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 temperamental 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,selfdistrust 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.

青春不是年華，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，炙熱的感情；青春是生命的深泉在涌流。

青春氣貫長(zhǎng)虹，勇銳蓋過(guò)怯弱，進(jìn)取壓倒茍安。如此銳氣，二十后生而有之，六旬男子則更多見(jiàn)。年歲有加，并非垂老，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(wú)論年屆花甲，抑或二八芳齡，心中皆有生命之歡樂(lè)，奇跡之誘惑，孩童般天真久盛不衰。人人心中皆有一臺(tái)天線，只要你從天上人間接受美好、希望、歡樂(lè)、勇氣和力量的信號(hào)，你就青春永駐，風(fēng)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(shí)已垂垂老矣；然則只要樹(shù)起天線，捕捉樂(lè)觀信號(hào)，你就有望在八十高齡告別塵寰時(shí)仍覺(jué)年輕。

塞繆爾·厄爾曼(Samuel Ullman，1840—1924)，是一名生于德國(guó)的美國(guó)作家，兒時(shí)隨家人移居美國(guó)，參加過(guò)南北戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)，之后定居伯明翰，經(jīng)營(yíng)五金雜貨鋪，年逾70開(kāi)始寫作，著作有知名散文《青春》等。