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.
過了八十之后,她發現自己有些難以入睡,所以她習慣性地用子夜到凌晨三點的幾個小時來讀一些科普書籍。
I do not believe that she ever had time to notice that she was growing old.
我不信她會有時間來注意自己正在慢慢變老。
This,I think,is the proper recipe for remaining young.
而這個,我想,正是保持年輕的良方。
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 years you have already lived,still less of the probable brevity of your future.
如果你有廣泛而敏銳的興趣與持續而有效的行動,你就沒有理由僅僅從統計學的角度去考慮你已經活了多少年,你的未來可能多么短暫。
As regards health,I have nothing useful to say since I have little experience of illness.
談到健康,我沒有任何有用的東西可說,因為我幾乎沒有得過病。
I eat and drink whatever I like,and sleep when I cannot keep awake.
我吃我喜歡吃的,困了就去睡覺。
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.
盡管事實上我喜歡做的事通常都是有益于健康的,但我卻從未做過任何有益于健康的場地運動。
Psychologically there are two dangers to be guarded against in old age.
從心理學的層面考慮,晚年有兩個必須提防的危險。
One of these is undue absorption in the past.
一個是不恰當地專注于過去。
It does not do to live in memories,in regrets for the good old days,or in sadness about friends who are dead.
不要一味地生活在記憶里,生活在對往昔美好時光的惋惜里,生活在朋友逝世的悲哀里;
One's thoughts must be directed to the future,and to things about which there is something to be done.
人的思想應專注于未來,專注于那些尚有可為的事情。
This is not always easy;one's own past is a gradually increasing weight.
這樣做并不總是很容易,一個人的過去正逐漸地增加份量。
It is easy to think to oneself that one‘s emotions used to be more vivid than they are,and one's mind more keen.
人們很容易意識到自己過去的情感比現在活躍得多,自己過去的思維比現在敏銳得多。
If this is true it should be forgotten,and if it is forgotten it will probably not be true.
即便這是事實也應該把它忘記;而如果你把它忘了,它便可能不再是事實。
The other thing to be avoided is clinging to youth in the hope of sucking vigor from its vitality.
另一個要避免的,是纏著年輕人,希望從他們身上汲取生命的活力。
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.
你的孩子長大成人后,他們希望過自己的生活,如果還像他們年幼時那樣繼續關注他們,你就有可能成為他們的一個包袱,除非他們異常冷漠。
I do not mean that one should be without in them,but one‘s interest should be contemplative and,if possible,philanthropic,but not unduly emotional.
我不是說你應該對他們漠不關心;而是說這種關心應該是沉思默想的,如果可能的話,更博大而不是過于情緒化。
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.
就動物而言,一旦幼崽長大到能夠照顧自己,立馬對它們不聞不問;人類因為成長期太長的原因,發覺這樣做有些困難。
I think that a successful old age is easier for those who have strong impersonal interests involving appropriate activities.
我想,那些有著強烈的非個人的興趣包括適當的活動的人更容易有一個成功的晚年。
It is in this sphere that long experience is really fruitful,and it is in this sphere that the wisdom born of experience can be exercised without being oppressive.
正是在這個領域里,豐富的閱歷會真正富有成效;正是在這個領域里,從閱歷中產生的智慧能夠運用自如。
It is no use telling grown-up children not to make mistakes,both because they will not believe you,and because mistakes are an essential part of education.
告誡成年的孩子不要犯錯毫無用處,這不僅因為他們不聽你的,還因為從錯誤中學習是教育的一個最基本的組成部分。
But if you are one of those who are incapable of impersonal interests,you may find that your life will be empty unless you concern yourself with your children and grandchildren.
然而如果你在發展非個人興趣上無能為力,你可能會發現,除非將自己與兒孫們連在一起,你的生活將變得一片空虛。
In that case you must realize that while you can still render them material services,such as making them an allowance or knotting them jumpers,you must not expect that they will enjoy your company.
在那種情形下,你必須意識到,雖然你依然能夠為他們提供具體的服務,像給他們一些津貼,為他們編織毛衣等等,你卻不能指望他們欣賞你的陪伴。
Some old people are oppressed by the fear of death.
一些老人因對死亡的恐懼而感到壓抑。
In the young there is a justification for this feeling.
年輕時有這種感覺是合理的。
Young men who have reason to fear that they will be killed in a battle may justifiably feel bitter in the thought that they have been cheated of the best things that life has to offer.
年輕的男人有理由害怕,他們將死于一場戰斗,而想到他們將被騙走生活一定會給他們的最好的東西,他們有理由感到痛苦。
But in an old man who has known human joys and sorrows,and has achieved whatever work it was in him to do,the fear of death is somewhat abject and ignoble.
而一個老年男子,他已了然于人類的歡樂與悲哀,已完成了自己所從事的工作,害怕死亡就有些可憐有些不大光彩了。
The best way to overcome it—so at least it seems to me—is to make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal,until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede,and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life.
克服它的最好的辦法就是,至少在我看來,就是讓自己的興趣漸漸趨于廣泛趨于非個人,直到自我的墻一點一點后退,你的個體生命日甚一日地和普遍的生命融為一體。
An individual human existence should be like a river—small at first,narrowly contained within its banks,and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls.
個人的生命應該像一條河,開始很小,在河床里磕磕碰碰地前行,熱情地沖過巖石穿越瀑布。
Gradually the river grows wider,the banks recede,the waters flow more quietly,and in the end,without any visible break,they become merged in the sea,and painlessly lose their individual being.
漸漸地,河面變得寬闊,河岸向后退卻,河水流淌得更為平靜,到最后,沒有任何可見的變化,它們與大海融為一體,毫無痛苦地失去了它們個體的生命。
The man who,in old age,can see his life in this way,will not suffer from the fear of death,since the things he cares for will continue.
人到老年,能夠以這種方式看待自己的生命,便不會有死亡的恐懼,因為他所關心的事物仍將繼續。
And if,with the decay of vitality,weariness increases,the thought of rest will not be unwelcome.
而隨著活力的衰退疲勞的增加,休息的想法也未必不受歡迎。
I should wish to die while still at work,knowing that others will carry on what I can no longer do,and content in the thought that what was possible has been done.
我應該希望在工作時死去,知道別人將繼續我不能再繼續的,并且滿足于這樣的想法—所有可能的工作,我都已經完成。