The art of living

生活的艺术

the art of living is to know when to hold fast and when to let go。

生活的艺术在于知道什么时候追求，什么时候放弃。

for life is a paradox : it enjoins us to cling to its many gifts even while it ordains their eventual relinquish ment .

因为人生是矛盾体。一定要抓住生活给我们的生命礼物，最终从我们手中逃跑。(本杰明富兰克林)生活。

the rabbis of old put it this way : ' a man comes into this world with his fist clenched，but when he dies，his hand is open . '

老老师们说：“人们握紧拳头来到这个世界上，但离开世界的时候张开了双手。”

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 .

当然，我们要紧紧抓住生活。因为它美得惊人，充满了从上帝所有毛孔中迸发出来的美丽。

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 thaalize

我们都很清楚这一点，但我们往往只有回忆过去的时候才想去。突然意识到过去永远消失，才能承认这个道理。

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，to

我们都记得美丽消失，爱情变老。但是我们没有发现，当未定炎更痛苦的时候，当爱情变浓的时候，我们没有回答。罗密欧与朱丽叶。

a recent experience re-taught me this truth . I was hospitalized following a severe heart attack that had been intensive care for several da

最近自己的一次经历又让我明白了那个道理。我因为严重心脏病发作住进了重症监护室。那里真不傻。

Onemorning，I had to have some additional tests . the required machines were located in a building at the opposite end of the hospital，so

有一天上午，我要接受一些辅助检查。因为检查的仪器在医院对面的一栋楼里，所以我不得不穿过花园躺在轮床上，挤到那里。

As we emerged from our unit，the sunlight hit me。that ' s all there was to my experience . just the light of the sun，and yet how beauuut

从病房出来的瞬间，迎面而来的阳光突然洒在我身上。我所感受到的只有这阳光。太美了，太温暖了，如此灿烂辉煌！

I looken to see whether any one else relished the sun ' s golden glow，but every one was hurrying to and fro，most with eyes fixed on the grount

how often I, too, had been indifferent to the grandeur of each day, too preoccupied with petty and sometimes even mean concerns to respond, from that experience is really as commonplace as was the experience itself: life's gifts are precious-but we are too heedless of them.

我看看周围是否有人也沉醉在这金色的阳光中，而事实是大家都来去匆匆，大都目不斜视，双眼只顾盯着地面。继而我就想到我平常也太过于沉湎于日常的琐碎俗物中，而对身边的美景漠然甚至视而不见。从这次的经历中我所洞悉的实际就像这个经历本身一样并无什么奇特之处：生活的恩赐是珍贵的——只有我们对此留心甚少。

Here then is the first pile 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.

那么人生给予我们的第一个矛盾的真理就是：不要太过于忙碌而错过了人生的美好和庄严。虔诚地迎接每个黎明的到来。把握每个小时，抓住宝贵的每分每秒。

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.

紧紧地把握人生，但是又不能抓得过死，松不开手。这正是人生的另外一面，也就是矛盾的另外一面：我们要接受失去的一切，懂得如何放手。

This is not an easy lesson to learn, especially when we are young and think that world is ours to command, that whatever we desire with the full force of or passionate being can, nay, will, be ours. But then life moves along to confront us with realities, and slowly but surly this truth dawns upon us.

这个其实并不是容易做到的，尤其当我们尚年轻时，自以为世界在我们的掌控之中，而不论什么，只要是心想就会事成，而且一定能事成！但是现实往往事与愿违，然后渐渐地这第二条真理必然显现在我们面前。

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 get married and have children and then have to let them go. We face the gradual or not gradual waning of our own 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.

在人生的每个阶段我们都会承受失去——也因而成长起来。当我们出生时失去母体的保护，从那一刻我们开始了独立的生命。而后我们上学了，一级一级地升上去，离开了父母和儿时的家庭。我们结婚生子然后又只能看着他们离去。我们遭遇父母及爱人的离逝。我们也要面临自己逐渐或者突然的衰老。而最终，就像握手和松手的比喻那样，我们结婚生子然后又只能看着他们离去,我们必须面对自己不可避免的死亡。就这样我们失去了一切，其中包括我们自己人生已经所有的以及尚未实现的。