（源自公眾號小一時空）
《朗讀者》節目中，有一位朗讀者選讀了美國作家塞繆爾·厄爾曼的散文：《青 春》
這是一篇聞名遐邇的文章，作者對關於“青春”的含義給予了獨特的詮釋。
《青春 》 塞繆爾．厄爾曼
（王佐良譯）
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，恢宏的想象，炙熱的情感；
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、勇氣和力量的信號，你就青春永駐，風華常存。
一旦天線倒塌，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，捕捉樂觀信號，你就有望在八十高齡告別塵寰時仍覺年輕。
《青春》原文：
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 optimism, there is hope you may die
young at 80.
有人說，青春那麼美好，唯一的缺點就是消逝得太快。
詩人席慕蓉也曾說：“青春，是一本太倉促的書”。朗讀亭中也有人朗讀席慕蓉的這首詩，感慨不已。
......
可當你讀完塞繆爾·厄爾曼的這一篇章，卻有一種精神為之一振的豁然開朗：
哦，原來青春還可以這麼久呢...
當然，天線別倒！
塞繆爾·厄爾曼(1840.4.13-1924.3.21)
美國作家。
參加過南北戰爭，之後定居伯明翰，經營五金雜貨，年逾70開始寫作。
他的散文《青春》因麥克阿瑟將軍的喜愛而出名。
（小一時空 編輯。圖片源自網絡）