英语散文翻译赏析

散文是指以文字为创作、审美对象的文学艺术体裁，是文学中的一种体裁形式。下面我带来的是优美的英语散文带翻译，希望对你有帮助。 到了农历的年末，城市的超市里挂满了玲珑华美的红灯笼，玻璃橱窗上也贴上了各式花样的剪纸，这些都是年的符号，也是年的名片。我内心深藏的年味儿犹如一只脆弱不堪的老酒坛被这些符号与名片猛然击碎，老酒倾泻满地，浓郁醇厚的味道漫然飘散。 By the end of the lunar calendar, the supermarket in the city was full of exquisite red lanterns, and all kinds of paper-cut were also displayed on the glass windows, which are the symbols of the year, and also the business cards of the year. I am deeply in taste like a fragile old jars were these symbols and name card suddenly shattered, pouring wine with rich mellow taste ran away. 我小的时候，盼望着过年。从农历的腊月二十三开始，接下来的每一天似乎都是色彩斑斓的，都散发着温馨绵厚的香味儿。村里的老婆婆坐在厚厚的蒲团上教我们唱着童谣：“二十三，祭灶官；二十四，扫房子；二十五，磨豆腐；二十六，蒸馒头；二十七，杀只鸡；二十八，贴画画；二十九，去买酒；年三十，包饺子；大初一，撅着屁股乱作揖。”这首童谣像是我们村里人的过年指南，农历二十三的时候就吃灶糖、祭灶神，二十四的时候就忙着用笤帚打扫屋子，二十五的时候就准备过年吃的豆腐，二十六的时候家家户户蒸枣花馒头、蒸萝卜缨包子……千百年来，太阳沿着亘古不变的轨迹东升西落；冬去春来，人们世世代代遵循着这样的过年流程过年。 When I was young, I looked forward to the new year. From the twenty-three to the twelfth lunar month lunar, every day seemed to be colorful, exudes the fragrance of sweet thick cotton. In the village the old lady sitting on the futon on the thick teach us singing nursery rhymes: "twenty-three people, officer; twenty-four, twenty-five, and sweep the house; grinding tofu; twenty-six, twenty-seven, Steamed Buns steamed; kill chickens; twenty-eight, paste painting; twenty-nine, to buy wine; thirty years, the first large package dumplings; Juezhaopigu, chaos and bow." This nursery rhyme like Chinese new year we guide people in the village, when the lunar twenty-three eat candy, Jizao God twenty-four of the time, she was busy with a broom to clean the house, twenty-five of the time for the new year to eat tofu, twenty-six when steamed flower, every family Steamed Buns steamed turnip tassel buns...... For thousands of years, the sun has risen to the west along the eternal path, and in the spring of winter, people have followed such a new year for the past year. 腊月二十三是小年，也叫祭灶日，这一天也是我的故乡鲁湾逢集的日子。集市上人山人海，热闹沸腾。我紧跟着父母，看到卖灶糖的嚷着要买灶糖，看到卖鞭炮的嚷着要买鞭炮，看到卖苹果的就嚷着要买苹果……父母一一应允，还会给我买崭新的袜子、鞋子、帽子和衣裳，从头到脚让我焕然一新。父母平时省吃俭用，一分钱掰成两半花。他们平时不肯买水果，不肯买猪肉，不肯买衣裳，到过年的时候却显得慷慨大方。赶集回家的时候，我们像一只只袋鼠抱着大包小包的年货，跌跌撞撞走在回家的路上。我的父母一年四季在农田里忙碌，只有到过年的时候他们才好好享受几天好日子。他们也总是把最好的东西给孩子。 The twenty-three is the twelfth lunar month small, also called on the people, this day is also my hometown of Lu Wan market day day. The bazaar was crowed with crowds of people. I followed my parents, see the candy seller clamoring to buy candy, see selling firecrackers clamoring to buy firecrackers, see Apple clamoring to buy apple...... My parents agreed and bought me new socks, shoes, hats and clothes, and made me new from head to toe. Parents usually live frugally, pennies. They usually do not buy fruit, do not buy pork, do not buy clothes, and be generous to the new year. When we go home, just like a kangaroo carrying large bags of special purchases for the Spring Festival on the way home, stumbled. My parents are busy in the fields all the year round, and only by the time of the new year they enjoy a few good days. They always give the best to their children. 我们这一群疯孩子从小卖铺里买来麻雷子、拉炮、摔炮装在口袋里，在村巷里跑着玩耍，随手将一个摔炮摔在地面上，噼啪一声锐响，吓得鸡飞狗跳。我们玩累了，就在街上挖几个小圆坑，玩弹玻璃球的游戏。至今我已经忘记了玻璃球游戏的规则，但是记得自己输了就将玻璃球送给赢了这场游戏的小伙伴。长大了之后，我发现成人的世界有很多充满玄机的游戏，比儿童的这种游戏更残酷，更深刻。一旦我们在游戏中失败，输掉的不会是玻璃球这么微不足道的东西，可能是长年累月的心血，甚至是所有的自由与幸福。 We are a group of crazy kids to sell this shop to buy guns, guns, pull large firecracker fell in my pocket, playing in the Village Lane ran, a gun will readily fall down on the ground, the sound of a sharp crackling sound, scared the general turmoil. We were tired and dug some small pits in the street and played a game of glass balls. So far, I have forgotten the rules of the glass ball game, but remember that I lost the glass ball to the small partner who won the game. When I grew up, I found that there were many mysterious games in the adult world, which were more brutal and deeper than the children's games. If we fail in the game, losing is not the glass ball so not worth mentioning things may be even Months and years pass by. effort, freedom and happiness for all. 大年三十那天下午我们一家人坐在厨房包饺子。母亲和面、擀面皮。哥哥烧火。父亲和我坐在馅盆前包饺子。哥哥看着我包的饺子大笑，说我包的饺子有的像死鱼，有的像肥猪，有的像笨鸭子，丑极了。父亲从口袋里掏出一枚一分的硬币，然后包进饺子里，说：“今晚谁吃着这个饺子，谁就最有福气！”天擦黑的时候，此起彼落的鞭炮轰炸着村庄，空气里弥漫着丝丝缕缕火药味儿。母亲将包好的饺子下到沸水咕嘟咕嘟的锅里。父亲用铁锨在院子里撒下一层沙土。那些沙土是农历二十五用拖拉机从村头的沙岗上拉回来的，弥散着一丝丝清新淳美的'气味。至今我也琢磨不透大年三十村里人在院子里撒下一层沙土的奥妙，大概是除旧迎新、接福纳祥的寓意。我踩在新鲜湿润的沙土上，将一挂红红的鞭炮用竹竿挑起。哥哥从灶膛里取出一根火棍将鞭炮点燃。一阵噼里啪啦的炮响之后，母亲已经将一个个冒着热气和香味儿的饺子盛到了白瓷碗里。一碗碗猪肉白菜馅饺子蘸着老醋，就是我们一家人的年夜饭。吃过年夜饭之后，母亲总是烧开一锅热水。一家人坐在木凳上将脚伸进一只大铁盆里用热水洗脚，边洗脚边说笑。母亲说大年夜洗脚能够洗掉一年的灾病邪祟和祸患困厄。新的一年一定会添福添寿、吉祥平安。母亲还会向我和哥哥的口袋里塞几张崭新的钞票。她说不管大人或小孩子，在辞旧迎新的时候口袋里都应该有钱，这样一年到头都不缺钱花，大家都会有富庶优裕的好日子过。现在想来，从前的年更像是勾画美好生活的仪式。 Our family sat in the kitchen to make dumplings on the afternoon of the thirty day of the year. The mother and the surface, Ganmian skin. A brother. My father and I sat in front of the pot to make dumplings. My brother looked at me and laughed at the dumplings, and said that some of the dumplings I made were like dead fish, some like a fat pig, some like a dumb duck, so ugly. The father took a one - cent coin out of his pocket and wrapped it into the dumplings and said, "whoever eats this dumpling tonight is the most blessed one." When dusk, firecrackers bombed the village as one falls, another rises, the air was filled with the smell of gunpowder Cecil strands. The mother wrapped dumplings into the boiling water bubbling in the pot. Father with a shovel and a layer of sand in the yard. The sand is the lunar twenty-five tractors from the village of Sha Gang pull back a little bit, dispersion fresh smell atsumi. I have been puzzling over on the thirty people in the village and a layer of sand. In the yard, probably meaning except new year, blessings and fortunes. I stepped on the fresh and moist sand and picked up a red red firecracker with a bamboo pole. Brother from zaotang took a stick to fire lit firecrackers. After a burst of crackling cannons, the mother has a steaming and smell dumplings filled to a white porcelain bowl. A bowl of pork, pork, cabbage and dumplings are dipped in the old vinegar, which is the annual dinner of our family. After the new year's night dinner, the mother always burned a pot of hot water. One family sat on the bench on the foot into an iron bowl with hot feet, feet side side and laughing. The mother said to wash feet a year on New Year's Eve: evil and evil distress. The new year will add to your happiness and your longevity, peace and prosperity. The mother will also put a few new bills in the pocket of me and my brother. She said that whether adults or children, when the old pocket should be rich, so all the year round does not spend money, we will have a good day off too rich. The past year is more like a ritual of delineation of a good life. 大年初一的早上我们不能懒床，要早早起床，并且要自觉醒来，家长不能喊醒我们。天蒙蒙亮的时候村里的鞭炮声如同雷震。我惊醒之后一骨碌从被窝里爬起来，揉揉双眼从父亲的香烟盒子里抽出一支香烟噙在嘴边，开门挑起一挂长长的鞭炮，用烟头引燃鞭炮，随后一阵鞭炮声，烟雾腾起，浓烈的炮药味儿在院子里弥漫。吃过早饭之后，大人们三五成群去给家族的长者拜年，要磕头作揖。我和小伙伴们无拘无束地玩耍，拿着压岁钱到小卖铺换成了玻璃球、泡泡糖和鞭炮。 We can't be lazy in the morning of the first year of the year. We should get up early and wake up consciously, and parents can't wake us up. When the dawn of the village of firecrackers like thunder. I woke up from the bed, his eyes pulled out a cigarette from the cigarette box in her father's door hanging in the mouth, provoked a long firecrackers, with a cigarette igniting firecrackers, then a burst of firecrackers, smoke free, strong smell of gunpowder in the yard diffuse. After breakfast, they go to the family of the elderly in knots with kowtow to pay New Year's call. My friends and I played in a free way, carrying money to the shop for glass balls, bubble gum and firecrackers. 一年又一年悄无声息地过去。年像是一个小伙伴，一只手拿着欢乐有趣的玩具，另一只掂着饕餮美食，大声召唤着我们，让我们心驰神往。我们渐渐地长大，年像是伴随着我们成长。它由一个活泼淘气的孩子变成彬彬有礼的少年，在岁月更替里又变成了深沉稳重的青年。年不会再像从前一样和我们一起玩鞭炮游戏，不会再像从前一样和我们一起偷吃食物，不会再像从前一样和我们一起奇思妙想…… Year after year silently past. Years like a buddy, a hand holding a fun toy, another Dianzhe gluttonous delicacy beckons us, loudly, fascinated us. As we grow up, the year looks like we grow up. It turned into a well - mannered teenager from a lively and naughty child and became a deep and stable youth in the years' change. Would not like before and we play firecrackers game, not like before eating food with us, and we will never be the same again with whimsy...... 我独坐在沙发上回味着被岁月冲淡的年味儿。我似乎闻到了灶糖的甜香，闻到了枣花馒头的香味儿，闻到了煮猪肉的浓香，闻到了猪肉白菜馅饺子的美味儿，闻到了鞭炮的气味儿…… I sit on the sofa pondering over the years in taste or. I seem to smell the sweet smell of flower candy, Steamed Buns smell smell, smell the aroma of cooked pork, pork and cabbage dumplings delicious, smell the smell of firecrackers......

想阅读一些优美的 英语 散文 来提高自己的 英语阅读 水平吗？下面是我为大家整理的优美英语散文10篇附译文，希望大家喜欢!

Youth

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 spirit back to dust.

Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonders, the unfailing appetite for 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, courage and power from man and from the infinite, so long as you are young.

When your aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you’ve grown old, even at 20; but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there’s hope you may die young at 80.

青春

青春不是年华，而是心境;青春不是桃面、丹唇、柔膝，而是深沉的意志，恢宏的想象，炙热的恋情;青春是生命的深泉在涌流。

青春气贯长虹，勇锐盖过怯弱，进取压倒苟安。如此锐气，二十后生而有之，六旬男子则更多见。年岁有加，并非垂老，理想丢弃，方堕暮年。

岁月悠悠，衰微只及肌肤;热忱抛却，颓废必致灵魂。忧烦，惶恐，丧失自信，定使心灵扭曲，意气如灰。

无论年届花甲，拟或二八芳龄，心中皆有生命之欢乐，奇迹之诱惑，孩童般天真久盛不衰。人人心中皆有一台天线，只要你从天上人间接受美好、希望、欢乐、勇气和力量的信号，你就青春永驻，风华常存。 、

一旦天线下降，锐气便被冰雪覆盖，玩世不恭、自暴自弃油然而生，即使年方二十，实已垂垂老矣;然则只要树起天线，捕捉乐观信号，你就有望在八十高龄告别尘寰时仍觉年轻。

Three Days to See

All of us have read thrilling stories in which the hero had only a limited and specified time to live. Sometimes it was as long as a year, sometimes as short as 24 hours. But always we were interested in discovering just how the doomed hero chose to spend his last days or his last hours. I speak, of course, of free men who have a choice, not condemned criminals whose sphere of activities is strictly delimited.

Such stories set us thinking, wondering what we should do under similar circumstances. What events, what experiences, what associations should we crowd into those last hours as mortal beings, what regrets?

Sometimes I have thought it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should die tomorrow. Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of life. We should live each day with gentleness, vigor and a keenness of appreciation which are often lost when time stretches before us in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come. There are those, of course, who would adopt the Epicurean motto of “Eat, drink, and be merry”. But most people would be chastened by the certainty of impending death.

In stories the doomed hero is usually saved at the last minute by some stroke of fortune, but almost always his sense of values is changed. He becomes more appreciative of the meaning of life and its permanent spiritual values. It has often been noted that those who live, or have lived, in the shadow of death bring a mellow sweetness to everything they do.

Most of us, however, take life for granted. We know that one day we must die, but usually we picture that day as far in the future. When we are in buoyant health, death is all but unimaginable. We seldom think of it. The days stretch out in an endless vista. So we go about our petty tasks, hardly aware of our listless attitude toward life.

The same lethargy, I am afraid, characterizes the use of all our faculties and senses. Only the deaf appreciate hearing, only the blind realize the manifold blessings that lie in sight. Particularly does this observation apply to those who have lost sight and hearing in adult life. But those who have never suffered impairment of sight or hearing seldom make the fullest use of these blessed faculties. Their eyes and ears take in all sights and sounds hazily, without concentration and with little appreciation. It is the same old story of not being grateful for what we have until we lose it, of not being conscious of health until we are ill.

I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight; silence would teach him the joys of sound.

假如给我三天光明(节选)

我们都读过震撼人心的 故事 ，故事中的主人公只能再活一段很有限的时光，有时长达一年，有时却短至一日。但我们总是想要知道，注定要离世人的会选择如何度过自己最后的时光。当然，我说的是那些有选择权利的自由人，而不是那些活动范围受到严格限定的死囚。

这样的故事让我们思考，在类似的处境下，我们该做些什么?作为终有一死的人，在临终前的几个小时内我们应该做什么事，经历些什么或做哪些联想?回忆往昔，什么使我们开心快乐?什么又使我们悔恨不已?

有时我想，把每天都当作生命中的最后一天来边，也不失为一个极好的生活法则。这种态度会使人格外重视生命的价值。我们每天都应该以优雅的姿态，充沛的精力，抱着感恩之心来生活。但当时间以无休止的日，月和年在我们面前流逝时，我们却常常没有了这种子感觉。当然，也有人奉行“吃，喝，享受”的享乐主义信条，但绝大多数人还是会受到即将到来的死亡的惩罚。

在故事中，将死的主人公通常都在最后一刻因突降的幸运而获救，但他的价值观通常都会改变，他变得更加理解生命的意义及其永恒的精神价值。我们常常注意到，那些生活在或曾经生活在死亡阴影下的人无论做什么都会感到幸福。

然而，我们中的大多数人都把生命看成是理所当然的。我们知道有一天我们必将面对死亡，但总认为那一天还在遥远的将来。当我们身强体健之时，死亡简直不可想象，我们很少考虑到它。日子多得好像没有尽头。因此我们一味忙于琐事，几乎意识不到我们对待生活的冷漠态度。

我担心同样的冷漠也存在于我们对自己官能和意识的运用上。只有聋子才理解听力的重要，只有盲人才明白视觉的可贵，这尤其适用于那些成年后才失去视力或听力之苦的人很少充分利用这些宝贵的能力。他们的眼睛和耳朵模糊地感受着周围的景物与声音，心不在焉，也无所感激。这正好我们只有在失去后才懂得珍惜一样，我们只有在生病后才意识到健康的可贵。

我经常想，如果每个人在年轻的时候都有几天失时失聪，也不失为一件幸事。黑暗将使他更加感激光明，寂静将告诉他声音的美妙。

Companionship of Books

A man may usually be known by the books he reads as well as by the company he keeps; for there is a companionship of books as well as of men; and one should always live in the best company, whether it be of books or of men.

A good book may be among the best of friends. It is the same today that it always was, and it will never change. It is the most patient and cheerful of companions. It does not turn its back upon us in times of adversity or distress. It always receives us with the same kindness; amusing and instructing us in youth, and comforting and consoling us in age.

Men often discover their affinity to each other by the mutual love they have for a book just as two persons sometimes discover a friend by the admiration which both entertain for a third. There is an old proverb, ‘Love me, love my dog.” But there is more wisdom in this:” Love me, love my book.” The book is a truer and higher bond of union. Men can think, feel, and sympathize with each other through their favorite author. They live in him together, and he in them.

A good book is often the best urn of a life enshrining the best that life could think out; for the world of a man’s life is, for the most part, but the world of his thoughts. Thus the best books are treasuries of good words, the golden thoughts, which, remembered and cherished, become our constant companions and comforters.

Books possess an essence of immortality. They are by far the most lasting products of human effort. Temples and statues decay, but books survive. Time is of no account with great thoughts, which are as fresh today as when they first passed through their author’s minds, ages ago. What was then said and thought still speaks to us as vividly as ever from the printed page. The only effect of time have been to sift out the bad products; for nothing in literature can long survive e but what is really good.

Books introduce us into the best society; they bring us into the presence of the greatest minds that have ever lived. We hear what they said and did; we see the as if they were really alive; we sympathize with them, enjoy with them, grieve with them; their experience becomes ours, and we feel as if we were in a measure actors with them in the scenes which they describe.

The great and good do not die, even in this world. Embalmed in books, their spirits walk abroad. The book is a living voice. It is an intellect to which on still listens.

以书为伴(节选)

通常看一个读些什么书就可知道他的为人，就像看他同什么人交往就可知道他的为人一样，因为有人以人为伴，也有人以书为伴。无论是书友还是朋友，我们都应该以最好的为伴。

好书就像是你最好的朋友。它始终不渝，过去如此，现在如此，将来也永远不变。它是最有耐心，最令人愉悦的伴侣。在我们穷愁潦倒，临危遭难时，它也不会抛弃我们，对我们总是一如既往地亲切。在我们年轻时，好书陶冶我们的性情，增长我们的知识;到我们年老时，它又给我们以慰藉和勉励。

人们常常因为喜欢同一本书而结为知已，就像有时两个人因为敬慕同一个人而成为朋友一样。有句古谚说道：“爱屋及屋。”其实“爱我及书”这句话蕴涵更多的哲理。书是更为真诚而高尚的情谊纽带。人们可以通过共同喜爱的作家沟通思想，交流感情，彼此息息相通，并与自己喜欢的作家思想相通，情感相融。

好书常如最精美的宝器，珍藏着人生的思想的精华，因为人生的境界主要就在于其思想的境界。因此，最好的书是金玉良言和崇高思想的宝库，这些良言和思想若铭记于心并多加珍视，就会成为我们忠实的伴侣和永恒的慰藉。

书籍具有不朽的本质，是为人类努力创造的最为持久的成果。寺庙会倒坍，神像会朽烂，而书却经久长存。对于伟大的思想来说，时间是无关紧要的。多年前初次闪现于作者脑海的伟大思想今日依然清新如故。时间惟一的作用是淘汰不好的作品，因为只有真正的佳作才能经世长存。

书籍介绍我们与最优秀的人为伍，使我们置身于历代伟人巨匠之间，如闻其声，如观其行，如见其人，同他们情感交融，悲喜与共，感同身受。我们觉得自己仿佛在作者所描绘的舞台上和他们一起粉墨登场。

即使在人世间，伟大杰出的人物也永生不来。他们的精神被载入书册，传于四海。书是人生至今仍在聆听的智慧之声，永远充满着活力。

If I Rest, I Rust

The significant inscription found on an old key---“If I rest, I rust”---would be an excellent motto for those who are afflicted with the slightest bit of idleness. Even the most industrious person might adopt it with advantage to serve as a reminder that, if one allows his faculties to rest, like the iron in the unused key, they will soon show signs of rust and, ultimately, cannot do the work required of them.

Those who would attain the heights reached and kept by great men must keep their faculties polished by constant use, so that they may unlock the doors of knowledge, the gate that guard the entrances to the professions, to science, art, literature, agriculture---every department of human endeavor.

Industry keeps bright the key that opens the treasury of achievement. If Hugh Miller, after toiling all day in a quarry, had devoted his evenings to rest and recreation, he would never have become a famous geologist. The celebrated mathematician, Edmund Stone, would never have published a mathematical dictionary, never have found the key to science of mathematics, if he had given his spare moments to idleness, had the little Scotch lad, Ferguson, allowed the busy brain to go to sleep while he tended sheep on the hillside instead of calculating the position of the stars by a string of beads, he would never have become a famous astronomer.

Labor vanquishes all---not inconstant, spasmodic, or ill-directed labor; but faithful, unremitting, daily effort toward a well-directed purpose. Just as truly as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, so is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success.

如果我休息，我就会生锈

在一把旧钥匙上发现了一则意义深远的铭文——如果我休息，我就会生锈。对于那些懒散而烦恼的人来说，这将是至理 名言 。甚至最为勤勉的人也以此作为警示：如果一个人有才能而不用，就像废弃钥匙上的铁一样，这些才能就会很快生锈，并最终无法完成安排给自己的工作。

有些人想取得伟人所获得并保持的成就，他们就必须不断运用自身才能，以便开启知识的大门，即那些通往人类努力探求的各个领域的大门，这些领域包括各种职业：科学，艺术，文学，农业等。

勤奋使开启成功宝库的钥匙保持光亮。如果休•米勒在采石场劳作一天后，晚上的时光用来休息消遣的话，他就不会成为名垂青史的地质学家。著名数学家爱德蒙•斯通如果闲暇时无所事事，就不会出版数学词典，也不会发现开启数学之门的钥匙。如果苏格兰青年弗格森在山坡上放羊时，让他那思维活跃的大脑处于休息状态，而不是借助一串珠子计算星星的位置，他就不会成为著名的天文学家。

劳动征服一切。这里所指的劳动不是断断续续的，间歇性的或方向偏差的劳动，而是坚定的，不懈的，方向正确的每日劳动。正如要想拥有自由就要时刻保持警惕一样，要想取得伟大的，持久的成功，就必须坚持不懈地努力。

Ambition

It is not difficult to imagine a world short of ambition. It would probably be a kinder world: with out demands, without abrasions, without disappointments. People would have time for reflection. Such work as they did would not be for themselves but for the collectivity. Competition would never enter in. conflict would be eliminated, tension become a thing of the past. The stress of creation would be at an end. Art would no longer be troubling, but purely celebratory in its functions. Longevity would be increased, for fewer people would die of heart attack or stroke caused by tumultuous endeavor. Anxiety would be extinct. Time would stretch on and on, with ambition long departed from the human heart.

Ah, how unrelieved boring life would be!

There is a strong view that holds that success is a myth, and ambition therefore a sham. Does this mean that success does not really exist? That achievement is at bottom empty? That the efforts of men and women are of no significance alongside the force of movements and events now not all success, obviously, is worth esteeming, nor all ambition worth cultivating. Which are and which are not is something one soon enough learns on one’s own. But even the most cynical secretly admit that success exists; that achievement counts for a great deal; and that the true myth is that the actions of men and women are useless. To believe otherwise is to take on a point of view that is likely to be deranging. It is, in its implications, to remove all motives for competence, interest in attainment, and regard for posterity.

We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time or conditions of our death. But within all this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we shall live: courageously or in cowardice, honorably or dishonorably, with purpose or in drift. We decide what is important and what is trivial in life. We decide that what makes us significant is either what we do or what we refuse to do. But no matter how indifferent the universe may be to our choices and decisions, these choices and decisions are ours to make. We decide. We choose. And as we decide and choose, so are our lives formed. In the end, forming our own destiny is what ambition is about.

抱负

一个缺乏抱负的世界将会怎样，这不难想象。或许，这将是一个更为友善的世界：没有渴求，没有磨擦，没有失望。人们将有时间进行 反思 。他们所从事的工作将不是为了他们自身，而是为了整个集体。竞争永远不会介入;冲突将被消除。人们的紧张关系将成为过往云烟。创造的重压将得以终结。艺术将不再惹人费神，其功能将纯粹为了庆典。人的寿命将会更长，因为由激烈拼争引起的心脏病和中风所导致的死亡将越来越少。焦虑将会消失。时光流逝，抱负却早已远离人心。

啊，长此以往人生将变得多么乏味无聊!

有一种盛行的观点认为，成功是一种神话，因此抱负亦属虚幻。这是不是说实际上并不丰在成功?成就本身就是一场空?与诸多运动和事件的力量相比，男男女女的努力显得微不足?显然，并非所有的成功都值得景仰，也并非所有的抱负都值得追求。对值得和不值得的选择，一个人自然而然很快就能学会。但即使是最为愤世嫉俗的人暗地里也承认，成功确实存在，成就的意义举足轻重，而把世上男男女女的所作所为说成是徒劳无功才是真正的无稽之谈。认为成功不存在的观点很可能造成混乱。这种观点的本意是一笔勾销所有提高能力的动机，求取业绩的兴趣和 对子 孙后代的关注。

我们无法选择出生，无法选择父母，无法选择出生的历史时期与国家，或是成长的周遭环境。我们大多数人都无法选择死亡，无法选择死亡的时间或条件。但是在这些无法选择之中，我们的确可以选择自己的生活方式：是勇敢无畏还是胆小怯懦，是光明磊落还是厚颜无耻，是目标坚定还是随波逐流。我们决定生活中哪些至关重要，哪些微不足道。我们决定，用以显示我们自身重要性的，不是我们做了什么，就是我们拒绝做些什么。但是不论世界对我们所做的选择和决定有多么漠不关心，这些选择和决定终究是我们自己做出的。我们决定，我们选择。而当我们决定和选择时，我们的生活便得以形成。最终构筑我们命运的就是抱负之所在。