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1、HOW TO GROW OLD(如何平静老去？) HOW TO GROW OLD如何平静老去？By Bertrand Russell波特兰罗素Translated by sog2005-4-5 13:48古典的英国英语很难翻译，特别是罗素的文章。早几年读傅雷翻译的罗素文章，看着文章很平淡，但是不经意间说出来的话，需要你回味很长时间。这篇演讲稿更加堪称经典，忙里偷闲，拿这篇文章练一下手，欠妥处请多指点。sog2005-4-5 13:471. In spite of the title, this article will really be on how not to grow old, whi
2、ch, at my time of life, is a much more important subject. My first advice would be to choose your ancestors carefully. Although both my parents died young, I have done well in this respect as regards my other ancestors. My maternal grandfather, it is true, was cut off in the flower of his youth at t
3、he age of sixty-seven, but my other three grandparents all lived to be over eighty. Of remoter ancestors I can only discover one who did not live to a great age, and he died of a disease which is now rare, namely, having his head cut off。不管标题是怎么写的，这篇文章实际上告诉你的是如何减缓衰老，这样一个主题在我现在的生命阶段是很重要的。我的第一个建议是认真仔细
4、的去考察一下自己的宗谱。虽然我的父母去世的比较早，但是我的别的祖先都活的比较长寿。我敬爱的祖父，在67岁结束了自己像花期一样富有朝气的生命，我的其余几位祖辈的年龄都超过了80。在别的远祖当中，只有一位活的不是很长久，他死于一种被砍头的现在已经灭绝的疾病（不知道怎么很好的翻译这一句幽默）。2. A great grandmother of mine, who was a friend of Gibbon, lived to the age of ninety-two, and to her last day remained a terror to all her descendants. My
5、 maternal grandmother, after having nine children who survived, one who died in infancy, and many miscarriages, as soon as she became a widow, devoted herself to womans higher education. She was one of the founders of Girton College, and worked hard at opening the medical profession to women. She us
6、ed to relate how she met in Italy an elderly gentleman who was looking very sad. She inquired the cause of his melancholy and he said that he had just parted from his two grandchildren. “Good gracious”, she exclaimed, “I have seventy-two grandchildren, and if I were sad each time I parted from one o
7、f them, I should have a dismal existence!” “Madres naturale,” he replied. But speaking as one of the seventy-two, I prefer her recipe. After the age of eighty she found she had some difficulty in getting to sleep, so she habitually spent the hours from midnight to 3 a.m. in reading popular science.
8、I do not believe that she ever had time to notice that she was growing old. This, I think, is proper recipe for remaining young. If you have wide and keen interests and activities in which you can still be effective, you will have no reason to think about the merely statistical fact of the number of
9、 years you have already lived, still less of the probable brevity of you future.我的一位祖母，她是Gibbon的朋友，活了92岁，直到生命的最后一天一直都让她的子孙后代感到惊奇。我慈爱的祖母，抚养成人9个孩子，另有一个早年夭折，其中另有流产的例子。当她成为一个寡妇的时候，全身心投入到妇女高等教育当中，她是Girton学院的创始人之一，并且在妇女医疗方面做了大量的工作。她经常给我们讲述她在意大利遇到一位年老绅士的故事，当时，这位老年人看上去很忧愁悲伤。祖母去询问缘由，老人告诉他说是因为刚和两个孙子离别。祖母惊叹道：“
10、天啊！我有72个孙子，如果我和他们每一个离别的时候都感到悲哀不开心，我肯定生活的非常凄凉。”老绅士听了便转悲为欣。我便是她说的72个孙子之一。在80岁之后，她发现自己睡眠不是很好，于是她养成了从午夜到凌晨3点钟阅读流行科学杂志的习惯。我一直不相信她会有空余时间去注意到自己已经变老了，我认为这是保持年轻的一种好方法。如果你有广泛、热烈的兴趣和日常行动并在其中有很好的效率，你没有缘由去成天想那些已经逝去的许多岁月，并很少考虑不会太长久的将来年月。3. As regards health I have nothing useful to say since I have little experie
11、nce of illness. I eat and drink whatever I like, and sleep when I cannot keep awake. I never do anything whatever on the ground that it is good for health, though in actual fact the things I like doing are mostly wholesome.有关于健康方面，我没有太多有用的建议可以讲，因为我很少得病。我吃喝自己喜欢的东西，困顿了就去睡觉。我从来不按照任何所谓有益健康的（医生）建议行事，虽然我所
12、做的任何喜欢的事情都是非常有益于健康的。4. Psychologically there are two dangers to be guarded against in old age. One of these is undue absorption in the past. It does not do to live in memories, in regrets for the good old days, or in sadness about friends who are dead. Ones thoughts must be directed to the future an
13、d to things about which there is something to be done. This is not always easy: ones own past is gradually increasing weight. It is easy to think to oneself that ones emotions used to be more vivid than they are, and ones mind keener. If this is true it should be forgotten, and if it is forgotten it
14、 will probably not be true.在精神生活方面老年人有两个方面的危险因素需要注意。其中之一就是老是沉浸在过去的会议中，不能在回忆当中生活，不要为逝去的好岁月感到遗憾，也不要为已经去世的朋友感到悲哀。一个人的思想必须被引导向未来和那些必须要完成的事情上。这并不是一件容易做到的事情：一个人的过去岁月在逐渐的增多，很容易沉湎于那些昔日的雄心抱负，和那些无法忘怀的情结。如果情形确实是这样的，就应当都去忘却；如果都忘记了，逝去的就不应当是真实的。5. The other thing to be avoided is clinging to youth in the hope of
15、sucking vigor from its vitality. When your children are grown up they want to live their own lives, and if you continue to be as interested in them as you were when they were young, you are likely to become a burden to them, unless they are unusually callous. I do not mean that one should be without
16、 inerest in them, but ones interest should be contemplative and, if possible, philanthropic, but not unduly emotional. Animals become indifferent to their young as soon as their young can look after themselves, but human beings, owing to the length of infancy, find this difficult.另外一件事情，就是尽量避免抱着从青年人身上获取活力的目的去亲密接近年轻人，如果你一定要对他们抱有兴趣，除非他们冷淡无情，否则你很快会成为他们的负担。我并不是说老年人不应当对年轻人有兴趣，但是老人的兴趣应当是沉思冥想、保守的。应当是博爱的，而且不要包含太多的感情因素。动物们当自
