If I were a boy again, I would practice perseverance more often, and never give up a thing because it was or inconvenient. If we want light, we must conquer darkness. Perseverance can sometimes equal genius in its results. “There are only two creatures,” syas a proverb, “who can surmount the pyramids—the eagle and the snail.”

If I were a boy again, I would school myself into a habit of attention; I would let nothing come between me and the subject in hand. I would remember that a good skater never tries to skate in two directions at once. The habit of attention becomes part of our life, if we begain early enough. I often hear grown up people say “ I could not fix my attention on the sermon or book, although I wished to do so” , and the reason is, the habit was not formed in youth.

If I were to live my life over again, I would pay more attention to the cultivation of the memory. I would strengthen that faculty by every possible means, and on every possible occasion. It takes a little hard work at first to remember things accurately; but memory soon helps itself, and gives very little trouble. It only needs early cultivation to become a power.

     If I were a boy again, I would cultivate courage. “Nothing is so mild and gentle as courage, nothing so cruel and pitiless as cowardice,” syas a wise author. We too often borrow trouble, and anticipate that may never appear.” The fear of ill exceeds the ill we fear.” Dangers will arise in any career, but presence of mind will often conquer the worst of them. Be prepared for any fate, and there is no harm to be freared.

If I were a boy again, I would look on the cheerful side. Life is very much like a mirror: if you smile upon it, I smiles back upon you; but if you frown and look doubtful on it, you will get a similar look in return. Inner sunshine warms not only the heart of the owner, but of all that come in contact with it. “ who shuts love out ,in turn shall be shut out from love.”

If I were a boy again, I would school myself to say no more often. I might write pages on the importance of learning very early in life to gain that point where a young boy can stand erect, and decline doing an unworthy act because it is unworthy.

If I were a boy again, I would demand of myself more courtesy towards my companions and friends, and indeed towards strangers as well. The smallest courtesies along the rough roads of life are like the little birds that sing to us all winter long, and make that season of ice and snow more endurable.

Finally, instead of trying hard to be happy, as if that were the sole purpose of life, I would , if I were a boy again, I would still try harder to make others happy.

      假如我又回到了童年，我就要培养勇气。一位明智的作家曾说过：“世上没有东西比勇气更温文尔雅，也没有东西比懦怯更残酷无情。”我们常常过多地自寻烦恼，杞人忧天。“怕祸害比祸害本身更可怕。”凡事都有危险，但镇定沉着往往能克服最严重的危险。对一切祸福做好准备，那么就没有什么灾难可以害怕的了。假如我又回到了童年，我就要事事乐观。生活犹如一面镜子：你朝它笑，它也朝你笑；如果你双眉紧锁，向它投以怀疑的目光，它也将还以你同样的目光。内心的欢乐不仅温暖了欢乐者自己的心，也温暖了所有与之接触者的心。“谁拒爱于门外，也必将被爱拒诸门外。”假如我又回到了童年，我就要养成经常说“不”字的习惯。一个少年要能挺得起腰，拒绝做不应该做的事，就因为这事不值得做。我可以写上好几页谈谈早年培养这一点的重要性。假如我又回到了童年，我就要要求自己对伙伴和朋友更加礼貌，而且对陌生人也应如此。在坎坷的生活道路上，最细小的礼貌犹如在漫长的冬天为我们歌唱的小鸟，那歌声使冰天雪地的寒冬变得较易忍受。最后，假如我又回到了童年，我不会力图为自己谋幸福，好像这就是人生唯一的目的；与之相反，我要更努力为他人谋幸福。

The Day Is Done 

--by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.

I see the lights of the village
Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me
That my soul cannot resist:

A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain.

Come, read to me some poem,
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,
And banish the thoughts of day.

Not from the grand old masters,
Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of Time.

For, like strains of martial music,
Their mighty thoughts suggest
Life's endless toil and endeavor;
And to-night I long for rest.

Read from some humbler poet,
Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start;

Who, through long days of labor,
And nights devoid of ease,
Still heard in his soul the music
Of wonderful melodies.

Such songs have power to quiet
The restless pulse of care,
And come like the benediction
That follows after prayer.

Then read from the treasured volume
The poem of thy choice,
And lend to the rhyme of the poet
The beauty of thy voice.

And the night shall be filled with music
And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.

     北朝前秦苻坚时代，苏蕙曾以五色丝线织成《璇玑图》，除正中央之「心」字为后人所加外，原诗共八百四十字，纵横各二十九字，方阵纵、横、斜、交互、正、反读或退一字、选一字读均可成诗，诗有三、四、五、六、七言不等，目前统计约可组成七千九百五十八首诗。例如从最右侧直行开始，随文势折返，可发现右上角红色区块外围顺时针读为「仁智怀德圣虞唐，贞志笃终誓穹苍，钦所感想妄淫荒，心忧增慕怀惨伤」，而原诗若以逆时针方向读则变为「伤惨怀慕增忧心，荒淫妄想感所钦，苍穹誓终笃志真，唐虞圣德怀情伤」，堪称回文诗中之千古力作！

Heaven of Freedom

     ---Rabindranath Tagore

 

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake

 

自译

在那里，心无畏惧，头颅高昂

在那里，知识是自由的

在那里，世界还没有被狭隘的家国之墙分割得支离破碎

在那里，真理是言论的依据

在那里，不懈的努力渐臻完美

在那里，理智的清泉没有被堆积的荒漠所吞没

在那里，心里受你指引，思想与行为不断放宽----步入那自由的天国，我的天父，让我的国家觉醒。

　for none was worth my strife .           和谁争我都不屑

　Nature I loved and ,                          我爱大自然

　next to Nature , Art ;                          其次就是艺术

   I warm’d both hands                       我双手烤着

   before the fire of life ;                          生命之火取暖

　It sinks ,                                                 火萎了

   and I am ready to depart .                    我也准备走了

                                                                       ----杨绛译

　　            But when I stand in front of you

　　            Yet you don’t know that

　　            I love you

　　           The furthest distance in the world

　　           Is not when i stand in font of you

　　           Yet you can’t see my love

　　           But when undoubtedly knowing the love from both

　　           Yet cannot

　　           Be togehter

　　           The furthest distance in the world

　　           Is not being apart while being in love

　　           But when plainly can not resist the yearning

　　           Yet pretending

　　           You have never been in my heart

　　           The furthest distance in the world

　　           Is not

　　           But using one’s indifferent heart

　　           To dig an uncrossable river

　　           For the one who loves you

This is the English Version, Chinese translation is here.