雙語美文|年輕人

■年輕人

Youth

◎ Aristotle

To begin with the Youthful type of character. Young men have strong passions, and tend to gratify them indiscriminately[7] . They are changeable and fickle in their desires, which are violent while they last, but quickly over: their impulses are keen but not deep-rooted, and are like sick people’s attacks of hunger and thirst. They are hot-tempered, and quick-tempered, and apt to give way to their anger; bad temper often gets the better of them, for owing to their love of honour they cannot bear being slighted, and are indignant if they imagine themselves unfairly treated. While they love honour, they love victory still more; for youth is eager for superiority over others, and victory is one form of this. They love both more than they love money, which indeed they love very little, not having yet learnt what it means to be without it—this is the point of Pittancus, remark about Amphiaraus. They look at the good side rather than the bad, not having yet witnessed many instances of wickedness. They trust others readily, because they have not yet often been cheated.

超多雙語美文 盡在聽力課堂

首先討論一下年輕人的性格特征。年輕人激情似火，而且經(jīng)常不假思索就予以滿足。他們的愿望變化莫測、反復(fù)無常，來時強(qiáng)烈無比，去時轉(zhuǎn)瞬即逝。他們極易沖動，但并非根深蒂固，就像病人遭到饑渴的侵襲一樣。他們熱情似火、性情暴躁，常常管不住自己的脾氣。他們珍惜榮譽(yù)，他們無法忍受被人忽視，因此，一旦發(fā)現(xiàn)自己遭遇不公平的對待，便會義憤填膺。他們珍惜榮譽(yù)，但他們更愛勝利。因為年輕人總喜歡勝人一籌，而勝利就是一種絕好的表現(xiàn)方式。他們鐘愛榮譽(yù)和勝利要多過金錢，他們之所以不在意金錢，是因為他們還未明白缺少金錢意味著什么——庇塔喀斯就是這樣評論安菲阿勞斯的。他們未曾親眼目睹過多少邪惡之事，所以他們總是看到事物好的一面，而非不好的那一面。他們?nèi)娜庀嘈艅e人，只因為他們很少上當(dāng)受騙。

他們面色紅潤，大自然好像用了過多的葡萄酒來溫暖他們的血液；除此之外，他們沒有遇過多少挫折。他們總是在期盼中度日，而不是在回憶中緬懷；因為期盼意味著未來，而回憶意味著過去。未來還有很長的日子等著年輕人，過去的歲月只是微小的一部分。一個人來到世上的第一天，他沒有什么能回憶的事情，他能做的只有期盼未來。

They are sanguine[8] ; nature warms their blood as though with excess of wine; and besides that, they have as yet met with few disappointments. Their lives are mainly spent not in memory but in expectation; for expectation refers to the future, memory to the past, and youth has a long future before it and a short past behind it: on the first day of one’s life one has nothing at all to remember, and can only look forward.

They are easily cheated, owing to the sanguine disposition just mentioned. Their hot tempers and hopeful dispositions make them more courageous than older men are; the hot temper prevents fear, and the hopeful disposition creates confidence; we cannot feel tear so long as we are feeling angry, and any expectation of good makes us confident.

They are shy, accepting the rules of society in which they have been trained, and not yet believing in any other standard of honor. They have exalted notions, because they have not yet been humbled by life or learnt its necessary limitations; moreover, their hopeful disposition makes them think themselves equal to great things and that means having exalted notions. They would always rather do noble deeds than useful ones: their lives are regulated more by moral feeling than by reasoning; and whereas reasoning leads us to choose what is useful, moral goodness leads us to choose what is noble.

They are fonder of their friends, intimates, and companions than older men are, because they like spending their days in the company of others, and have not yet come to value either their friends or anything else by their usefulness to themselves. All their mistakes are in the direction of doing things excessively and vehemently[9] . They disobey Chilon’s precept by overdoing everything, they love too much and hate too much, and the same thing with everything else. They think they know everything, and are always quite sure about it; this, in fact, is why they overdo everything ... They are ready to pity others, because they think everyone an honest man, or anyhow better than he is: they judge their neighbor by their own harmless natures, and so cannot think he deserves to be treated in that way. They are fond of fun and therefore witty, wit being well-bred insolence.

他們?nèi)菀咨袭?dāng)受騙，只因上面提到的精力旺盛的脾性。火一般的熱情、滿懷希望的天性讓他們比老年人更有膽量。如火的熱情讓他們不知恐懼，希望的天性讓他們自信滿滿。我們感到憤怒的時候，便全然不知淚水，而對美好事物的憧憬又讓我們充滿自信。

他們是害羞的，順其自然地遵守社會慣例，卻不相信任何榮譽(yù)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。他們有著崇高的理想，因為生活還未教會他們?nèi)绾沃t卑，如何理解那些必要的束縛。再者，他們滿懷希望的天性，讓他們以為自己和日月無異——這就是他們所謂的崇高理想。他們寧可做一些高尚之事，也不做有用之事。他們的生活多由道德感觀操控，而非理智。盡管理智指引我們?nèi)プ鲇杏弥?，道德品質(zhì)則指引我們?nèi)プ龈呱兄隆?/p>

和老年人相比，他們更喜歡自己的朋友、密友和伙伴，因為有人相伴的日子才是他們的最愛，而且不論是朋友或是其他東西，都不以其實用性作為價值的判斷標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。他們所犯的錯，都是因為做事過度或者過猛。他們不遵守齊隆法則，凡事做得太過頭，他們不是愛得太深，就是恨得太多，做其他事也是如此。他們總覺得自己無所不知，而且自信滿滿。實際上，這就是他們行事過頭的癥結(jié)所在……他們隨時準(zhǔn)備著同情別人，因為他們覺得每個人都是誠實的，或者要比自己的為人好——他們用自己的善良本性來判斷鄰里，總覺得自己不該得到這樣的對待。他們喜歡玩樂，因而非常機(jī)智幽默——這就是一種低調(diào)的傲慢。