grandeur of each day, too preoccupied with petty and sometimes even mean concerns to respond to the great beauty of it all.
我看看周围是否有人也沉醉在这金色的阳光中，然而，人人却来去匆匆，大都目不斜视，双眼只盯着地面。这时我想到自己平常又何尝不是往往对身边的美景视而不见而沉湎于日常细小的、有时甚至是低俗的琐事之中呢！
(7)The insight gleaned from that experience is really as commonplace as was the experience itself: life's gifts are precious – but we are too careless of them.
从这次经历中所获得的顿悟就像这个经历本身一样，并无什么奇特之处：生活的恩赐是宝贵的，只是我们对此太掉以轻心罢了。
(8)Here then is the first pole of life's paradoxical demands on us: Never too busy for the wonder and the awe of life. Be respectful before each dawning day. Embrace each hour. Seize each golden minute.
那么人生给我们的第一个矛盾的真理就是：不要因为太过忙碌而错过了人生的美好和壮丽。虔诚地迎接每一个黎明的到来。把握每一个小时，抓住宝贵的每一分每一秒。
(9)Hold fast to life, but not so fast that you cannot let go. This is the second side of life's coin, the opposite pole of its paradox: we must accept our losses, and learn how to let go.
紧紧把握住人生，但不要紧得放不开。这是生活的另一面，是矛盾体的另一极：我们必须接受损失，学会放手。
(10)This is not an easy lesson to learn, especially when we are young and think that the world is ours to command, that whatever we desire with the full force of our passion can, and will be ours. But then life moves along to confront us with realities, and slowly but surely this second truth dawns upon us.
做到这一点并不容易，尤其是当我们还年轻，自以为世界在我们的掌握之中，只要满腔热情、全力以赴地去渴求，我们就能得到我们想要的东西，而且一定能得到！但是，生活在继续，它要我们去面对现实，慢慢地也是实实在在地，生活让我们懂得了第二个真理。
(11)At every stage of life we sustain losses – and grow in the process. We begin our independent lives only when we come to this world. We enter schools, then we leave our mothers and fathers and our childhood homes. We get married and have children and then have to let them go. We confront the death of our parents and our spouses. We face the gradual or not so gradual weakening of our own strength. And ultimately, we must confront the inevitability of our own death, losing ourselves, as it were, all that we were or dreamed to be.
在人生的每个阶段，我们都会承受损失——我们也会在这个过程中成长起来。我们只有在来到这个世界上时才开始了独立的生命。我们要进各级学校；继而告别父母和儿时的家庭，然后结婚生子，再就是不得不让孩子们远走高飞。我们遭遇父母和爱人的死亡，还要面临自己或快或慢的衰老。我们最终不得不面对自己不可避免的死亡。就这样，我们失去了自我，也失去了自己曾经拥有过的或梦想过的一切。
(12)But why should we be reconciled to life's contradictory demands? Why fashion things of beauty when beauty is short-lived? Why give our heart in love when those we love will ultimately be torn from our grasp?
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但是，我们为什么会心甘情愿地服从于人生中这种矛盾的需求呢？既然明明知道美的东西转眼即逝，我们为什么还要去创造那些美好的东西？既然明明知道自己所爱的人最终会离我们而去，我们为什么还要倾心地去爱呢？
(13)In order to resolve this paradox, we must seek a wider perspective, viewing our lives as through windows that open on eternity. Once we do that, we realize that though our lives are finite, our deeds on earth weave a timeless pattern.
要破解这个矛盾，我们就必须寻找一个更加广阔的视 角，像透过可以通向永恒的窗户那样来审视我们的生命。做到了这一点，我们就会知道，我们的生命虽然有限，可我们在地球上的行为却在编织着一个不受时间限制的图案。
(14)Life is never just being. It is becoming, a relentless flowing on. Our parents live on through us, and we will live on through our children. The institutions we build endure, and we will endure through them. The beauty we fashion cannot be dimmed by death. Our flesh may perish, our hands will wither, but the beauty and goodness and truth they create live on for all time to come.
生命绝不仅仅是静止的存在。它是一股不断变化的、不屈不挠的奔流。我们的父母通过我们使生命得到延续，我们又通过我们的子女使生命得到延续。我们所确立的习俗制度会历久长存，我们自己也会在其中得到永生。我们所崇尚的美不会因为我们的死亡而暗淡。我们的肉体会腐朽，我们的双手会枯萎，但我们用双手创造的美、善和真将永存不朽。
(15)Don't spend and waste your lives accumulating objects that will only turn to dust and ashes. Pursue not so much the material as the ideal, for ideals alone invest life with meaning and are of enduring worth.
不要把生命耗费在聚敛财物上，这些财物终究会变为尘埃，化为乌有。与其追求物质，还不如追求理想，因为只有理想才能使生命充满意义，只有理想才具有永存的价值。
(16)Add love to a house and you have a home. Add righteousness to a city and you have a community. Add truth to a pile of red brick and you have a school. Add justice to the far-flung round of human endeavor and you have civilization. Put them all together, elevate them above their present imperfections, add to them the vision of humankind redeemed, forever free of need and conflict and you have a future lighted with the radiant colors of hope.
给房子赋予爱你就有了家。让一座城市充满道义，你就有了一个社区。在一堆红砖里赋予真理你就有了学校。在人们长期的努力奋斗中加上正义，你就有了文明。把这一切都聚集起来，加以提升，使之超越现存的缺陷，再加上人类对得到拯救的憧憬，永远无求无争，那么你将会有一个闪耀着希望绚烂光彩的未来。
Unit7
（1）\that you can't do all the things you like, but you change. You don't like them anymore. Some of the old habits seem so wasteful and unsatisfying that you really lose your taste for them. So you still have everything you want – only on less money.\
“我们讨论的是简化生活，而不是物质匮乏，”我的朋友萨拉解释说，“绝对不是你不可以做你喜欢的那些事情，而是你在改变，不再喜欢同样的事情罢了。一些旧的习惯看上去是那样的浪费又不
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能令人满意，你真的对它们失去了兴 趣。所以你仍然拥有你需要的每一件东西——只不过不需要花那么多的钱罢了。”
（2）When I first met them, Sara and Michael were a two-career couple with a home of their own, and a large boat bought with a large loan. They began to take an interest in the concept of \with the birth of their daughter whom they wanted to raise all by themselves. Neither one of them, it turned out, was willing to restrict what they considered their \tired hours afterward.
当我第一次遇见他们时，萨拉和迈克尔夫妇双双从业，拥有自己的住宅和用一大笔贷款购置的一条大船。随着女儿的出世而他们又想亲自抚养她，他们开始对“自愿简朴”的理念产生了兴趣。他们俩谁都不愿意把他们视为生活中最重要的部分仅仅局限于上班前的一小段时间和下班后已疲惫不堪的那几个小时。
（3）\work harder in order to earn more money. It's not the only answer,\ “许多人认为，因为有了孩子而且东西越来越贵，唯一的办法就是更加努力地工作以便挣更多的钱。其实这并不是唯一的办法，”迈克尔坚持说。
（4）The couple's decision was to trade two full-time careers for two half-time careers, and to curtail consumption. They decided to spend their money only on things that contributed to their major goal, the construction of a world where family and friendship, work and play, were all of a piece, a world, moreover, which did not make wasteful use of the earth's resources.
这对夫妻的决定是把两份全职工作业换成两份半日工 作，并且削减消费。他们决定只把钱花在有助于实现他们的主要目标的东西上：构建一个把家庭和友谊、工作和娱乐融为一体的生活天地，而且还是一个不浪费地球资源的生活天地。 （5）Today, they live in the same suburban community in a handsome, energy-efficient home they designed themselves. Small by most standards, it is easy to clean, furnish, maintain and heat. The first floor, one large room, has a kitchen area along one wall, a birch table and chairs for dining, a living area defined by a comfortable couch and a wood stove, and a corner work area. Upstairs is their bedroom, an office that serves them both, and a bathroom. It is bright and light and in harmony with its surroundings. Soon there will be a solar greenhouse outside the front door.
现在他们还在原来的那个近郊社区，住在一幢自己设计的、漂亮而节能的房子里。按许多标准来看，房子虽然小了点，却容易清扫、布置、维修和供暖。一层是个大房间，厨房靠墙，摆着一张桦木餐桌和吃饭用的几把椅子；一张舒适的长沙发和一个柴炉就把日常起居的范围圈定了；角落是工作区。楼上是他们的卧室、一个萨拉和迈克尔共用的办公室和一间浴室。整幢房子明亮简洁，同周围环境十分和谐。很快，前门外还要建一个太阳能温室。
（6）How can a couple with two part-time freelance jobs afford to build their own home, own a car, and share a small boat with another couple – all without a loan? How can they maintain a high standard of living that provides \
一对只有兼职工作的夫妻怎么会有钱建造自己的房子、拥有一辆汽车并同另一对夫妻共享一艘小船，而且所有这一切都不曾贷款呢？他们如何能够维持足以提供他们想要的“一切”的那样一种
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高生活水平呢？他们放弃的而且不再怀念是哪些东西呢？
（7）For one thing, they have given up all the expensive clutter – medicine cabinets full of cosmetics and over-the-counter drugs they will never use; kitchen cabinets crowded with items they would eventually throw away. The one clothes closet Sara shares with Michael easily contains the basic items in their wardrobes, many of them well-made classic styles from L. L. Bean. \Sara explains. By sifting and discarding, by keeping track of what they have, Sara and Michael have a clear idea of what they really need.
首先，他们放弃了乱七八糟的昂贵东西：（浴室）药柜里满满的从来不用的化妆品和在柜台上随时可以买到的药 品；堆放在厨房壁柜里的最终只会丢弃的各种东西。萨拉和迈克尔共用的那个衣柜足可以装下他们必需的一些衣物，其中许多还是出自L·L·比恩公司的做工精细的经典款式呢。“我不断地把东西送给别人，”萨拉解释道。通过筛选和丢弃并凭借他们对所拥有的东西的了解，萨拉和迈克尔清楚地知道他们到底真正需要什么。
（8）They do not have a dishwasher. The number of hand-thrown pottery dishes they own would not fill one. They do not own a clothes dryer; the wet clothes, drying indoors in winter, eliminate the need for a humidifier. Sara's dark hair is short. She does not need a hairdryer, electric curlers, or a curling iron. Their front yard is wooded. They do not need a power mower or electric clippers. They do not own a TV, and so they and their child are not constantly saturated with images of new toys, new things, and new temptations.
他们没有洗碟机，他们家那几只手工陶制的碟子根本装不满一台洗碟机。他们没有衣服烘干机；冬天把湿衣服晾在室内也就不需要增湿器了。萨拉的黑发很短，所以用不着吹风机、电动卷发夹或电动烫发钳。他们的前院长满了树，所以也不需要动力割草机或电动修枝剪。他们没有电视机，所以他们和孩子的脑子里都不会一直充满各种新玩具、新物品和新诱惑的图像。
（9）They have exchanged the expenses of work in a commuter age – the extra car, the cost of gasoline, professional wardrobes, lunches and frequent dinners out, and babysitting fees – or the time to pay attention to the quality of their lives. They have given up paper products, processed foods, expensive hobbies, first-run movies, restaurants, and paying for the services of others. In return, they enjoy home cooking, mid-week family picnics, library books, participation in community arts programs, thrift shops, and do-it-yourself projects.
他们节省了通勤时代上下班必须支付的开支：另外的一辆车、汽油费、职业装、午餐和经常外出吃晚餐的开销以及保姆费，换来的则是时间——用于关注生活质量的时间。他们已不再使用纸产品，不再吃加工过的食品，不再享受昂贵的嗜好、观看首映电影、上餐馆以及付钱接受别人的服务。取而代之的是他们所喜欢的自家烹饪、周中的家庭野餐、上图书馆借书、参加社区的艺术活动、逛廉价旧货商店以及自己动手做事。 （10）\matter if you're making ＄15,000 or ＄50,000. There'll always be the things you wish you could afford. Money really wasn't the reason we changed. We did it for our own personal satisfaction, and for anyone thinking of simplifying life, there is only one basic rule: If it isn't satisfying, don't do it.\ “那种渴望获得更多东西的感觉是我们这个文化的一个重要组成部分，而且还会永远继续下去，”萨拉说。“但是，你赚1万5千美元还是5万美元并不重要。这世上总有许多你希望自己能买得起的东西。钱真的不是导致我们改变生活方式的原因。我们这样做是为了个人的满足。对于任何一个想简化自己生活的人来说，基本规则只有一个：如果一件事不能令人满意，那就索性不要去做。” （11）Sara and Michael lent me their copy of 99 Ways to a Simple Lifestyle, a handbook of practical suggestions that can be applied to anyone's living situation. I read it carefully, giving myself high marks in some areas, surprised at my socially sanctioned irrational behavior in others.
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萨拉和迈克尔借给我一本手册，名为《营造简朴生活方式的99种方法》，里面全是适用于任何生活状况的实用可行的建议。我仔细地阅读了，在一些方面我给自己打了高分，而在另一些方面我为身上存在的社会所认可的不理智行为感到惊讶。
（12）That night, accompanying my daughter on a shopping trip, I came across an inexpensive hand towel that matched our kitchen wallpaper, and a pair of \the parking lot, $11 poorer, no happier on leaving the store than I had been entering it, I felt like a child, helpless in the face of my own impulses.
那天晚上，我陪女儿去购物，碰巧看见一条和我们的厨房墙纸颜色匹配而价钱又不贵的擦手毛巾和一双漂亮得难以抵挡其诱惑的“特价”凉鞋。当我站在停车场时，感觉自己花了11美元离开商店之后并没有比进商店时更加开心，此时此刻我觉得自己就像个孩子，面对自己的一时冲动竟会不由自主。 （13）It is a world of illusion, this shopping merry-go-round we ride, but with all the action and excitement, it is sometimes hard to find the resolve and the courage to dismount.
我们乘坐的这只购物旋转木马，其实是一个幻觉世界，但由于它不停地旋转并富有刺激性，有时我们很难找到决心和勇气从木马上下来。
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