英文生活哲理的文章

　　【一】生活的艺术

　　The art of living is to know when to hold fast and when to let go. For life is a paradox: it enjoins us to cling to its many gifts even while it ordains their eventual relinquishment. The rabbis of old put it this way: “A man comes to this world with his fist clenched, but when he dies, his hand is open.”

　　生活的艺术在于懂得什么时候追求，什么时候放弃。因为生活就是一个矛盾体：它要我们紧紧抓住它赐予我们的生命之礼，然后最终又让它们从我们手中跑掉。老先生们说：“人们紧握着拳头来到这个世界上，离开这个世界时却摊开了双手。”

　　Surely we ought to hold fast to life, for it is wondrous, and full of a beauty that breaks through every pore of God’s own earth. We know that this is so, but all too often we recognize this truth only in our backward glance when we remember what was and then suddenly realize that it is no more.

　　当然我们应该紧紧把握生活，因为它美妙得不可思议，充满了从上帝的每个毛孔里蹦出来的美。我们都清楚这一点，但我们常常只有在回首往事时才会想去过去，才会突然意识到过去永远地消逝了，才会承认这个道理。

　　We remember a beauty that faded, a love that waned. But we remember with far greater pain that we did not see that beauty when it flowered, that we failed to respond with love when it was tendered.

　　我们都记得美的褪去，爱的老去。但我们更痛苦地记得美正艳时，我们却没有发现，爱正浓时，我们却没有回应。

　　Here then is the first pole of life’s paradoxical demands on us: Never too busy for the wonder and the awe of life. Be reverent before each dawning day. Embrace each hour. Seize each golden minute.

　　这就是生活对我们自己自相矛盾要求的第一步：永远不要因为忙碌而忽略了它的奇妙和庄严。对即将到来的每一天，我们都要心怀敬意，拥抱没一小时，抓住每一分钟。

　　Hold fast to life... but not so fast that you cannot let go. This is the second side of life’s coin, the opposite pole of its paradox: we must accept our losses, and learn how to let go.

　　抓住生活，但不要抓得太紧，以至你放不下手。这就是生活像硬币一样也有另一面，也是生活矛盾的另一极：我们必须接受放弃，并且学会怎样让它过去。

　　This is not an easy lesson to learn, especially when we are young and think that the world is ours to command, that whatever we desire with the full force of our passionate being can, nay, will, be ours. But then life moves along to confront us with realities, and slowly but surely this truth dawns upon us.

　　学会这些并非易事。特别是年少轻狂的时候，我们自认为是世界的主宰者，认为只要充满激情地全力追求，就可以得到一切。然而，事实并非如此。只有在面对种种现实时，我们才会渐渐没明白这个道理。

　　At every stage of life we sustain losses—and grow in the process. We begin our independent lives only when we emerge from the womb and lose its protective shelter. We enter a progression of schools, then we leave our mothers and fathers and our childhood homes. We get married and have children and then have to let them go. We confront the death of our parents and our spouses. We face the gradual or not so gradual waning of our strength. And ultimately, as the parable of the open and closed hand suggests, we must confront the inevitability of our own demise, losing ourselves as it were, all that we were or dreamed to be.

　　在人生的各个阶段，我们都会蒙受损失——并且在这一过程中成长。只有在脱离母体.失去庇护所时，我们才会开始独立的生活。我们不断地升学，接着又离开父母，离开儿时的故乡。继而，我们结婚生子，然后又放手让自己的子女出去闯荡。随着父母和配偶的相继离世，我们也逐渐或者很快衰老。最终，正如双手张开与紧握这一寓言所说，我们必须面对自身的死亡，失去原来的自我，失去我们拥有过或者憧憬过的一切。

　　【二】懒惰不可留

　　A man bought a Donkey at the market one day and took himhome on approval.

　　一天，有个人在集市上买了一头驴，把驴牵回家先试用一下。

　　Now the man owned several Donkeys already and he kneweach one's character very well.这人已经有好几头驴了，深知每头驴的习性。

　　One of the Donkey was very strong and brave. Another waseager to please but quickly exhausted.

　　有头驴又强壮、又勇敢;还有头驴急于讨人喜欢，可一会儿就累了;

　　One Donkey was very lazy. He hated going to work in themorning and he did as little as he possibly could all day long. When the otheranimals were being loaded up he always tried to be the last so that he wouldget the lightest load.

　　另有头驴非常懒，它不愿意一大早就去干活，一整天它都尽可能地少干点活，别的驴载东西时，它总是尽量排最后一个，这样载的东西就会最轻。

　　The man led the new Donkey into the stable yard. For amoment he stood sniffing at his new companions. Then, without hesitation, hetrotted up to the lazy Donkey and began feeding comfortably at his side.

　　这个人把新买的驴牵进牲口棚的院子里。驴站了一会儿，闻了闻它的新伙伴们，然后，毫不犹豫地跑到懒驴跟前，在它旁边悠闲自得地吃起草来。

　　Though it was late in the day, the man immediately ledthe new Donkey out of the yard, straight back to the market.

　　天色已经很晚了，这个人还是马上把新买的驴牵出了院子，径直回到集市上。

　　"You cannot have given him a fair trial yet, "said themerchant. "It is only ten minutes since you bought him."

　　“你不可能已经好好试过了，”卖驴的人说，“你买了它才十几分钟。”

　　"I don't need to try him anymore," replied the man."I know just what he is like from the friend he chose for himself. Take himaway and give me my money back. I can do without Donkeys like him."

　　“我不用再试了，”这个人回答道。“从它自己挑选的朋友，我就知道它是头什么样的驴了。把它牵走，把钱还给我。我没有这样的驴也能过日子。”

　　【三】热爱生活

　　However mean your life is，meet it and live it ;do not shun it and call it hard names.It is not so bad as you are.It looks poorest when you are richest.The fault-finder will find faults in paradise.Love your life，poor as it is.You may perhaps have some pleasant，thrilling，glorious hourss，even in a poor-house.The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man’s abode;the snow melts before its door as early in the spring.I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there，and have as cheering thoughts，as in a palace.The town’s poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any.May be they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving.Most think that they are above being supported by the town;but it often happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means.which should be more disreputable.Cultivate poverty like a garden herb，like sage.Do not trouble yourself much to get new things，whether clothes or friends，Turn the old，return to them.Things do not change;we change.Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

　　不论你的生活如何卑贱，你要面对它生活，不要躲避它，更别用恶言咒骂它。它不像你那样坏。你最富有的时候，倒是看似最穷。爱找缺点的人就是到天堂里也能找到缺点。你要爱你的生活，尽管它贫穷。甚至在一个济贫院里，你也还有愉快、高兴、光荣的时候。夕阳反射在济贫院的窗上，像身在富户人家窗上一样光亮；在那门前，积雪同在早春融化。我只看到，一个从容的人，在哪里也像在皇宫中一样，生活得心满意足而富有愉快的思想。城镇中的穷人，我看，倒往往是过着最独立不羁的'生活。也许因为他们很伟大，所以受之无愧。大多数人以为他们是超然的，不靠城镇来支援他们；可是事实上他们是往往利用了不正当的手段来对付生活，他们是毫不超脱的，毋宁是不体面的。视贫穷如园中之花而像圣人一样耕植它吧！不要找新的花样，无论是新的朋友或新的衣服，来麻烦你自己。找旧的，回到那里去。万物不变，是我们在变。你的衣服可以卖掉，但要保留你的思想。

　　【四】沙子与石头教给我们的人生哲理

　　The story goes that two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face.

　　话说两个好朋友正在穿越一个沙漠。途中他们忽然争吵了起来，其中一个一巴掌扇在另一个人的脸上。

　　The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, he wrote in the sand: "Today my best friend slapped me in the face."

　　被扇的那个人受了伤害，但他一句话也没有说，只是在沙子上写道：“今天我最要好的朋友打了我一个耳光。”

　　They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him.

　　他们继续走下去，后来发现了一片绿洲，他们于是决定洗个澡。先前被打的那个人这时不小心陷入了泥潭里面，差点被淹死，幸运的是他的朋友把他给救了出来。

　　After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone: "Today my best friend saved my life."

　　他苏醒过来后，立刻在一块石头上写道：“今天我最要好的朋友救了我一命。”

　　The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now you write on a stone. Why?"

　　扇他耳光又救过他性命的朋友于是问他说：“我打了你之后你在沙子上写字，而现在你却在石头上写，为什么呢？”

　　The other friend replied: "When someone hurts us we should write it down in the sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in a stone where no wind can ever erase it."

　　写字的那个人回答说：“当我们被别人伤害了之后，我们应该把它写在沙子上，那样，宽容的风就很快就会将其抹去，但当我们受到别人的帮助之后，我们必须将它刻在石头上，那样，风就不会轻易把它磨灭。”

　　Learn to write your hurts in the sand and to carve your benefits in the stone.

　　学会将你所受到的伤害写在沙子上，把别人给你的帮助记在石头上。

　　They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but an entire life to forget them.

　　人们常说，发掘一个特别的人需要一分钟，欣赏一个人需要一个小时，爱上一个人需要一整天，但忘记一个人却需要你一生的时间。

　　Send this phrase to the people you'll never forget. It's a short message to let them know that you'll never forget them.

　　将这句话发给你永远不会忘怀的人吧，让他们知道你将永远把他们放在心上。