英语每日一句:Three Days to See

　Three Days to See(1)

　　All of us have read thrilling stories in which the hero had only a limited and specified time to live. Sometimes it was as long as a year; sometimes as short as twenty-four hours, but always we were interested in discovering just how the doomed man chose to spend his last days or his last hours. I speak, of course, of free men who have a choice, not condemned criminals whose sphere of activities is strictly delimited.

　　我们都读过这样一些动人的故事，故事里主人公将不久于人世。长则一年，短则24小时。但是我们总是很想知道这个即将离开人世的人是决定怎样度过他最后的日子的。当然，我所指的是有权作出选择的自由人，不是那些活动范围受到严格限制的死囚。

　　Such stories set up thinking, wondering what we should do under similar circumstances. What associations should we crowd into those last hours as mortal beings? What happiness should we find in reviewing the past, what regrets?

　　这一类故事会使我们思考在类似的处境下，我们自己该做些什么?在那临终前的几个小时里我们会产生哪些联想?会有多少欣慰和遗憾呢?

　　Sometimes I have thought it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should die tomorrow. Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of life. We should live each day with a gentleness, a vigor, and a keenness of appreciation which are often lost when time stretches before us in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come. There are those, of course, who would adopt the epicurean motto of “Eat, drink, and be merry,” most people would be chastened by the certainty of impending death.

　　有时我想，把每天都当作生命的最后一天来度过也不失为一个很好的生命法则。这种人生态度使人非常重视人生的价值。每一天我们都应该以和善的态度、充沛的精力和热情的欣赏来度过，而这些恰恰是在来日方长时往往被我们忽视的东西。当然，有这样一些人奉行享乐主义的座右铭——吃喝玩乐，但是大多数人却不能摆脱死亡来临的恐惧。