However mean your life is, meet it and live it.

 

不管你的生活如何卑微，你都要正视它，生活下去。

do not shirk it and call it hard names is not so bad as you are.

不要逃避，也不要恶语相加。你的生活不像你自己想象的那么糟糕。

It looks poorest when you are richest.

当你最富有的时候，生活看上去反倒是最贫穷的。

The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise.

故意挑毛病的人即使在天堂也能挑出瑕疵。

Love your life, poor as it is.

虽然生活清贫，但你要对生活付出热情。

You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse.

即便身处贫民院，你也可能会分享到一段快乐、激动、灿烂的时光。

The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man's abode；

西下的落日洒在贫民院窗户上的光芒，与照在富人家豪宅上的一样光彩夺目；

the snow melts before its door as early in the spring.

到了早舂的时候，门前的积雪同样会融化。

I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace.

我唯一能看到的是：一个心态平静的人在那里可以心满意足地生活，怀着乐观向上的思想，仿佛居住在皇宫里一般。

The town's poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any.

在我看来，城镇贫民的牛活反倒常常是最独立的。

Maybe they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving.

也许他们很伟大，可以坦然地对待世间的事情。

Most think that they are above being supported by the town；

大部分人对于城镇的恩惠不屑一顾，

but it oftener happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means, which should be more disreputable.

可在现实生活中，他们维持生活的手段反而经常是不诚实的，这让他们更为声名狼藉。

Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage.

像圣贤一样，如同培育花园中的花草一样来培育贫困吧。

Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends.

没必要不辞辛苦地去获取新东西，不管是衣服还是朋友，

Turn the old；return to them. Things do not change；we change.

让旧的翻新，回到它们的怀抱。世间万物不会变化,变的是我们。

Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

卖掉衣服时，你要保留自己的思想。

God will see that you do not want society.

上帝会见证， 你并不想融入社会。

If I were confined to a corner of a garret all my days, like a spider,

如果我整天被局限在阁楼的角落，如同一只細蛛。

the world would be just as large to me while I had my thoughts about me.

可只要我还有自己的思想，那么世界还是原来那样大。