The art of living is to know when to hold fast and when to let go.For life is a paradox1: it enjoins2 us to cling to its many gifts even while it ordains3 their eventual4 relinquishment5. The rabbis of old put it this way:A man comes to this world with his fist clenched6, but when he dies, his hand is open.
生活的艺术在于了解什么时间追求，什么时间舍弃。由于生活就是一个矛盾体：它要大家紧紧抓住它赐予大家的生命之礼，然后最后又让它们从大家手中跑掉。老先生们说：大家紧握着拳头来到这个世界上，离开这个世界时却摊开了双手。
Surely we ought to hold fast to life, for it is wondrous7, and full of a beauty that breaks through every pore of Gods own earth. We know that this is so,but all too often we recognize this truth only in our backward glance when we remember what was and then suddenly realize that it is no more.
当然大家应该紧紧把握生活，由于它美妙得不可思议，充满了从上帝的每一个毛孔里蹦出来的美。大家都了解这一点，但大家常常只有在回首往事时才会想去过去，才会忽然意识到过去永远地消逝了，才会承认这个道理。
We remember a beauty that faded, a love that waned8. But we remember with far greater pain that we did not see that beauty when it flowered, that we failed to respond with love when it was tendered.
Hold fast to life but not so fast that you cannot let go. This is the second side of lifes coin, the opposite pole of its paradox: we must accept our losses, and learn how to let go.
大家都记得美的褪去，爱的老去。但大家更痛苦地记得美正艳时，大家却没发现，爱正浓时，大家却没回话。抓住生活，但不要抓得太紧，以至你放不下手。这就是生活像硬币一样也有另一面，也是生活矛盾的另一极：大家需要同意舍弃，并且掌握如何让它过去。