庆祝5.4青年节---双语朗诵外国经典名作：青春

YOUTH

Samuel Ullman

Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of

rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a

quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of

the deep springs of life.

Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the

appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of

60 more than a boy of 20.　Nobody grows old merely by a number of years.　We

grow old by deserting our ideals.

Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.

Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.

Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder,

the unfailing child-like appetite of what’s next and the joy of the game of

living.　In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless

station: so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and

power from men and from the Infinite, so long are you young.

When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism

and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at 20, but as long as

your aerials are up, to catch waves of 00, there is hope you may die

young at 80.