假如给我三天光明(节选)
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 how the doomedchoose 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.
我们都读过震撼人心的故事，故事中的主人公只能再活一 段很有限的时光，有时长达一年，有时却短至一日。但我们总是 想要知道，注定要离世的人会选择如何度过自己最后的时光。 当然，我说的是那些有选择权利的自由人，而不是那些活动范 围受到严格限定的死囚。
Such stories set us thinking， wondering what we should do under similar circumstances. What events, what associations should we crowd into those last hours as mortal beings? What happiness should we find in reviewing the past, what regrets?
这样的故事让我们思考，在类似的处境下，我们该做些什 么?作为终有一死的人,在临终前的几个小时内我们应该做什 么事，经历些什么或做哪些联想?回忆往昔，什么使我们开心快 乐?什么又使我们悔恨不已?
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 gentleness, vigor, and a keenness of appreciation which are often lost when time stretch before us in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come. There are those，of course, would adopt the Epicurean motto of “eat， drink and be merry.” But most people would be chastened by certainty of impending death.
有时我想，把每天都当作生命中的最后一天来过，也不失 为一个极好的生活法则。这种态度会使人格外重视生命的价 值。我们每天都应该以优雅的姿态，充沛的精力，抱着感恩之心 来生活。但当时间以无休止的日、月和年在我们面前流逝时，我 们却常常没有了这种感觉。当然，也有人奉行“吃，喝，享受”的 享乐主义信条，但绝大多数人还是会受到即将到来的死亡的惩 罚。
In stories the doomed hero is usually saved at the last minute by some stroke of fortune, but almost always his sense of values is changed. He becomes more appreciative of the meaning of life and its permanent spiritual values. It has often been noted that those who live, or have lived, in the shadow of death bring a mellow sweetness to everything they do.
