人的青春Man’s Youth（1/2）
托马斯·沃尔夫/ Thoas Wolfe
托马斯·沃尔夫（1900—1938），美国小说家。沃尔夫生于美国北卡罗来纳州山区小城阿什维尔。父亲是雕凿墓碑的石匠，母亲当过书籍推销员和教师。他在大学期间开始创作，写过几个独幕剧。他的小说被认为有很强的自传性质，他的家人和他个人都成为他的小说人物原型，因此有人说他的作品是小说化的编年史。遗憾的是，读过他的代表作《天使，望故乡》的人很少。沃尔夫短暂的一生还留下其他三部小说：《时间和河流》《网与石》《你不能再回家》，以及数十篇中、短篇小说。他仅以这些作品就在美国文学史上获得了与海明威、福克纳和刘易斯几乎同等的地位。
Acethe Hole
Uand these new words before you read this article.
1. restore [rist?:] v. 恢复
2. essence [es?ns] n. 本质
3. hurl [h?:l] v. 用力投掷
4. devour [divau?] v. 毁灭
Man’s youth is a wonderful thg. It is so full of anguish and of agid he never es to know it as it is, until it has gone fro hi forever. It is the thg he ot bear to lose, it is the thg whose passg he watches with fite sorrow a, it is the thg whose loss he t nt forever, and it is the thg whose loss he really weles with a sad a joy, the thg he would never willgly relive aga, uld it be restored to hi by any agic.
Why is this? The reason is that the strange and bitter iracle of life is nowhere else so evident asour youth. And what is the essence of that strange and bitter iracle of life which we feel so poignantly, so unutterably, with such a bitter pa and joy, when we are young? It is this: that beg rich, we are so poor; that beg ighty, weyet have nothg; that seeg, breathg, sllg, tastg all aroundthe ipossible wealth and glory of this earth, feelg with an tolerable certitude that the whole structure of the ented life—the ost fortunate, wealthy, good and happy life that any an has ever known—is ours—is ours at once, idiately and forever, the ont that we choose to take a step, or stretch a hand, or say a word—we yet know that wereally keep, hold, take, and possess forever—nothg. All passes; nothg sts; the ont that we put our hand upon it, it lts away like soke, is gone forever, and the snake is eatg at our heart aga; we see then what we are and what our lives t e to.
A young an is s, so ad, so certa, and so lost. He has everythg and he is able to e nothg. He hurls the great shoulder of his strength forever agast phantasal barriers, he is a wave whose power explodeslost id-os uiless skies, he reaches out to grip a fu of pated soke; he wants all, feels the thirst and power for everythg, and fally gets nothg. In the end, he is destroyed by his own strength, devoured by his own hunger, iprovised by his owh. Thoughtless of oney or the auution of aterial possessions, he is he less defeatedthe end by his own greed—a greed that akes the avarice of Kg Midas see paltry by parison.
And that is the reason why, when youth is gone, every an will look back upon that period of his life with fite sorrow a. It is the bitter sorrow a of a an who knows that once he had a great talent and wasted it, of a an who knows that once he had a great treasure and got nothg fro it, of a an who knows that he had strength enough for everythg and never ed it.
参考译文
人的青春是件令人惊奇的事：它充满苦恼和神奇，直到青春逝去，他才明白青春的真正内涵。青春是一个人不肯轻易失去的东西，每当他怀着无尽的悲痛和悔恨，亲眼看着青春流逝，他一定会遗憾终身。但是对于青春的逝去，他又怀着一种忧愁而神秘的快感，即使有种魔力能让他青春永驻，他也永远不愿再次重新体验。
这是为什么呢？因为在青春期，生命的奇异和苦涩表现得最为显著。但是，这种生命的奇异和苦涩的本质是什么呢？它让我们在年轻的时候带着苦痛和喜悦，感觉如此强烈，如此难以形容。其本质就是：即便我们富有，却很贫穷；即便权势在握，却一无所有；即便到处看着、吸着、闻着、尝着这世上不计其数的财富和荣耀，以无可争议的自信断定这精彩人生的所有组成结构——最多的幸运、财富、人类生活中最美好快乐的生活——属于我们——在我们准备一投足、一举手、一开口的瞬间，就会立刻、马上、永远地归我们所有——然而，我们感到能真正保留、维持、带走和拥有的实际上什么都没有。一切都过去了，没有什么会持久不变：我们才把它放到手上，它就烟消云散，不复存在；魔鬼又开始吞噬我们的心灵；然后我们才看清自己，看清我们生命的方向。
年轻人强健、疯狂、自信，同样也会很失落。他拥有一切，却无以致用，他永远都靠着强健的体魄，对着心中的障碍知难而上；他是一股波浪，在无限的苍穹下，在海洋中爆发自己的力量，他伸出手，去抓一缕着色的轻烟；他想拥有一切，渴求世间所有的东西，觉得自己有力量得到它们，结果却徒劳无功。最后，自己的力量毁灭了他，自己的欲望吞噬了他，自己的财富让他变得一贫如洗。在钱财和物质财富积累方面没有规划，到最后还是自己的贪婪打倒了自己——即便是米达斯国王的欲望与其相比，也显得无足轻重。
当青春已逝，每个人都会怀着无尽的悲哀和遗憾回首那段生活，其原因也在于此。一个人自己荒废自
己的伟大天赋；自己有成就一切事业的能力，却从未使用，知道了这一切，他就会感到更悲痛、更悔恨。
Learng for Better Uandg
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