生命的意义是什么？这似乎已成为千古的话题，每个人在无意间或寂寞时往往会想起这个永恒的话题。这是许多人共有的心路历程。
Life is never just being. It is a 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 that which they create in beauty and goodness and truth lives on for all time to come.
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. 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 religion to the humblest of edifices and you have a sanctuary. Add justice to the far-flung round of human endeavor and you have civilization. Put them all together, exalt them above their present imperfections, add to them the vision of humankind redeemed, forever free of need and strife and you have a future lighted with the radiant colors of hope.
By John B. Priestley
［参考译文］
生命的意义
约翰·B. 普里斯特利
生命从来不仅仅是存在。它是一个逐渐变化发展的过程，它无情地流逝着。我们的父母通过我们而延续生命，而我们则通过我们的子女来延续它。我们建立的风俗习惯会延续下去，而我们也会通过它们而延续。我们创造的美丽不会因死亡而变得暗淡。我们的肉体可能会消亡，我们的双手将干枯，但是人们用美丽、善良和正直所创造的一切将永葆生机。
不要消耗并浪费你的生命去积累那些只会化作尘土与灰烬的东西。不要过分追求物质，而应将理想作为目标，只有理想才赋予生命以意义并具有历久不衰的价值。将爱赋予一座房子，你便会拥有一个家。将正义赋予一座城市，你将赢得全城的居民。将真理赋予那一堆红砖，你便拥有一所学校。给最简陋的大厦添加宗教信仰，你便拥有一所教堂。将公正赋予久远而漫长的整个人类事业，你会拥有文明。把它们视为一个整体，改善它们目前尚不完善的方面，赋予到人类赎罪自新的憧憬中，使其永远地摆脱贫困和争斗的煎熬，这样你会拥有一个被绚丽希望点亮的未来。
［注释］
-relentless [rɪˈlentlɪs] adj. 无情的，不宽容的 unyielding in severity or strictness; unrelenting
-perish [ˈperɪʃ] v. 使毁灭；摧毁 To bring to destruction; destroy
-edifice [ˈedɪfɪs] n. 大厦，大建筑物 tall building
-sanctuary [ˈsæŋkʧʊərɪ] n. 避难所 a place of refuge or asylum
-exalt [ɪɡˈzɔːlt] v. 加强，增加……的效果或加强……，增高 to increase the effect or intensity of; heighten
［作者简介］
约翰·博因顿·普里斯特利（John Boynton Priestley, （1894-1984），英国剧作家、小说家、批评家，其作品广为英语国家所知。1929年出版代表作流浪汉小说《好伙伴》，1931年与诺布洛克合作将其改编成同名剧本，后又拍成影片，并于1974年改编为音乐剧，于是成为当时最有吸引力的剧作家之一。