中译英
生存在功利社会，奔波劳顿，勾心斗角，若想做到从心所欲，难矣哉!人自孩提时代起，求学、谋职、恋爱、成家、立业、功名、财富……几乎无时不在追求，而且总也不能满足。当然事业上的进取与物欲上的贪婪，是两种截然不同的人生观，或可说是两种内涵迥异的苦乐观。但有一点是共同的，即人生的道路并非平坦的康庄大道，事物的发展往往不以人的意志为转移。与其陶醉在“梦想成真”的幻觉中，莫若在实践中多多磨砺自己，有道是“苍天不负有心人”嘛!即或如此，也未必事事天遂人愿。总之，有追求必有烦恼，这就是生活的实际。
参考译文：
In a business society, where people run about in pursuit of personal gains at the expense of others, it is really difficult to do as you please. Ever since childhood we have been pursuing always; going to school, looking for a job, falling in love, getting married, and striving for success in career and accumulating wealth, but never have we seemed to be contented with ourselves. However, striving for success in career and seeking material profits are two different outlooks or, if you will, two intrinsically different views on what is hardship and what is happiness. But there is one thing that applies in either case, i.e. life is no plain sailing, and things go and grow independent of man’s will. One should instead of indulging in delusions of daydreaming, temper himself in life, as the saying goes, “Heaven does not let down the one that has a will.” Even so, one cannot expect to succeed in everything he undertakes. In short, anyone in pursuit of something is sure to be troubled by something else, and that is the way things are in life.
翻译点评：
四处奔波：run about来
追逐：in pursuit of，或者直接用动词pursue
本质地：intrinsically。如果不知道intrinsic(固有的，本质的，内在的)这个词，可以用basically、fundamentally这一类的词。也可以用其他方法来表达原文中“迥异”这个概念，如：as different as night and day，或者用diametrically，这个词词根是diameter,直径。当然，想不起来这么多，用一个totally也可以表达出这种例子。大家可以注意多积累一些这样的同义词。
康庄大道：这里以“一帆风顺”的意思来翻译：plain sailing，或者用其他意译方法，表达出“顺利”“没有挫折”之类的意思都可以。
幻觉：delusion。这个词与illusion的区别在于，illusion仅表示“幻觉，错觉，幻想”，delusion则有“受骗，骗 局;妄想症”的含义，用来表达这里的“幻觉”一词，更有“欺骗性的，不真实的”这种意味。
