YOUTH

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 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.

青春

塞缪尔·厄尔曼

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，炙热的恋情；青春是生命的深泉在涌流。

青春气贯长虹，勇锐盖过怯弱，进取压倒苟安。如此锐气，二十后生而有之，六旬男子则更多见。年岁有加，并非垂老，理想丢弃，方堕暮年。

岁月悠悠，衰微只及肌肤；热忱抛却，颓废必致灵魂。忧烦，惶恐，丧失自信，定使心灵扭曲，意气如灰。

无论年届花甲，拟或二八芳龄，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。

一旦天线下降，锐气便被冰雪覆盖，玩世不恭、自暴自弃油然而生，即使年方二十，实已垂垂老矣；然则只要树起天线，捕捉乐观信号，你就有望在八十高龄告别尘寰时仍韶华不逝。

再来一篇

[IF]

--By Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: Hold on!

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

I've received a lot of nice feedback from folks about this particular poem. I'm glad that I could contribute something useful to the Internet, even if the words are Kipling's and not mine. Enjoy.

Here's a reciprocal link back to an Information Week column that referenced this work.

如果

如果所有人都失去理智，咒骂你，
你仍能保持头脑情形；
如果所有人都怀疑你，
你仍能坚信自己，让所有的怀疑动摇；
如果你要等待，不要因此厌烦，
为人所骗，不要因此骗人，
为人所恨，不要因此抱恨，
不要太乐观，不要自以为是；

如果你是个追梦人——不要被梦主宰；
如果你是个爱思考的人——光想会达不到目标；
如果你遇到骄傲和挫折
把两者当骗子看待；
如果你能忍受，你曾讲过的事实
被恶棍扭曲，用于蒙骗傻子；
看着你用毕生去看护的东西被破坏，
然后俯身，用破烂的工具把它修补；

如果在你赢得无数桂冠之后‘
突遇颠峰下跌之险，
失败过后，东山再起，
不要抱怨你的失败；
如果你能迫使自己，
在别人走后，长久坚守阵地，
在你心中已空荡荡无一物’
只有意志告诉你“坚持！”；

如果你与人交谈，能保持风度，
伴王行走，能保持距离；
如果仇敌和好友都不害你；
如果所有人都指望你，却无人全心全意；
如果你花六十秒进行短程跑，
填满那不可饶恕的一分钟——
你就可以拥有一个世界，
这个世界的一切都是你的，
更重要的是，孩子，你是个顶天立地的人