However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house.

　　不管你的生活如何卑微，都得勇敢面对，努力生活；不要逃避，更不要诅咒。当你贫苦不堪时，生活并不那样糟糕。而当你富甲天下时，生活倒显得贫瘠乏味。就是在天堂，挑剔的人总能挑出缺点。虽然贫穷，你也该热爱生活，因为就是在济贫院，你也有自己愉快兴奋的时光、光荣辉煌的岁月。

　　The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace. The town's poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any. Maybe they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving. Most think that they are above being supported by the town; but it often happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means, which should be more disreputable. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage.

　　夕阳照在济贫院窗上的反光与富人宅第的一样耀目，门前的积雪同在早春溶化。我只知道一个心绪宁静的人，在哪里也像在皇宫中一样，生活得心满意足、愉快自得。我看城镇中的穷人往往过着最为无拘无束的生活。或许他们只是超乎寻常，所以受之无愧。大多数人都认为自己无需依赖城镇的供养，然而结果常常是他们靠着不诚实的手段养活自己，这比贫民的生活更不体面。视贫穷如园中的花草、像圣人一样慢慢地耕耘吧。

　　Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old, return to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

　　不要为了追求新花样——无论是衣服还是朋友——而一味地麻烦自己。翻开故往，回归故往。万物未变，我们在变。卖掉你的衣服，保留自己的思想。