5RT One morning, I had to have some additional tests. The required

machines were located in a building at the opposite end of the hospital, so I had to be wheeled across the courtyard in a chair. As we emerged from our unit, the sunlight hit me. That's all there was to my experience. Just the light of the sun. And yet how beautiful it was — how warming; how sparkling; how brilliant!

一天上午，我要接受几项辅助检查。因为检查的器械在医院另一侧的一座楼内，所以我只能坐在轮椅上让人推着穿过庭院才能到达那里。就在从病房里出来的那一刻，阳光正照在我身上。我所感觉到的就只有这阳光，它如此美丽，如此温暖，如此璀璨和辉煌！close

6RT I looked to see whether anyone else relished the sun's golden

glow, but everyone was hurrying to and fro, most with eyes fixed on the ground. Then I remembered how often I, too, had been indifferent to the grandeur of each day, too preoccupied with petty and sometimes even mean concerns to respond to the great beauty of it all.

我看看周围是否有人也沉醉在这金色的阳光中，然而，人人却来去匆匆，大都目不斜视，双眼只盯着地面。这时我想到自己平常又何尝不是往往对身边的美景视而不见而沉湎于日常细小的、有时甚至是低俗的琐事之中呢！close

7RT The insight gleaned from that experience is really as

commonplace as was the experience itself: life's gifts are precious — but we are too careless of them.

从这次经历中所获得的顿悟就像这个经历本身一样，并无什么奇特之处：生活的恩赐是宝贵的，只是我们对此太掉以轻心罢了。close

8RT 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 respectful before each dawning day. Embrace each hour. Seize each golden minute.

那么人生给我们的第一个矛盾的真理就是：不要因为太过忙碌而错过了人生的美好和壮丽。虔诚地迎接每一个黎明的到来。把握每一个小时，抓住宝贵的每一分每一秒。close

9RT 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.

紧紧把握住人生，但不要紧得放不开。这是生活的另一面，是矛盾体的另一极：我们必须接受损失，学会放手。close

10RT 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 passion can, and will be ours. But then life moves along to confront us with realities, and slowly but surely this second truth dawns upon us.

做到这一点并不容易，尤其是当我们还年轻，自以为世界在我们的掌握之中，只要满腔热情、全力以赴地去渴求，我们就能得到我们想要的东西，而且一定能得到！但是，生活在继续，它要我们去面对现实，慢慢地也是实实在在地，生活让我们懂得了第二个真理。close

11RT At every stage of life we sustain losses — and grow in the

process. We begin our independent lives only when we come to this world. We enter 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 weakening of our own strength. And ultimately, we must confront the inevitability of our own death, losing ourselves, as it were, all that we were or dreamed to be.

在人生的每个阶段，我们都会承受损失 —— 我们也会在这个过程中成长起来。我们只有在来到这个世界上时才开始了独立的生命。我们要进各级学校；继而告别父母和儿时的家庭，然后结婚生子，再就是不得不让孩子们远走高飞。我们遭遇父母和爱人的死亡，还要面临自己或快或慢的衰老。我们最终不得不面对自己不可避免的死亡。就这样，我们失去了自我，也失去了自己曾经拥有过的或梦想过的一切。close

12RT But why should we be reconciled to life's contradictory demands?

Why fashion things of beauty when beauty is short-lived? Why give our heart in love when those we love will ultimately be torn from our grasp?

但是，我们为什么会心甘情愿地服从于人生中这种矛盾的需求呢？既然明明知道美的东西转眼即逝，我们为什么还要去创造那些美好的东西？既然明明知道自己所爱的人最终会离我们而去，我们为什么还要倾心地去爱呢？close

13RT In order to resolve this paradox, we must seek a wider

perspective, viewing our lives as through windows that open on

eternity. Once we do that, we realize that though our lives are finite, our deeds on earth weave a timeless pattern.

要破解这个矛盾，我们就必须寻找一个更加广阔的视角，像透过可以通向永恒的窗户那样来审视我们的生命。做到了这一点，我们就会知道，我们的生命虽然有限，可我们在地球上的行为却在编织着一个不受时间限制的图案。close

14RT Life is never just being. It is becoming, a relentless flowing on.

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 the beauty and goodness and truth they create live on for all time to come.

生命绝不仅仅是静止的存在。它是一股不断变化的、不屈不挠的奔流。我们的父母通过我们使生命得到延续，我们又通过我们的子女使生命得到延续。我们所确立的习俗制度会历久长存，我们自己也会在其中得到永生。我们所崇尚的美不会因为我们的死亡而暗淡。我们的肉体会腐朽，我们的双手会枯萎，但我们用双手创造的美、善和真将永存不朽。close

15RT 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.

不要把生命耗费在聚敛财物上，这些财物终究会变为尘埃，化为乌有。与其追求物质，还不如追求理想，因为只有理想才能使生命充满意义，只有理想才具有永存的价值。close

16RT 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 brick and you have a school. Add justice to the far-flung round of human

endeavor and you have civilization. Put them all together, elevate them above their present imperfections, add to them the vision of

humankind redeemed, forever free of need and conflict and you have a future lighted with the radiant colors of hope.

给房子赋予爱你就有了家。让一座城市充满道义，你就有了一个社区。在一堆红砖里赋予真理你就有了学校。在人们长期的努力奋斗中加上正义，你就有了文明。把这一切都聚集起来，加以提升，使之超越现存的缺陷，再加上人类对得到拯救的憧憬，永远无求无争，那么你将会有一个闪耀着希望绚烂光彩的未来。close