除夕随想（节选）

New Year＇s Eve （excerpts）

每个人都有两个生日，每年里至少有这么两天，促使他想一想时间的流逝对他自己寿命的影响。一个．自然是那专属他自己的生日。不过．由于老规矩渐渐废弃，这种隆重庆祝个人生日的习惯已经差不多消失．只有小孩子们还保持着；但小孩子过生日．除了蛋糕、桔子．是什么也不想、什么也不懂的。然而，一个新年诞生．普天同庆．无论国王还是补鞋匠．都不会置之不理。元月一号这一天，谁也不会漠不关心。因为．人人都要在这一天算算自己过去的岁月．想想自己还会有多少时间。所以．这是我们大家共同的生日。

Every man hath two birth-days： two days, at least, in every year, which set him upon revolving the lapse of time, as it affects his mortal duration. The one is that which in an especial manner he termeth his. In the gradual desuetude of old observances, this custom of solemnizing our proper birth-day hath nearly passed away, or is left to children, who reflect nothing at all about the matter, nor understand anything in it beyond cake and orange. But the birth of a New Year is of an interest too wide to be pretermitted by king or cobbler. No one ever regarded the First of January with indifference. It is that from which all date their time, and count upon what is left. It is the nativity of our common Adam.