【E詩E歌E決心】YOUTH by Samuel Ullman

繼續支持活動，獻上一首英文詩 - Youth.

我用的是“配音秀”，好處是便捷，壞處是節奏已經固定，沒有太多朗讀者發揮的空間。喜歡這首詩的同學們可以試試自己錄製朗讀再配樂，相信效果會更好。

YOUTH by Samuel Ullman

 

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 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 body of twenty. 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 spirit back to dust.

 

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.

 

When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.

 

這是我很喜歡的兩個翻譯版本，僅供大家參考：

《 青春》中文譯文

第一譯本 （王佐良 譯）

　　青春不是年華，而是心境；青春不是桃麵、丹唇、柔膝，而是深沉的意誌，恢宏的想象，炙熱的情感；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，衰微隻及肌膚；熱忱拋卻，頹廢必至靈魂。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，奇跡之誘惑，孩童般天真久盛不衰。人人心中皆有一台天 線，隻要你從天上人間接受美好、希望、歡樂、勇氣和力量的信號，你就青春永駐，風華常存。

　　一旦天線倒塌，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；然則隻要樹起天線，捕捉樂觀信號，你就有望在八十高齡告別塵寰時仍覺年輕。

 

第二譯本 （黃誌堅 譯）

　　青春，並非年輕歲月，而是一種心態；青春的特征，並非粉頰、朱唇、柔肢，而是毅力、激情、創意；青春是生命湧泉的清澈、激揚。

　　青春，是指超越怯懦、勇氣如虹，不圖安逸、敢闖敢試。毅力若此，花甲多勝弱冠。年歲遞增，非必老化；背棄理想，方陷殘年。

　　歲月留痕，隻及肌膚；激情不再，皺起心靈。憂懼自卑，終致身心佝僂、精神萎靡。

　　無論年少或年長，當懷好奇的誘導，像孩子般總渴求著：接下來的進展及馳騁人生的歡樂。

　　人人皆有心靈的感官，隻要感受源源來自人間與穹蒼的啟發，感應有關美好、希望、激情、勇毅和能力的信息，你就會朝氣勃勃、青春無限。