How to Grow Old
by Bertrand Russell
怎样才能活得老
罗 素
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. 题目虽然这样写,实际上本文所要谈的却是人怎样才可以不老. 对于像我这样年纪的人来说,这个问题就更是重要得多了. [我老是误理解为了这个课题是我现在所研究的重点，请问有区别吗， 自然我这里没了解到罗素写这片的背景年龄啊或是职业等等]
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 ancsetors. 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. 我的头一条忠告是,你可得要挑选好你的先人啊。 我的父母年纪轻轻就去世了,可是说到祖辈,我还是选得不错的. 我外祖父固然是在风华正茂之年就弃世了,当时他只有六十七岁, 但是我的祖父、祖母和外祖母却都活到了八十以上。 再往远一点说，在我的先人之中，我发现只有一位活得不长， 他得了一种现在已不多见的病， 那就是头让人砍掉了。[这里说的幽默我就想到了鲁迅先生，难得华人的幽默词解，怎易得洋人的，翻译时要小心眼些]
[看了又看读了又读，这段最漂亮]
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 discarriages, as soon as she became a widow devoted herself to women'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 said . She inquired the cause of his melancholy and he said that he had just parted from his two grandchilren. " 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. 我的一位
曾祖母，和吉本* 是朋友， 活到了九十二岁， 她直到临终都使儿孙望而生畏。 我
外祖母有九个孩子活了下来， 有一个孩子很小就死了， 她还流产过多次。 丈夫一死， 她就致力于女子高等教育。 她常对人说， 她在意大利碰到过一位愁容满面的老先生， 就问他为什么闷闷不乐， 他说两个小孙孙刚刚离开他。 “ 我的天哪！” 我外祖母就说， “我的孙子孙女有七十二个， 要是每离开一个都难过， 我的生活可就太痛苦了。” 听了这话， 老先生竟说，“ Madre snaturale ”**
* 吉本 （Edward Gibbon, 1737-1794) 是英国历史学家， 著有《罗马帝国之衰亡》 （The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire )。-- 译注
** 这句话是意大利语， 意思是：“ 这个做母亲的真怪呀！” -- 译注
[这里的两个译注真切体会到了翻译的存在，语言文化的差异需要加注，经典外文[除中英文以外的]需要加注，翻译就体现在这了。 ]
[曾祖母和外祖母同一人？？？中文也要随着英文写不一样的？？？]
maternal: [ mə'tə:nl ]
a. 母亲的,母系的,母方的
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 the 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 your future. 但是我作为七十二人中的一员， 倒是赞成她的办法的。 她过了八十以后， 常睡不着觉，所以从午夜到凌晨三点总要读些科普读物。 我相信她从来没有工夫去注意自己是不是在日益衰老。 我认为，要想永保青春，这是最好的办法。
你要是有广泛的爱好和强烈的兴趣， 而且还有能力参加一些活动， 你就没有理由去考虑自己已经活了多少岁这样的具体数字， 更没有理由去考虑自己的余年大概是很有限的了。 [这是座右铭啊]
As regards hearlth, 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. 谈到健康问题， 我就没有什么可说的了，因为我没怎么生过病。 我想吃什么就吃什么， 想喝什么就喝什么， 眼睛睁不开了就睡觉， 从来不为对身体有益而搞什么活动， 然而实际上我喜欢做的事大都是有助于增进身体健康的。
wholesome: [ 'həulsəm ]
[这个词把我搞昏了，绝对不能放过！！！]
a. 有益健康的,合乎卫生的,健全的
Psychologically ther 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 to think to oneself that one's emotions used to be more vivid than they are, and one's mind more keen. If this is true it should be forgotten, and if it is forgotten if will probably not be ture. 从心理方面来说， 到了老年， 有两种危险倾向需要注意防止。 一是过分地怀念过去。 老想着过去， 总觉得过去怎么好怎么好，或者总是为已故的朋友而忧伤， 这是不妥的。 一个人应当考虑未来， 考虑一些可以有所作为的事情。 要做到这一点并非总是很容易的； 自己过去的经历就是一个越来越沉重的包袱。 人们往往会对自己说，我过去感情多么丰富， 思想多么敏锐， 现在不行了。 如果真是这样的话， 那就不要去想它， 而如果你不去想它， 情形就很可能不是这样了。
The othe thing to be avoided is clinging to youth in the hope of sucking vigour 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, your 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, philanthropie, 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. 另一件需要避免的事就是老想和年轻人呆在一起， 希望从青年的活力中汲取力量。 孩子们长大之后， 就希望独立生活， 如果你还像在他们年幼时那样关心他们， 你就会成为他们的累赘， 除非他们特别麻木不仁。 我不是说一个人不应当关心孩子， 而是说这种关心主要应该是多为他们着想， 可能的话， 给他们一些接济，而不应该过分地动感情。
动物， 一旦它们的后代能够自己照料自己， 它们就不管了； 但是人， 由于抚养子女的时间长， 是难以这样做的。
[下划线粗体的句子，转在其中，值得借鉴]
[题目我会白目地就说 怎样变老 怎样不变老 不知道是不是白目的想法，也许太死板了，不会出于罗素之口]
