However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults in paradise.

不论你的生活如何卑贱，你要面对它生活，不要躲避它，更别用恶言咒骂它。它不像你那样坏：你最富有的时候，倒是看似最穷。爱找缺点的人就是到天堂里也能找到缺点。

Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring.

你要爱你的生活，尽管它贫穷。快活、激动和光荣的时光即使是在济贫院里也享受得到。夕阳照射在贫民居所的窗户上所反射的光同照在富人公寓的窗户上所反射的光一样耀眼夺目，都能使得门前的积雪在早春消融。

I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there and have as cheering thoughts. As in a palace, the town’s poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any.

我只看到，一个从容的人，在哪里也像在皇宫中一样，生活得心满意足而富有愉快的思想。依我之见，城镇的贫民倒是往往过着最独立不羁的生活。

May be they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving. Most think that they are above being supported by the town, but it often happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means, which should be more disreputable.

也许他们十分伟大，对任何事情皆可坦然受之。 大多数人认为他们不屑于接受城镇的施救; 但是实际上他们经常使用不诚实的手段来维持自己的生计，这是更为不体面的。

Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old, return to them. Things do not change, we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

像圣贤一样，如同栽培花园中的花草一般来培养贫困吧。不要自找麻烦地去追求新鲜事物，新衣物和新朋友。让旧物常新，回归旧物。万物不变，是我们在变。衣服可以卖掉，但要永存思想。

英语学习笔记:

1 .However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names.

英语点睛：这实际上是几个短句，后面的句子都省略了however mean your life is.

2 .The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man’s abode.

英语点睛：由as…as引导的句子，非常精炼。

学习更多：

1 .However hard this task is. we can finish“:we must finish it.

(表示决心)不论这个工作有多难，我们都完成，而且我们必须完成。

2 .You are as good as you think you are.

(表示程度)你像你自己认为的一样好。