每天分享一篇中英雙語(yǔ)閱讀，對(duì)英語(yǔ)口語(yǔ)的練習(xí)很有幫助，也是積累英語(yǔ)考試中寫(xiě)作，翻譯素材的好資料，加油吧!

The Strenuous Life

艱辛的人生

A life of slothful ease, a life of that peace which springs merely from lack either of desire or of power to strive after great things, is as little worthy of a nation as an individual.

一種怠惰安逸的生活，一種僅僅是由于缺少追尋偉大事物的渴望或能力而導(dǎo)致的悠閑生活，這對(duì)國(guó)家與個(gè)人都是毫無(wú)價(jià)值的。

We do not admire the man of timid peace. We admire the man who embodies victorious efforts, the man who never wrongs his neighbor, who is prompt to help a friend, but who has those virile qualities necessary to win in the stern strife of actual life. It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort. Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past. A man can be freed from the necessity of work only by the fact that he or his fathers before him have worked to good purpose. If the freedom thus purchased is used aright, and the man still does actual work, though of a different kind, whether as a writer or a general, whether in the field of politics or in the field of exploration and adventure, he shows he deserves his good fortune.

我們不欣賞那種怯懦安逸的人。我們欽佩那種表現(xiàn)出奮力向上的人，那種永不屈待鄰人，能隨時(shí)幫助朋友，但是也具有那些剛健的品質(zhì)，足以在現(xiàn)實(shí)生活的嚴(yán)酷斗爭(zhēng)中獲取勝利的人。失敗是難以忍受的，但更為糟糕的是從來(lái)不去努力爭(zhēng)取成功。 在人的這一生中，任何的收獲都要通過(guò)努力去得到。目前不作任何的努力，只不過(guò)意味著在過(guò)去有過(guò)努力的積儲(chǔ)。一個(gè)人不必工作，除非他或其先輩們?cè)?jīng)努力工作過(guò)，并取得了豐厚的收獲。假如他能夠把獲得的這種自由加以正確地運(yùn)用，仍然做些實(shí)際的工作，盡管那些工作是屬于另一類的，不論是做一名作家還是將軍，不論是在政界還是在探險(xiǎn)和冒險(xiǎn)方面做些事情，都表明了他沒(méi)有辜負(fù)自己的好運(yùn)。

But if he treats this period of freedom from the need of actual labor as a period, not of preparation, but of mere enjoyment, even though perhaps not of vicious enjoyment, he shows that he is simply a cumberer on the earth’s surface; and he surely unfits himself to hold his own place with his fellows, if the need to do so should again arise. A mere life of ease is not in the end a very satisfactory life, and, above all, it is a life which ultimately unfits those who follow it for serious work in the world.

但是，假如他未將這段需要從事實(shí)際工作的自由時(shí)期用于準(zhǔn)備，而僅僅是用于享樂(lè)(即使他所從事的或許并非不良的享樂(lè))，那也就表明了他只是地球表面上的一個(gè)贅疣;而且如果那種需要再度出現(xiàn)的話，他肯定無(wú)法在同僚之中維持自己的地位。 一種純粹安逸的生活終究并不是一種令人很滿意的生活，而且，最主要的是，過(guò)那種生活的人，最終肯定沒(méi)有能力擔(dān)當(dāng)起世上之重任。

As it is with the individual, so it is with the nation. It is a base untruth to say that happy is the nation that has no history. Thrice happy is the nation that has a glorious history. Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.

對(duì)于個(gè)人是如此，對(duì)于國(guó)家也是這樣。有人說(shuō)一個(gè)沒(méi)有歷史的國(guó)家是得天獨(dú)厚的，這是根本錯(cuò)誤的。一種得天獨(dú)厚的優(yōu)越感來(lái)源于一個(gè)國(guó)家所具有的光榮歷史。敢于挑戰(zhàn)非比尋常的事物，去贏得光輝的勝利，即使其中摻雜著失敗，那也遠(yuǎn)勝于與那些既沒(méi)有享受多大快樂(lè)也沒(méi)有遭受多大痛苦的平庸之輩為伍，因?yàn)樗麄兩钤谝粋€(gè)既享受不到勝利也不會(huì)遭遇挫敗的灰暗的境界中。