塞缪尔·厄尔曼 太平洋战争打得正酣之时,麦克阿瑟将军常常从繁忙中抬起头,注视着挂在墙上的镜框,镜框里是篇文章,德国作家塞缪尔·厄尔曼得《青春》。这篇文章一直伴随着他,也跟着他到了日本。后来,日本人在东京的美军总部发现了它,《青春》便开始在日本流传。 优秀的作品能激励一代人,甚至是一个民族。塞缪尔·厄尔曼的《青春》就是这么一篇美文。这篇文章激励了二战后一代日本人,从普通民众到实业家,到政府官员,发奋重建他们的家园。松下电器的创始人松下幸之助几十年一直把《青春》当作自己的座右铭。 还有这么一件趣事,足以证明《青春》在日本的魅力。一天,美国影片销售协会主席罗森菲尔德参加日本实业界的聚会,晚宴之前的谈话,他随意说了一句:“《青春》的作者,便是我的祖父。”在座的各位实业界领袖大为惊讶,其中有一位一边激动地说“我一直随身带着它呢”,一边从口袋里掏出了《青春》。 YOUTH ——SamuelUllman Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not amatter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter ofthe will, a quality of the imagination, a vigorof the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs oflife. Youth means a tempera-mental predominance of courage over timidity,of the appetite for adventure over the love ofease. This often exists in a man of 60 more thana boy of 20. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. Wegrowold by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles thesoul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns thespring back to dust. Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure ofwonder,the unfailing childlike appetite of what’s next and the joyof the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heartthere is a wireless station: so long as itreceives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power frommen and from the Infinite, so long are you young. When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows ofcynicismand the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at20, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism,there is hope you may die young at 80.