双语对照 ● Of Youth and Age 论青年与老年
Of Youth and Age 论青年与老年
◎ Francis Bacon
As we grow old, a sort of equable jog-trot of feeling is substituted for the violent ups and downs of passion and disgust; the same influence that restrains our hopes, quiets our apprehensions[67]; if the pleasures are less intense, the troubles are milder and more tolerable; and in a word, this period for which we are asked to hoard up everything as for a time of famine, is, in its own right, the richest, easiest, and happiest of life. Nay, by managing its own work and following its own happy inspiration, youth is doing the best it can to endow the leisure of age. A full, busy youth is your only prelude to a self-contained and independent age; and the muff inevitably develops into the bore. There are not many Doctor Johnsons, to set forth upon their first romantic voyage at sixty-four. If we wish to scale Mont Blanc or go down in a diving dress or up in a balloon, we must be about it while we are still young. It will not do to delay until we are clogged with prudence and limping with rheumatism[68]and people begin to ask us: “What does Gravity out of bed?” Youth is the time to go flashing from one end of the world to the other both in mind and body; to try the manners of different nations; to hear the chimes at midnight; to see sunrise in town and country; to be converted at a revival; to circumnavigate the metaphysics, write halting verses, run a mile to see a fire, and wait all day long in the theatre to applaud HERNANI.
当我们慢慢变老时，一种平淡而缓慢的感觉代替了强烈的爱憎沉浮。同样，这种感觉让我们克制自己的希望，消除心中的忧虑。如果快乐不再那么热烈，那么烦恼就能变得微不足道，更容易忍受。总而言之，在这段时间里，我们必须备好一切，以备不时之需。这段时间是整个生命中最丰富多彩、最轻松、最幸福的。不但如此，通过管理自己的行为，随着快乐的灵感律动，年轻人尽力让自己的时代变得闲适安逸。充实忙碌的年轻时代是独立自主的老年生活的唯一前奏。而那些年轻时碌碌无为的人，他们的晚年注定是沉闷无聊的。世上的约翰逊博士并不多——在64岁那年才开启人生中的首次浪漫之旅。如果我们想要丈量勃朗峰，或者穿上潜水衣潜水，或者坐着热气球飞上高空，我们必须趁年轻时去做，不要拖到自己变得小心谨慎、腿脚不便时才去。那时，人们就会问我们：“为何如此不安分？”年轻时代就是周游世界的时代，不论是精神游历还是身体力行；去体验不同国家的不同风情；去聆听午夜的钟声；去欣赏城市和乡间的日出；去为了重生而虔诚悔过；去博览玄学，写一些差强人意的诗句，跑一英里的路看篝火，等上一整天只是为了给《艾那尼》喝彩。
美丽语录
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.
学习昨天，活在今天，期待明天。
