第5课

旁白 neutral

People are always talking about 'the problem of youth'.

人们总是在谈论“青年问题”。

旁白 neutral

If there is one -- which I take leave to doubt

假如真有所谓“青年问题”——对此我不敢苟同

旁白 neutral

-- then it is older people who create it, not the young themselves.

——那么这个问题是由老年人造成的，而不是年轻人本身造成的。

旁白 neutral

Let us get down to fundamentals and agree that the young are after all human beings

让我们回归基本事实，承认年轻人毕竟也是人

旁白 neutral

-- people just like their elders.

——和他们的长辈一样的人。

旁白 neutral

There is only one difference between an old man and a young one:

老年人和年轻人只有一个区别：

旁白 neutral

the young man has a glorious future before him

年轻人面前是光辉灿烂的未来

旁白 neutral

and the old one has a splendid future behind him: and maybe that is where the rub is.

而老年人身后是辉煌的过去：也许症结就在这里。

旁白 neutral

When I was a teenager, I felt that I was just young and uncertain --

当我还是个少年时，我觉得自己只是年轻和不确定——

旁白 neutral

that I was a new boy in a huge school,

我就像一个庞大校园里的新生，

旁白 neutral

and I would have been very pleased to be regarded as something so interesting as a problem.

如果被看作是像“问题”一样有趣的东西，我一定会非常高兴。

旁白 neutral

For one thing, being a problem gives you a certain identity,

首先，成为一个“问题”会给你某种身份感，

旁白 neutral

and that is one of the things the young are busily engaged in seeking.

而这正是年轻人正在努力寻找的东西之一。

旁白 neutral

I find young people exciting.

我觉得年轻人令人兴奋。

旁白 neutral

They have an air of freedom,

他们有一种自由的气息，

旁白 neutral

and they have not a dreary commitment to mean ambitions or love of comfort.

他们对平庸的野心或安逸享乐没有沉闷的执着。

旁白 neutral

They are not anxious social climbers, and they have no devotion to material things.

他们不是焦虑的社会攀爬者，他们对物质也没有任何执着。

旁白 neutral

All this seems to me to link them with life and the origins of things.

这一切在我看来，都把他们与生命和万物本源联系在一起。

旁白 neutral

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宇宙生灵，与我们这些市郊凡夫俗子形成强烈而可爱的对比。

旁白 neutral

All that is in my mind when I meet a young person.

当我遇到一个年轻人时，我心里想的就是这些。

旁白 neutral

He may be conceited, ill-mannered, presumptuous or fatuous, but I do not turn for protection to dreary cliches about respect for elders --

他可能自负、粗鲁、傲慢或愚蠢，但我不会用那些关于尊重长辈的陈词滥调来为自己辩护——

旁白 neutral

as if mere age were a reason for respect.

仿佛仅仅年龄就是值得尊重的理由。

旁白 neutral

I accept that we are equals, and I will argue with him, as an equal, if I think he is wrong.

我承认我们是平等的，如果我认为他错了，我会以平等的身份与他争辩。