Wake Up Your Life　喚醒自己的生活

Wake Up Your Life　喚醒自己的生活

◎ Russell

Years ago, when I started looking for my first job, wise advisers urged, “Barbara, be enthusiastic! Enthusiasm will take you further than any amount of experience.” How right they were. Enthusiastic people can turn a boring drive into an adventure, extra work into opportunity and strangers into friends.

多年以前，當(dāng)我開(kāi)始尋找我的第一份工作時(shí)，不少明智之士強(qiáng)烈向我建議：“巴巴拉，要有熱情！熱情比任何經(jīng)驗(yàn)都更為有益！”這話(huà)多么正確，熱情的人可以把沉悶的車(chē)程變成探險(xiǎn)，把加班變成機(jī)會(huì)，把陌生人變成朋友。

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm”, wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is the paste that helps you hang in there when the going gets tough. It is the inner voice that whispers, “I can do it!” when others shout, “No, you can’t.”

“缺少熱情就不會(huì)有任何偉大的成就”，拉爾夫·沃爾多·愛(ài)默生寫(xiě)道。當(dāng)事情進(jìn)展不順利時(shí)，熱情將幫助你更頑強(qiáng)地堅(jiān)持下去。當(dāng)別人喊道“不，你不行”時(shí)，熱情是你內(nèi)心發(fā)出的聲音，低聲說(shuō)：“我能行！”

It took years and years for the early work of Barbara McClintock, a geneticist who won the 1983 Nobel Prize in medicine, to be generally accepted. Yet she didn’t let up on her experiments. Work was such a deep pleasure for her that she never thought of stopping.

1983年諾貝爾生理學(xué)或醫(yī)學(xué)獎(jiǎng)的獲得者遺傳學(xué)家巴巴拉·麥克林托克，她早期的工作直到很多年后才被公眾所承認(rèn)。但她并沒(méi)有放棄過(guò)她的實(shí)驗(yàn)。工作對(duì)她來(lái)說(shuō)是一種如此巨大的快樂(lè)，她從未想過(guò)要停止。

We are all born with wide-eyed, enthusiastic wonder as anyone knows who has ever seen an infant’s delight at the jingle of keys or the scurrying of a beetle. It is this childlike wonder that gives enthusiastic people such a youthful air, whatever their age.

我們所有人生來(lái)都睜大眼睛，滿(mǎn)懷熱情——每一個(gè)看到過(guò)嬰兒聽(tīng)到鑰匙叮當(dāng)聲的喜悅，或看見(jiàn)亂爬的甲蟲(chóng)就興奮不已的人，都會(huì)明白這一點(diǎn)。正是這種孩子氣的探索心理賦予了熱情的人們一種青春的氣息，無(wú)論他們的年齡有多大。

At 90, cellist Pablo Casals would start his day by playing Bach. As the music flowed through his fingers, his stooped shoulders would straighten and joy would reappear in his eyes. Music, for Casals, was an elixir that made life a never ending adventure. As author and poet Samuel Ullman once wrote, “Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”

大提琴家帕布羅·卡薩爾斯在90歲時(shí)，還堅(jiān)持以拉巴赫的作品開(kāi)始他的每一天。音樂(lè)從他的手指間蜿蜒流出，他彎下去的背會(huì)挺直起來(lái)，歡樂(lè)再度在他的眼眸間重現(xiàn)。音樂(lè)對(duì)卡薩爾斯來(lái)說(shuō)，是一劑使人生的探索之旅永不落幕的靈丹妙藥。就像作家兼詩(shī)人塞繆爾·厄爾曼曾寫(xiě)過(guò)的：“歲月在皮膚上繁衍出皺紋，而熱情的喪失卻會(huì)給靈魂刻下皺紋?！?

How do you rediscover the enthusiasm of your childhood? The answer, I believe, lies in the word itself. “Enthusiasm” comes from the Greek and means “God within”. And what God within is but an abiding sense of love—proper love of self (self-acceptance) and, from that, love of others.

你如何才能找回孩提時(shí)代的熱情呢？我相信答案就在“熱情”這個(gè)詞本身?！盁崆椤币辉~源于希臘語(yǔ)，原意是“內(nèi)在的上帝”。這里所說(shuō)的“內(nèi)在的上帝”不是別的，而是一種持久不變的愛(ài)——恰當(dāng)?shù)淖詯?ài)（自我接受），并推而及于愛(ài)他人。

Enthusiastic people also love what they do, regardless of money or title or power. If we cannot do what we love as a full-time career, we can as a part-time avocation, like the head of state who paints, the nun who runs marathons, the executive who handcrafts furniture.

熱情的人們同樣熱愛(ài)他們所做的事，而不是考慮錢(qián)、地位或權(quán)力。如果我們不能把熱愛(ài)的事作為正式職業(yè)，我們也可把它當(dāng)做業(yè)余愛(ài)好：比如有國(guó)家元首喜歡畫(huà)畫(huà)的，有修女參加馬拉松長(zhǎng)跑的，有行政官員手工制作家具的。

Elizabeth Layton of Wellsville, Kan, was 68 before she began to draw. This activity ended bouts of depression that had plagued her for at least 30 years, and the quality of her work led one critic to say, “I am tempted to call Layton a genius.” Elizabeth has rediscovered her enthusiasm.

堪薩斯州韋爾斯維爾市的伊麗莎白·萊頓到68歲才開(kāi)始畫(huà)畫(huà)。這一愛(ài)好消除了曾困擾她至少三十年之久的憂(yōu)郁癥，而她的作品水準(zhǔn)之高使得一個(gè)評(píng)論家說(shuō)：“我忍不住要稱(chēng)萊頓為天才。”伊麗莎白又找回了她的熱情。

We can’t afford to waste tears on “might-have-beens”. We need to turn the tears into sweat as we go after “what-can-be”.

我們不應(yīng)該把眼淚浪費(fèi)在“早該”之類(lèi)的后悔上。我們需要把眼淚化為汗水，去追求“可能”。

We need to live each moment wholeheartedly, with all our senses—finding pleasure in the fragrance of a back-yard garden, the crayoned picture of a six-year-old, the enchanting beauty of a rainbow. It is such enthusiastic love of life that puts a sparkle in our eyes, a lilt in our steps and smooths the wrinkles from our souls.

我們需要全心全意度過(guò)生命中的每一時(shí)刻——在后花園的芬芳中，在六歲小孩的蠟筆畫(huà)中，在妖嬈美麗的彩虹中，找到我們所有的喜悅。正是這種對(duì)生活的熱愛(ài)，這種對(duì)人生的熱情，讓我們的雙眼煥發(fā)出迷人光彩，讓我們的步履邁出輕快的旋律，讓我們靈魂的皺紋得以撫平。

超多雙語(yǔ)閱讀，盡在聽(tīng)力課堂