祝願各位永遠年輕，青春永駐

 作者：塞繆爾·厄爾曼                                           

 （附英文原文於後，文字簡潔而有力。）

此人1840 年生於德國，兒時隨家人移居美利堅，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。

譯文如下：

青春不是年華，而是心境；青春不是桃面、丹唇、柔膝，而是深沉的意志、恢宏的想像、熾熱的感情；青春是生命的深泉涌流。

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，頹唐必致靈魂。憂煩、惶恐、喪失自信，定使心靈扭曲，意氣如灰。

無論年屆花甲，抑或二八芳齡，心中皆有生命之歡樂，奇迹之誘惑，孩童般天真久盛不衰。

人的心靈應如浩淼瀚海，只有不斷接納美好、希望、歡樂、勇氣和力量的百川，才能青春永駐、風華長存。

一旦心海枯竭，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；然則只要虛懷若谷，讓喜悅、達觀、仁愛充盈其間，你就有望在八十高齡告別塵寰時仍覺年輕。

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此文一出，不脛而走，以至代代相傳。二戰期間，麥克阿瑟與日軍角逐於太平洋時，將此文鑲於鏡框，擺在寫字檯上，以資自勉。

日本戰敗，此文由東京美軍總部傳出，有人將它灌成錄音帶，廣為銷售；甚至有人把它揣在衣兜里，隨時研讀。

多年後，厄爾曼之孫、美國電影發行協會主席喬納斯·羅森菲爾德訪問日本，席間談及《青春》一文，一位與宴者隨手掏出《青春》，恭敬地說：「乃翁文章，鄙人總不離身。」主客皆萬分感動。

1988 年，日本數百名流聚會東京、大阪，紀念厄爾曼的這篇文章。松下電器公司元老松下幸之助感慨的說：「20 年來，《青春》與我朝夕相伴，它是我的座右銘。」歐洲一位政界名宿也極力推薦：「無論男女老幼，要想活得風光，就得拜讀《青春》。」

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 sixty more than a body of twenty. 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 sixty or sixteen, 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 twenty, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.