德裔美国人塞缪尔•厄尔曼（1840,4,13—1924,3,21）从70岁开始写作，其散文《青春》（亦译作年轻）打动了无数人的心。它不仅受到麦克阿瑟将军的喜爱，也成为松下幸之助的座右铭。遗憾的是，这样一篇广为传诵的美文虽有多个中文译本，却都不尽人意。本人不揣冒昧出个汤版译文，求教于同好。这次修订，更正了所用原文的一处错误，中文随之重译。
2016年1月31日 青春并非人生的一段时光，而是一种心态； <p class="ql-block">青春不是粉颊红唇和身手矫健，</p> 而是一种意志的力量、富于想象的特质和情感的活力； 青春是生命的深泉涌流不息。 青春意味着拒绝怯懦的卓越胆识， 意味着放弃闲适安逸的冒险渴望。 因此，60岁常可比20岁更加青春焕发。 没有人仅仅因为时光流逝而衰老，只有失去理想才变得垂垂老矣。 岁月留痕仅殃及肌肤，失去热忱必侵蚀灵魂。 忧虑、恐惧和畏缩扫荡心灵，必使意志成灰。 无论年届花甲还是妙龄二八， 人的心中都会有来自神奇世界的诱惑， 对于未知天地的孩子般无尽好奇， 在你我心灵的中央都有一座无线电台： 只要它从周围、从时空接收美好、希望、欢乐、勇气和力量的信号， 你就会永远年轻。 一旦关闭天线，随着你的心灵被玩世不恭和悲观厌世的冰雪所覆盖， 你就成为垂暮之人，即使只有20岁； 反之只要你的天线还在接收乐观向上的电波， 你就有希望在80岁告别人生时仍青春常在。 【英文原文】
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 childlike 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.