英文美文勵(lì)志小故事品析
英文美文勵(lì)志小故事品析
十年寒窗,一心只讀圣賢書(shū)的懸梁刺股是中國(guó)才有的黑色勵(lì)志幽默。下面小編整理了英文美文勵(lì)志小故事,希望大家喜歡!
英文美文勵(lì)志小故事品析
A Ball to Roll Around
滾球
by Robert G Allman
羅伯特·G·奧爾曼
I lost my sight when I was four years old by falling off a box car in a freight yard in Atlantic City and landing on my head. Now I am thirty-two. I can vaguely remember the brightness of sunshine and what red color is. It would be wonderful to see again, but a calamity can do strange things to people.
4歲那年在大西洋城,我從貨場(chǎng)一輛火車(chē)上摔下來(lái),頭先著地,于是雙目失明?,F(xiàn)在我已經(jīng)32歲了。我還模糊地記得陽(yáng)光是多么燦爛,紅色是多么鮮艷。能恢復(fù)視覺(jué)固然好,但災(zāi)難也能對(duì)人產(chǎn)生奇妙的作用。
It occurred to me the other day that I might not have come to love life as I do if I hadn’t been blind. I believe in life now. I am not so sure that I would have believed in it so deeply, otherwise. I don’t mean that I would prefer to go without my eyes. I simply mean that the loss of them made me appreciate the more what I had left.
有一天我突然想到,倘若我不是盲人,我或許不會(huì)變得像現(xiàn)在這樣熱愛(ài)生活。現(xiàn)在我相信生活,但我不能肯定如果自己是明眼人,會(huì)不會(huì)像現(xiàn)在這樣深深地相信生活。這并不意味著我寧愿成為盲人,而只是意味著失去視力使我更加珍惜自己其他的能力。
Life, I believe, asks a continuous series of adjustments to reality. The more readily a person is able to make these adjustments, the more meaningful his own private world becomes. The adjustment is never easy. I was bewildered and afraid. But I was lucky. My parents and my teachers saw something in me —a potential to live, you might call it ——which I didn’t see, and they made me want to fight it out with blindness.
我認(rèn)為,生活要求人不斷地自我調(diào)整以適應(yīng)現(xiàn)實(shí)。人愈能及時(shí)地進(jìn)行調(diào)整,他的個(gè)人世界便愈有意義。調(diào)整決非易事。我曾感到茫然害怕,但我很幸運(yùn),父母和老師在我身上發(fā)現(xiàn)了某種東西——可以稱(chēng)之為活下去的潛力吧——而我自己卻沒(méi)有發(fā)現(xiàn)。他們激勵(lì)我誓與失明拼搏到底。
The hardest lesson I had to learn was to believe in myself. That was basic. If I hadn’t been able to do that, I would have collapsed and become a chair rocker on the front porch for the rest of my life. When I say belief in myself I am not talking about simply the kind of self-confidence that helps me down a unfamiliar staircase alone. That is part of it. But I mean something bigger than that: an assurance that I am, despite imperfections, a real, positive person that somewhere in the sweeping, intricate pattern of people there is a special place where I can make myself fit.
我必須學(xué)會(huì)的最艱難的一課就是相信自己,這是基本條件。如做不到這一點(diǎn),我的精神就會(huì)崩潰,只能坐在前門(mén)廊的搖椅中度過(guò)余生。相信自己并不僅僅指支持我獨(dú)自走下陌生的樓梯的那種自信,那是一部分。我指的是大事:是堅(jiān)信自己雖然有缺陷,卻是一個(gè)真正的有進(jìn)取心的人;堅(jiān)信在蕓蕓眾生錯(cuò)綜復(fù)雜的格局當(dāng)中,自有我可以安身立命的一席之地。
It took me years to discover and strengthen this assurance. It had to start with the most elementary things. Once a man gave me an indoor baseball, I thought he was mocking me and I was hurt. “I can’t use this,” I said. “Take it with you,” he urged me,” and roll it around. “The words stuck in my head.” Roll it around!” By rolling the ball I could hear where it went. This gave me an idea how to achieve a goal I had thought impossible: playing baseball. At Philadelphia’s Overbrook School for the Blind I invented a successful variation of baseball. We called it ground ball.
我花了很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間才樹(shù)立并不斷加強(qiáng)這一信念。這要從最簡(jiǎn)單的事做起。有一次一個(gè)人給我一個(gè)室內(nèi)玩的棒球,我以為他在嘲笑我,心里很難受。“我不能使這個(gè)。”我說(shuō)。“你拿去,”他竭力勸我,“在地上滾。”他的話(huà)在我腦子里生了根。“在地上滾!” 滾球使我聽(tīng)見(jiàn)它朝哪兒滾動(dòng)。我馬上想到一個(gè)我曾認(rèn)為不可能達(dá)到的目標(biāo):打棒球。在費(fèi)城的奧弗布魯克盲人學(xué)校,我發(fā)明了一種很受人歡迎的棒球游戲,我們稱(chēng)它為地面球。
All my life I have set ahead of is a series of goals and then tried to reach them, one at a time. I had to learn my limitations. It was no good to try for something I knew at the start was wildly out of reach because that only invited the bitterness of failure. I would fail sometimes anyway but on the average I made progress.
我這一輩子給自己樹(shù)立了一系列目標(biāo),然后努力去達(dá)到,一次一個(gè)。我必須了解自己能力有限,若開(kāi)始就知道某個(gè)目標(biāo)根本達(dá)不到卻硬要去實(shí)現(xiàn),那不會(huì)有任何好處,因?yàn)槟侵粫?huì)帶來(lái)失敗的苦果。我有時(shí)也失敗過(guò),但一般來(lái)說(shuō)總有進(jìn)步。
經(jīng)典的英文美文勵(lì)志小故事
Flotsam, Jetsam, and Liberty
難民與自由
By James Carey
詹姆斯.B.凱里
Perhaps more than anything else in the world, I believe in liberty: liberty for myself, liberty for my fellow men.
也許在世界上我最信奉的是自由:自己的自由,同胞的自由。
I cannot forget the legend engraved on the base of the Statue of Liberty on Bedlows Island in New York Harbor: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
我無(wú)法忘記紐約港自由島上自由女神像底座上的文字:“給我你那疲憊、貧窮、蜷曲、渴望自由呼吸的身軀,可憐的被遺忘在你們海岸的人群。
Send these, the homeless tempest tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door. That is the voice of America.
交給我吧,那些無(wú)家可歸、顛簸流離的人們;我在金色之門(mén)高舉火炬。”那是美國(guó)的聲音。
As one small part of it, one tiny decibel in its sound, I, as a free individual of America, believe in it.
作為它的一小部分,它聲音中的一個(gè)分貝,我,美國(guó)的一個(gè)自由人,相信這聲音。
It makes no boast of noble ancestry. On the contrary, it admits honestly that each of us in this country, with a possible and qualified exception of our native Indians, is a displaced person.
它沒(méi)有炫耀高貴的祖先,反而坦率承認(rèn)在這個(gè)國(guó)家,我們每個(gè)人都是被迫流落此處的難民,只有土著印第安人才可能有資格成為例外。
In a particular kind of way, the Indian was our first displaced person. If you and I did not come from abroad ourselves, our forefathers did. The scores that drove them was economic, political, or religious oppression.
從某種意義上講,印第安人使我們的首批難民。如果你我本身不是移民,我們的祖先便是。經(jīng)濟(jì)、政治或宗教迫害的皮鞭將可憐的被遺棄的難民逼到生活的邊緣。
Oppression has always strewn the shores of life with wretched human refuse. We who today are the proud people of a proud country are what might be called the reclaimed refuse of other lands.
而今,我們充滿(mǎn)自豪,因?yàn)槲覀兪沁@個(gè)值得驕傲的國(guó)家的公民,我們這些在異國(guó)遭到遺棄的人在這里獲得了新生。
The fact that the flotsam and the jetsam, the persecuted and the pursued of all these other lands, the fact that they came here and, for the most part, successfully started life anew, this renews my faith in the resilience of a human individual and the dignity of man.
所有這些難民、遭受迫害和追捕的人從異國(guó)來(lái)到這里,大多數(shù)順利地開(kāi)始了新的生活。這一事實(shí)使我對(duì)人這一個(gè)體的活力和人類(lèi)尊嚴(yán)的信念有了新的認(rèn)識(shí)。
There are those who say we should be content with the material benefits we have accrued among ourselves. I cannot accept that for myself. A laboring man needs bread and butter, and cash to pay the rent.
有人說(shuō),我們應(yīng)滿(mǎn)足于自然增長(zhǎng)的物質(zhì)利益,我個(gè)人無(wú)法接受這一說(shuō)法。勞動(dòng)者需要面包和黃油,也要錢(qián)付房租.
But he would be a poor individual, indeed, if he were not able to furnish the vestibule of his mind and his soul with spiritual embellishments beyond the price of a union contract.
但如果他無(wú)法用聯(lián)盟合約規(guī)定的價(jià)格之外的精神飾物裝點(diǎn)心智和靈魂的門(mén)廊,他將是個(gè)真正的可憐蟲(chóng)。
I mean by this that I believe it is important for a man to discover, whether he is an electrical worker or an executive, that he is an individual with his own resources and a sense of the dignity of his own person and that of other men.
我的意思是我相信,對(duì)一個(gè)人來(lái)說(shuō),無(wú)論是個(gè)電工還是執(zhí)行官,重要的是要認(rèn)識(shí)到自己是一個(gè)擁有精神財(cái)富和尊嚴(yán)的人,是一個(gè)尊重他人尊嚴(yán)的人。
We are separate. We are collective. Man can be strong alone but not indomitable, in isolation. He has to belong to something, to realize he is not created separately or apart from the rest of mankind, whether he is an American or a Mohammedan.
我們既是分離的個(gè)體,又是集體的一員。人們單槍匹馬時(shí)可以堅(jiān)強(qiáng)有力,孤軍作戰(zhàn)時(shí)卻容易擊敗。他必須有歸屬感,即認(rèn)識(shí)到不管他是美國(guó)人還是穆斯林,他并非孤立存在或遠(yuǎn)離人類(lèi)其他成員。
I am stirred by the abundance of the fields, the forest, the streams, and the natural resources they hold.
我們那廣袤的土地、大片的森林、眾多的溪流和它們豐富的自然資源讓我激動(dòng)
But do these things make me important? Have we wrought the miracle of America because of these riches we hold? I say, no.
然而,是那些資源才使我重要嗎?我們是憑借那些財(cái)富在美國(guó)創(chuàng)造的奇跡嗎?我要說(shuō):“不是。”
Our strength—and I can say my strength, too, because I am a part of this whole—lies in a fundamental belief in the validity of human rights. And I believe that a man who holds these rights in proper esteem is greater, whether he is recognized or not.
我們的力量--也可以說(shuō)我的力量,因?yàn)槲沂沁@個(gè)整體的一份子--存在于一種最根本的信念,相信人權(quán)的有效性。我認(rèn)為一個(gè)人如果恰當(dāng)?shù)刈鹬剡@些權(quán)力,不管他獲得認(rèn)可與否,都是偉大的。
As an individual, I must face the future with honesty and faith, in the goods things that have made us mighty. I must have confidence in myself, in others, and all men of goodwill everywhere, for freedom is the child of truth and confidence.
作為個(gè)人,我必須誠(chéng)實(shí)地面對(duì)未來(lái),并相信使我們強(qiáng)大的美好事物。我必須對(duì)自己、他人和任何地方有著善良意愿的人充滿(mǎn)信心,因?yàn)樽杂墒钦胬砗托判牡暮⒆印?/p>
關(guān)于英文美文勵(lì)志小故事
Dreams Are the Stuff Life Is Made Of
夢(mèng)想構(gòu)造生活
by Carroll Carroll
卡洛.卡洛
I believe I'm a very lucky man.
我相信自己是一個(gè)幸運(yùn)的人。
My entire life has been lived in the healthy area between too little and too much. I've never experienced financial or emotional insecurity, but everything I have, I've attained by my own work, not through indulgence, inheritance or privilege.
我的一生生活平穩(wěn),毫無(wú)波瀾。我從未經(jīng)歷過(guò)經(jīng)濟(jì)或情感危機(jī),但我擁有的一切并不是依靠溺愛(ài)、遺產(chǎn)或特權(quán),而是通過(guò)我自己的努力工作得來(lái)的。
Never having lived by the abuses of any extreme, I've always felt that a workman is worthy of his hire, a merchant entitled to his profit, an artist to his reward.
生活中的我從不濫走極端,始終認(rèn)為工人就應(yīng)當(dāng)工作,商人就應(yīng)當(dāng)獲利,藝術(shù)家有權(quán)獲取報(bào)酬。
As a result of all this, my bargaining bump may be a little underdeveloped, so I've never tried to oversell myself. And though I may work for less than I know I can get, I find that because of this, I'm never so afraid of losing a job that I'm forced to compromise with my principles.
正因如此,我討價(jià)還價(jià)的能力沒(méi)有絲毫長(zhǎng)進(jìn),所以我從不試圖過(guò)分吹噓自己。盡管我知道自己的酬勞少于實(shí)際應(yīng)得的,但我仍會(huì)繼續(xù)工作。我發(fā)現(xiàn),由此一來(lái),我從未因害怕失業(yè)而做出任何違背原則的事。
Naturally in a life as mentally, physically, emotionally and financially fortunate as mine has been, a great many people have helped me. A few meant to, most did so by accident.
的確,像我這種在精神、身體、情感與經(jīng)濟(jì)上如此幸運(yùn)的人,少不了很多人曾給予的幫助。有些幫助是刻意的,但大部分的則是偶然為之
I still feel I must reciprocate. This doesn't mean that I've dedicated my life to my fellow man. I'm not the type. But I do feel I should help those I'm qualified to help, just as I've been helped by others.
盡管如此,我依然認(rèn)為必須報(bào)答他們。這并不是說(shuō)我為同胞們奉獻(xiàn)出了自己的一生,我也不是那樣的人。但我覺(jué)得應(yīng)該盡自己所能去幫助他人,就像別人幫助我一樣。
What I'm saying now is, I feel, part of that pattern. I think everyone should, for his own sake, try to reduce to six hundred words the beliefs by which he lives - it's not easy - and then compare those beliefs with what he enjoys - not in real estate and money and goods, but in love, health, happiness and laughter.
我認(rèn)為,現(xiàn)在所說(shuō)的這些正是我信仰中的一部分。即使很難,但為了自身利益,每個(gè)人都應(yīng)將生活的信仰縮減至600字,并將其與他所享有的東西作比較——不比擁有的房產(chǎn)、金錢(qián)和物品,而是比愛(ài)、健康、幸福與歡笑。
I don't believe we live our lives and then receive our reward or punishment in some afterlife. The life and the reward... The life and the punishment - these to me are one. This is my religion, coupled with the firm belief that there is Supreme Being who planned this world and runs it so that "no man is an island, entire of himself..." The dishonesty of any one man subverts all honesty. The lack of ethics anywhere adulterates the whole world's ethical content. In these - honesty and ethics - are, I think, the true spiritual values.
我不相信,今生的生活方式會(huì)在來(lái)世受到報(bào)應(yīng)。生活與獎(jiǎng)賞……生活與懲罰——對(duì)我而言,是同一回事。這就是我的信仰,與之緊緊相連的,是我堅(jiān)信上帝創(chuàng)造并操縱著這個(gè)世界,使“任何人都不是獨(dú)立的孤島……”某一個(gè)人的欺詐會(huì)破壞所有人的正直。無(wú)論何處的道德淪喪了,都會(huì)造成整個(gè)社會(huì)的道德變質(zhì)。我認(rèn)為,只有誠(chéng)實(shí)與道德才擁有真正的精神價(jià)值。
I believe the hope for a thoroughly honest and ethical society should never be laughed at. The most idealistic dreams have repeatedly forecast the future. Most of the things we think of today as hard, practical and even indispensable were once merely dreams.
我相信,永遠(yuǎn)不應(yīng)嘲笑對(duì)構(gòu)建擁有誠(chéng)實(shí)與道德的社會(huì)的期望。最理想化的夢(mèng)想往往預(yù)示著未來(lái)。如今我們覺(jué)得實(shí)在、實(shí)用甚至不可或缺的許多東西,曾經(jīng)也只是夢(mèng)想。
So I think to hope that the world need not be a dog-eat-dog jungle. I don't think I'm my brother's keeper. But I do think I'm obliged to be his helper. And that he has the same obligation to me.
因此,我希望這個(gè)世界不再是自相殘殺的世界。我不認(rèn)為自己是多管閑事的人。但我覺(jué)得自己有義務(wù)去幫助他人,就像他人有義務(wù)幫助我一樣。
In the last analysis, the entire pattern of my life and belief can be found in the words "DO NOT do unto others that which you would NOT have others do unto you." To say "Do unto others as you would have others DO unto you" somehow implies bargaining, an offer of favor for favor. But to restrain from acts which you, yourself, would abhor is an exercise in will power that must raise the level of human relationship.
總而言之,“無(wú)論做什么,你希望別人如何待你,就要如何對(duì)待別人。”這句話(huà)正好涵蓋了我的生活與信仰的全部。“要想別人如何待你,你也要如何對(duì)待別人。”暗示著禮尚往來(lái)的交易。然而,不做連自己都痛恨的事則是對(duì)意志力的一種磨練,這也會(huì)使人際關(guān)系有所改善。
"What is unpleasant to thyself," says Hillel, "THAT do NOT unto thy neighbor. This is the whole law," and he concluded, "All else is exposition."
希勒爾說(shuō):“己所不欲,勿施于人。這就是全部法則。”他還概括說(shuō):“余下的所有只是對(duì)其的闡述。”