书城英文图书那些激励你前行的声音
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第19章 青春不老,理想不死(6)

You might think that I chose my secondtheme, the importance of imagination,because of the part it played in rebuildingmy life, but that is not wholly so. ThoughI will defend the value of bedtime storiesto my last gasp, I have learned to valueimagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely humancapacity to envision that which is not,and therefore the fount of all inventionand innovation. In its arguably mosttransformative and revelatory capacity, it isthe power that enables us to empathise withhumans whose experiences we have nevershared.

对于第二个主题的选择——想象力的重要性——你们可能会认为是因为它对我重建生活起到了帮助,但事实并非完全如此。虽然我愿誓死扞卫睡前要给孩子讲故事的价值观,我对想象力的理解已经有了更广泛的含义。想象力不仅仅是人类设想还不存在的事物这种独特的能力,为所有发明和创新提供源泉,它还是人类改造和揭露现实的能力,使我们同情自己不曾经受的他人苦难。

One of the many things I learned at theend of that Classics corridor down whichI ventured at the age of 18, in search ofsomething I could not then define, was this,written by the Greek author Plutarch: Whatwe achieve inwardly will change outerreality.

我18岁开始从古典文学中汲取许多知识,其中之一当时并不完全理解,那就是希腊作家普鲁塔克所说:我们内心获得的,将改变外在的现实。

That is an astonishing statementand yet proven a thousand times everyday of our lives. It expresses, in part, ourinescapable connection with the outsideworld, the fact that we touch other peopleslives simply by existing.

那是一个惊人的论断,在我们生活的每一天里被无数次证实。它指明我们与外部世界有无法脱离的联系,我们以自身的存在接触着他人的生命。

If you choose to use your status andinfluence to raise your voice on behalf ofthose who have no voice; if you choose toidentify not only with the powerful, butwith the powerless; if you retain the abilityto imagine yourself into the lives of thosewho do not have your advantages, then itwill not only be your proud families whocelebrate your existence, but thousands andmillions of people whose reality you havehelped to change. We do not need magic totransform the world, and we carry all thepower we need inside ourselves already: wehave the power to imagine better.

如果你选择利用自己的地位和影响,去为那些没有发言权的人发出声音;如果你选择不仅与强者为伍,还会同情帮扶弱者;如果你会设身处地为不如你的人着想,那么你的存在,将不仅是你家人的骄傲,更是无数因为你的帮助而改变命运的成千上万人的骄傲。我们不需要改变世界的魔法,我们自己的内心就有这种力量:

那就是我们一直在梦想,让这个世界变得更美好。

As is a tale, so is life: not how long itis, but how good it is, is what matters.

生活就像故事一样:不在乎长短,而在于质量,这才是最重要的。

I wish you all very good lives.

我祝愿你们都有美好的生活。

Thank you very much.

非常感谢大家。

电影《独立日》中最激动人心的演讲

The most exciting speech in the film Independence Day

Good morning.

In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world.

And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind.

Mankind. That word should have new meaning for all of us today.

We cant be consumed by our petty differences any more.

We will be united in our common interest.

Perhaps its fate that today is the Fourth of July.

And you will once again be fighting for our freedom.

Not from tyranny, oppression or persecution.

But from annihilation.

Were fighting for our right to live, to exist.

And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as anAmerican holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice.

“We will not go quietly into the night!”

“We will not vanish without a fight!”

“Were going to live on!”

“Were going to survive!”

Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!

早上好。

再过一小时,这里的飞机将与世界各地的盟友并肩战斗。

你们将参与人类历史上最大的空战。

人类。这个词今天对于我们所有人将有新的意义。

我们不能再为小小的分歧而自相残杀。

我们将为共同利益团结一致。

也许是上帝的安排,今天是独立日。

你们将再一次为自由而战。

不是为了反抗暴政、压迫和迫害。

而是免遭毁灭。

是为生存的权力而战斗。

如果我们今天能够胜利,七月四日将不仅是美国人民的假日,而且将使全世界人民发出同样的呐喊:

“我们不会默默地走向黑暗!”

“我们不会就这样坐以待毙!”

“我们要生存下去!”

“我们一定要生存下去!”

今天我们要庆祝自己的独立日!

Keep Your Dreams

为梦想执着

[阿诺德·施瓦辛格 / Arnold Schwarzenegger]

And today I want to talk to you a little bitabout the dreams.

I started way back as a weightlifter. Ialways liked the idea of lifting weights andbeing a bodybuilder. From the first momentwhen I gripped a barbell and held it aroundthe bar and lifted the steel up over my head,I felt this exhilaration, and I knew then thatthis is something that Im going to do; thatI was in love with that, and this is goingto be something that Im going to do. Imgoing to pursue the sport of weightlifting andbodybuilding.

Now, I remember the first real workoutthat I had. Eight miles away from my homevillage in Austria there was a gymnasium, andI rode to that gymnasium with a bicycle. Andthere I trained for half an hour, because theysaid that after half an hour you should stopbecause otherwise your body will get reallysore. But after half an hour I looked at my body, and nothing had happened. So I said, “Idbetter work out for another half hour.” So Ilifted some more. My strength didnt improve,I didnt see the muscles pop out or anythinglike that, so I trained for another half an hour. And then after another half hour I trainedanother half hour, and all together I trained twoand a half hours.

今天,我想与你们聊聊梦想。

一开始我是个举重运动员。

我一直喜欢举重和健美。当我第一次抓起杠铃,稳稳握住,并高举过头顶,我就一直享受这份愉悦,我知道这就是我要做的事情;我喜爱举重,这将是我要做的事情。我要从事举重和健美运动。

我记得自己的第一次真正的训练。我老家在奥地利,离我们村庄八英里远的地方有一座体育馆,我骑车过去。在那里训练了半个小时,因为他们说半小时后你要停下来休息,否则身体会酸痛。但是半小时后我看着自己的身体,什么事也没有。我说:“我还是再练半小时吧。”所以我举了更多。我的力量没有增强,我没有发现肌肉隆起,或者类似的事情。于是我又练了半小时,之后又是半小时,再之后又是半小时,共计两个半小时。

My parents, of course, I have to tell you,didnt understand my dreams at all. They werealways wondering, they said, “What is hedoing? When are you going to get a job, a realjob? When are you going to make money?”

And all of those questions I got. And they said,“I hope we didnt raise a bum, someone thatdoesnt make money and just wants to live ina gymnasium and think about their bodies.”

Well, I endured all of this negative thinking,and the more negative the thinking got, and themore negative the questions got, the strongerand the more positive I became, the stronger Ibecame inside.

So of course some of your families maybethink the same way, and this is why Immentioning that. Some of your families maybedont believe in your dreams. But let me tellyou something, my young friends. Keep yourdreams. No matter what, keep your dreams.

Dont give up on them, even when you aretemporarily defeated or denied. Keep yourdreams.