The Value of Time 时间的价值

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The Value of Time 时间的价值
“Time”, says the proverb, "is money".

谚语说：“时间就是金钱。”

This means that every moment well-spent may put some money into our pockets.

这句话的意思是，有效的利用每一分钟都可以让我们增加财富。

If our time is usefully employed,

如果我们充分利用了时间，

it will either turn out some useful and important piece of work 
which will fetch its price in the market,

生产一些实用的东西，到市场上卖掉，会赚些钱，

or it will add to our experience and increase our capacities 
so as to enable us to earn money 
when the proper opportunity comes.

或着增加我们的经验，增长我们的才智，也就是说，当机会成熟时我们可以赚钱。

Let those, who think nothing of wasting time, remember this.
让那些浪费时间毫不在意的人注意这一点吧。

Our life is nothing more than our time.

时间就是生命，

To kill time is therefore a form of suicide. 
所以浪费时间就是变相自杀。

We are shocked when we think of death,

一想到死亡，我们就会惊恐万分，

and we spare no pains, no troue, 
and no expense to preserve life.

不遗余力、不惜一切的代价去保全生命。

But we are too often indifferent to the loss of an hour or of a day, 
我们常认为失去一小时或一天的时间对于我们来说无关紧要，

forgetting that our life is the sum total of the days 
and of the hours we live.

但是我们忘记了，生命就是由这一天、一小时所构成的。

A day or an hour wasted is therefore so much life forfeited.

因此生命就是这样一小时，一天天流逝的。

Our life is a brief life span measuring some seventy or eighty years in all. 

人生短暂，总共不过七八十载。

But nearly one third of this has to be spent in sleep;

但是，睡眠占据了三分之一，

some years have to be spent over our meals;

吃饭花去几年，

some in making journeys on land and voyages by sea; 

海陆空旅游用去几年，

some in merry-making; 

再加上娱乐，

some in watching over the sick-beds of our nearest and dearest relatives.

照看病床上的亲友。

Now if all these years were to be deducted from the term 
over which our life extends,

如果扣除生命中的这些光阴，

we shall find ut twenty or thirty years 
at our disposal for active work.

我们会发现，仅仅二三十年的时间可供我们积极工作。

Whoever remembers this can never williny 
waste a sine moment of his life.

记住这一点，就不会有人甘愿浪费生命中的每一分钟。

All time is precious;

所有的时间都是宝贵的，

but the time of our childhood and of our youth 
is more precious than any other portion of our existence.

而童年和青春时光比生命中的任何阶段珍贵，

For those are the periods 
when alone we can acquire knowledge and develop our capacities.

因为这是我们汲取知识，增长才智的特有阶段。

If we allow these morning hours of life to slip away, 
we shall never be ae to recoup the loss.

如果让这些晨光悄然流逝，那损失将无法弥补。

Just as money laid out at interests doues and trees itself in time,

就像储存金钱可以得到两三倍利息一样，

so the precious hours of childhood and youth, 
if properly used, 
will yield us incalculate advantages.

因此，若充分利用童年和青春的宝贵时光，会给我们带来不可估量的利益。