Imagine that you spent your whole life at a single house. Each day at the same hour you entered an artificially-lit room, undressed and took up the same position in front of a motion picture camera.

设想一下你是在同一间房子里度过一生的。每天的同一时间你进入这间人工照明的房间,脱掉衣服,在摄影机前摆出同样的姿势。

属类：文学表达-英语散文-成长岁月

Images of this sort, though terrifying, are helpful in suggesting unfamiliar but useful perspectives of time.

这类图像,虽然令人震惊,却有助于说明关于时间的陌生而有用的观点。

属类：文学表达-英语散文-成长岁月

They may, for example, symbolize the telescoped, almost momentary character of the past as seen through the eyes of an anxious or disaffected individual.

比如说,它们可能象征着近乎瞬间的过去的缩影,就像某个焦虑而不满的人眼里所呈现的那样。

属类：文学表达-英语散文-成长岁月

Or they may suggest the remarkable brevity of our lives in the cosmic scale of time. If the estimated age of the cosmos were shortened to seventy-two years, a human life would take about ten seconds.

或者它们可能说明了在宇宙的时间里,我们生命的异常短暂。如果宇宙的估计年龄被缩短到72年,那人的生命大概只有10秒钟。

属类：文学表达-英语散文-成长岁月

It photographed one frame of you per day, every day of your life. On your seventy-second birthday, the reel of film was shown. You saw yourself growing and aging over seventy-two years in less than half an hour (27.4 minutes at sixteen frames per second).

在你一生的每一天,摄影机都给你拍一下一个镜头。在你72岁生日的那一天来放映这部影片。在不到半小时间的时间(每秒16个镜头,总共27.4分钟)里你将看完72年来你的成长和衰老。

属类：文学表达-英语散文-成长岁月

But look at time the other way. Each day is a minor eternity of over 86000 seconds. During each second, the number of distinct molecular functions going on within the human body is comparable to the number of seconds in the estimated age of the cosmos.

但我们可以从另外一个角度看待时间。每一天都是86000秒的小小永恒。在每一秒里,人们身体内不同分子相互作用的次数可比作宇宙估计年龄中的秒钟数。

属类：文学表达-英语散文-成长岁月

A few seconds are long enough for a revolutionary idea, a startling communication, a baby’s conception, a wounding insult, a sudden death.

只要几秒钟时间,足以引爆一次革命的念头,足以进行一场惊人的交流,足以促成一个婴儿的孕育,足以造成一个伤人的侮辱,足以降临一个突然的死亡。

属类：文学表达-英语散文-成长岁月

Depending on how we think of them, our lives can be infinitely long or infinitely short.

我们生命可以无限长,也可以是无限短,关键在于我们如何看待这一切。

属类：文学表达-英语散文-成长岁月

It was New Year’s. An aged man was standing at a window. He raised his mournful eyes towards the deep blue sky, where the stars were floating like white lilies on the surface of a clear calm lake.

在除夕之认,一位上了年纪的人伫立在窗前。他抬起充满哀伤的眼睛,仰望着深蓝色的天空,星星在那里游移着,如同朵朵白莲散落在清澈而平静的湖面上。

属类：文学表达-英语散文-成长岁月

Then he cast them on the earth, where few more hopeless people than himself now moved towards their certain goal – the tomb.

接他把目光投向地面,看到几个比他更加绝望的人正在走向他们的终点--坟墓。

属类：文学表达-英语散文-成长岁月

He had already passed sixty of the stages leading to it, and he brought from his journey nothing but errors and remorse.

在通往人生终点的道路上,他已经走过了60个驿站,除了过失和悔恨之外,他一无所获。

属类：文学表达-英语散文-成长岁月

Now his health was poor, his mind vacant, his heart sorrowful, and his old age short of comforts.

现在,他健康欠佳,精神空虚,心情忧郁,缺少晚年应有的舒适和安逸。

属类：文学表达-英语散文-成长岁月

The days of his youth appeared like dreams before him, and he recalled the serious moment when his father placed him at the entrance of the two roads

年轻的时光如梦幻般浮现在他眼前,他回想起父亲将他放在人生道路的入口上的关键时刻。当时,摆在他面前的有两条道路

属类：文学表达-英语散文-成长岁月

One leading to a peaceful, sunny place, covered with flowers, fruits and resounding with soft, sweet songs

一条通向和平宁静、阳光灿烂的地方,那里充满花果,回荡着柔和甜美的歌声

属类：文学表达-英语散文-成长岁月

The other leading to a deep, dark cave, which was endless, where poison flowed instead of water and where devils and poisonous snakes hissed and crawled.

另一条则通向黑暗无底的深渊,那里流淌着毒汁而非清水,恶魔肆虐,毒蛇横行。

属类：文学表达-英语散文-成长岁月

He looked towards the sky and cried painfully, “O youth, return! O my father, place me once more at the entrance to life, and I’ll choose the better way!” But both his father and the days of his youth had passed away.

他仰望着天空,痛苦地叫喊:“啊,青春,请回来吧!啊,父亲,请把我重新放到人生道路的起点上吧,我将会做出更地的选择。”然而他的父亲和他的青春都已离他远去。

属类：文学表达-英语散文-成长岁月

He saw the lights flowing away in the darkness. These were the days of his wasted life; he saw a star fall form the sky and disappeared, and this was the symbol of himself. His remorse, which was like a sharp arrow, struck deeply into his heart.

他看关灯被黑暗吞没,那就是他虚度的时光;他看见一颗星星从空中殒落、消逝,那正是他自身的写照,悔恨如同一支利箭般深深地刺进他的心脏。

属类：文学表达-英语散文-成长岁月

Then he remembered his friends in his childhood, who entered on life together with him. But they had made their way to success and were now honoured and happy on this New Year’s night.

然后,他回想起儿时的朋友,他们曾与一同踏上人生的旅程,现在已经走在成功的道路上,受到人们的尊敬,此时正沉浸在欢度除夕的幸福中。

属类：文学表达-英语散文-成长岁月

The clock in the high church tower struck and the sound made him remember his parents’ early love for him. They had taught him and prayed to God for his good. But he chose the wrong way.

教堂高塔上的钟声敲响了,这让他回忆起父母早看对他的爱,他们曾经给予他谆谆教诲,曾为他的幸福向上帝祈祷。但他偏偏选择人生的歧途。

属类：文学表达-英语散文-成长岁月

With shame and grief he dared no longer look towards that heaven where his father lived. His darkened eyes were full of tears, and with a despairing effort, he burst out a cry: “Come back, my early days! Come back!”

羞愧和忧伤使他再了不敢正视他父亲所在的天堂。他双眼无神,饱含着泪水,在绝望中,他奋力高喊:“回来吧,我那逝去的岁月!回来吧!”

属类：文学表达-英语散文-成长岁月