All of us have read thrilling stories in which the hero had only a limited and specified time to live. Sometimes it was as long as a year, sometimes as short as 24 hours.
我们都读过震撼人心的故事，故事中的主人公只给再活一段很有限的时光，有时长达一年，有时却短至一日。
But always we were interested in discovering just how the doomed man chose to spend his last days or his last hours.
但我们总是想要知道，注定将要离世的人会选择如何度过自己最后的时光。
I speak, of course, of free men who have a choice, not condemned criminals whose sphere of activities is strictly delimited.
当然，我说的是那些有选择权利的自由人，而不是那些活动范围受到严格限定的死囚。
Such stories set us thinking, wondering what we should do under similar circumstances.
这样的故事让我们思考，在类似的处境下，我们该做些什么呢?
What events, what experiences, what associations should we crowd into those last hours as mortal beings?
作为终有一死的人，在临终的几个小时内我们该做什么事、经历些什么或做哪些联想?
What happiness should we find in reviewing the past, what regrets?
回忆往昔，什么使我们开心快乐?什么又使我们悔恨不已?
Sometimes I have thought it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should die tomorrow.
我常常想，如果把生命中的每一天都当作最后一天来过，也不失为一种极好的选择。
Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of life.
这种态度会使人格外重视生命的价值。
We should live each day with gentleness, vigor and a keenness of appreciation which are often lost when time stretches before us in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come.
我们每天都应该以优雅的姿态、充沛的精力、抱着感恩之心来生活。但当时间以无休止的日、月和年在我们面前流逝时，我们却常常没有了这种感觉。
There are those, of course, who would adopt the Epicurean motto of “Eat, drink, and be merry”. But most people would be chastened by the certainty of impending death.
当然，也有人奉行“吃、喝、享受”的享乐主义信条，但绝大多数人还是会受到即将到来的死亡的惩罚。