di13zhou
不必悲叹自己没有聪慧的天资，也不必哀怨自己没有美丽的容颜，不必抱怨命运的无常，也不必躲避恶劣的环境，尽情绽放你的生命之花吧！因为不管多么微不足道的生命，只要怀有绽放的信念，就一定可以为人间带来一丝芳香，一丝绚丽！
This happened many summers ago. There was a young flower in a desert where was always dried and sad-looking. It was growing by itself, enjoying every day and saying to the Sun “When shall I be grown up?” And the Sun would say “Be patient. Each time I touch you, you grow a little.” And she was so pleased because she would have a chance to bring beauty to this corner of sand, and this is all she wanted to do-bring a little bit of beauty to this world.
One day, the hunter came by and stepped on her. She was going to die and she felt so sad，not because she was dying，but because she had no chance to bring a little bit of beauty to this corner of the desert.
The Great Spirit saw her and was listening “Indeed” he said “She should be living.” And he reached down and touched her and gave her life.
And she grew up to be a beautiful flower; and this corner of the desert became so beautiful because of her.
这个故事发生在很多很多个夏天以前。
在一个周围充满着干燥与衰落景象的沙漠中，有一朵小花正绽放着……她孤单地生长着……快乐地过着每一天……她对太阳说：“我什么时候才能长大呀？”
太阳回答说：“不要着急——我的光芒每接触你一次，你就会长大一点儿……”小花听了非常高兴。因为她有机会为这片沙漠增添一处绚丽的景色了……这就是她梦寐以求的——为这个世界带来一点儿美丽。
一天，一个猎人经过这里——并从她身上踏了过去。——她即将死了——她感到十分悲伤。她悲伤的原因，并不是因为她将要死去，而是因为她再也没有机会为这片沙漠增添一处绚丽的景色了。
一个伟大的精灵看到了她，并听到了她的哭诉。——事实上，他说……她应该活下去……于是，他来到沙漠上抚摸着她，并赋予了她生命。
后来，她终于长大成了一朵美丽的花儿……这片沙漠也因她的存在而变得格外美丽。
生性喜爱孩子的妇女，能够从抚养子女中得到这种满足。艺术家、作家和科学家如果对自己的工作感到满意，也能以同样的方式得到快乐。
If you look around at the men and women whom you can call happy, you will see that they all have certain things in common. The most important of these things
is an activity which at most gradually builds up something that you are glad to see coming into existence. Women who take an instinctive pleasure in their children can get this kind of satisfaction out of bringing up a family. Artists and authors and men of science get happiness in this way if their own work seems good to them. But there are many humbler forms of the same kind of pleasure. Many men who spend their working life in the city devote their weekends to voluntary and unremunerated toil in their gardens, and when the spring comes, they experience all the joys of having created beauty.
The whole subject of happiness has, in my opinion, been treated too solemnly. It had been thought that man cannot be happy without a theory of life or a religion. Perhaps those who have been rendered unhappy by a bad theory may need a better theory to help them to recovery, just as you may need a tonic when you have been ill. But when things are normal a man should be healthy without a tonic and happy without a theory. It is the simple things that really matter.
幸福其实很简单
只要你观察一下周围那些你可称之为幸福的男男女女，就会看出他们都有某些共同之处。在这些共同之处中有一点是最重要的：那就是活动本身，它在大多数情况下本身就很有趣，而且可逐渐的使你的愿望得以实现。生性喜爱孩子的妇女，能够从抚养子女中得到这种满足。艺术家、作家和科学家如果对自己的工作感到满意，也能以同样的方式得到快乐。不过，还有很多是较低层次的快乐。许多在城里工作的人到了周末自愿地在自家的庭院里做无偿的劳动，春天来时，他们就可尽情享受自己创造的美景带来的快乐。
在我看来，整个关于快乐的话题一向都被太严肃的对待过了。过去一直有这样的看法：如果没有一种生活的理论或者宗教信仰，人是不可能幸福的。也许那些由于理论不好才导致不快乐的人需要一种较好的理论帮助他们重新快活起来，就像你生过病需要吃补药一样。但是，
正常情况下，一个人不吃补药也应当是健康的；没有理论也应当是幸福的。真正有关系的是一些简单的事情。
生活就是要奋勇前进。所以，为什么不好好地利用上帝赋予我们的能力，尽量变成一个最优秀的人呢？生活、接受、面对、奋斗，这就是真实的生活。
Knowing that life truly is short and can only be lived once is probably the best line of thinking for inspiration. All humans live on a large planet, filled with exciting new experiences, adventures, knowledge, and a wealth of resources to help one with gaining wisdom and knowledge. To realize this and to allow life to take place in this is to responsibly live life. Are all humans bound for foreign lands, foreign thought, or foreign experiences? No. Should all humans hope to experience foreign lands, foreign thought, and foreign experiences?
Without question. Having a responsible, reasonable, and mature grasp, mentally, of all that is out there to enhance one’s experience in life, is one of the greatest blessings one can bestow upon himself. For knowing that the tools one has through birth need to be used and practiced with; sharpened and prepared for more difficult and challenging use, does one truly and actively approach living life from a strong foundation.
Why should anyone try to live life in a constant motion towards becoming greater, becoming stronger, and becoming wiser and more educated? Why not? For facing life with arms crossed, brow furrowed, and expectation as a rule is, without question, a waste. Living life is all about striving forward. So why not do what one can, utilizing one’s G od-given tools, to become the greatest individual one can be? Live. Accept. Face. Strive. Truly live.
为生活而奋斗
懂得生命短暂，而且只有一次，就会对生活充满热情。人们生活在一个巨大的星球上，每天都充满着新的历程，学到新的知识，掌握到大量的资源，并以此来获得智慧与知识。认识到
这一点，并且如此生活，才是有质量的生活。是不是每个人都要去外国，了解外国人的想法，体验外国的生活呢？不是。但是不是每个人都应当有去外国，了解外国人的想法，体验外国的生活的想法呢？
毫无疑问，是的。作为一个有责任心、有理智、有思想、成熟的人，去增长见识无疑是对自己最好的奖赏。因为人天赋的能力应当被使用、被锻炼、被磨砺，为日后所面临的困难和挑战做准备，这就为他积极和真实地面对生活打下坚实的基础。
为什么一个人要变得更伟大、更强壮、更聪明、更有知识呢？为什么不呢？因为如果抱着手、皱着眉地对待生活，那么所有的期望都会化为泡影。生活就是要奋勇前进。所以，为什么不好好地利用上帝赋予我们的能力，尽量变成一个最优秀的人呢？生活、接受、面对、奋斗，这就是真实的生活。
在办公室里度过的时光可能是你一天中最紧张的一段时间,但是这种情况是可以改变的.你有很强的能力来营造良好的办公气氛,只是你可能并没有意识到自己的这种能力。
The time you spend at the office may be the most stressful part of your day, but it doesn't have to be. You have a greater ability to shape your office environment than you may realize.
Take breaks throughout the day. It will help clear your mind and relieve pressure. Something as simple as going to the water cooler for a drink may do the trick.
To help your workday go smoothly, try pacing your activities: Do more demanding work in the morning, when your energy level is higher, and eas ier work later in the day, when you may be tired.
Try listening to music recordings, such as a pounding surf or songbirds, to help you relax. Such tapes are sold commercially. Use headphones if you'll be listening to them in the middle of the workday.
Get to work early or stay late once a week. You may be able to accomplish more when you vary your routine.
If your stress comes from job insecurity, take stock of yourself. Update your resume, and remind yourself of your skills and strengths. Also, make sure you
keep up with new developments in your field. This will make you valuable to employers.
Don't let work rumors, which are usually false, cause you worry. A co-worker may just be thinking out loud about worst-case scenarios.
给自己放松
在办公室里度过的时光可能是你一天中最紧张的一段时间,但是这种情况是可以改变的.你有很强的能力来营造良好的办公气氛,只是你可能并没有意识到自己的这种能力。
一天中偶尔小憩一会儿，这会使你头脑清醒，并缓解压力，你可以做些简单的事情，例如去冷水机旁喝水，这样就可以达到休息的目的。
为了使你的工作日一切顺利，试着有条不紊地安排工作：上午精力相对充沛时多做一些要求较高的工作；下午感动疲劳时做一些较轻松的工作。
试着听听音乐，这有助于你放松身心，例如听听海浪拍打岩石或鸟儿歌唱的声音。这些磁带市面上都有卖。如果你在工作中听音乐的话，最好使用耳机。
一周中有一天早点上班，晚点下班，通过这种方式来改变日常惯例，这样你可能会完成更多的工作。
如果你的压力来自工作的不安全感，你可以对自己进行评估，更新简历，提高自己自身的技能和实力。当然，你也要确保跟上所在领域的发展，这样可以保证你对于老板来说是有价值的。
不要为了工作中的谣言而烦恼，它们往往是不可信的。你的同事可能只注意到工作中最坏的情况。
达芬奇忙于他的很多发明以至于不能完成他的画作；年仅32岁战死沙场的西德尼不只是个伟大的战士，还是个出色的学者和诗人。这两个人都达到了文艺复兴的“通才”思想，他们精通一切。
It is perhaps, no accident that many of the outstanding figures of the past were exceptionally
versatile men. Right up until comparatively recent times, it was possible for an intelligent person to acquaint himself with almost every branch of knowledge. Thus man of genius like Leonardo da Vinci or Sir Philip Sidney, engaged in many careers at once as a matter of course. Da V inci was so busy with his numerous inventions, that he barely found time to complete his paintings; Sidney, who died when he was only 32 years old, was not only a great soldier, but a brilliant scholar and poet as well. Both these men came very near to fulfilling the Renaissance ideal of the “universal man”, the man who was good at everything.
Today, we rarely, if ever, hear that a musician has invented a new type of submarine. Knowledge has been divided and sub-divided into countless, narrow-defined parts. The specialists are respected; the versatile person, far from being admired, is more often regarded with suspicion. The modern world is a world of high-skilled experts who have had to devote the greater part of their lives to a very limited field of study in order to compete with their fellows.
With this high degree of specialization, the frontiers of knowledge are steadily being pushed back more rapidly than ever before. But this has not been achieved without considerable cost. The scientist, who outside his own particular subject is little more than a idiot, is a modern phenomenon; as is the man of letters who is barely aware of the tremendous strides that have been made in technology. Similarly, specialization has indirectly affected quite ordinary people in every walk of life. Many activities which were once pursued for their own sakes, are often given up in despair; they require techniques, the experts tell us, which take a life-time to master. Why learn to play the piano, when you can listen to the world’s greatest pianists in your own drawing-room?
多才多艺的人
在过去的时代里，很多人杰出的人都是多才多艺的人，或许这并不是人感到意外。知道相对较近的时代，一个聪明的人可以通晓很多知识领域。所以像达芬奇和西德尼这样的天才，同时从事多种职业，也是理所当然的。达芬奇忙于他的很多发明以至于不能完成他的画作；年仅32岁战死沙场的西德尼不只是个伟大的战士，还是个出色的学者和诗人。这两个人都达到了文艺复兴的“通才”思想，他们精通一切。
而今，我们很少听说一个音乐家发明了一种新的潜水艇。知识领域被一分再分到数不清的狭窄领域。专家受人尊敬，多才多艺的人却不受敬佩，反而经常让人怀疑。现在社会是一个对专业技能高度精通的专家的世界，他们为了与同行竞争，而不得不花一生大部分时间去研究一个狭小的领域。
随着高度的专业化，知识的界限也正稳固的缩小，其速度前所未有。但是带到这种情形也付出了相当大的代价。一个科学家在他领域以外和一个白痴一样，一个文人却又对科学领域的进展一无所知。同样，专业化也使各个行业的普通人间接受到影响。过去人们从事某些活动只是应为兴趣，现在也不得不在绝望中放弃；他们需要技术。专家告诉我们要掌握这些技术需要花费毕生的经历。当你能在自己的客厅听到世界最好的钢琴加演奏时，为什么还要自己学钢琴呢？
不管家长的人品有多么好，作为父母有多么合格，孩子们对家长幻想的破灭在某种程度上是不可避免的。除非父母自身不能令人满意，大多数孩子对父母估价过高，以致这种估价很难指望经受住现实的考验。
Parents are often upset when their children praise the homes of their friends and regard it as a slur on their own cooking, or cleaning, or furniture, and often are foolish enough to let the adolescents see that they are annoyed. They may even accuse them of disloyalty, or make some spiteful remark about the friends' parents. Such loss of dignity and descent into childish behaviour on the part to their parents about the place or people they visit. Before very long the parents will be complaining that the child is so secretive and never tells them anything, but they seldom realize that they have brought this on themselves.
Disillusionment with the parents, however good and adequate they may be both as parents and as individuals, is to some degree inevitable. Most children have such a high ideal of their parents, unless the parents themselves have been unsatisfactory, that it can hardly hope to stand up to a realistic evaluation. Parents would be greatly surprised and deeply touched if they hope to stand up to a realistic evaluation. Parents would be greatly surprised and deeply touched if they realized how much belief their children usually have in their character and infallibility, and how much this faith means to a child. If parents were prepared for this adolescent reaction, and realized that it was a sign that the child was growing up and developing valuable powers of observation and independent judgment, they would not be so hurt, and therefore would not drive the child into opposition by resenting and resisting it.
The adolescent, with his passion for sincerity, always respects a parent who admits that he is wrong, or ignorant, or even that he has been unfair or unjust. What the child cannot forgive is the parent's refusal to admit these charges if the child knows them to be true.
Victorian parents believed that they kept their dignity by retreating behind an unreasoning authoritarian attitude; in fact they did nothing of the kind, but children were then too cowed to let them know how they really felt. Today we tend to go to the other extreme, but on the whole this is a healthier attitude both for the child and the parent. It is always wiser and safer to face up to reality, however painful it may be at the moment.
当家长听到孩子赞扬自己朋友的家时，总感到不安，认为孩子在嫌弃自家的饭菜、卫生、或家具，而且愚蠢地让孩子看出自己的烦恼。他们甚至责备孩子不忠，或者讲些小朋友家长的坏话。家长这种有失身份和孩子气的作法使青春期的孩子大为震惊，决心以后不再向父母讲述去过的地方和见过的人。不要很久,家长就会抱怨孩子守口如瓶，什么事也不告诉他们，殊不知这是他们自找的。
不管家长的人品有多么好，作为父母有多么合格，孩子们对家长幻想的破灭在某种程度上是不可避免的。除非父母自身不能令人满意，大多数孩子对父母估价过高，以致这种估价很难指望经受住现实的考验。如果家长意识到孩子们通常是多么相信家长的品行和绝对正确，意识到孩子们的这种信念会对孩子产生多么大的影响，那么家长会大为吃惊和深受感动的。如果家长对青少年的这种反应有思想准备，并且意识到这象征着孩子们正在成熟和正在发展宝贵的观察力、独立判断力，那么他们就不会那样伤心，也就不会由于怨恨和抵触这种反应，而把孩子推到自己的对立面去。
青少年酷爱真诚，对于能够承认错误或无知、甚至承认自己
做得不分平或不公正的父母，他们总是尊敬的，孩子们所不
能原谅的是：父母错了，孩子们也看出来了，可是做父母的
还不肯承认。
维多利亚时代的父母认为，他们可靠无理的权威气派来维护
自己的尊严，实际上那是根本不行的。孩子们只不过被吓得
不敢让父母知道自己的想法罢了。虽然现在我们倾向于走向
另一个极端，但总地来看，孩子和家长双方态度都比较端正。
遇事采取面对现实的态度总是比较明智和稳妥的，尽管会有
暂时的痛苦。
绅士，他是一个从不使别人遭受痛苦的人。这几乎就是为一
个有修养的人所下的定义
第 1 页：美文欣赏
第2 页：参考译文
绅士，他是一个从不使别人遭受痛苦的人。这几乎就是为一个有修养的人所下的定义。
Hence it is, that it is almost a definition of a gentleman, to say he is one who never inflicts pain. This description is both refined and, as far as it goes, accurate. He is mainly occupied in merely removing the obstacles which hinder the free and unembarrassed action of those about him; and he concurs with their movements rather than takes the initiative himself.
His benefits may be considered as parallel to what are called comforts or conveniences in arrangements of a personal nature: like an easy chair or a good fire, which do their part in dispelling cold and fatigue, though nature provides both means of rest and animal heat without them.
He is never mean or little in his disputes, never takes unfair advantage, never mistakes personalities or sharp sayings for arguments or insinuates evil which he dare not say out.
From a long-sighted prudence, he observes the maxim of the ancient sage, that we should ever conduct ourselves towards our enemy as if he were one day to be our friend.
He has too much good sense to be affronted at insults, he is too well employed to remember injuries, and too engaged to bear malice. He is patient,tolerant, and resigned, on philosophical principles; he submits to pain,because it is inevitable,to the death of family members, because it is irreparable,and to death, because it is his destiny.
If he engages in controversy of any kind, his disciplined intellect preserves him from the blundering discourtesy of better, though less educated minds; who, like blunt weapons,tear and hack instead of cutting clean, who mistake the point in argument,waste their strength on trifles, misconceive their adversary, and leave the question more involved than they find it.
He may be right or wrong in his opinion, but he is too clear-headed to be unjust; he is as simple as he is forcible, and as brief as he is decisive. Nowhere shall we find greater candor, consideration, indulgence: he throws himself into the minds of his opponents, he accounts for their mistakes. He knows the weakness of human reason as well as its strength, its province and its limits.
绅士，他是一个从不使别人遭受痛苦的人。这几乎就是为一个有修养的人所下的定义。这样描述是精妙的，而且，就其本身而言，也是准确的。他主要是致力于为他周围的人们排除妨碍他们进行自由而拘谨的活动时索面临的障碍；他附和他们的行动，而不是自己采取主动。
他这样做的好处可以看作类似于所谓人们相互之间作安排时索带来的舒适和便利：就象一把安乐椅或者一个温暖的炉火，它们能驱散寒冷和疲倦，虽然，没有它们，大自然也能提供休息和增加体温的方法。
与人有了争端，他从不刻薄，也不小气，从不乘人之危，从不为了争辩而误解别人的人格或说尖利的言辞，或者暗示那些他不敢说出口的邪恶的事情。
他从有远见的审慎的观点出发，遵守古代圣贤的座右铭：我们应该这样对待我们的敌人，好
像他终有一天会成为我们的朋友。
他很明智，不因受辱而感到被冒犯，他忙于自己的事情，顾不上对自己所受到的伤害耿耿于怀，也懒于为此而心怀恶意。在哲学的原则上，他表现出耐心、宽容和顺从；他正视痛苦，因为痛苦不可避免，他忍受丧亲之痛，因为失去的亲人不可挽回，他屈从于死亡，因为死亡是他最终的归宿。
假入他与人进行争论，他那训练有素的智力使他避免犯那些智力更强然而却缺乏教育的人们常犯的粗鲁和失礼，那些人如同粗钝的武器，乱劈乱砍，而不是公正地争论，他们曲解论点，在枝节问题上浪费精力，他们误解对手，把问题弄得比原来更复杂。
他的意见可能是对的，也可能是错的，但是，他的头脑非常清醒，不至于不公正；正像他强劲一样，他很朴素，正像他果断一样，他很简洁。