讀點好英文:How to Grow Old 如何慢慢變老

How to Grow Old 如何慢慢變老

Bertrand Russell

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.

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.

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. 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.

?The other thing 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.

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.

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 abject 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.

如何慢慢變老

［英］伯特蘭·羅素

與題目如何變老不同，本文真正的主旨是如何避免變老。這樣的話題對我這樣年紀(jì)的人來說，顯得更為重要。要避免變老，我的第一個建議是：一定要小心翼翼地選擇自己的祖先。雖然我的雙親在年輕的時候就去世了，可假如算上其他先人，我選的祖先還是相當(dāng)不錯的。確實，我的外祖父在67歲的時候便離開了人世，但是我的外祖母和祖父母三人都活了80多歲。時間更為久遠一些的祖先當(dāng)中，我只找到有一位沒有能夠安享晚年的，他是死于一種目前已極為少見的疾病，即被人砍了頭。我有一位曾祖母，她還是吉本的好友，整整活了92歲，并且直到離開世界前的最后一天，她在后代的心目中都很有威嚴(yán)。我的外祖母，養(yǎng)活了9個孩子，還有一個幼年時去世的孩子，并且有過多次小產(chǎn)。丈夫去世之后，她便馬上致力于女子高等教育事業(yè)。她是格頓學(xué)院的奠基人之一，并為打開女性通向醫(yī)學(xué)殿堂的大門作出了不懈的努力。她常常講起在意大利的經(jīng)歷。她曾遇見一位年長的紳士，看上去悶悶不樂。于是她就問這位紳士為什么悲傷，他回答說他不久前剛和兩個孫子輩的孩子永別了?！疤彀?！”她驚叫道，“我有72個孫子孫女，要是每當(dāng)他們中的某個死去，我都十分悲傷的話，那我的生活得多么悲慘?。　边@位紳士滿臉驚訝地用意大利語說道：“多么不尋常的母親啊。”但是，作為那72個子孫中的一員，我贊同她的理念。剛過80歲，她發(fā)現(xiàn)自己很難入睡，于是她慢慢地養(yǎng)成了習(xí)慣，從子夜時分到凌晨三點開始閱讀科普文章。我不相信她會有時間注意到自己已經(jīng)正慢慢變老。我認(rèn)為，這樣的行為方式正是永駐青春的奧妙所在。如果你有廣泛而濃厚的興趣，而且能積極踴躍地參加一些活動。自己已經(jīng)活了多少年，這些具體的數(shù)字根本沒有必要多加考慮，更無需為剩下的時日多少而擔(dān)心。

關(guān)于身體健康，我沒有什么值得借鑒的事情，因為我很少生病。我想吃就吃，想喝就喝，困了就睡。我做事情的原則是：不會因為對健康有益才去做。在實際生活中，我所喜歡做的事情大多是有益的。

從心理學(xué)上看，有兩種危險是值得步入老年的人預(yù)防的。其一是思念過去而不能自拔，生活在回憶里，深切地留戀美好的往事，為朋友的去世悲慟不已，這樣做什么好處也沒有。一個人的心思一定要放在未來，放在力所能及的事情上。這往往很難做到，隨著年歲的增長，人的經(jīng)歷會在心中占據(jù)越來越重的地位，人們很容易想到，自己現(xiàn)在的情感不比先前熱烈，先前的思維要比現(xiàn)在敏捷得多。如果這是事實的話，你就必須放棄這一念頭，可如果真的忘掉了，這又不是事實了。

另一點就是要避免希望可以從青年人的身上得到他們生命的活力。當(dāng)孩子們一個個變成大人之后，他們想擁有自己的生活。如果你還是像他們小時候那樣，一直照顧他們，你很可能會成為他們的負擔(dān)，除非他們一直是麻木不仁。我的意思并不是說人們應(yīng)該對自己的成年子女漠不關(guān)心，而是在心里關(guān)心就足夠了。如果條件允許的話，在物質(zhì)方面給他們一些資助，而不應(yīng)太注重感情。一旦動物幼崽能夠獨立生活了，動物就會立刻把它們?nèi)拥揭贿?，而人類卻因為撫育嬰兒時間較長，最后發(fā)現(xiàn)很難做到這樣。

我覺得，在一些適當(dāng)?shù)幕顒又?，具有強烈的、非個人的興趣，這樣的成功的老年生活是最安逸的。恰恰在這一領(lǐng)域，豐富的經(jīng)驗才是真正有效果的；也剛好在這一領(lǐng)域，由經(jīng)驗而來的智慧才可以靈活運用而又不讓旁人感到壓迫。不停地囑咐已經(jīng)成年的子女別犯錯誤，那根本沒有用，一來因為他們不再信任你的話，二來因為犯錯誤是教育的必經(jīng)之路?？墒?，如果你無法對在意的事情不摻雜個人情感，你可能就會發(fā)現(xiàn)，假如自己對兒孫們不操心的話，生活就會空虛無趣。在這種情況下，你一定要認(rèn)識到，即便你能在物質(zhì)上給予他們幫助，比如不時給他們錢用來補貼家用或為他們編織毛衣，但是你別期盼他們會喜歡和你在一起。

有些老人因為害怕死亡，而惶惶不可終日。年輕人有這種情緒還講得過去，他們有理由擔(dān)心自己將來會戰(zhàn)死殺場。可一旦意識到自己被騙，已經(jīng)失去了生活中最為美好的東西，他們的憤憤不平倒是情有可原，也無可指責(zé)?？墒牵粋€老人已經(jīng)品嘗過了人生的酸甜苦辣，已經(jīng)達到了自己事業(yè)的高峰，如果仍然害怕死亡那就是可鄙可恥的事情了。戰(zhàn)勝這種懼怕心理的最好的辦法——起碼在我看來是——是逐漸拓展自己的興趣，讓它更為寬泛一些，更為脫離個人感情色彩，直到自我的束縛慢慢消去，直到你的私人生活與塵世的生活越發(fā)和諧。個人的生存應(yīng)該如同一條河流——源頭是一股溪流，兩岸之間狹隘無比，波濤奔涌地沖擊巖石，越過瀑布，河岸朝兩邊慢慢隱退，河面變得越來越寬，河水的流動更為平緩，最終靜靜地融入大海。河水與海水毫無痛楚地合二為一成為一體，忘卻彼此。用這種觀點來對待生活的老人就不會害怕死亡，因為他心中所牽掛的事情仍將發(fā)展。進一步來說，假如伴隨著精力的每況愈下，精神日趨惶惶不安，安樂歸西的想法也不失為一種好的選擇。我希望工作精力旺盛的時候，便去往極樂世界，因為我清楚，我已經(jīng)不能再工作，別人會將我未完成的事業(yè)進行下去。一想到自己所能做的一切，我便心滿意足了。

實戰(zhàn)提升

Practising & Exercise

導(dǎo)讀

伯特蘭·羅素（Bertrand Russell），二十世紀(jì)英國哲學(xué)家、數(shù)學(xué)家、邏輯學(xué)家、歷史學(xué)家。他與懷特海合著的《數(shù)學(xué)原理》對邏輯學(xué)、數(shù)學(xué)、集合論、語言學(xué)和分析哲學(xué)有著巨大影響。

羅素在文中探討了人應(yīng)該如何對待自己的晚年和將至的死期。文章著重談?wù)摿瞬饺胪砟旰笠龅男睦碚{(diào)節(jié)以及對人生結(jié)局應(yīng)有的態(tài)度。人生猶如一條細細的小河，最終匯入大海，過程雖然歷盡艱辛，但最后的結(jié)局卻風(fēng)平浪靜。

核心單詞

ancestor [??nsist?] n. 祖宗，祖先

terror [?ter?] n. 恐怖，驚駭

dismal [?dizm?l] adj. 憂郁的；沉悶的；

undue [??n?dju?] adj. 過度的；過分的

vitality [vai?t?liti] n. 活力，生氣

cheat [t?i?t] v. 欺騙；騙取

ignoble [iɡ?n?ubl] adj. 卑鄙的；不光彩的

decay [di?kei] v. 腐朽，腐爛；蛀蝕

翻譯

As regards health I have nothing useful to say since I have little experience of illness.

It does not do to live in memories, in regrets for the good old days, or in sadness about friends who are dead.

The other thing to be avoided is clinging to youth in the hope of sucking vigor from its vitality.