Three Days to See 假如给我三天光明
All of us have read thrilling stories in which the hero had only a limited and specified time to live.
我们大家都读过一些令人激动的故事，这些故事里的主人公仅仅活在有限并且特定的时间内。
Sometimes it was as long as a year, sometimes as short as 24 hours.
有时长达一年，有时短到２４小时。
But always we were interested in discovering just how the doomed hero chose to spend his last days or his last hours.
但我们总是有兴趣去发现，那些命中注定要死的人选择怎样去度过他们最后的时光。
I speak, of course, of free men who have a choice, not condemned criminals whose sphere of activities is strictly delimited.
当然我所说的是那些有选择自由的人，而不是那些活动范围被严格限定了的判了刑的犯人。
Such stories set us thinking, wondering what we should do under similar circumstances.
这样的故事让我们思考，在相似的情况下，我们该怎么办。
What events, what experiences, what associations should we crowd into those last hours as mortal beings, what regrets?
作为终有一死的人，在那最终的几个小时内安排什么事件，什么经历，什么交往？在回顾往事时，我们该找到什么快乐？什么悔恨？
Sometimes I have thought it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should die tomorrow.
有时我想到，过好每一天是个非常好的习惯，似乎我们明天就会死去。
Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of life.
这种态度鲜明地强调了生命的价值。
We should live each day with gentleness, vigor and a keenness of appreciation which are often lost when time stretches before us in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come.
我们应该以优雅、精力充沛、善知乐趣的方式过好每一天。而当岁月推移，在经常瞻观未来之时日、未来之年月中，这些又常常失去。
There are those, of course, who would adopt the Epicurean motto of “Eat, drink, and be merry”.
当然，也有人愿按伊壁鸠鲁的信条“吃、喝和欢乐”去生活。
But most people would be chastened by the certainty of impending death.
但绝大多数人还是被即将面临死亡的必然性所折磨。
In stories the doomed hero is usually saved at the last minute by some stroke of fortune, but almost always his sense of values is changed.
在故事里，注定要死的主人公往往在最后一刻由某种命运的突变而得救，但几乎总是他的价值观被改变了。
He becomes more appreciative of the meaning of life and its permanent spiritual values.
他们对生活的意义和它永恒的精神价值变得更具欣赏力了。
It has often been noted that those who live, or have lived, in the shadow of death bring a mellow sweetness to everything they do.
常常看到那些生活或已生活在死亡的阴影之中的人们都赋予他们所做的每件事以芳醇甜美。
Most of us, however, take life for granted.
但是，我们大多数人把生活认为是理所当然的。
We know that one day we must die, but usually we picture that day as far in the future.
我们知道，某一天我们一定会死，但通常我们把那天想象在遥远的将来。
When we are in buoyant health, death is all but unimaginable.
当我们心宽体健时，死亡几乎是不可想象的。
We seldom think of it.
我们很少想到它。
The days stretch out in an endless vista.
时日在无穷的展望中延展着。
So we go about our petty tasks, hardly aware of our listless attitude toward life.
于是我们干着琐碎的事情，几乎意识不到我们对生活的倦怠态度。
The same lethargy, I am afraid, characterizes the use of all our faculties and senses.
恐怕，同样的懒散也存在于我们对自己的所有的官能和意识的使用上。
Only the deaf appreciate hearing, only the blind realize the manifold blessings that lie in sight.
只有聋子才珍惜听力，唯有瞎子才体会到能看见事物的种种幸福。
Particularly does this observation apply to those who have lost sight and hearing in adult life.
这种结论特别适合于那些在成年阶段失去视力和听力的人们。
But those who have never suffered impairment of sight or hearing seldom make the fullest use of these blessed faculties.
而那些从没有遭受视觉或听觉损伤之苦的人却很少充分利用这些天赐的官能。
Their eyes and ears take in all sights and sounds hazily, without concentration and with little appreciation.
他们模模糊糊地眼观八方，耳听各音，毫无重点，不会鉴赏。
It is the same old story of not being grateful for what we have until we lose it, of not being conscious of health until we are ill.
还是那相同的老话，对我们所有的官能不知珍惜，直至失去它，对我们的健康意识不到，直至生病时。
I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life.
我常常想，如果每个人在他成年的早期有一段时间致瞎致聋，那会是一种幸事。
Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight, silence would teach him the joys of sound.
黑暗会使他更珍惜视力，寂静会教导他享受声音。
重点单词
閱讀更多 教英語的王老師90 的文章
