Lesson 5

Youth

People are always talking about the problem of youth.
人们总是在谈论关于年轻人的问题。
If there is one—which I take leave to doubt— then it is older people who create it, not the young themselves.
如果有这样一个—我冒昧地对此表示怀疑—那么创造它的正是老年人，而不是年轻人自己。
Let us get down to fundamentals and agree that the young are after all human beings—people just like their elders.
让我们深入基础并达成共识，即年轻人毕竟是人类——就像他们的长辈一样。
There is only one difference between an old man and a young one: the young man has a glorious future before him and the old one has a splendid future behind him: and maybe that is where the rub is.
老人和年轻人之间只有一个区别：年轻人面前有辉煌的未来，而老人身后有灿烂的未来：也许这就是问题的关键所在。
When I was a teenager, I felt that I was just young and uncertain—that I was a new boy in a huge school, and I would have been very pleased to be regarded as something so interesting as a problem.
当我还是个青少年时，我感到自己既年轻又迷茫——就像一所大学校里的新生，如果能被视为一个难题那样有趣，我会感到非常高兴。
For one thing, being a problem gives you a certain identity, and that is one of the things the young are busily engaged in seeking.
首先，成为一个问题会给你某种身份，而这正是年轻人正忙于寻找的东西之一。
I find young people exciting.
我发现年轻人令人兴奋。
They have an air of freedom, and they have not a dreary commitment to mean ambitions or love of comfort.
他们拥有一种自由的气息，并且对卑微的野心或舒适的追求没有沉闷的承诺。
They are not anxious social climbers, and they have no devotion to material things.
他们不是焦虑的社交攀附者，并且他们对物质事物没有执着。
All this seems to me to link them with life, and the origins of things.
所有这些在我看来似乎将它们与生命以及事物的起源联系了起来。
It's as if they were, in some sense, cosmic beings in violent and lovely contrast with us suburban creatures.
仿佛他们在某种意义上是与我们这些郊区生物形成剧烈而可爱对比的宇宙生物。
All that is in my mind when I meet a young person.
当我遇见一个年轻人时，我脑海中想到的就是这些。
He may be conceited, ill-mannered, presumptuous or fatuous, but I do not turn for protection to dreary clichés about respect for elders—as if mere age were a reason for respect.
他可能自负、没礼貌、自以为是或愚蠢，但我不会向关于尊重长辈的陈词滥调寻求保护——仿佛仅仅年龄就是值得尊重的理由。
I accept that we are equals, and I will argue with him, as an equal, if I think he is wrong.
我接受我们是平等的，如果我认为他是错的，我会与他平等地争论。