英语经典美文心灵鸡汤学习:How to Grow Old 如何慢慢变老

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英语经典美文心灵鸡汤学习:How to Grow Old如何慢慢变老

　　Bertrand Russell
　　
  C" o, k- T! C8 W1 Z' A+ l　　In spite of the title, this article will really be on how not to grow old, which，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 the 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. 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 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 woman's higher education. She was one of the founders of Girton College,and worked hard at opening the medical profession to women. She used 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 of them, I should have a dismal existence!”Madre snaturale,”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. 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 years you have already lived, still less of the probable brevity of you future.
2 _; f& y1 |+ V) @% P7 O( O" l　　[英]伯特兰·罗素
4 K1 I3 \; @7 z( J) z2 s# ]　　As regards health I have nothing useful to say since I have little experience 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.
9 ^) ]: P  P% `+ d* _! \　　与题目如何变老不同，本文真正的主旨是如何避免变老。这样的话题对我这样年纪的人来说，显得更为重要。要避免变老，我的第一个建议是:一定要小心冀冀地选择自己的祖先。虽然我的双亲在年轻的时候就去世了，可假如算上其他先人，我选的祖先还是相当不错的。确实，我的外祖父在67岁的时候便离开了人世，但是我的外祖母和祖父母三人都活了80多岁。时间更为久远一些的祖先当中，我只找到有一位没有能够安享
　　晚年的，他是死于一种目前已极为少见的疾病，即被人砍了头。我有一位曾祖母，她还是吉本的好友，整整活了92岁，并且直到离开世界前的最后一天，她在后代的心目中都很有威严。我的外祖母，养活了9个孩子，还有一个幼年时去世的孩子，并且有过多次小产。丈夫去世之后，她便马上致力于女子高等教育事业。她是格顿学院的奠基人之一，并为打开女性通向医学殿堂的大门作出了不懈的努力。她常常讲起在意大利的经历。她曾遇见一位年长的绅士，看上去闷闷不乐。于是她就问这位绅士为什么悲伤，他回答说他不久前刚和两个孙子辈的孩子永别了。“天啊!”她惊叫道，“我有72个孙子孙女，要是每当他们中的某个死去，我都十分悲伤的话，那我的生活得多么悲惨啊!”这位绅士满脸惊讶地用意大利语说道:“多么不寻常的母亲啊。”但是，作为那72个子孙中的一员，我赞同她的理念。刚过80岁，她发现自己很难入睡，于是她慢慢地养成了习惯，从子夜时分到凌晨三点开始阅读科普文章。我不相信她会有时间注意到自己已经正慢慢变老。我认为，这样的行为方式正是永驻青春的奥妙所在。如果你有广泛而浓厚的兴趣，而且能积极踊跃地参加一些活动。自己已经活了多少年，这些具体的数字根本没有必要多加考虑，更无需为剩下的时日多少而担心。
　　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 so live in memories, in regress for the good old days, or in sadness about friends who are dead. One's thoughts must be directed to the future and to things about which there is something to be done. This is not always easy: one's own past is gradually increasing weight. It is easy to think to oneself that one's emotions used to be more vivid than they are, and one's mind keener. If this is true it should be forgotten, and if it is forgotten it will probably not be true.
　　关于身体健康，我没有什么值得借鉴的事情，因为我很少生病。我想吃就吃，想喝就喝，困了就睡。我做事情的原则是:不会因为对健康有益才去做。在实际生活中，我所喜欢做的率情大多是有益的。
0 j2 Q! {8 L, a& B$ d" g  [- g　　The other thug to be avoided is clinging to youth in the hope of sucking vigor from its vitality. When your children are grown up they want to live their own lives，and 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 interest in them，but one’s 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.
　　从心理学上看，有两种危险是值得步入老年的人预防的。其一是思念过去而不能自拔，生活在回忆里，深切地留恋美好的往事，为朋友的去世悲愉不已，这样做什么好处也没有。一个人的心思一定要放在未来，放在力所能及的事情上。这往往很难做到，随着年岁的增长，人的经历会在心中占据越来越重的地位，人们很容易想到，自己现在的情感不比先前热烈，先前的思维要比现在敏捷得多。如果这是事实的话，你就必须放弃这一念头，可如果真的忘掉了，这又不是事实了。
) B8 w+ F0 Z$ P- a0 m' |　　I think that a successful old age is easiest for those who have strong impersonal interests involving appropriate activities. 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. 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.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 you children and grandchildren. In that case you must realize that while you can still render them material services，such as making them an allowance or knitting them jumpers，you must not expect that they will enjoy your company.
　　另一点就是要避免希望可以从青年人的身上得到他们生命的活力。当孩子们一个个变成大人之后，他们想拥有自己的生活。如果你还是像他们小时候那样，一直照顾他们，你很可能会成为他们的负担，除非他们一直是麻木不仁。我的意思并不是说人们应该对自己的成年子女漠不关心，而是在心里关心就足够了。如果条件允许的话，在物质方面给他们一些资助，而不应太注重感情。一旦动物幼崽能够独立生活了，动物就会立刻把它们扔到一边，而人类却因为抚育婴儿时间较长，最后发现很难做到这样。
: A1 |# Y( B9 E$ A: s7 b, h　　Some old people are oppressed by the fear of death. In the young there is a justification for this feeling. Young men who have reason to fear that they will be killed in battle may justifiably feel bitter in the thought that they have been cheated of the best things that life has to offer. 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 abjectt and ignoble. 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. 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. 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. 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, And if, with the decay of vitality, weariness increases, the thought of rest will not be unwelcome. 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.
　　我觉得，在一些适当的活动中，具有强烈的、非个人的兴趣，这样的成功的老年生活是最安逸的。恰恰在这一领域，丰富的经验才是真正有效果的;也刚好在这一领域，由经验而来的智慧才可以灵活运用而又不让旁人感到压迫。不停地嘱咐已经成年的子女别犯错误，那根本没有用，一来因为他们不再信任你的话，二来因为犯错误是教育的必经之路。可是，如果你无法对在意的事情不掺杂个人情感，你可能就会发现，假如自己对儿孙们不操心的话，生活就会空虚无趣。在这种情况下，你一定要认识到，即便你能在物质上给予他们帮助，比如不时给他们钱用来补贴家用或为他们编织毛衣，但是你别期盼他们会喜欢和你在一起。
7 R. s2 G, W7 E& ?6 C: @　　有些老人因为害怕死亡，而惶惶不可终日。年轻人有这种情绪还讲得过去，他们有理由担心自己将来会战死杀场。可一旦意识到自己被骗，已经失去了生活中最为美好的东西，他们的愤愤不平倒是情有可原，也无可指责。可是，一个老人已经品尝过了人生的酸甜苦辣，已经达到了自己事业的高峰，如果仍然害怕死亡那就是可鄙可耻的事情了。战胜这种惧怕心理的最好的办法—起码在我看来是—是逐渐拓展自己的兴趣，让它更为宽泛一些，更为脱离个人感情色彩，直到自我的束缚慢慢消去，直到你的私人生活与尘世的生活越发和谐。个人的生存应该如同一条河流—源头是一股溪流，两岸之间狭隘无比，波涛奔涌地冲击岩石，越过瀑布，河岸朝两边慢慢隐退，河面变得越来越宽，河水的流动更为平缓，最终静静地融入大海。河水与海水毫无痛楚地合二为一成为一体，忘却彼此。用这种观点来对待生活的老人就不会害怕死亡，因为他心中所牵挂的事情仍将发展。进一步来说，假如伴随着精力的每况愈下，精神日趋惶惶不安，安乐归西的想法也不失为一种好的选择。我希望工作精力旺盛的时候，便去往极乐世界，因为我清楚，我已经不能再工作，别人会将我未完成的事业进行下去。一想到自己所能做的一切，我便心满意足了。