However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults in paradise.

不論你的生活如何卑賤，你要面對它生活，不要躲避它，更別用惡言咒罵它。它不像你那樣壞：你最富有的時候，倒是看似最窮。愛找缺點的人就是到天堂里也能找到缺點。

Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring.

你要愛你的生活，盡管它貧窮。快活、激動和光榮的時光即使是在濟貧院里也享受得到。夕陽照射在貧民居所的窗戶上所反射的光同照在富人公寓的窗戶上所反射的光一樣耀眼奪目，都能使得門前的積雪在早春消融。

I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there and have as cheering thoughts. As in a palace, the town’s poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any.

我只看到，一個從容的人，在哪里也像在皇宮中一樣，生活得心滿意足而富有愉快的思想。依我之見，城鎮的貧民倒是往往過著最獨立不羈的生活。

May be they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving. Most think that they are above being supported by the town, but it often happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means, which should be more disreputable.

也許他們十分偉大，對任何事情皆可坦然受之。 大多數人認為他們不屑于接受城鎮的施救; 但是實際上他們經常使用不誠實的手段來維持自己的生計，這是更為不體面的。

Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old, return to them. Things do not change, we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

像圣賢一樣，如同栽培花園中的花草一般來培養貧困吧。不要自找麻煩地去追求新鮮事物，新衣物和新朋友。讓舊物常新，回歸舊物。萬物不變，是我們在變。衣服可以賣掉，但要永存思想。

英語學習筆記:

1 .However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names.

英語點睛：這實際上是幾個短句，后面的句子都省略了however mean your life is.

2 .The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man’s abode.

英語點睛：由as…as引導的句子，非常精煉。

學習更多：

1 .However hard this task is. we can finish“:we must finish it.

(表示決心)不論這個工作有多難，我們都完成，而且我們必須完成。

2 .You are as good as you think you are.

(表示程度)你像你自己認為的一樣好。