

At middle age, there is a slight easing of tension, a mellowing of character like the ripening of fruit or the mellowing of good wine, and the gradual acquiring of a more tolerant, more cynical and at the same time a kindlier view of life.

to grow mellow with age 随着年龄增长而变得老练

be in a mellow mood 心态平和

A tart temper never mellows with age; and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.

描述晚年

Then in the sunset of our life, the endocrine glands decrease their activity, and if we have a true philosophy of old age and have ordered our life pattern according to it, it is for us the age of peace and security and leisure and contentment. Finally, life flickers out and one goes into eternal sleep, never to wake again.

No one can say that a life with childhood, manhood, and old age is not a beautiful arrangement; the day has its morning, noon and sunset, and the year has its seasons, and it is good that it is so.

No one can say that a life with sorrows and happiness, partings and meetings is not a beautiful arrangements; the moon may be dim or bright, wax and wane , and everything has its flourish and decay, and it is good that it is so.

There is no good or bad in life, except that what is good according to its own season. And if we take this biological view of life and try to live according to the seasons, on one but a conceited fool or an impossible idealist can deny that human life can be lived like a poem.

(利弊作文的万能结尾)

Fear is your best friend or your worst enemy. It is like fire. If you can control it, it can cook for you or heat you house. If you can't, it will burn everything around you, even destroy you.

(利弊作文的万能结尾)

Shakespeare has expressed this idea more graphically(vividly) in his passage about the seven stages of life. It is curious that Shakespeare was never very religious, or very much concerned with religion.

(中性态度)

那人却在灯火阑珊处

林语堂谈诗

What novel ever appeals to a reader if it contains only a cold analysis, if it fails to give us the salt and tang and flavour of life?

如果一本小说只淡淡地分析了一下，而不把人生的甜酸苦辣写出来，怎能引起读者的兴趣呢？

Poetry is but truth colored with emotion, music is sentiment without words, and religions is but wisdom expressed in fancy.

诗歌是渲染着情感的真理; 音乐，是无字的情感; 宗教， 是由幻象中表现的智慧。

As painting is based on the sense of color and vision, so poetry is based on the sense of sound and tone and rhythm, in addition to its emotional truth.

诗歌之基于音韵及真理的情感，正如绘画之基于色觉及视觉一样。

I can see no other reason for the existence of art and poetry and religion except as they tend to restore in us a freshness of vision and a more emotional glamour abd more vital sense of life.

For as we grow older in life, our sense become gradually benumbed, our emotions become more callous to suffering and injustice and  cruelty, and our vision of life is warped by too much preoccupation with cold, trivial realities.

Fortunately, we have a few poets and artists who have not lost that sharpened sensibility, that fine emotional response and that freshness of vision , and whose duties are therefore to be our moral conscience, to hold up a mirror to our blunted vision, to tone up our withered nerve.

Art should be satire and a warning against our paralyzed emotions, our devitalized thinking and our and denaturalized living.It teaches us unsophitication in a sophisticated world知世故而不世故. It should restore to us health and sanity of living and enable us to restore from the fever and delirium caused by too much mental activities.

It should sharpen our senses, re-establish the connection between our reason and our human nature, and assemble the ruined parts if a dislocated life again into a whole, by restoring our original nature.

Miserable indeed is a world in which we have knowledge without understanding, criticism without appreciation,beauty withut love, truth without passion, righteousness without mercy, and courtesy with a warm

那人却在灯火阑珊处

富兰克林篇

My business was now continually augmenting, and my circumstances growing daily easier, my newspaper having become very profitable. I experienced the truth of the observation, " that after getting the first hundred pound, it is more easy to get the second," Money itself being a prolific nature.

(把泛词具体化，选词精准能力提升)

Human fecility is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day.

Human wisdom is produced not so much by one book or deficeint experiences, as by little advantages that occur every day.