? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?The art of living
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? —— J. B. Priestley ? ? 約翰·博因頓·普里斯特利
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.”
生活的藝術在于懂得什么時候追求，什么時候放棄。因為生活就是一個矛盾體：它要我們緊緊抓住它賜予我們的生命之禮，然后最終又讓它們從我們手中跑掉。老先生們說：“人們緊握著拳頭來到這個世界上，離開這個世界時卻攤開了雙手。”
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. 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.
當然我們應該緊緊把握生活，因為它美妙得不可思議，充滿了從上帝的每個毛孔里蹦出來的美。我們都清楚這一點，但我們常常只有在回首往事時才會想去過去，才會突然意識到過去永遠地消逝了，才會承認這個道理。
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.
我們都記得美的褪去，愛的老去。但我們更痛苦地記得美正艷時，我們卻沒有發現，愛正濃時，我們卻沒有回應。
Here then is the first pole of life’s paradoxical demands on us: Never too busy for the wonder and the awe of life. Be reverent before each dawning day. Embrace each hour. Seize each golden minute.
這就是生活對我們自己自相矛盾要求的第一步：永遠不要因為忙碌而忽略了它的奇妙和莊嚴。對即將到來的每一天，我們都要心懷敬意，擁抱每一小時，抓住每一分鐘。
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.
抓住生活，但不要抓得太緊，以至你放不下手。這就是生活像硬幣一樣也有另一面，也是生活矛盾的另一極：我們必須接受放棄，并且學會怎樣讓它過去。
This is not an easy lesson to learn, especially when we are young and think that the world is ours to command, that whatever we desire with the full force of our passionate being can, nay, will, be ours. But then life moves along to confront us with realities, and slowly but surely this truth dawns upon us.
學會這些并非易事。特別是年少輕狂的時候，我們自認為是世界的主宰者，認為只要充滿激情地全力追求，就可以得到一切。然而，事實并非如此。只有在面對種種現實時，我們才會漸漸沒明白這個道理。
At every stage of life we sustain losses—and grow in the process. We begin our independent lives only when we emerge from the womb and lose its protective shelter. We enter a progression of schools, then we leave our mothers and fathers and our childhood homes. We get married and have children and then have to let them go. We confront the death of our parents and our spouses. We face the gradual or not so gradual waning of our strength. 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.
在人生的各個階段，我們都會蒙受損失——并且在這一過程中成長。只有在脫離母體.失去庇護所時，我們才會開始獨立的生活。我們不斷地升學，接著又離開父母，離開兒時的故鄉。繼 而，我們結婚生子，然后又放手讓自己的子女出去闖蕩。隨著父母和配偶的相繼離世，我們也逐漸或者很快衰老。最終，正如雙手張開與緊握這一寓言所說，我們必須面對自身的死亡，失去原來的自我，失去我們擁有過或者憧憬過的一切。
生活的藝術在于把握取舍。生活是自相矛盾的：它既讓我們緊抓人生的種種賜予不放，同時它又要我們最終舍棄一切。古猶太學者如是說：“人來到這個世界時雙拳緊握，撒手人寰時兩手空展。” 是的，我們必須珍愛生活，因為它奇妙無比；上帝所創造的世界里生活之美無處不在。對此我們心知肚明，然而卻往往在回顧過去時方才醒悟：時光永難再，逝者如斯夫。猶記凋謝的花朵，難忘消逝的真情。然而，鮮花盛開之時我們熟視無睹，柔情相待之時我們無動于衷，每憶及此我們更加暗自痛惜，追悔不及。
Life is never just being. It is a becoming, a relentless flowing on. The beauty we fashion cannot be dimmed by death. Our flesh may perish,??our hands will wither, but that which they create in beauty and goodness and truth lives on for all time to come. Don not spend and waster your lives accumulating objects that will turn to dust and ashes. Pursue not so much the material as ideal, for ideals alone invest life with meaning and are of enduring worth.。
Add love to a house and you have a home. Add righteousness to a city and you have a community. Add truth to a pile of red bricks and you have a school. Add religion to the humblest of edifices and you have a sanctuary. Add justice to the fast-flung round of human endeavor and you have civilization. Put them together, exalt them above their present imperfections, add to them the version of humankind redeemed, forever free of need and strife and you have a future lighted with the radiant colors of hope.
生命絕非是一個靜止的存在。生活是變化的進程，是無情的逝水流年。我們所崇尚的美不會因死亡而黯然失色。我們的肉體會毀滅，我們的雙手會僵直，但我們所創造的真善美將常存于世。切莫耗費自己的生命去積累那些只會化為塵埃的東西。與其追求物質不如追求理想，因為只有理想才賦予生活以意義，因為只有理想才具有恒久的價值。
房舍之內添愛心便成其為家；城鎮之中添正義便成其為社區；磚瓦之上添真理便成其為學校；陋室之中添信仰便成其為圣殿；人類所做的種種努力之中添公正便成其為文明。將這一切集成升華，使其超越現實的瑕疵，以被拯救的人類的見解詮釋之，遠離功利和爭斗，那么你的未來就充滿希望，絢麗輝煌。
