Cheerfulness As a Life Power: Bilingual Reading in English and Chinese

As a product of Chu Dongwei's translation workshop in which he translated the quite inspiring booklet by Orison Swett Marden to share with his students of translation, this bilingual book can be used for multiple purposes: as inspirational reading for English speakers who are learning Chinese or the other way round, translation practice material for learners of translation between English and Chinese, or simply as reading for the general bilingual reader. The soul-consuming and friction-wearing tendency of this hurrying, grasping, competing age is the excuse for this booklet. Is it not an absolute necessity to get rid of all irritants, of everything which worries and frets, and which brings discord into so many lives? Cheerfulness has a wonderful lubricating power. It lengthens the life of human machinery, as lubricants lengthen the life of inert machinery. Life's delicate bearings should not be carelessly ground away for mere lack of oil. What is needed is a habit of cheerfulness, to enjoy every day as we go along; not to fret and stew all the week, and then expect to make up for it Sunday or on some holiday. It is not a question of mirth so much as of cheerfulness; not alone that which accompanies laughter, but serenity, -a calm, sweet soul-contentment and inward peace. Are there not multitudes of people who have the "blues," who yet wish well to their neighbors? They would say kind words and make the world happier-but they "haven't the time." To lead them to look on the sunny side of things, and to take a little time every day to speak pleasant words, is the message of the hour. Dr. Chu Dongwei is associate professor of the School of Interpreting and Translation Studies, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. He is also the Chinese translator of Will Durant's On the Meaning of Life (Jiangxin People's Press, 2009).