優美的雙語散文
青春,擇友,自我的展示,是生活中非常重要的東西,青春只有一次,擇良友而處之,好好表現自我。下面是小編給大家帶來的,供大家欣賞。
:The Choice of Companion
A good companion is better than a fortune, for a fortune cannot
purchase those elements of character which make companionship a
blessing. The best companion is one who is wiser and better than
ourselves, for we are inspired by his wisdom and virtue to nobler
deeds. Greater wisdom and goodness than we possess lifts us higher
mentally and morally.
“A man is known by the companion he keeps.” It is always true.
Companionship of a high order is powerful to develop character.
Character makes character in the associations of life faster than
anything else. Purity begets purity, like begets like; and this fact
makes the choice of companion in early life more important even than
that of teachers and guardians
It is true that we cannot always choose all of our companions,
some are thrust upon us by business or the social relations of life,
we do not choose them, we do not enjoy them; and yet, we have to
associate with them more or less. The experience is not altogether
without compensation, if there be principle enough in us to bear the
strain. Still, in the main, choice of companions can be made, and
must be made. It is not best or necessary for a young person to
associate with “Tom, Dick, and Harry” without forethought or
purpose. Some fixed rules about the company he or she keeps must be
observed. The subject should be uttermost in the thoughts, and
canvassed often
Companionship is education, good or not; it develops manhood or
womanhood, high or low; it lifts soul upward or drags it downward;
it minister to virtue or vice. There is no half way work about its
influence. If it ennobles, it does grandly, if it demoralizes, it
doest it devilishly. It saves or destroys lustily. Nothing in the
world is surer than this. Sow virtue, and the harvest will be
virtue, Sow vice, and the harvest will be vice. Good companionships
help us to sow virtue; evil companionships help us to sow vice.
翻譯:一個好友勝過一筆財富。人性中有一些品質會讓友誼變成一種幸福的事,而金錢買不到這些品質。最好的朋友是那些比我們更睿智和更出色的人,他們的智慧和美德會激發我們去做更高尚的事情。他們有著比我們更多的智慧和更高尚的情操,可以在精神上和道德上將我們帶入一個新的境界。
“觀其友而知其人”,這句話總是對的。高層次的交往會有力地塑造一個人的性情。在交往中,品性對品性的影響勝過其它任何因素。純潔的品格會培養純潔的品格,愛好會引發相同的愛好。這些表明,在年少時,選擇朋友甚至比選擇老師和監護人還要重要。
不可否認,有些朋友總是我們不能選擇的。有些是工作和社會關係強加於我們的。我們沒有選擇他們,也不喜歡他們,可是我們不得不或多或少地與他們交往。不過,只要我們心中有足夠的原則來承擔壓力,與他們交往也並非毫無益處。在大多數情況下,我們還是可以選擇朋友的,而且,必須選擇。一個年輕人毫無前瞻性,也無目的性地隨意與張三李四交往,是不好的,也是沒必要的。他必須遵守一些確定的交友原則,應當把它們擺在心中最高的位置,並經常加以審視。
無論是有益的還是有害的友誼,都是一種教導。它可以培育或是高貴,或是卑微的品格;它可以使靈魂昇華,也可以使之墮落;它可以滋生美德,也可以催生邪惡;它的影響沒有折中之道:如果它讓人高尚,就會用一種無比高貴的方式,如果讓人墮落,也會用一種無比邪惡的方式。它可以有力地拯救一個人,也可以輕易地毀掉一個人。播種美德,就會收穫美德;播種邪惡,就會收穫邪惡,這是非常確定的,而有益的友誼幫我們播種美德,有害的友誼則支使我們撒下邪惡的種子。
:YOUTH
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.
Youth means a tempera-mental 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.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the
soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spring
back to dust. Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s
heart the lure of wonder, 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 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 20, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of
optimism, there is hope you may die young at 80.
翻譯:青春不是年華,而是心境
青春不是桃面、丹脣、柔膝,而是深沉的意志,恢巨集的想象,炙熱的戀情;
青春是生命的深泉在湧流。青春氣貫長虹,勇銳蓋過怯弱,進取壓倒苟安。如此銳氣,二十後生而有之,六旬男子則更多見。
年歲有加,並非垂老,理想丟棄,方墮暮年。歲月悠悠,衰微只及肌膚;熱忱拋卻,頹廢必致靈魂。憂煩,惶恐,喪失自信,定使心靈扭曲,意氣如灰。
無論年屆花甲,擬或二八芳齡,心中皆有生命之歡樂,奇蹟之誘惑,孩童般天真久盛不衰。人人心中皆有一臺天線,只要你從天上人間接受美好、希望、歡樂、勇氣和力量的訊號,你就青春永駐,風華常存。
一旦天線下降,銳氣便被冰雪覆蓋,玩世不恭、自暴自棄油然而生,即使年方二十,實已垂垂老矣;然則只要樹起天線,捕捉樂觀訊號,你就有望在八十高齡告別塵寰時仍覺年輕。
:Expressing One’s Individuality
A most curious and useful thing to realize is that one never knows
the impression one is creating on other people. One may often guess
pretty accurately whether it is good, bad, or indifferent --- some
people render it unnecessary for one to guess, they practically
inform one --- but that is not what I mean. I mean much more than
that. I mean that one has one’s self no mental picture corresponding
to the mental picture which one’s personality leaves in the minds of
one’s friends. Has it ever struck you that there is a mysterious
individual going around, walking the streets, calling at houses for
tea, chatting, laughing, grumbling, arguing, and that all your
friends know him --- without saying more than a chance, cautious
word to you; and that that person is you? Supposing that you came
into a drawing-room where you were having tea, do you think you
would recognize yourself as an individuality? I think not. You would
be apt to say to yourself as guests do when disturbed in
drawing-rooms by other guests: “Who’s this chap? Seems rather queer.
I hope he won’t be a bore.” And your first telling would be slightly
hostile. Why, even when you meet yourself in an unsuspected mirror
in the very clothes that you have put on that very day and that you
know by heart, you are almost always shocked by the realization that
you are you. And now and then, when you have gone to the glass to
arrange your hair in the full sobriety of early morning, have you
not looked on an absolute stranger, and has not that stranger piqued
your curiosity? And if it is thus with precise external details of
form, colour, and movement, what may it not be with the vague
complex effect of the mental and moral individuality?
A man honestly tries to make a good impression. What is the
result? The result merely is that his friends, in the privacy of
their minds, set him down as a man who tries to make a good
impression. If much depends on the result of a single interview, or
a couple of interviews, a man may conceivably force another to
accept an impression of himself which he would like to convey. But
if the receiver of the impression is to have time at his disposal,
then the giver of the impression may just as well sit down and put
his hands in his pockets, for nothing that he can do will modify or
influence in any way the impression that he will ultimately give.
The real impress is, in the end, given unconsciously, not
consciously; and further, it is received unconsciously, not
consciously. It depends partly on both persons. And it is immutably
fixed beforehand. There can be no final deception…
翻譯:一個人永遠也不知道他給別人留有什麼樣的印象,明白這點是有益的,也是讓人覺得奇怪的。一個人很容易準確猜出這種印象是好的、壞的,還是不好不壞的,因為有些人讓你不用去猜,他們幾乎直接就告訴你了。但那不是我要說的,我要說的不止這些。我要說的是,一個人對他在別人腦子裡留有的印象毫無所知。你曾想過這樣的事嗎:有個神祕的人,到處閒逛,走在大街上,去茶館喝茶,和人聊天,談笑風生,發牢騷,與人爭辯,你所有的朋友都認識他,都與他很熟,而且對他是什麼樣的人早下了定論,但除了一兩次謹慎的隻言片語外,他們從未對你提過他,但這個人就是你?假如“你”走進一個休息室,你正在裡面喝茶,你會認出那個人是 “你”嗎?我想不會。你或許會對自己說,正如休息室裡被人打擾的客人一樣:
“這個傢伙是誰?挺讓人不舒服的,希望他不要討人嫌。”你的第一反應會是帶有點敵意。甚至當你自己在一面突然撞見的鏡子裡看到自己穿著那件你非常熟悉的衣服,從而你意識到那就是你自己時,你為何總會為這種念頭而感到幾乎震驚呢?時常,在清晨很清醒的時候,你在鏡子前梳頭,你是否看到了一個完全陌生的人,而且對他很好奇呢?如果說諸如形象、顏色、動作這些精確的外觀細節都會讓你感到這樣,更不用說像精神、道德這樣不易把握的、複雜的個性特徵所形成的印象呢?
一個人極力試圖給別人留下好印象,結果如何呢?結果僅僅是,他的朋友們在內心裡會把他看作是一個努力給別人留有好印象的人罷了。如果僅僅是一次或幾次會面,一個人也許可以使別人信服地接受他所期望展現出來的印象,可是如果接受者可以隨意安排他的時間來認識這個人的話,那麼印象製造者最好還是坐下來,什麼事情都不做,因為他無論如何都無法改變或影響他所最終給別人的印。真實的印象,最終不是刻意地而是無意地做出的。此外,它也不是刻意地而是無意地被接收的,它取決於雙方。而且是事先就已經確定了的,是沒辦法欺騙到底的……