翻译作业

The Art of Living

The art of living is to know when to hold fast and when to let go. For life is a paradox: it enjoins us to cling to its many gifts even while it ordains their eventual relinquishment. The rabbis of old put it this way: "

A man comes to this world with his fist clenched, but when he dies, his hand is open."

生活的艺术在于懂得何时紧紧抓住，何时放手。生活就是一个悖论：它要我们抓住生命赐予的礼物，却又要在最后一一放手。古时的犹太拉比说：“人来到这个世上时紧握着拳头，但当他离去时，手又松开了。”

Surely we ought to hold fast to life, for it is wondrous, and full of a beauty that breaks through every pore of God's own earth.

当然我们应紧紧抓住生命，因为它让人惊奇，并且充满了美，它散落在上帝所创造的每一寸土地上的。

We know that this is so, but all too often we recognize this truth only in our backward glance when we remember what was and then suddenly realize that it is no more.

我们知道确实如此，但是我们总在回首时才意识到，过去的一切我们仍然记得，但却明白了一切不再如此。

We remember a beauty that faded, a love that waned. But we remember with far greater pain that we did not see that beauty when it flowered, that we failed to respond with love when it was tendered.

我们会记起的，是一种凋谢的美，一份逝去的爱。当美绽放时我们并没有去留意这份美，当爱情来临时我们未能报之以爱。回想这些，我们会更加心痛。

Here then is the first pole of life's paradoxical demands on us: Never too busy for the wonder and the awe of life.

生活给我们的第一个矛盾的真理：永远不要因为太过忙碌而错过了人生的奇迹与壮丽。

Be reverent before each dawning day. Embrace each hour. Seize each golden minute.

崇敬每一天。拥抱每一小时。抓紧每一分钟。

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.

牢牢抓住人生，但不要抓得太紧，免得到时候不能放手。放手是人生硬币的另一面，是人生矛盾的另一极：我们必须接受失去并学会放手。

And ultimately, as the parable of the open and closed hand suggests, we must confront the inevitability of our own demise, losing ourselves as it were, all that we were or dreamed to be.

最后，正如攥手和松手的譬喻所示，我们最终要面对不可避免的死亡，放弃自我，或者说放弃曾经拥有的或梦想拥有的一切

这个道理不易体悟，尤其当你风华正茂时，你以为这个世界由你掌握，你以为凭着青春的活力和激情，渴望什么就能够、就会得到什么。然而，人生的步伐把你带到现实之中，人生的真相缓慢地、却必然要摆在你的面前。在人生的每个阶段我们都要承受失去，而我们就是在此过程中得以成长。我们在脱离母体、失去其保护后才开始独立的生活。我们从一所学校毕业，又进入另一所学校，然后离开父母，离开儿时的家；我们结婚、生子，之后又不得不放飞子女。我们要面对父母的逝去和配偶的离去，面对体力或缓慢或迅速丧失的现实。