一生必讀的英語散文

　　英語散文語言形式 上的特徵顯得尤為重要。一般說來，散文的風格體現在文章的詞 匯、句法和修辭性語言中。下面是小編給大家帶來的，供大家欣賞。

　　：Youth

　　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 wonders, the unfailing appetite for 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, courage and power from man and from the infinite, so long as you are young.

　　When your aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you’ve grown old, even at 20; but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there’s hope you may die young at 80.

　　譯文：

　　青春

　　青春不是年華，而是心境;青春不是桃面、丹脣、柔膝，而是深沉的意志，恢巨集的想象，炙熱的戀情;青春是生命的深泉在湧流。

　　青春氣貫長虹，勇銳蓋過怯弱，進取壓倒苟安。如此銳氣，二十後生而有之，六旬男子則更多見。年歲有加，並非垂老，理想丟棄，方墮暮年。

　　歲月悠悠，衰微只及肌膚;熱忱拋卻，頹廢必致靈魂。憂煩，惶恐，喪失自信，定使心靈扭曲，意氣如灰。

　　無論年屆花甲，擬或二八芳齡，心中皆有生命之歡樂，奇蹟之誘惑，孩童般天真久盛不衰。人人心中皆有一臺天線，只要你從天上人間接受美好、希望、歡樂、勇氣和力量的訊號，你就青春永駐，風華常存。 、

　　一旦天線下降，銳氣便被冰雪覆蓋，玩世不恭、自暴自棄油然而生，即使年方二十，實已垂垂老矣;然則只要樹起天線，捕捉樂觀訊號，你就有望在八十高齡告別塵寰時仍覺年輕。

　　：Companionship of Books

　　A man may usually be known by the books he reads as well as by the company he keeps; for there is a companionship of books as well as of men; and one should always live in the best company, whether it be of books or of men.

　　A good book may be among the best of friends. It is the same today that it always was, and it will never change. It is the most patient and cheerful of companions. It does not turn its back upon us in times of adversity or distress. It always receives us with the same kindness; amusing and instructing us in youth, and comforting and consoling us in age.

　　Men often discover their affinity to each other by the mutual love they have for a book just as two persons sometimes discover a friend by the admiration which both entertain for a third. There is an old proverb, ‘Love me, love my dog.” But there is more wisdom in this:” Love me, love my book.” The book is a truer and higher bond of union. Men can think, feel, and sympathize with each other through their favorite author. They live in him together, and he in them.

　　A good book is often the best urn of a life enshrining the best that life could think out; for the world of a man’s life is, for the most part, but the world of his thoughts. Thus the best books are treasuries of good words, the golden thoughts, which, remembered and cherished, become our constant companions and comforters.

　　Books possess an essence of immortality. They are by far the most lasting products of human effort. Temples and statues decay, but books survive. Time is of no account with great thoughts, which are as fresh today as when they first passed through their author’s minds, ages ago. What was then said and thought still speaks to us as vividly as ever from the printed page. The only effect of time have been to sift out the bad products; for nothing in literature can long survive e but what is really good.

　　Books introduce us into the best society; they bring us into the presence of the greatest minds that have ever lived. We hear what they said and did; we see the as if they were really alive; we sympathize with them, enjoy with them, grieve with them; their experience becomes ours, and we feel as if we were in a measure actors with them in the scenes which they describe.

　　The great and good do not die, even in this world. Embalmed in books, their spirits walk abroad. The book is a living voice. It is an intellect to which on still listens.

　　譯文：

　　以書為伴***節選***

　　通常看一個讀些什麼書就可知道他的為人，就像看他同什麼人交往就可知道他的為人一樣，因為有人以人為伴，也有人以書為伴。無論是書友還是朋友，我們都應該以最好的為伴。

　　好書就像是你最好的朋友。它始終不渝，過去如此，現在如此，將來也永遠不變。它是最有耐心，最令人愉悅的伴侶。在我們窮愁潦倒，臨危遭難時，它也不會拋棄我們，對我們總是一如既往地親切。在我們年輕時，好書陶冶我們的性情，增長我們的知識;到我們年老時，它又給我們以慰藉和勉勵。

　　人們常常因為喜歡同一本書而結為知已，就像有時兩個人因為敬慕同一個人而成為朋友一樣。有句古諺說道：“愛屋及屋。”其實“愛我及書”這句話蘊涵更多的哲理。書是更為真誠而高尚的情誼紐帶。人們可以通過共同喜愛的作家溝通思想，交流感情，彼此息息相通，並與自己喜歡的作家思想相通，情感相融。

　　好書常如最精美的寶器，珍藏著人生的思想的精華，因為人生的境界主要就在於其思想的境界。因此，最好的書是金玉良言和崇高思想的寶庫，這些良言和思想若銘記於心並多加珍視，就會成為我們忠實的伴侶和永恆的慰藉。

　　書籍具有不朽的本質，是為人類努力創造的最為持久的成果。寺廟會倒坍，神像會朽爛，而書卻經久長存。對於偉大的思想來說，時間是無關緊要的。多年前初次閃現於作者腦海的偉大思想今日依然清新如故。時間惟一的作用是淘汰不好的作品，因為只有真正的佳作才能經世長存。

　　書籍介紹我們與最優秀的人為伍，使我們置身於歷代偉人巨匠之間，如聞其聲，如觀其行，如見其人，同他們情感交融，悲喜與共，感同身受。我們覺得自己彷彿在作者所描繪的舞臺上和他們一起粉墨登場。

　　即使在人世間，偉大傑出的人物也永生不來。他們的精神被載入書冊，傳於四海。書是人生至今仍在聆聽的智慧之聲，永遠充滿著活力。

　　：Three Days to See

　　All of us have read thrilling stories in which the hero had only a limited and specified time to live. Sometimes it was as long as a year, sometimes as short as 24 hours. But always we were interested in discovering just how the doomed hero chose to spend his last days or his last hours. I speak, of course, of free men who have a choice, not condemned criminals whose sphere of activities is strictly delimited.

　　Such stories set us thinking, wondering what we should do under similar circumstances. What events, what experiences, what associations should we crowd into those last hours as mortal beings, what regrets?

　　Sometimes I have thought it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should die tomorrow. Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of life. We should live each day with gentleness, vigor and a keenness of appreciation which are often lost when time stretches before us in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come. There are those, of course, who would adopt the Epicurean motto of “Eat, drink, and be merry”. But most people would be chastened by the certainty of impending death.

　　In stories the doomed hero is usually saved at the last minute by some stroke of fortune, but almost always his sense of values is changed. He becomes more appreciative of the meaning of life and its permanent spiritual values. It has often been noted that those who live, or have lived, in the shadow of death bring a mellow sweetness to everything they do.

　　Most of us, however, take life for granted. We know that one day we must die, but usually we picture that day as far in the future. When we are in buoyant health, death is all but unimaginable. We seldom think of it. The days stretch out in an endless vista. So we go about our petty tasks, hardly aware of our listless attitude toward life.

　　The same lethargy, I am afraid, characterizes the use of all our faculties and senses. Only the deaf appreciate hearing, only the blind realize the manifold blessings that lie in sight. Particularly does this observation apply to those who have lost sight and hearing in adult life. But those who have never suffered impairment of sight or hearing seldom make the fullest use of these blessed faculties. Their eyes and ears take in all sights and sounds hazily, without concentration and with little appreciation. It is the same old story of not being grateful for what we have until we lose it, of not being conscious of health until we are ill.

　　I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight; silence would teach him the joys of sound.

　　譯文：

　　假如給我三天光明***節選***

　　我們都讀過震撼人心的故事，故事中的主人公只能再活一段很有限的時光，有時長達一年，有時卻短至一日。但我們總是想要知道，註定要離世人的會選擇如何度過自己最後的時光。當然，我說的是那些有選擇權利的自由人，而不是那些活動範圍受到嚴格限定的死囚。

　　這樣的故事讓我們思考，在類似的處境下，我們該做些什麼?作為終有一死的人，在臨終前的幾個小時內我們應該做什麼事，經歷些什麼或做哪些聯想?回憶往昔，什麼使我們開心快樂?什麼又使我們悔恨不已?

　　有時我想，把每天都當作生命中的最後一天來邊，也不失為一個極好的生活法則。這種態度會使人格外重視生命的價值。我們每天都應該以優雅的姿態，充沛的精力，抱著感恩之心來生活。但當時間以無休止的日，月和年在我們面前流逝時，我們卻常常沒有了這種子感覺。當然，也有人奉行“吃，喝，享受”的享樂主義信條，但絕大多數人還是會受到即將到來的死亡的懲罰。

　　在故事中，將死的主人公通常都在最後一刻因突降的幸運而獲救，但他的價值觀通常都會改變，他變得更加理解生命的意義及其永恆的精神價值。我們常常注意到，那些生活在或曾經生活在死亡陰影下的人無論做什麼都會感到幸福。

　　然而，我們中的大多數人都把生命看成是理所當然的。我們知道有一天我們必將面對死亡，但總認為那一天還在遙遠的將來。當我們身強體健之時，死亡簡直不可想象，我們很少考慮到它。日子多得好像沒有盡頭。因此我們一味忙於瑣事，幾乎意識不到我們對待生活的冷漠態度。

　　我擔心同樣的冷漠也存在於我們對自己官能和意識的運用上。只有聾子才理解聽力的重要，只有盲人才明白視覺的可貴，這尤其適用於那些成年後才失去視力或聽力之苦的人很少充分利用這些寶貴的能力。他們的眼睛和耳朵模糊地感受著周圍的景物與聲音，心不在焉，也無所感激。這正好我們只有在失去後才懂得珍惜一樣，我們只有在生病後才意識到健康的可貴。

　　我經常想，如果每個人在年輕的時候都有幾天失時失聰，也不失為一件幸事。黑暗將使他更加感鐳射明，寂靜將告訴他聲音的美妙。