译文: 生活的艺术

The Art of Living

The art of living is to know when to hold fast and when to let go. For life is a paradox: it enjoins us to cling to its many gifts even while it ordains their eventual relinquishment. The rabbis of old put it this way:" A man comes to this world with his fist clenched, but when he dies, his hand is open."

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. 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 that it is no more.

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, that we failed to respond with love when it was tendered.

A recent experience re-taught me this truth. I was hospitalized following a severe heart attack and had been in intensive care for several days. It was not a pleasant place.

One morning, I had to have some additional tests. The required machines were located in a building at the opposite end of the hospital, so I had to be wheeled across the courtyard on a gurney.

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 beautiful it was -- how warming, how sparking, how brilliant! I looked to see whether anyone else relished the sun's golden glow, but everyone was hurrying to and fro, most with eyes fixed on the ground. Then I remembered 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.

Here then is the first pole 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.

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.

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

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 confront the death of our parents and our spouses. We face the gradual or not so gradual waning of our 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.

 From: http://www.hxen.com/englisharticle/mpmd/2009-05-13/76643.html

    降临这个世界的时候，人的手总是紧握成拳的；但离开这个这个世界时，人的手总是松开的。

    生活的艺术是懂得何时该珍惜，何时该放手。因为生活本来是就是一个矛盾体。它赐予我们很多东西，但最终还是会一一收回。古代学者曾经这样说道：“降临到这个世界的时候，人的手总是紧握成拳的；但离开这个世界时，人的手总是松开的。”

    我们理所当然应牢牢的抓紧生活，因为它总是那么令人惊奇，有着无数的美丽。虽然我们深知这就是生活本来的面目，但是我们总是在蓦然回首的瞬间，发现好景不再时我们才会领会到这一点。
    我们总是无法忘怀那些已经凋零了的美丽，已经降温了的爱。我们悲痛欲绝的回忆在美丽之花绚烂的绽放时，我却视而不见；在爱意绵绵时；我们没有及时的予爱以回应。

    最近的一次经历再次教会了我这个道理。因为患上了严重的心脏病，我住院接受了几天治疗，而且还是在特护病房。那里却对不是什么舒服的地方。

    一天早上，我不得不去做几项附加检查。所需的器械在医院尽头对面的一栋大楼里。所以我必须躺在轮床上，被人推着穿过那个院子。

    我们刚刚从病房里出来，眼光就直直的打在我身上。这就是我的经历，仅仅是阳光而已。然而它是那么美丽，那么温暖，那么耀眼，那么绚烂！我环顾四周看看是不是有人和我一样也在欣赏这灿烂的阳光。但是所有人都是那么的来去匆匆，大部分人都是眼睛盯着地面。此刻我记起平日里的我，常常也是对身旁灿烂的美景视若无睹，仅仅关注那些琐碎甚至是毫无意义的小事。就在那一瞬间，我突然意识到生活赐予我们的礼物是那么的美好，而我们却忽视了它们。

    这就是生活的矛盾面给我们的第一个要求: 永远不要因为太忙而忽略了生活美好和令人敬畏的一面。我们要虔诚地对待每一个黎明，拥抱每一小时，使每一分钟都活得精彩。

    抓住生活，但是不要抓得太紧，以至于无法放手。这就是生活的另一面，也是生活矛盾体的另一面：我们必须接受失去，学会如何放手。
    要学会这一道理并不容易，尤其是在我们意气风发，自信的以为我们就是这个世界的主宰，只要我们对所追求的东西全力以赴我们就会获得的时候，要领会这一点就更难难了。但是接下来的生活将现实摆在了我们的前面，我们才会慢慢明白这一道理。
      生命的每一个阶段我们都会失去某些东西，我们在失去的过程中成长。我们只有离开母体的庇护，才能开始独立生活。我们接受各种层次的教育，离开父母，离开童年时代生活过的故乡。我们结婚生子，然后又放飞我们的孩子。我们得面对父母和爱人的死亡。渐渐地我们会变得越来越虚弱。最后正如张开和紧握的手一样，我们必须得面对自身的死亡，失去自己，失去所有我们曾经梦想过的，曾经拥有过的一切。