吴注：下文是小儿的校友在其MSN Space上转载的文章。诗一般的散文，绝非我这等洋泾浜英语水平所能欣赏。好在译文也堪称上佳，这才甘冒侵犯版权之嫌疑，斗胆转载过来为我这因久忙而无瑕顾及的网页增色。

其实，心理年轻毕竟抵挡不住肉体的衰老，就是廉颇也终会不能饭且不能战。就我老人家看来，这篇文章并不是仅供长者自勉共勉的。最看重的是中英文字都很精彩的第三段。老人且不服老，年轻人更应该抖擞精神，不让岁月磨难钝化自己的青春信念。

Youth 年轻

Samuel Ullman 塞缪尔•乌尔曼

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.

年轻，并非人生旅程中一段时光，也并非粉颊红唇和体魄的娇健。它是心灵中的一种状态，是头脑中的一个意念，是理性思维中的创造潜力，是情感活动中的一股勃勃朝气，是人生春色深处的一缕清新。

Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.

年轻，意味着甘愿放弃温馨浪漫去闯荡生活，意味着超越羞涩、怯懦和欲望的胆识与气质。而六十岁的男人可能比二十岁的小伙子更多地拥有这种胆识和气质。没有人仅仅因为时光的流逝而变得衰老。只是随着理想的毁灭，人类才出现了老人。

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

岁月可以在皮肤上留下皱纹，却无法为灵魂刻上一丝痕迹。忧虑、恐惧、缺乏自信才使人佝偻于时间的尘埃之中。

Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being's heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing child-like 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.

无论是六十岁还是十六岁，每个人都会被未来所吸引，都会对人生竞争中的欢乐怀着孩子般无穷无尽的渴望。在你我心灵的深处，同样有一个无线电台。只要它不停地从人群中、从无限的时空中接受美好、希望、欢欣、勇气和力量的信息，你我就永远年轻。

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.

一旦这无线电台坍塌，你的心便会被玩世不恭和悲观绝望的寒冰酷雪所覆盖，你便衰老了——即使你只有二十岁。但如果这无线电台始终矗立你的心中，捕捉着每一个乐观向上的电波，你便有希望死于年轻的八十岁。