Man’s Youth 别样的青春
By Thomas Wolfe
Man's youth is a wonderful thing: it is so full of anguish and of magic and he never comes to know it as it is, until it has gone from him forever. It is the thing he cannot bear to lose, it is the thing whose passing he watches with infinite sorrow and regret, it is the thing whose loss with a sad and secret joy, the thing he would never willingly relive again, could it be restored to him by any magic.
青春奇妙无穷,充满魔力,充满痛楚.青春年少的时候根本不知青春为什么物,直到青春一去不复返了才对青春有了真的的认识.大家都想让青春永驻,不忍青春离去;眼睁睁地看着青春流逝,心中会涌起无穷的忧伤和惋惜;青春的失去是大家永远感到悲哀的事;青春的失去是大家真的感觉悲喜交集的事;即使奇迹出现青春复苏,大家都不会无怨无悔重度青春的岁月.
Why is this? The reason is that the strange and bitter miracle of life is nowhere else so evident as in our youth. And what is the essence of that strange and bitter miracle of life which we feel so poignant, so unutterable, with such a bitter pain and joy, when we are young? It is this: that being rich, we are so poor; that being mighty, we can yet have nothing; that seeing, breathing, smelling, tasting all around us the impossible wealth and glory of this earth, feeling with an intolerable certitude that the whole structure of the enchanted life – the most fortunate, wealthy, good, and happy life that any man has ever known – is ours – is ours at once, immediately and forever, the moment that we choose to take a step, or stretch a hand, or say a word- we yet know that we can really keep, hold, take, and possess forever- nothing. All passes; nothing lasts: the moment that we put our hand upon it , it melts away like smoke, is gone forever, and the snake is eating at our heart again; we see then what we are and what our lives must come to.
为何这样?由于在青春年代,生活充满了奇特而辛酸的不可思议的事.大家在青春年少时携带悲喜交集的心情,十分强烈而不可名状地感觉到生活的奇特辛酸/不可思议的历程.其实质是什么呢?其实质是如此的:青春年少的时候,虽然殷实富足,却很贫穷;虽然力气强大,却一无所有;世间的富贵荣华触目皆是,简直可以呼吸到,闻到嗅到,还可以品尝到,心中的自信按捺不住,深切地感觉到整个被陶醉了的生活----人类迄今为止所直到的最幸运/最富有些美好幸福的生活,只须大家决定向前迈步,奋发努力,便立即归大家所有了,并将永远是大家.然而,大家了解,大家真的永远不可以抓到什么,永远不可以获得什么,永远不可以占有哪些.所有匆匆过去,荡然无存.大家一出手它就烟消云散,飘然而去,一去不复返了.于是,心中泛起阵阵隐痛,看到了自己真实的面孔,看到了自己将来生活的势必走向.
A young man is so strong, so mad, so certain, and so lost. He has everything and he is able to use nothing. He hurls the great shoulder of his strength forever against phantasmal barriers, he is a wave whose power explodes in lost mid – oceans under timeless skies, here-aches out to grip a fume of painted smoke, he wants all, feels the thirst and power for everything, and finally gets nothing. In the end, he is destroyed by his own strength, devoured by his own hunger, impoverished by his own wealth. Thoughtless of money or the accumulation of material possessions, he is none the less defeated in the end by his own greed agreed that makes the avarice of King Midas seem paltry by comparison.
年轻人人很坚强,狂热自信,但容易迷惘混沌,虽然机缘无数,却把握不住,虽然年轻力壮,试图冲破重重虚幻的屏障,却好似一个波浪,最后还是无力地消失在旷远浩淼的大海中央,他伸出手想要抓住斑斓的云烟,他想得到世间的万物,渴望主宰所有,最后却是一无所获.最后,他被我们的力量所毁灭,被我们的饥饿所吞食,被我们的财富弄得贫穷潦倒.他对资金或财富的积累不以为意漫不经心,然而最后还是被我们的贪欲所吞噬.
And that is the reason why, when youth is gone, every man will look back upon that period of his life with infinite sorrow and regret. It is the bitter sorrow and regret of a man who knows that once he had a great talent and wasted it, of a man who knows that once he had a great treasure and got nothing from it, of a man who knows that he had strength enough for everything and never used it.
青春消逝,蓦然回首,无论是哪个,心中都会充满无尽的忧伤,充满无穷的懊悔.过去才智卓越,却白白浪费了,过去财富殷实,却一无所有,过去本事高强,却从未借助.一个认识到自己失落青春的人回忆起来一直充满悲伤和懊悔.
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（编辑：王美娇）
