Wikipediaによると
『1965年、この詩に感銘を受けた宮澤次郎（凸版印刷常務、トッパン・ムーア社長）はこの詩の作者を追求し、原文を入手して原作者がサミュエル・ウルマンであることを明らかにした[5]。』
((『本当に気持ちの持ちようです。前向きに考えていけば、人間、夢は実現できるんだと」』))ジャパネットタカタの前社長も言っている。
70歳の時 私はこの詩のような心の状態を保持しているだろうか？ウルマンは八十過ぎまで生きたらしいが、考えてみれば人生に始めと終わりはあるが。その日に年齢はなく、常に今しかない。青春もなければ老年もない。老いたと感じるのは疾病とは違い、単に記憶の呪縛である。成功も失敗も栄光も挫折もただ自分の記憶である。経験から理想を捨て経験から疑いが増えるのも今が原因ではなく、自分の記憶が原因だと思えば、今から弾き出された感覚に怯える必要はないことがわかる。今という経験において誰もが赤ん坊であり同時に老人である。今を忘却させるのは過去であり、過去の死んだ知識、今とは縁のない記憶に過ぎない。青春の思い出は今を忘却させる美酒であり毒である。
“ＹＯＵＴＨ”
Ｓａｍｕｅｌ Ｕｌｍａｎ
Youth is not a time of life -it is a state of mind ; it is a temper of the will, a quality of a imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over love of ease.
Nobody grows old only by deserting their ideals. Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul
Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear, and despair ― there are the long, long, years that bow the head and turn the growing spirit back to dust.
Whether seventy or sixteen, there is in every being's heart the love of wonder, the sweet amazement at the stars and the starlike things and thoughts, the undouted challenge of events, the unfailing childlike appetite for what next, and the joy and the game of life.
You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear, as young as your hope, as old as your despair.
So long as your heart receives messages of beauty, cheer, courage, grandeur, and power from the earth, from man and from the Infinit, so long you are young.
When the writer are all down and all the central place of your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cyncism, then you are grown old indeed and may God have mercy on your soul.
Ｓａｍｕｅｌ Ｕｌｍａｎ
Youth is not a time of life -it is a state of mind ; it is a temper of the will, a quality of a imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over love of ease.
Nobody grows old only by deserting their ideals. Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul
Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear, and despair ― there are the long, long, years that bow the head and turn the growing spirit back to dust.
Whether seventy or sixteen, there is in every being's heart the love of wonder, the sweet amazement at the stars and the starlike things and thoughts, the undouted challenge of events, the unfailing childlike appetite for what next, and the joy and the game of life.
You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear, as young as your hope, as old as your despair.
So long as your heart receives messages of beauty, cheer, courage, grandeur, and power from the earth, from man and from the Infinit, so long you are young.
When the writer are all down and all the central place of your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cyncism, then you are grown old indeed and may God have mercy on your soul.
下線部は付け加えられた。
