青春

塞缪尔•厄尔曼（Samuel Ullman）

青春不是人生的一个阶段。青春的表现，不仅仅在于桃红的脸颊、朱红的嘴唇、以及美好的丰姿。青春是一个人的心理状态、意志的气质、想象的能力、情感的活力，从生命潜流中涌发的一种清新的感觉。

青春是一种驾凌一切的意志力量，有了这种力量，你可以有克服怯懦的勇气；不贪图安乐，有冒险犯难的魄力。这种力量的表现，有时候在六十岁的壮年，反比二十岁的青年更丰富、更有力。

一个人的衰老，不仅仅是因为他度过了多少岁月，而是因为他渐渐放弃了理想。岁月只是使我们的皮肤起皱纹，可是一个人如果丧失了热诚，那么，他的性灵也收缩了。忧愁、疑虑、自馁、恐惧、灰心等消极的情绪，使人低沉，本来英姿雄发的精神都为之化为灰烬！

不论你是六十岁或十六岁，每个人都应爱好神奇的事物，仰望星辰，或看到像星辰那样闪烁的思想或事物，会产生一种甘美的惊奇；有勇气面对眼前的一切；对于不可预知的未来，无论是忧是喜，都能像孩子一样抱着永不衰退的兴致去接纳；也有参与人生竞赛的乐趣。

只要你的信心和希望尚在，你更是年轻的；反之，如果你只剩下疑虑和绝望伴随着你，你才是真正的衰老。

在你的心中有一座无线电台，只要这电台永远能从世界、从人间、从无穷的永恒，收到美、希望、欢愉、勇气、壮丽、力量的信息，你永远显得年轻。相反的，一旦这电台倒塌，你的心中被悲观和嘲讽的厚厚冰雪所封锁，你才真正的衰老，愿上帝怜悯你的灵魂！

所以，你应该每天抱着永无止境的希望生活下去！

Youth is not entirely 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 temper 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 the temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite of adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than in a boy or twenty. Nobody grows old by merely living 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, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair---these bow the heart and turn the spirit back to dust.

Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being's heart the love of wonder, the sweet amazement at the stars and the star like things, the undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing child-like appetite for what-next, and the joy of the game of living.

You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.

In the central place of your heart there is a wireless station, so long as it receives message of beauty, hope, courage, grandeur and power from the earth, from man and from the Infinite, so long are you young.

When the wires are all down, and all the central places of your heart are covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and only then, are you grown old indeed.

Live every day of your life as though you expect to live forever.

关于此诗：

《青春》写于1917年，因美国著名军事家麦克阿瑟将军的喜爱而广为人知。这首散文诗用优美的语言、丰沛的激情，诠释了“青春”在时间之外的含义，它是一种“心境”，更是一种生命的激情。或许有了丰富的社会阅历和深沉的人生感悟之后，对这首诗的体会会更深刻：在一往无前的时间面前，“青春”是抵达灵魂和永恒的唯一途径。