Edmund N. ("Ned") Carpenter, II (1921–2008) was president of Richards, Layton & Finger, a law firm. He studied at Princeton, where he established the Edward N. Carpenter, II professorship, and at Harvard University. He earned a Bronze Star for his service in World War II, and was a past president of the Delaware Bar Association. Carpenter died on December 19, 2008.
In 1938, while a 17-year old student in Lawrenceville, N.J., Carpenter wrote an essay entitled "Before I die...", setting out the things he hoped to achieve in his life. The essay was read at his 2008 funeral by one of his daughters, Lea Carpenter. The essay achieved some acclaim, and was later reprinted in several newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal.
| Before I die I want to know that I have done something truly great, that I have accomplished some glorious achievement the credit for which belongs solely to me. I do not aspire to become as famous as a Napoleon and conquer many nations; but I do want, almost above all else, to feel that I have been an addition to this world of ours. I should like the world, or at least my native land, to be proud of me and to sit up and take notice when my name is pronounced and say, "There is a man who has done a great thing." I do not want to have passed through life as just another speck of humanity, just another cog in a tremendous machine. I want to be something greater, far greater than that. My desire is not so much for immortality as for distinction while I am alive. When I leave this world, I want to know that my life has not been in vain, but that I have, in the course of my existence, done something of which I am rightfully very proud. |
在我的有生之年，我要做一件真正偉大的事，它的輝煌的成就只屬於我。我不希望像拿破崙那樣征服許多國家，但我想，我要為我們這個世界增加有價值的東西。我期望在世界上，至少在我的故鄉，人們因為我的一生感到驕傲和自豪。當未來人們念到我名字時會說∶這個人做了許多有益的事情。 |
| Before I die I want to know that during my life I have brought great happiness to others. Friendship, we all agree, is one of the best things in the world, and I want to have many friends. But I could never die fully contented unless I knew that those with whom I had been intimate had gained real happiness from their friendship with me. Moreover, I feel there is a really sincere pleasure to be found in pleasing others, a kind of pleasure that can not be gained from anything else. We all want much happiness in our lives, and giving it to others is one of the surest ways to achieve it for ourselves. |
在我的有生之年，我要給別人帶來巨大的幸福。友誼，是世界上最美好的東西之一。我想有很多朋友，並且期望我的朋友們因為與我的親密友誼而感到幸福。我覺得有一個真正有誠意並能夠取悅別人的行為，是人生中的一種樂趣。我們都希望我們的生活更幸福，能給別人帶來幸福是自己得到幸福的最可靠的途徑之一。 |
| Before I die I want to have visited a large portion of the globe and to have actually lived with several foreign races in their own environment. By traveling in countries other than my own I hope to broaden and improve my outlook on life so that I can get a deeper, and more complete satisfaction from living. By mixing the weighty philosophy of China with the hard practicalism of America, I hope to make my life fuller. By blending the rigid discipline of Germany with the great liberty in our own nation I hope to more completely enjoy my years on this earth. These are but two examples of the many things which I expect to achieve by traveling and thus have a greater appreciation of life. |
在我的有生之年，我想訪問地球上的大部分國家，並能在外國與當地人一起生活，從而擴大和提高我的人生觀，使我對生活有更深、更全面地理解。通過融合中國人的哲學觀，美國人的實用精神和德國人的紀律性，我的人生會更充實。 |
| Before I die there is another great desire I must fulfill, and that is to have felt a truly great love. At my young age I know that love, other than some filial affection, is probably far beyond my ken. Yet, young as I may be, I believe I have had enough inkling of the subject to know that he who has not loved has not really lived. Nor will I feel my life is complete until I have actually experienced that burning flame and know that I am at last in love, truly in love. I want to feel that my whole heart and soul are set on one girl whom I wish to be a perfect angel in my eyes. I want to feel a love that will far surpass any other emotion that I have ever felt. I know that when I am at last really in love then I will start living a different, better life, filled with new pleasures that I never knew existed. |
在我的有生之年，我要經歷刻骨銘心的愛。沒有經歷過愛情之火考驗的人生是不完整的，當我的心和我的靈魂跟我的心上人融會在一起，我們會開始一種新的，更加美好的生活。我們的愛將會超過世界上任何其它感情。 |
| Before I die I want to feel a great sorrow. This, perhaps, of all my wishes will seem the strangest to the reader. Yet, is it unusual that I should wish to have had a complete life? I want to have lived fully, and certainly sorrow is a part of life. It is my belief that, as in the case of love, no man has lived until he has felt sorrow. It molds us and teaches us that there is a far deeper significance to life than might be supposed if one passed through this world forever happy and carefree. Moreover, once the pangs of sorrow have slackened, for I do not believe it to be a permanent emotion, its dregs often leave us a better knowledge of this world of ours and a better understanding of humanity. Yes, strange as it may seem, I really want to feel a great sorrow. With this last wish I complete the synopsis of the things I want to do before I die. Irrational as they may seem to the reader, nevertheless they comprise a sincere summary of what I truthfully now believe to be the things most essential to a fully satisfactory and happy life. As I stand here on the threshold of my future, these are the things which to me seem the most valuable. Perhaps in fifty years I will think that they are extremely silly. Perhaps I will wonder, for instance, why I did not include a wish for continued happiness. Yet, right now, I do not desire my life to be a bed of roses. I want it to be something much more than that. I want it to be a truly great adventure, never dull, always exciting and engrossing; not sickly sweet, yet not unhappy. And I believe it will be all I wish if I do these things before I die. |
在我的一生中，我將留下許多遺憾。世界不是完美的，遺憾是人生中的一部份。只有經歷了遺憾，接受了遺憾，我才會更加珍惜人生的美好。 |
| As for death itself, I do not believe that it will be such a disagreeable thing providing my life has been successful. I have always considered life and death as two cups of wine. Of the first cup, containing the wine of life, we can learn a little from literature and from those who have drunk it, but only a little. In order to get the full flavor we must drink deeply of it for ourselves. I believe that after I have quaffed the cup containing the wine of life, emptied it to its last dregs, then I will not fear to turn to that other cup, the one whose contents can be designated only by X, an unknown, and a thing about which we can gain no knowledge at all until we drink for ourselves. Will it be sweet, or sour, or tasteless? Who can tell? Surely none of us like to think of death as the end of everything. Yet is it? That is a question that for all of us will one day be answered when we, having witnessed the drama of life, come to the final curtain. Probably we will all regret to leave this world, yet I believe that after I have drained the first cup, and have possibly grown a bit weary of its flavor, I will then turn not unwillingly to the second cup and to the new and thrilling experience of exploring the unknown. |
人生就像兩杯酒，一杯是別人喝酒的感受，就是我們學到的書本知識和別人的經驗；另一杯是我們自己喝酒的感受，就是我們自己體會到的人生中的酸甜苦辣。只有堅持人生的不懈探索，生活才會充滿激動人心的色彩和樂趣。 |
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