勵志英文短篇散文

　　如果我們能夠時不時地找一些來看看還是很不錯的，那麼都有哪些呢?一起來看看吧。

　　：夢想終有成真時

　　Never Too Late to Become What You Want to Be

　　The first day of school our professor introduced a little old lady to us.

　　"Why are you in college at such a young age?" I asked later. She jokingly replied, " I'm here to meet a rich husband, get married, have a couple of children, and then retire and travel."

　　"No seriously," I asked. I was curious what may have motivatedher to be taking on this challenge at her age. "I always dreamed of having a college education and now I'm getting one!" she told me.

　　We became instant friends. Every day for the next three months we would leave class together and tolk nonstop. I was always listening to this "time machine" as she shared her wisdom and experience with me.

　　At the end of the semester we invited Rose to make a speech to our football team. I'll never forget what she taught us. As she began to deliverher prepared speech, she dropped her note card on the floor. A little embarrassed she simply said, "I'm sorry. This whiskey is killing me! I'll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know." As we laughed she cleared her throat and began:" We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You've got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die. We have so many people walking around who are dead and don't even know it! There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don't do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. Anybody can grow older. That doesn't take any talentor ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding the opportunity in change. Have no regrets. The elderly usually don't have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets."

　　At the year's end Rose finished the college degree. One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep. Over two thousand college students attended her funeral to honorthe wonderful woman who taught by example that it's never too late to be all you can possibly be.

　　夢想終有成真時

　　開學第一天，教授把一位小個子老太太介紹給了我們。

　　隨後我問道，“你為什麼這麼“年輕”還來讀大學?”她開玩笑地回答：“我來這兒是為了認識一個有錢的丈夫，結婚，生幾個孩子，然後退休去旅行。”

　　“不，認真點兒。”我問道。我很好奇，到底是什麼東西讓她在這個年紀還要接受這樣一個挑戰。“我一直夢想著上大學，現在我就在讀大學!”她告訴我。

　　我們馬上成了朋友。在隨後的三個月裡，我們每天一起離開教室，不停地交談。我總是和歷經了歲月滄桑的她一起分享她的智慧和經驗。

　　期末的時候，我們邀請羅斯給我們的橄欖球隊講話。我永遠都不會忘記她教給我們的東西。就在她要開始進行她事先準備好的演講時，她把寫了要點的卡片掉在了地上。她有點兒尷尬，但只是說，“對不起。這酒可真要命!我沒辦法再準備好我的講稿了，就讓我把我知道的東西告訴你們吧。”我們笑了起來，她清了清嗓子，開始演講：“我們並不是因為年老就不再玩耍;我們變老是因為我們不再玩耍。只有四個祕密可以讓你保持年輕，快樂，獲得成功。你必須每天都開懷大笑，尋找幽默。你必須有一個夢想。失去了夢想，你就會雖生猶死。我們周圍有很多人，他們已經‘死了’，自己卻不知道。成長和長大之間有著巨大的差距。如果你現在19歲，躺在床上整整一年什麼都不做，你也還會變成20歲。每一個人都會長大，這不需要任何天賦和能力。要不斷地在變化中尋找機遇，這樣才是成長。

　　不要留有遺憾。老年人通常不會為做過的事遺憾，而是為還沒有做過的事情感到遺憾。只有那些有遺憾的人才會怕死。”

　　年底的時候，羅斯獲得了大學學位。畢業一星期後，她在夢中安詳地離開了人世。兩千多名大學生參加了她的葬禮，來紀念這位通過自己的親身經歷來告訴我們永遠都可以成就自己的理想的了不起的老人。

　　：當風吹起的時候

　　When The Wind Blows

　　Years ago a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast. He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic. They dreaded the awful storms that raged across the Atlantic, wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops. As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received a steady stream of refusals.

　　Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached the farmer. "Are you a good farmhand?" the farmer asked him.

　　"Well, I can sleep when the wind blows," answered the little man.

　　Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help, hired him. The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man's work.

　　Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore. Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand's sleeping quarters. He shook the little man and yelled, "Get up! A storm is coming! Tie things down before they blow away!"

　　The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, "No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows."

　　Enraged by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm. To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the doors were barred. The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down. Nothing could blow away.

　　The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, so he returned to his bed to also sleep while the wind blew.

　　MORAL: When you're prepared, spiritually, mentally, and physically, you have nothing to fear.

　　Can you sleep when the wind blows through your life? The hired hand in the story was able to sleep because he had secured the farm against the storm.

　　幾年前，一個農場主在大西洋沿岸擁有一塊土地，他經常貼廣告僱傭人手。可是，很多人都不願意在大西洋岸邊的農場幹活，他們害怕大西洋上空劇烈的風暴會破壞房屋和莊稼。所以當這個農場主招工面試時，收到的是一連串堅定的拒絕。

　　最後，有一個個頭不高、略顯瘦弱、已過中年的男人來到農場主面前。“你是個幹農活的好手嗎?”農場主問他。

　　“是的，起風的時候我可以睡覺，”那個矮個男人回答道。

　　儘管農場主對他的回答有點迷惑，可苦於沒有幫手，於是僱傭了他。那個矮個男人在農場幹活很賣力，從天亮一直忙到天黑，因此農場主對他的工作很滿意。

　　一天晚上，海面上颳起了咆哮的大風，農場主從床上跳了起來，抓起燈籠就向旁邊僱工住的地方衝去。他晃著那個矮個男人喊道：“起來!颳風暴了!快把東西繫好，別刮跑了!”

　　那個矮個男人在床上翻了一下身，平靜地說道：“不，先生，我告訴過你，颳風的時候我可以睡覺。”

　　農場主被他的回答激怒了，氣得真想當場把他解僱。不過，還是趕緊跑出去應付暴風雨吧。然而，令他驚奇的是，他發現所有的乾草垛已經蓋好了防水油布，牛在牲口棚裡面，小雞在雞籠裡，門閂好了，百葉窗也關緊了，一切都栓牢了，什麼東西都刮不走了。

　　此刻，農場主才明白了僱工那句話的意思，於是，風颳起來的時候，他也回自己的床上睡覺了。

　　寓意：當精神上、心理上和物質上都做好準備的時候，一切就無所畏懼了。

　　當你的生活颳起***的時候，你是否能睡著覺呢?故事中那個僱來的幫手能睡著，因為他已經為農場做好了抵禦風暴的準備。

　　：什麼是你攀升的方向標

　　What is your direction indicator of ascended

　　One windy spring day, I observed young people having fun using the wind to fly their kites. Multicolored creations of varying shapes and sizes filled the skies like beautiful birds darting and dancing. As the strong winds gusted against the kites, a string kept them in check.

　　Instead of blowing away with the wind, they arose against it to achieve great heights. They shook and pulled, but the restraining string and the cumbersome tail kept them in tow, facing upward and against the wind. As the kites struggled and trembled against the string, they seemed to say, “Let me go! Let me go! I want to be free!” They soared beautifully even as they fought the restriction of the string. Finally, one of the kites succeeded in breaking loose. “Free at last,” it seemed to say. “Free to fly with the wind.”

　　Yet freedom from restraint simply put it at the mercy of an unsympathetic breeze. It fluttered ungracefully to the ground and landed in a tangled mass of weeds and string against a dead bush. “Free at last” free to lie powerless in the dirt, to be blown helplessly along the ground, and to lodge lifeless against the first obstruction.

　　How much like kites we sometimes are. The Heaven gives us adversity and restrictions, rules to follow from which we can grow and gain strength. Restraint is a necessary counterpart to the winds of opposition. Some of us tug at the rules so hard that we never soar to reach the heights we might have obtained. We keep part of the commandment and never rise high enough to get our tails off the ground.

　　Let us each rise to the great heights, recognizing that some of the restraints that we may chafe under are actually the steadying force that helps us ascend and achieve.

　　[參考譯文]

　　什麼是你攀升的方向標

　　在一個有風的春日，我看到一群年輕人正在迎風放風箏玩樂，各種顏色、各種形狀和大小的風箏就好像美麗的鳥兒在空中飛舞。當強風把風箏吹起，牽引線就能夠控制它們。

　　風箏迎風飄向更高的地方，而不是隨風而去。它們搖擺著、拉扯著，但牽引線以及笨重的尾巴使它們處於控制之中，並且迎風而上。它們掙扎著、抖動著想要掙脫線的束縛，彷彿在說：“放開我!放開我!我想要自由!”即使與牽引線奮爭著，它們依然在美麗地飛翔。終於，一隻風箏成功掙脫了。“終於自由了，”它好像在說，“終於可以隨風自由飛翔了!”

　　然而，脫離束縛的自由使它完全處於無情微風的擺佈下。它毫無風度地震顫著向地面墜落，落在一堆亂草之中，線纏繞在一顆死灌木上。“終於自由”使它自由到無力地躺在塵土中，無助地任風沿著地面將其吹走，碰到第一個障礙物便毫無生命地滯留在那裡了。

　　有時我們真像這風箏啊!上蒼賦予我們困境和約束，賦予我們成長和增強實力所要遵從的規則。約束是逆風的必要匹配物。我們中有些人是如此強硬地抵制規則，以至我們從來無法飛到本來能夠達到的高度。我們只遵從部分戒律，因此永遠不會飛得足夠高，使尾巴遠離地面。

　　讓我們每個人都飛到高處吧，並且認識到這一點：有些可能會令我們生氣的約束，實際上是幫助我們攀升和實現願望的平衡力。