看馬克吐溫給年輕人的忠告

Being told I would be expected to talk here, I inquired what sort of talk I ought to make. They said it should be something suitable to youth-something didactic, instructive, or something in the nature of good advice.

獲悉人們希望我在這裏講幾句時，我就問他們我該講些什麼。他們希望我講些適合年輕人的東西-一些教誨性、有教育意義的東西，或是一些好的建議。

Very well. I have a few things in my mind which I have often longed to say for the instruction of the young; for it is in one’s tender early years that such things will best take root and be most enduring and most valuable. First, then. I will say to you my young friends-and I say it beseechingly, urgingly.

這太好了！我倒是一直想給年輕人提點建議呢，因爲人在年輕時期，好的建議極易在心底紮根，並能終生受用。那麼，首先，年輕朋友們-我要真 誠地告誡你們：

Always obey your parents, when they are present. This is the best policy in the long run, because if you don’t, they will make you.

一定要聽父母的話，長遠來講這是最聰明的做法，如果你不聽話，他們就會逼着你聽話。

Most parents think they know better than you do, and you can generally make more by humoring that superstition than you can by acting on your own better judgment.

大多數父母認爲他們知道得 比你們多，在這種情況下，與其基於自己的判斷行事，還不如迎合他們的想法，這樣你會收穫更多。

Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any, also to strangers, and sometimes to others. If a person offend you, and you are in doubt as to whether it was intentional or not, do not resort to extreme measures; simply watch your chance and hit him with a brick. That will be sufficient.

如果你有上級的話，請尊重他們，對陌生人和他人也是如此。如果某個人得罪了你，而你也不知道他是否是故意的，那就不要採用極端做法，而要等待時機，給他當頭一棒，這就夠了。

If you shall find that he had not intended any offense, come out frankly and confess yourself in the wrong when you struck him; acknowledge it like a man and say you didn’t mean to.

如果發現他並非有意傷害你，那麼，你就應該站出來，坦白承認教訓他的事；要像一個男子漢一樣承認錯誤並說明自己 並非有意。還有就是，切勿使用暴力。

Yes, always avoid violence; in this age of charity and kindliness, the time has gone by for such things. Leave dynamite to the low and unrefined.

在這個和平友好的年代， 暴力已經過時了。讓我們譴責這些低俗的舉止、粉碎暴力吧！

Go to bed early, get up early- this is wise. Some authorities say get up with the sun; some say get up with one thing, others with another. But a lark is really the best thing to get up with.

早睡早起-這是十分明智的。有些人主動起牀，也有些人被迫起牀。當然在百靈鳥的歌聲中起牀是最愜意不過了。

It gives you a splendid reputation with everybody to know that you get up with the lark; and if you get the right kind of lark, and work at him right, you can easily train him to get up at half past nine, every time-it’s no trick at all.

當人人都知道你與百靈鳥同迎清晨，你便會備受稱讚，如果你得 到一隻中意的百靈鳥，並按自己的意願訓練它，讓他九點半， 甚至是任何時候起牀都不是件難事-當然，這並不是說要耍詭計。

Now as to the matter of lying, you want to be very careful about lying; otherwise you are nearly sure to get caught. Once caught, you can never again be in the eyes to the good and the pure, what you were before.

現在，我們來談談說謊吧。要說謊，就得小心謹慎，否則 很容易穿幫。一旦被揭穿，別人就不再認爲你是善良的和純潔的，他們眼中的你就不是從前的你了。

Many a young person has injured himself permanently through a single clumsy and ill finished lie, the result of carelessness born of incomplete training. Some authorities hold that the young ought not to lie at all.

很多年輕人就因爲一個笨拙或並不圓滿的謊言永遠地傷害了自己，原因在於他們不夠謹慎且缺乏訓練。有些人認爲，年輕人不能撒謊。

That of course, is putting it rather stronger than necessary; still while I cannot go quite so far as that, I do maintain, andI believe I am right, that the young ought to be temperate in the use of this great art until practice and experience shall give them that confidence, elegance, and precision which alone can make the accomplishment graceful and profitable.

當然，這有些偏激。我不會這麼偏激，而是始終相信自己是有道理的，我 認爲，年輕人應適當運用這門偉大的藝術，通過訓練和實踐， 他們將變得自信、優雅和精確，而這些恰恰可以使他們完美出色地完成任務。

Patience, diligence, painstaking attention to detail-these are requirements; these in time, will make the student perfect; upon these only, may he rely as the sure foundation for future eminence.

耐心、勤奮和對細節的認真揣摩-都是年輕人必須具備的條件。隨着時間的流逝，這些要素將會使你們日臻完美，而你們也只有仰仗這些要素才能成就日後的輝煌。

Think what tedious years of study, thought, practice, experience, went to the equipment of that peerless old master who was able to impose upon the whole world the lofty and sounding maxim that "Truth is mighty and will prevail the most majestic compound fracture of fact which any of man born has yet achieved.

想想那位無可匹敵的大師吧,多年沉悶乏味的學習、思考、實踐 和練習才使他得以在世人面前說出這樣的經典語句一一 “真理 有着巨大的力量，並將戰勝一切”-這是最偉大的悖論，是凡人所能達到的最高境界。

For the history of our race, and each individual’s experience, are sewn thick with evidences that a truth is not hard to kill, and that a lie well told is immortal. There is in Boston a monument of the man who discovered anesthesia; many people are aware, in these latter days, that that man didn’t discover it at all, but stole the discovery from another man. Is this truth mighty, and will it prevail? Ah no, my hearers, the monument is made of hardy material, but the lie it tells will outlast it a million years.

歷史和個人的經歷都深刻地表明真理易被推翻，但絕妙的謊言卻永遠顛撲不破。波士頓立有一座紀念麻醉術發明者的紀念碑。但後來，很多人發現，這個人 根本不是麻醉術的發明者，他不過是竊取了他人的成果。真理的力量真的很強大嗎？它能戰勝一切嗎？哦，不，朋友們，那座紀念碑是用很堅固的材料做成，但它所昭示的謊言將比紀念碑本身還要久一百萬年。

An awkward, feeble, leaky lie is a thing which you ought to make it your unceasing study to avoid; such a lie as that has no more real permanence than an average truth. Why, you might as well tell the truth at once and be done with it. A feeble, stupid, preposterous lie will not live two years-except it be a slander upon somebody.

笨拙、沒有說服力和漏洞百出的謊言是你應當通過不斷學習去避免的，這樣的謊言還不及一般真理長久。爲什麼呢，你還是說出真相吧，現在就說。一個沒有說服力、可笑、荒謬的謊言不會存在兩年-除非它是對某人的誹謗。

It is indestructible, then of course, but that is no merit of yours. A final word: begin your practice of this gracious and beautiful art early-begin now. If I had begun earlier, I could have learned how.

當然，這樣的謊言牢不可破，但這對你的名譽沒有什麼 f好處。一句話：儘早練習這門高尚而美麗的藝術吧-現在就開始。要是我當年入門早，現在就已經學會了。

There are many sorts of books; but good ones are the sort for the young to read. Remember that. They are a great, an inestimable, and unspeakable means of improvement. Therefore be careful in your selection, my young friends; be very careful; confine yourselves exclusively to Robertson’s Sermons, Baxter’s Saint’s Rest, The Innocents Abroad, and works of that kind.

書有各種各樣的，但好書才適合年輕人閱讀。請記住，好 書能讓你不斷完善自身，這種作用力強大，不可估量且難以名 狀。因此，年輕的朋友們，請謹慎選擇你們的讀物，要十分謹慎。你們應該專門讀羅伯遜的《道德啓示錄》、巴克斯特的《聖徒的安息》和《傻瓜出國記》等作品。

But I have said enough. I hope you will treasure up the instructions which I have given you, and make them a guide to your feet and a light to your understanding. Build your character thoughtfully and painstakingly upon these precepts, and by and by, when you have got it built, you will be surprised and gratified to see how nicely and sharply it resembles everybody else’s.

我說得已經夠多了。我希望你們能珍惜這些建議，讓它們成爲你的嚮導，點燃你們思想的火花。按照這些建議去努力培養自己的性格吧。慢慢地，一旦你塑造好了自己的性格，你將驚喜而欣慰地發現自己和他人是如此相似。