【The Meaning of Life】人生态度

文章分类：英文学习 | 论坛：英文 | 在论坛中查看 | 字体大小: 小中大

　　Life is never just being. It is a becoming, a relentless flow. Our parents live on through us, and we will live on through our children. The institutions we build endure, and we will endure through them. The beauty we fashion cannot be dimmed by death. Our flesh may perish, our hands will wither, but that which they create in beauty and goodness and truth lives on for all time to come.

　　Don’t spend and waste your lives accumulating objects that will only turn to dust and ashes. Pursue not so much the material as the ideal, for ideals alone invest life with meaning and are of enduring worth.

　　Add love to a house and you have a home. Add righteousness to a city and you have a community. Add truth to a pile of red bricks and you have a school. Add religion to the humblest of edifices and you have a sanctuary. Add justice, to the far-flung round of human endeavors and you have civilization. Put them all together, exalt them above their present imperfections, add to them the vision of humankind redeemed, forever free of need and strife and you have a future lighted with the radiant colors of hope.

译文：
　　生活永远并非静止的，而是变化的，甚至无情流逝。父母的生命在我们身上延续，我们的生命在子女身上延续。制度我们建立，精神长存其中。美感我们塑造，不曾消逝灰暗。肉身会毁灭，双手会枯萎，但是我们一手建立的真善美将经久长存。不要把生命浪费在囤积那些最终只能化作尘与土的东西。追求理想而不被外物所累，因为只有闪光的思想才能赋予生命意义，创造持久价值。

　　不要消耗并浪费你的生命去积累那些只会化作尘土与灰烬的东西。不要过分地追求物质，而是应将理想作为目标，因为只有理想才赋予生命以意义并具有经久不衰的价值。

　　给房子一点爱，你就拥有一个家；给城市一份正义，你就得到一个社区。给一堆红砖加上真理，你能创办了一所学校，给最简陋的房屋赋予宗教，你即建造了一座圣堂。给悠远漫长的人类事业一个公正评价，你便看到了人类的文明。将这一切归为一处，弥补当前不足，发挥人类的救赎，追求永远自由和不息斗争，在绚丽希望照亮下，你得到美好未来。