雙語美文|青春物語

■ 青春物語

Man’s Youth

◎ Thomas Wolfe

Man’s youth is a wonderful thing: it is so full of anguish[4] and of magic and he never comes to know it is, until it has gone from him forever. It is the thing he can’t bear to lose, it is the thing whose passing he watches with infinite sorrow and regret, it is the thing whose loss he must lament forever, and it is the thing whose loss he really welcomes with a sad and secret joy, the thing he would never willingly relive again, if it could be restored to him by any magic.

Why is this? The reason is that the strange and bitter miracle of life is nowhere else so evident as in our youth. And what is the essence of that strange and bitter miracle of life which we feel so poignantly[5] , so unutterably, with such a bitter pain and joy, when we are young? It is this: that being rich, we are so poor; that being mighty, we can yet have nothing; that seeing, breathing, smelling, tasting all around us the wealth and glory of this earth, feeling with an intolerable certitude that the whole structure of the enchanted life—the most fortunate, wealthy, good, and happy life that any man has ever known—is ours—is ours at once, immediately and forever, the moment that we choose to take a step, or stretch a hand—we yet know that we can really keep, hold, take, and possess forever—nothing. All passes; nothing lasts: the moment that we put our hand upon it, it melts away like smoke, is gone forever, and the snake is eating at our heart again; we see then what we are and what our lives must come to.

人的青春奇妙無窮，充滿痛楚，充滿魔力。青春年少時不知青春為何物，無奈青春一去不復返時才恍然醒悟：青春是誰也不愿失去的東西；眼睜睜看著青春流逝，無限的感傷和遺憾涌上心頭；青春的流逝是人們心中永遠的痛；青春的流逝讓人們或大悲或竊喜；即便魔力可以還以青春，人們也不愿再次經歷那些流逝的青春歲月。

為何如此呢？因為青春時代的生活充滿了奇特的、心酸的、不平凡的事。青春年少的我們懷著或悲或喜的心情，強烈而又不可名狀地體味著那些生活的奇特辛酸史時，我們可曾想過它的本質？它的本質就是：我們富足殷實，卻無比貧窮；我們力大無窮，卻一無所有；世間的富貴榮華比比皆是，看到，聞到，嘗到，甚至可以呼吸到。那份堅信再也無法隱藏了，真真切切感受到整個生活都已陶醉……只要我們向前邁步，努力奮斗，那么人類所知道的最幸運、最富有、最美好、最幸福的生活便立刻屬于我們了，而且將永遠屬于我們，雖然我們知道，其實我們留不住、抓不著、拿不走也無法占有什么。一切就如過眼云煙，轉瞬即逝。我們一伸手，它便像云煙般消失不見了。于是，痛苦再一次啃噬我們的心，我們看到了自己的真面目，明白了未來的生活將何去何從。

A young man is so strong, so mad, so certain, and so lost. He has everything and he is able to use nothing. He hurls the great shoulder of his strength forever against phantasmal[6] barriers, he is a wave whose power explodes in lost mid-oceans under timeless skies, he reaches out to grip a fume of painted smoke; he wants all, feels the thirst and power for everything, and finally gets nothing. In the end, he is destroyed by his own strength, devoured by his own hunger, impoverished by his own wealth. Thoughtless of money or the accumulation of material possessions, he is none the less defeated in the end by his own greed.

And that is the reason why, when youth is gone, every man will look back upon that period of his life with infinite sorrow and regret. It is the bitter sorrow and regret of a man who knows that once he had a great talent and wasted it, of a man who knows that once he had a great treasure and got nothing from it, of a man who knows that he had strength enough for everything and never used it.

青年人非常強壯、狂熱、自信，卻很容易迷失茫然；他擁有一切，卻又無法把握；他身強體壯，想要沖破虛幻的障礙，卻像海浪般無力地消失在無邊無際的大海中央；他伸出雙手想要抓住色彩斑斕的云煙，他想得到一切，渴望主宰一切，可到頭來依舊兩手空空，一無所獲；最后，他被自己的力量打敗，被自己的饑餓吞噬，因自己的財富而窮困。他對金錢和財富的積累不以為意，最終必將因為貪念而毀。

這就是為什么當青春消逝，回首過往時，每個人的心中總會充滿無限的憂傷和遺憾。曾經杰出的才能，卻白白浪費了；曾經殷實的財富，卻被揮霍一空；曾經滿身的本領，卻未好好利用——一個明白了這些道理的人，回憶起青春時代，總會充滿憂傷和懊悔。