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, 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

青春并非生命的历程，而是思想的境界；青春并非粉腮红唇玉膝，而是意志梦想激情。青春，乃是生命源泉洋溢着的清新。

青春，意味着在性情的较量中，勇气战胜了懦弱，进取击败了安逸。青春，往往更多地体现在花甲老人的心里，而非仅仅表征在弱冠少年的身上。倘若仅仅是年齿渐增，我们不会变老；衰老，是因为我们抛却了信念。

岁月流逝可以使皮肤堆满皱纹，但激情不再却可以使心灵遍布沧桑。忧虑、恐惧以及丧失自信让我们的灵魂变得卑微，满腔热血付之东流。

无论是花甲老人还是弱冠少年，我们每个人均有好奇之心，像孩童般对未来充满憧憬，也都在品味着人生的喜怒哀乐。在我们的内心深处有一扇无形的心扉，可以接受诸如美丽、希望、激情、勇气以及力量这样的事物，心扉敞开多久，青春就会与你相伴多久。

如果关闭心扉，我们的灵魂就会被愤世嫉俗的积雪所覆盖，我们的精神就会被悲观厌世的寒冰所遮蔽，于是我们就会变老，哪怕未届而立之年；但只要我们的心扉洞开，去与乐观向上相拥抱，那么就存在这样一种可能，当我们高龄辞世时，青春依旧与我们同在。

——这是北京外国语大学夜大学英语专升本2010级英译汉翻译期末考试试题，实际考试时间90分钟，闭卷，不许用词典。本译文由清琴雅鼠现场翻译，考后根据记忆整理而成，从中可略见北外成人教育的水平高低。