Oliver Wendell Holmes (奧利佛·文德爾·荷默斯)

Mar.7,1931. (1931.3.7)

Brief introduction to the speaker : (演講者簡介：)

Oliver Wendeil Holmes (1841-1935) Oliver Wendeil Holmes, Jr., was known as "the great dissenter". In 1902 President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. He served until he was almost 91 years old.

奧利佛·文德爾·荷默斯以“大反對家”而著稱。1902年，瑟奧多·羅斯福總統任命他美國最高法院陪審法官。他任此職將近91歲。

In this symposium, better is it only to sit in silence. To express one’s feelings as the end draws near is too intimate a task. That I would mention only one thought that comes to me as a listener-in: the riders in a race do not stop short when they reach the goal, there is a little finishing canter before coming to a standstill, there is time to hear the kind voice of friends, and to say to oneself, the work is done. But just as one says that, the answer comes the race is over but the work never is done while the power to work remains. The canter that brings you to a standstill need not be only coming to rest, it cannot be while you still live. But to lives is to function, that is all there is in living. So I end with a land from a Latin voice who had heard the message more than fifteen hundred years ago：death, death, clutch my ear, and says, live, I am coming.

此刻，沉默是金。生命行將結束，要表達個人感受并非易事。我只想談一下作為一名聽眾的想法。騎手們并非一到終點就即刻停止，而是繼續緩步向前，傾聽朋友的歡呼，并告訴自己行程結束了。但能力尚在，人生之行程就永未結束。終點之后的慢跑并非止步不前，因為活著便不能如此。活著就要有所作為，這就是生命的真諦。最后謹以一句古老的拉丁格言與諸位共勉：死神不至，生命不止。