能给人以震撼
能给人以感悟
能给人以启迪
能给人以方向
能给人以力量
其他
打卡学翻译 08 | 西南联大英文课 | 对生活的持久满足 （附“反思神曲”视频）
关注“北极光翻译”
学习英语，领悟翻译，沟通世界！
翻译服务
北极光翻译
提供以下翻译服务
社科论文；政府文件；文学艺术；网站宣传
旅游美食；时政新闻；法律合同；各种证件
商务合作 CAT培训
WeChat/QQ: 563730218
7年600万字文学翻译实践
2012年获得CATTI二级笔译
Introduction
Charles William Eliot （1834-1926）, American educationalist; teacher of mathematics and chemistry at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1853-1896;president of Harvard University, 1869-1909; the man who introduced the elective system of studies into American colleges. The Durable Satisfactions of Life was the last book published by President Eliot.
查尔斯·W．艾略特（1834—1926），美国教育家。1853—1896年在哈佛大学和麻省理工学院任教，教授数学及化学；1869—1909年任哈佛大学校长；正是他把选修课制度引入美国大学。《对生活的持久满足》是艾略特校长出版的最后一本书。
英译汉
The Durable Satisfactions of Life
对生活的持久满足
By Charles W. Eliot
查尔斯·W．艾略特
For educated men what are the sources of the solid and durable satisfactions of life? I hope you are all aiming at the solid, durable satisfactions of life, not primarily the gratifications of this moment or of to-morrow, but the satisfactions that are going to last and grow. So far as I have seen, there is one indispensable foundation for the satisfactions of life—health.
对于受过教育的人，什么可以带来生活中稳定而持久的满足呢？我希望大家的目标都是获得稳定而持久的满足，即那些能延续很久并不断增长的满足，而非那些眼下或明天就能得到的东西。在我看来，满意的生活的一个必不可少的基础是：健康。
A young man ought to be a clean, wholesome, vigorous animal. That is the foundation for everything else, and I hope you will all be that, if you are nothing more. We have to build everything in this world of domestic joy and professional success, everything of a useful, honorable career, on bodily wholesomeness and vitality. This being a clean, wholesome, vigorous animal involves a good deal. It involves not condescending to the ordinary barbaric vices.
一个年轻人必须是一个洁净的、健康的、充满活力的生命。这是一切的基础；如果你们没有别的成就，我希望你们至少做到这一点。要想家庭幸福，成为成功的专业人士，开创有益的、高尚的事业，这一切都要建立在身体健康和充满活力的基础上。而要想成为一个洁净、健康、充满活力的生命，涉及颇多。
One must avoid drunkenness, gluttony, licentiousness, and getting into dirt of any kind, in order to be a clean, wholesome, vigorous animal. Still, none of you would be content with this achievement as the total outcome of your lives. It is a happy thing to have in youth what are called animal spirits—a very descriptive phrase; but animal spirits do not last even in animals; they belong to the kitten or puppy stages.
首先，你必须戒掉日常生活中的恶习，如醉酒、暴饮暴食、纵欲放荡，或者其他不良嗜好，这样才能做到洁净、健康并充满活力。当然，如果这就是你人生的全部成就的话，你肯定不会满意。年轻时具有所谓的“动物精神”，是一件可喜之事。这个词语非常形象，但动物精神在动物身上也不可能持久，它只是幼崽阶段的特征。
It is a wholesome thing to enjoy for a time, or for a time each day all through life, sports and active bodily exercise. These are legitimate enjoyments, but, if made the main object of life, they tire. They cease to be a source of durable satisfaction. Play must be incidental in a satisfactory life.
体育和积极的健身，在人生的某个阶段或每天的某个时间来进行，是有益的。这些是合情合理的娱乐；但是，如果将之作为人生的主要目标，则会让你厌倦。它们就不再带给你持久的满足。娱乐终究只能作为满意生活的调味品。
What is the next thing, then, that we want in order to make sure of durable satisfactions in life? We need a strong mental grip, a wholesome capacity for hard work. It is intellectual power and aims that we need.
那么，要在生活中获得持久满足，还需要什么呢？需要强大的心理素质，以及从事艰苦工作的能力。我们需要思考能力和目标。
In all the professions—learned, scientific, or industrial—large mental enjoyments should come to educated men. The great distinction between the privileged class to which you belong, the class that has opportunity for prolonged education, and the much larger class that has not that opportunity is that the educated class lives mainly by the exercise of intellectual powers and gets therefore much greater enjoyment out of life than the much larger class that earns a livelihood chiefly by the exercise of bodily powers.
在所有行业中——无论是学术界、科技界还是工业界——能够获得巨大的精神愉悦的人都是那些接受过良好教育的人。你们所属的特权阶层，即有机会获得长期教育的阶层，与大多数人所属的那个没有机会接受长期教育的阶层相比，显著区别就在于知识阶层主要依靠思考能力生存，因此比之主要靠体力劳动生存的大众阶层，他们能获得更大的生活乐趣。
You ought to obtain here, therefore, the trained capacity for mental labor, rapid, intense, and sustained. That is the great thing to get in college, long before the professional school is entered. Get it now. Get it in the years of college life.
因此，你们应该通过训练获得这种从事脑力劳动的能力——从事快速的、高强度的、持续的脑力劳动的能力。这是你们在进入专业学习之前，在大学期间应该学到的重要能力。现在就马上行动，在大学生活中掌握它。
It is the main achievement of college life to win this mental force, this capacity for keen observation, just inference, and sustained thought, for everything that we mean by the reasoning power of man. That capacity will be the main source of intellectual joys and of happiness and content throughout a long and busy life.
你们在大学里的主要任务，就是获得这种思考能力，这种进行细心而敏锐的观察、做出公正的推论以及持续思考的能力，获得我们称之为“理性”的东西。这种能力是我们在漫长而忙碌的人生中获得思想乐趣、幸福及满足的主要源泉。
But there is something more, something beyond this acquired power of intellectual labor. As Shakespeare puts it, “the purest treasure mortal times afford is spotless reputation.” How is that treasure won? It comes by living with honor, on honor. Most of you have begun already to live honorably and honored, for the life of honor begins early.
当然，除了获得这种从事智力劳动的能力之外，还需要点别的。正如莎士比亚所说，“无瑕的名誉是世间最纯粹的珍宝。”名誉这种财富如何获得？当然来自于过有尊严的生活，靠尊严生活。你们中大多数人已经开始过有尊严的生活，并受到尊重；因为尊严在生活中很早就开始了。
Some things the honorable man cannot do, never does. He never wrongs or degrades a woman. He never oppresses or cheats a person weaker or poorer than himself. He is honest, sincere, candid, and generous. It is not enough to be honest. An honorable man must be generous and I do not mean generous with money only. I mean generous in his judgments of men and women, and of the nature and prospects of mankind. Such generosity is a beautiful attribute of the man of honor.
有些事情，高尚的人不能做，也永远不会做。高尚的人从不欺侮妇女，也不会压迫或欺骗一个比他弱小或贫穷的人。他诚实、真诚、坦率、慷慨。仅有诚实不够。一个高尚的人必须慷慨大度；我指的不仅仅是在金钱方面慷慨。我指的是在对别人的评判，以及对人类天性和前景的评判上慷慨大度。这种慷慨大度是高尚之人身上的美好特征。
How does honor come to a man? What is the evidence of the honorable life? What is the tribunal which declares at last, “This was an honorable man”? You look now for the favorable judgment of your elders, —of parents and teachers and older students; but these elders will not be your final judges, and you had better get ready now in college to appear before the ultimate tribunal, the tribunal of your contemporaries and the younger generations.
一个人是怎么获得尊敬的？高尚生活的凭证是什么呢？那个最终宣判“这是一个高尚的人”的特别法庭，是由什么人组成的呢？现在，你们寻求长辈——父母、老师和学长们——的肯定；但这些比你年长的人将不是你人生的最终裁判。你最好现在，在上大学时，就为将来的终极审判做准备——那个终极审判团是由你的同代人及你的子孙后代组成的。
It is the judgment of your contemporaries that is most important to you; and you will find that the judgment of your contemporaries is made up alarmingly early, —it may be made up this year in a way that sometimes lasts for life and beyond.
你的同代人对你的评判是最重要的，而且你会发现，你的同代人很早就开始评判你了，早得令你吃惊。可能今年以某种方式对你形成的一个评价，会持续一生，并持续到你死后很多年。
It is made up in part by persons to whom you have never spoken, by persons who in your view do not know you, and who get only a general impression of you; but always it is your contemporaries whose judgment is formidable and unavoidable.
对你的评判，一部分是那些从未跟你说过话的人做出的，或者那些你认为根本不认识你的人做出的，或者是那些对你仅有个大概印象的人做出的。但你的同代人会评判你，这是不可避免的，而且影响巨大。
Live now in the fear of that tribunal, —not an abject fear, because independence is an indispensable quality in the honorable man. There is an admirable phrase in the Declaration of Independence, a document which it was the good fashion of my time for boys to commit to memory. I doubt if that fashion still obtains. Some of our public action looks as if it did not.
所以现在，就怀着对最终审判的恐惧生活，——不是那种凄惨可怜的恐惧，因为高尚之人的精神是独立的。在我生活的那个年代，男孩子们都以背诵《独立宣言》为时尚。我不知道这种时尚是否还存在。但我们的公众生活表明，这已经不再是时尚了。
“When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
在《独立宣言》中，有段话说得极妙：“在人类历史的进程中，当一个民族必须解除其与另一个民族之间业已存在的政治联系，并依照自然的法则和自然之神的意旨，在世界列国中接受独立和平等的地位时，出于对人类公意的应有尊重，需要把他们不得不独立的原因公布于众。”
That phrase—“a decent respect”—is a very happy one. Cherish “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind,” but never let that interfere with your personal declaration of independence. Begin now to prepare for the judgment of the ultimate tribunal.
这句话中有个词语——“应有尊重”——用得好。珍惜“对人类公意的应有尊重”，但决不让此干涉或妨碍你个人的“独立宣言”。现在就开始为最终审判做准备吧。
Look forward to the important crises of your life. They are nearer than you are apt to imagine. It is a very safe protective rule to live to-day as if you are going to marry a pure woman within a month. That rule you will find a safeguard for worthy living.
此外，对你人生中的重大危机要有前瞻性。这些危机会比你想象的更早出现。好好生活，就好像自己在一个月内就要跟一个纯洁的女孩结婚；这是一条安全生活法则。它就像一堵防护墙，保护你过有价值的生活。
It is a good rule to endeavor hour by hour and week after week to learn to work hard. It is not well to take four minutes to do what you can accomplish in three. It is not well to take four years to do what you can perfectly accomplish in three. It is well to work intensely.
另一条有用的法则是，长期不懈地努力工作。三分钟能做完的事，不要用四分钟。在三年里能彻底完成的工作，不要用四年。认真紧张地工作至为重要。
You will hear a good deal of advice about letting your soul grow and breathing in without effort the atmosphere of a learned society or place of learning. Well, you cannot help breathing and you cannot help growing; these processes will take care of themselves. The question for you from day to day is how to learn to work to advantage, and college is the place and now is the time to win mental power. And, lastly, live to-day and every day like a man of honor.
你会听到许多建议，说什么让你的灵魂成长啦，在学术团体或学习场所的氛围中轻松呼吸啦。不错，你当然会呼吸，你当然会成长；这些过程会自然发生。但你每一天要思考的应该是如何学习以提升自我。大学就是你获得思想能力的地方，现在就是最好的时间。最后一点，今天，并且每一天都过高尚的生活。
（余苏凌 译）
Notes
durable, enduring; lasting; that which does not wear out or decay soon.
gratifications, the giving of pleasure and satisfaction; pleasures.
indispensable, absolutely necessary or requisite.
wholesomeness, healthfulness, soundness of body and mind and morals.
vitality, power of enduring or continuing; vital force or animation.
condescending, deferring; stooping or descending; giving in to.
gluttony, excessive eating; eating too much; extravagant indulgence of the appetite for food.
licentiousness, lack of restraint; lawlessness; immorality.
animal spirits, figuratively, as applied to human beings, animal stresses the ascendancy, the dominant control, of the animal nature. Spirits are animal that pertain to the merely sentient, the feeling, part of a creature, as distinguished from the intellectual, rational, spiritual part. Spirits is here used in the sense of temper, liveliness, energy, vivacity, courage, and qualities of the like nature.
kitten or puppy stages, childhood stages; days of early childhood.
incidental, occupying as inferior position; playing an unimportant part; subordinate.
grip, power or force to hold securely.
prolonged education, education that is lengthened in time; schooling that we continue for many years without interruption.
livelihood, means of supporting life; maintenance; living sustenance.
professional school, where the student is given training in one of the learned or skilled professions, such as engineering, law, medicine, religion, and education.
inference, a truth or proposition drawn from another which is admitted; conclusion; deduction.
sustained, maintained or carried on; keep from discontinuing.
“the purest treasure mortal times afford is spotless reputation, ”from Shakespeare,Richard II, I, i, 177, 178. The most important thing that we can get out of life is an unblemished, irreproachable, spotless reputation. Reputation is the estimation in which a person is held by his contemporaries.
degrades, cheapens; dishonors; shames; humiliates.
candid, free from undue bias; fair; just; impartial; frank.
generous, liberal; noble; magnanimous; characterized by generosity.
attribute, characteristic quality; that which is recognized as appropriate to the person or office.
tribunal, court of justice; the group of qualified persons who pass judgment.
“This was an honorable man, ”from Shakespeare, Pericles, IV, vi, 54.
ultimate tribunal, that court that passes the final judgment; the group whose judgment is most important to a person.
contemporaries, persons who belong to the same time.
alarmingly early, very, very early; so early as to be alarming.
abject fear, a fear that casts a person down in spirit or hope; fear that reduces to a low condition; slavish fear; cringing and groveling fear.
Declaration of Independence, the American Declaration of Independence adopted on July 4, 1776, in which the American colonists declared their independence of their mother-country England.
decent respect, proper respect; kind and reasonable respect; respect which would be in good taste and decorous.
crises, the plural form of crisis, decisive moment; turning point; time of difficulty or danger.
safeguard, proviso or stipulation or quality or circumstance that tends to prevent some evil or guard against trouble; protection.
对大多数人来说，人生大概就是吃饭睡觉、养家糊口。然而，我们庸庸碌碌的过完一生，直到最后一刻才发现：It is not death most people are afraid of. It is getting to the end of life, only to realize that you never truly lived.大部分人恐惧的不是死亡，而是在走到生命尽头时，蓦然回首才发现，你从未真正活过。
理查德•威廉姆斯（Richard Williams），又名Prince Ea，是美国著名的语言艺术家、诗人、饶舌歌手兼电影导演。他制作了一段关于人生与梦想的小视频，被网友称为“反思神曲”。不甘平庸的你看过后或许也会对自己的人生有所反思。
下拉阅读双语全文
It is not death most people are afraid of.It is getting to the end of life, only to realize that you never truly lived.
其实大多数人恐惧的并不是死亡本身。而是当生命渐渐走到尽头，你才发现自己从未真正的活过。
There was a study done, a hospital study on 100 elderly people facing death close to their last breath. They were asked to reflect about their life’s biggest regret.Nearly all of them said they regretted not the things they did but the things they didn’t do.The risks they never took the dreams they didn’t pursue.
某医院进行了一项调查，他们访问了一百位弥留的老人，让他们回顾人生中最大的遗憾。几乎所有人心中的遗憾都不是关于那些他们经历过的事，而是自己从未做过的事，没冒过的险没追逐过的梦。
I ask you would your last words be; if only I had – hey, you wake up.Why do you exist? Life is not meant to simply work, wait for the weekend and pay rent. No, no I don’t know much. But I know this every person on this earth has a gift.
我问你，你的临终遗言会是什么，是「假如当初我……」——嘿，打住。你为什么而存于世?人生的目的不仅仅局限在工作，然后期盼休假以及缴付房租。不止这些，虽然我懂得不多，但是我知道，每个人都有一份生命所给予的礼物。
And I apologized to the black community but I can no longer pretend Martin Luther King.That man never had a dream, that dream had him.See people don’t choose dreams, dreams choose them. So the question I’m getting to is, do you have the courage to grab the dream that picked you?That befit you and grips you; or will you let it get away and slip through?
我要向黑人兄弟们道歉，无意冒犯，但我可不能假装是马丁·路德·金了(美国民权运动领袖)。马丁·路德·金，他未曾拥有一个梦想，是梦想拥有了他。「人们从未选择梦想，是梦想选择了他们」。所以我想要问的问题是：你是否有勇气和决断，去抓住那个找到你的梦想?是抓住那个契合本心、由衷向往的梦想?还是任由它们消散四处再也无力挽回?
You know I learned a fact about airplanes the other day. This was – this was so surprising to see, I was talking to a pilot and he told me that many of his passengers think planes are dangerous to fly in. But he said actually, it is a lot more dangerous for a plane to stay on the ground. I say what? Like how does that sound what he said, he said because on the ground, The plane starts to rust.
讲一件我最近了解到的关于飞机的事实吧——实在出乎我意料。在我与一位飞行员聊天时他告诉我说，很多乘客都认为飞机的状态在天上比地上危险，而事实上，待在地上的飞机更危险。我说：什么，我没听错吧?他解释道飞机在地上会更快的生锈。
Malfunction and wear, much faster than it ever would if it was in the air. As I walked away I thought, yeah, makes total sense because planes were built to live in the skies. And every person was built to live out the dream they have inside. So it is perhaps the saddest loss to live a life on the ground without ever taking off.
在地上飞机磨损、机能故障的速度远远大于在天上飞的时候。后来我又想了想，对呀，很有道理，因为飞机是为翱翔天空而生，就像人是为活出本我探寻内心的梦而生。所以或许人生最应悲怜的应是，在地上奋斗一辈子，却未曾起飞。
See most of us are afraid of the thief, they comes in the night to steal all of our things. But there is a thief in your mind who is after your dreams. His name is doubt.If you see him call the cops and keep him away from the kids because he is wanted for murder. So he has killed more dreams than failure ever did. He wears many disguises and like a virus will leave you blinded, divided and turn you into a kinda.
许多人都害怕遭贼，他们会在夜里悄悄偷走家里一切值钱的东西。但是在你心里就住着一个贼，时刻惦记着你的梦想，他的名字叫怀疑。一旦看见他赶紧通知警察，一定让他们远离孩子，因为他是被通缉的谋杀犯。他杀过的梦想，比失败还多。他戴着各种假面四处穿梭，像个病毒侵蚀你、分裂你，渐渐的，你凡事都带着「有点」的影子。
See kinda is lethal. You know what kinda is? There is a lot of kinda people, you kinda want a career change, you kinda want to get straight A’s, you kinda want to get in shape. Simple math, no numbers to crunch. If you kinda want something, then you will kinda get the results you want.
「有点」是致命的。你了解「有点」吗?世界上有很多凡事都带着「有点」的人，你只是「有点」想改变职业，你只是「有点」想变优秀，你只是「有点」想健身塑形。这是道很简单的数学题，连数字都不用。如果你只是「有点」想做到某事，那你想要的结果对你来说，也只是「有点」的程度。
What is your dream? What ignites that spark. You can’t kinda want that, you got to want it with every part of your whole heart. Will you struggle? Yeah, yeah… you will struggle, no way around it. You will fall many times, but who’s counting? Just remember, there’s no such thing as a smooth mountain.
什么才是你的梦想?是什么点燃了心火?你不能只是有点，你需要全身心的投入。这会很艰难吗?是，是的……或许会艰难，你肯定要奋斗，没有捷径可走。你也许会失败很多次，但是谁在乎呢?你只需明白，没有哪座巍峨的山是平坦的，没有平坦的山。
If you want to make it to the top then, there are sharp ridges that have to be stepped over. There will be times you get stressed and things you get depressed over. But let me tell you something. Steven Spielberg was rejected from film school three times, three times but he kept going.
如果你想登顶，你就得征服陡峭的山脊。也许有时你会惊慌焦虑，甚至沮丧失望。但是让我告诉你一些事，史蒂文·斯皮尔伯格(美国著名导演)被电影学院拒绝了整整三次，三次，但他坚持了，依旧前行。
The television execs fired Oprah said she was unfit for TV but she kept going. Critics told Beyoncé that she couldn’t sing she went through depression. But she kept going.
美国电视台曾经开除过奥普拉(著名美国主持人)且说她不上镜，但她坚持了，依旧前行。碧昂斯(美国天后级歌手)曾被乐评人断言她不适合唱歌，她曾经还患上了抑郁症，但是她坚持了，依旧前行。
Struggle and criticisms are prerequisites for greatness. That is the law of this universe and no one escapes it. Because pain is life but you can choose what type? Either the pain on the road to success or the pain of being haunted with regret.
抗争和承受批判是向卓越成就进发的先决条件。这是存于世间的法则，没有人能置身事外。因为痛苦是人生的一部分，但你可以选择它的方向，是通向成功的苦痛，还是抱憾终身的痛苦?
You want my advice. Don’t think twice.
你想听听看我的建议吗?不要犹豫。
We have been given a gift that we call life.So don’t blow it. You’re not defined by your past instead you were born anew in each moment. So own it now.
我们生而有一份珍贵的礼物，它叫人生。所以别糟蹋它。过去已成但它无法定义现在，你永远活在现在，每一刻都是新生。所以，把握当下，活在当下。就现在。
Sometimes you’ve got to leap. And grow your wings on the way down. You better get the shot off before the clock runs out because there is ain’t no over time in life, no do over. And I know what sound like I’m preaching on speaking with force but if you don’t use your gift then you sell not only yourself, but the whole world.
有时你得先学会跳跃，才能在下落时顺利舒展你渐丰的羽翼。你最好在时钟走完前能掷出手中的球，因为人生没有加时赛，结束就结束了。我知道我听起来就像一直在唠唠叨叨的说教。但是你若不善用你的礼物，那么你不仅看轻了自己，也看低了这个世界。
So what invention that you have buried in your mind? What idea?What cure? What skill did you have inside to bring out to this universe?
时间如白驹过隙，你心中还埋藏着哪些思想的火花?你有什么样的构思?什么样的对策?什么样的能力想要带到这个人间?
Uni meaning one, verse meaning song, you have a part to play in this song.So grab that microphone and be brave. Sing your heart out on life’s stage. You cannot go back and make a brand new beginning. But you can start now and make a brand new ending.
人意味着个体，人间意味着乐章，每个人都能演绎独属于他的歌。所以勇敢的，紧握住属于自己的麦克风。在生命的舞台上，迸发出内心的声音吧。人生无法重来，你不能回到过去重新开局。但是你可以从现在开始，创造一个全新的结局。
推荐阅读
记着结合此软件一起使用哟！
翻译技术 | Search and Replace 翻译必备神器
篇篇有干货，天天有惊喜
点赞是鼓励，分享增知识！
长按以下二维码
欢迎关注“北极光翻译”