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奥利弗·霍姆斯（1841~1935），美国法学家，曾任联邦最高法院法官。本文是他在电台为庆贺他90寿辰而举办的座谈会上的发言。
In this symposium my part is only to sit in silence. To express one’s feelings as the end draws near is too intimate a task.
But I may mention one thought that comes to me as a listener. 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 voices 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. For to live is to function. That is all there is to living.”
And so I end with a line from a Latin poet who uttered the message more than fifteen hundred years ago, “Death plucks my ear and says: Live—I am coming.”
在这次座谈会上，我要做的只是静静地坐着。在行将朽木之年来谈自己的感受，这个任务太私人化了。
但我可以谈一下我作为一名听众所产生的一个想法。在比赛中，骑手在到达目的地后并不会突然止步。在完全停止之前，他还要一阵小跑。他还有时间听听朋友们亲切的话语，还有时间对自己说：大功告成了。然而语音刚落，他就听到应答：“比赛虽已结束，但只要还有力气去做，工作就永无止境。使你止步的那阵小跑未必只以休息告终。只要你还活着，就不可能是这个结果。因为，人活着就要发挥作用。那才是活着的全部意义。”
所以，我用一位拉丁诗人1 500多年前写下的一行诗句作为结束语：“死神拉着我的耳朵说：活着吧——我来了。”
想飞的鱼 摘自Famous Lectures
In this symposium my part is only to sit in silence. To express one’s feelings as the end draws near is too intimate a task.
But I may mention one thought that comes to me as a listener. 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 voices 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. For to live is to function. That is all there is to living.”
And so I end with a line from a Latin poet who uttered the message more than fifteen hundred years ago, “Death plucks my ear and says: Live—I am coming.”
在这次座谈会上，我要做的只是静静地坐着。在行将朽木之年来谈自己的感受，这个任务太私人化了。
但我可以谈一下我作为一名听众所产生的一个想法。在比赛中，骑手在到达目的地后并不会突然止步。在完全停止之前，他还要一阵小跑。他还有时间听听朋友们亲切的话语，还有时间对自己说：大功告成了。然而语音刚落，他就听到应答：“比赛虽已结束，但只要还有力气去做，工作就永无止境。使你止步的那阵小跑未必只以休息告终。只要你还活着，就不可能是这个结果。因为，人活着就要发挥作用。那才是活着的全部意义。”
所以，我用一位拉丁诗人1 500多年前写下的一行诗句作为结束语：“死神拉着我的耳朵说：活着吧——我来了。”
想飞的鱼 摘自Famous Lectures