Three Days to See 假如給我三天光明
All of us have read thrilling stories in which the hero had only a limited and specified time to live.
我們大家都讀過一些令人激動的故事，這些故事裡的主人公僅僅活在有限並且特定的時間內。
Sometimes it was as long as a year, sometimes as short as 24 hours.
有時長達一年，有時短到２４小時。
But always we were interested in discovering just how the doomed hero chose to spend his last days or his last hours.
但我們總是有興趣去發現，那些命中註定要死的人選擇怎樣去度過他們最後的時光。
I speak, of course, of free men who have a choice, not condemned criminals whose sphere of activities is strictly delimited.
當然我所說的是那些有選擇自由的人，而不是那些活動範圍被嚴格限定了的判了刑的犯人。
Such stories set us thinking, wondering what we should do under similar circumstances.
這樣的故事讓我們思考，在相似的情況下，我們該怎麼辦。
What events, what experiences, what associations should we crowd into those last hours as mortal beings, what regrets?
作為終有一死的人，在那最終的幾個小時內安排什麼事件，什麼經歷，什麼交往？在回顧往事時，我們該找到什麼快樂？什麼悔恨？
Sometimes I have thought it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should die tomorrow.
有時我想到，過好每一天是個非常好的習慣，似乎我們明天就會死去。
Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of life.
這種態度鮮明地強調了生命的價值。
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.
我們應該以優雅、精力充沛、善知樂趣的方式過好每一天。而當歲月推移，在經常瞻觀未來之時日、未來之年月中，這些又常常失去。
There are those, of course, who would adopt the Epicurean motto of “Eat, drink, and be merry”.
當然，也有人願按伊壁鳩魯的信條“吃、喝和歡樂”去生活。
But most people would be chastened by the certainty of impending death.
但絕大多數人還是被即將面臨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.
在故事裡，註定要死的主人公往往在最後一刻由某種命運的突變而得救，但幾乎總是他的價值觀被改變了。
He becomes more appreciative of the meaning of life and its permanent spiritual values.
他們對生活的意義和它永恆的精神價值變得更具欣賞力了。
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陰影之中的人們都賦予他們所做的每件事以芳醇甜美。
Most of us, however, take life for granted.
但是，我們大多數人把生活認為是理所當然的。
We know that one day we must die, but usually we picture that day as far in the future.
我們知道，某一天我們一定會死，但通常我們把那天想象在遙遠的將來。
When we are in buoyant health, death is all but unimaginable.
當我們心寬體健時，死亡幾乎是不可想象的。
We seldom think of it.
我們很少想到它。
The days stretch out in an endless vista.
時日在無窮的展望中延展著。
So we go about our petty tasks, hardly aware of our listless attitude toward life.
於是我們幹著瑣碎的事情，幾乎意識不到我們對生活的倦怠態度。
The same lethargy, I am afraid, characterizes the use of all our faculties and senses.
恐怕，同樣的懶散也存在於我們對自己的所有的官能和意識的使用上。
Only the deaf appreciate hearing, only the blind realize the manifold blessings that lie in sight.
只有聾子才珍惜聽力，唯有瞎子才體會到能看見事物的種種幸福。
Particularly does this observation apply to those who have lost sight and hearing in adult life.
這種結論特別適合於那些在成年階段失去視力和聽力的人們。
But those who have never suffered impairment of sight or hearing seldom make the fullest use of these blessed faculties.
而那些從沒有遭受視覺或聽覺損傷之苦的人卻很少充分利用這些天賜的官能。
Their eyes and ears take in all sights and sounds hazily, without concentration and with little appreciation.
他們模模糊糊地眼觀八方，耳聽各音，毫無重點，不會鑑賞。
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.
還是那相同的老話，對我們所有的官能不知珍惜，直至失去它，對我們的健康意識不到，直至生病時。
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，如果每個人在他成年的早期有一段時間致瞎致聾，那會是一種幸事。
Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight, silence would teach him the joys of sound.
黑暗會使他更珍惜視力，寂靜會教導他享受聲音。
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