1. How to grow old

1. 1. How to grow old • 2. In some societies people want children for what might be called familial reasons (E-C) • 3.五柳先生传 • 英译汉on books • 端午节 • 汶川 • Man Is Here For The Sake of Other Men

2. How to Grow Old Bertrand Russell

3. How to Grow Old Bertrand Russell 怎样活到老 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. • 题目虽是这样写,本文实际所要谈的却是人怎样才可以不老。对于像我这样的人来说,这个问题当是重要得多了。

4. 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. • 我的头一条忠告是要好好挑选你的先人。我的父母固然年纪轻轻就去世了,但是说到祖辈,我还是选得不错的。 • 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. • 我外祖父虽是在风华正茂的67岁就弃世了,但我的祖父母和外祖母却都活到了80岁以上。

5. Of my 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. • 在我的更早一些的先人中,我只发现一位活得不长,他是得了一种现在已不多见的病--头被人砍掉了。 • 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. • 我的一位曾祖母和吉本是朋友,活到了92岁,直到临终她都使所有的儿孙望而生畏。

6. 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 women's higher education. • 我外祖母有九个孩子活了下来,有一个夭亡,她还流产过很多次。丈夫一死,她就致力于女子高等教育。 • She was one of the founders of Girton College, and worked hard at opening the medical profession to women. • 她是戈登学院的创办人之一,为使医学专业对妇女开放做过许多工作。

7. 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. • 她曾对人说起,她在意大利碰到过一位愁容满面的老先生,就问他何以如此伤心,老先生说两个小孙子刚刚离开了他。 • "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!" • 我外祖母惊叹道,“天哪!我有 72 个孙子孙女,要是每离开一个都要难受,我的日子可就太凄惨了。"

8. "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. • “Madre snaturale ①”西班牙语”真是一个特殊的母亲” • 老先生回答说 :“Madre snaturale ①”。作为72个孙子辈中的一员,我倒是赞成外祖母的办法。她过了80 岁以后,常睡不着觉,索性养成了从午夜到凌晨3点阅读科普读物的习惯。 • 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. • 我相信她从来没有工夫去注意自己是不是日渐衰老。我以为,要想永葆青春,这是最好的办法。

9. 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. • 一个人若是有广泛的爱好和强烈的兴趣,又能参加一些力所能及的活动,就没有理由去考虑自己已经活了多少年这样的具体数字,更无暇顾及自己可能来日无多。

10. 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. • 谈到健康问题,我没有什么可说的,因为我没怎么生过病。我向来饮食随意,困了就睡,从不会因为对身体有益而做什么运动,当然实际上我喜欢做的事大都是于身心有利的。

11. 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. • 从心理方面来说,人到老年,需防止两种危险倾向。一是过分沉湎于过去。总是活在回忆中,追悔逝去的好时光,哀悼故去的老友,这是毫无裨益的。 • 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 a gradually increasing weight. • 一个人应当着眼于未来, 考虑一些可以有所为的事。这当然并非易事,因为过去的经历就像一个越来越沉重的包袱。

12. 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. If this is true it should be forgotten, and if it is forgotten it will probably not be true. • 人们往往以为,自己过去的情感多么丰富,思维多么敏锐。果真如此,那就应该忘掉过去,而一旦你不去想它,情形很可能就两样了。

13. The other thing to be avoided is clinging to youth in the hope of sucking vigour from its vitality. • 另一件需要避免的事是攀附年轻人,希望从他们的活力中汲取力量。 • 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. • callous: emotionally hardened 无情的,冷淡的 • 孩子们长大之后,都希望过自己的生活,如果你还像他们小时候那样关心他们,你就会成为他们的累赘, 除非他们特别麻木不仁。

14. 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. • contemplative: persistently or morbidly thoughtful 沉思的; • philanthropic: generous in assistance to the poor • 我不是说一个人不应当关心孩子,而是说这种关心应该深沉含蓄,可能的话,给孩子们一些财力上的支持,而不应该太过于感情用事。 • 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. • 动物们在子女能够自己照顾自己之后就不管不问了,人类则因为其漫长的婴儿期难以做到这一点。

16. “Madre snaturale ①” • 西班牙语”真是一个特殊的母亲”

17. In some societies people want children for what might be called familial reasons: to extend the family line or the family name, to propitiate the ancestors; to enable the proper functioning of religious rituals involving the family. • 在某些社会中，人们希望拥有孩子是出于所谓的家庭原因：传宗接代，光宗耀祖，讨好祖辈，使那些涉及到家庭的宗教仪式得以正常进行。 • familial家族的, 家庭的 • propitiate劝慰；抚慰；调解；谋求…的好感

18. Such reasons may seem thin in the modern, secularized society but they have been and are powerful indeed in other places. • 此类原因在现代世俗化的社会中似显苍白，但它们在其他地方曾一度构成并确实仍在构成强有力的理由。 • secularize 使凡俗化, 使还俗, 改作俗用

19. In addition, one class of family reasons shares a border with the following category, namely, having children in order to maintain or improve a marriage: to hold the husband or occupy the wife; to repair or rejuvenate the marriage; to increase the number of children on the assumption that family happiness lies that way. • 此外，有一类家庭原因与下列类别不无共通之处，这便是：生儿育女是为了维系或改善婚姻：能拴住丈夫或者使妻子不致于无所事事；修复或重振婚姻；多子多孙，以为家庭幸福惟有此法。

20. The point is underlined by its converse: in some societies the failure to bear children (or males) is a threat to the marriage and a ready cause for divorce. • 这一点更可以由其反面得到昭示：在某些社会中，无法生儿育女（或无法生育男孩）对婚姻而言是一种威胁，还可作为离婚的现成借口。 • Beyond all that is the profound significance of children to the very institution of the family itself. • 后代对于家庭这一体制本身所具有的深远意义远非如此。

21. To many people, husband and wife alone do not seem a proper family —they need children to enrich the circle, to validate its family character, to gather the redemptive influence of offspring. • 对许多人来说，夫妻两人尚不足以构成一个真正意义上的家庭——夫妻需要孩子来丰富其两人小天地，赋予该小天地以真正意义上的家庭性质，并从子孙后代身上获取某种回报。 • validate批准，使 有法律效力 • redemptive赎回的, 挽回的, 用于补偿的

22. Children need the family, but the family seems also to need children, as the social institution uniquely available, at least in principle, for security, comfort, assurance, and direction in a changing, often hostile, world. • 孩子需要家庭，但家庭似乎也需要孩子。家庭作为一种社会机构，以其特有的方式，至少从原则上说，可在一个变幻莫测、常常是充满敌意的世界中让人从中获取某种安全、慰藉、保障，以及价值取向。

23. To most people, such a home base, in the literal sense, needs more than one person for sustenance and in generational extension. • 对于大多数人而言，这样的一个家庭基础，即使从其表层意义上来讲，也需要不止一个人来维持其存在，并使其时代相传，生生不息。

25. 五柳先生传先生不知何许人也，亦不详其姓字。宅边有五柳树，因以为号焉。闲静少言，不慕荣利。好读书，不求甚解；每有会意，便欣然忘食。性嗜酒，家贫而不能常得。亲旧知其如此，或置酒而招之。造饮辄尽，期在必醉；既醉而退，曾不吝请去留。环睹萧然，不蔽风日。短褐穿结，箪瓢屡空。晏如也。常著文章自娱。颇示己志。忘怀得失，以此自终。《陶潜—陶渊明集》五柳先生传先生不知何许人也，亦不详其姓字。宅边有五柳树，因以为号焉。闲静少言，不慕荣利。好读书，不求甚解；每有会意，便欣然忘食。性嗜酒，家贫而不能常得。亲旧知其如此，或置酒而招之。造饮辄尽，期在必醉；既醉而退，曾不吝请去留。环睹萧然，不蔽风日。短褐穿结，箪瓢屡空。晏如也。常著文章自娱。颇示己志。忘怀得失，以此自终。《陶潜—陶渊明集》

26. 先生不知何许人也，亦不详其姓字。宅边有五柳树，因以为号焉。闲静少言，不慕荣利。好读书，不求甚解；每有会意，便欣然忘食。性嗜酒，家贫而不能常得。亲旧知其如此，或置酒而招之。造饮辄尽，期在必醉；既醉而退，曾不吝请去留。环睹萧然，不蔽风日。短褐穿结，箪瓢屡空。晏如也。常著文章自娱。颇示己志。忘怀得失，以此自终。《陶潜—陶渊明集》先生不知何许人也，亦不详其姓字。宅边有五柳树，因以为号焉。闲静少言，不慕荣利。好读书，不求甚解；每有会意，便欣然忘食。性嗜酒，家贫而不能常得。亲旧知其如此，或置酒而招之。造饮辄尽，期在必醉；既醉而退，曾不吝请去留。环睹萧然，不蔽风日。短褐穿结，箪瓢屡空。晏如也。常著文章自娱。颇示己志。忘怀得失，以此自终。《陶潜—陶渊明集》 • 有位先生,不知是什么地方的人,也不知他的姓氏和名字,他的住宅旁边有五棵柳树,因而就把 “五柳先生”作为自己的雅号。他为人恬静,很少言语,不追求和羡慕名利。喜欢读书，不求深入细致的理解，每当有所体会，便高兴得饭也顾不上吃。他生性最爱喝酒，因为家里贫穷，常常不能得到。亲戚和老朋友知道以后，有时设酒款待他。到了别人家里，他就把酒喝个精光，心中所想的就是一定要喝醉，醉了就回家，或去或留，毫不介意。家徒四壁，房屋破旧，不能遮风蔽日。穿的是粗布短衣，破破烂烂的，打了不少补丁，箪、瓢也常常空着，却能安然自乐。他时常写写文章，略微表示自己的一点情趣，以此为乐。他忘记了个人的得失，就这样了此一生。

27. 五柳先生传 • Mr. Five Willows • A Biography of the Five-Willow Gentleman • 先生不知何许人也，亦不详其姓字。宅边有五柳树，因以为号焉。 • 有位先生,不知是什么地方的人,也不知他的姓氏和名字,他的住宅旁边有五棵柳树,因而就把 “五柳先生”作为自己的雅号。 • No one knew where this gentleman came from and what his name was. There were five willows by his house; therefore he was named Mr. Five Willows. • Nobody knows his native place, his surname or his styled name. As there are five willows growing around his house, he styles himself “Five Willow Gentleman”.

28. 闲静少言，不慕荣利。好读书，不求甚解；每有会意，便欣然忘食。闲静少言，不慕荣利。好读书，不求甚解；每有会意，便欣然忘食。 • 他为人恬静,很少言语,不追求和羡慕名利。喜欢读书，不求深入细致的理解，每当有所体会，便高兴得饭也顾不上吃。 • He was quiet and reserved, not envious of high position or great wealth. He enjoyed reading, but never tried hard to look for deeper meanings. Each time when he caught the point in a book, he would be in such high spirits that he would simply forget to have dinner. • He is reticent and keeps himself away from wealth and distinction. He is fond of reading but reads without seeking a thorough understanding. Whenever he apprehends something between the lines, he will be so happy as to forget his dinners.

29. 性嗜酒，家贫而不能常得。亲旧知其如此，或置酒而招之。性嗜酒，家贫而不能常得。亲旧知其如此，或置酒而招之。 • 他生性最爱喝酒，因为家里贫穷，常常不能得到。亲戚和老朋友知道以后，有时设酒款待他。 • He was very fond of liquor but too poor to drink often. His old friends knew it, so they often invited him to have wine. • He is addicted to drinking, but often lacks wine because he is poor. Knowing about this, his kith and kin often treat him to some wine.

30. 造饮辄尽，期在必醉；既醉而退，曾不吝请去留。造饮辄尽，期在必醉；既醉而退，曾不吝请去留。 • 到了别人家里，他就把酒喝个精光，心中所想的就是一定要喝醉，醉了就回家，或去或留，毫不介意。 • He always drank to the bottom and got drunk. Then he took his leave, and nobody minded. • He will drink to the last drop in their homes and get drunk at last. He will withdraw when he gets drunk, never to regret having to take leave.

31. 环睹萧然，不蔽风日。短褐穿结，箪瓢屡空。晏如也。环睹萧然，不蔽风日。短褐穿结，箪瓢屡空。晏如也。 • 家徒四壁，房屋破旧，不能遮风蔽日。穿的是粗布短衣，破破烂烂的，打了不少补丁，箪、瓢也常常空着，却能安然自乐。 • For his whole life, he dwelled in a humble house, had scanty clothing, and always lacked food, but he lived in peace. • He is contented to live in his unfurnished house which cannot shelter him from wind and sun, to be dressed in ragged clothes and to see the empty baskets and gourds.

32. 常著文章自娱。颇示己志。忘怀得失，以此自终。《陶潜—陶渊明集》常著文章自娱。颇示己志。忘怀得失，以此自终。《陶潜—陶渊明集》 • 他时常写写文章，略微表示自己的一点情趣，以此为乐。他忘记了个人的得失，就这样了此一生。 • Sometimes he entertained himself by writing to show his ideals, and he never cared for gain or loss. • He often amuses himself by writing something to express his aspirations. He has forgotten about his personal gains and losses, ready to spend his whole life in this manner.

34. Man Is Here For The Sake of Other MenAlbert EinsteinStrange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know that man is here for the sake of other men --- above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received. My peace of mind is often troubled by the depressing sense that I have borrowed too heavily from the work of other men

35. To ponder interminably over the reason for one’s own existence or the meaning of life in general seems to me, from an objective point of view, to be sheer folly. And yet everyone holds certain ideals by which he guides his aspiration and his judgment. The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort and happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.

37. It is simple enough to say that since books have classes--- fiction, biography, poetry--- we should separate them and take from each what it is right that each should give us. Yet few people ask from books what books can give us. Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices. If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read, that would be an admirable beginning. Do not dictate to your author; try to become him. Be his fellow-worker and accomplice. If you hang back, and reserve and criticize at first, you are preventing yourself from getting the fullest possible value from what you read. But if you open your mind as widely as possible, then signs and hints of almost imperceptible fineness, from the twist and turn of the first sentences, will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any other. Steep yourself in this, acquaint yourself with this, and soon you will find that your author is giving you, or attempting to give you, something far more definite.

38. Yet few people ask from books what books can give us. • 然而，人们对书籍往往求非所予。 • Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices. • 开卷之时，我们常常思想模糊，思维割裂，苛求小说真实，认定诗歌造作，视传记为美化，期望史书认同一己之见。

39. If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read, that would be an admirable beginning. • 阅读之时，若能摒弃所有此类成见，那将是一个可喜的开端。 • Do not dictate to your author; try to become him. Be his fellow-worker and accomplice. • 不要对作者指指点点，而应尝试设身处地，做作者的同道和“同谋”。

40. If you hang back, and reserve and criticize at first, you are preventing yourself from getting the fullest possible value from what you read. • 若是你一开始便故步自封，先入为主，求全责备，你就不可能最大限度地从所读的书中获益， • hang back 却步,忧郁 • reserve 谨慎

41. But if you open your mind as widely as possible, then signs and hints of almost imperceptible fineness, from the twist and turn of the first sentences, will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any other. • 但是，你若能大大敞开思想，那么，开篇的那几行曲径通幽的文字，那若明若暗的微妙表达和深意将把你带到一个独具特色的灵魂面前。 • Steep yourself in this, acquaint yourself with this, and soon you will find that your author is giving you, or attempting to give you, something far more definite. • 投身其中，知晓此境，不用很久，你就会发现作者正在传递给你的，或试图传递给你的，原来如此显豁。

43. 端午节 • The Double-Fifth Festival • 端午节在农历五月初五，又称“重午”、“端阳”、“天中节”、“夏节”、“龙船节”……据说有二十多种叫法。 • Officially falling on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, the Double-Fifth Festival, also known as the Duanwu Festival, has more than 20 alternative Chinese names – the Chongwu Festival, the Duanyang Festival, the Mid-Day Festival, the Summer Festival, the Dragon-Boat Festival, etc.

44. 古人有个习惯，喜欢把月和日的数字重复的这一天作为节日，除了正月初一之外，二月二、三月三、六月六、七月七、九月九，就都是节日。 • It is a practice for the ancient Chinese to choose the same number of the day and of the month as a festival. • Apart from the first day of the first lunar month, which is the Spring Festival, we have the second day of the second lunar month as the Double-Second Festival, the third day of the third lunar month as the Double-Third Festival, the seventh day of the seventh lunar month as the Double-Seventh Festival and the ninth day of the ninth lunar month as the Double-Ninth Festival.

45. 在这些重日节日里，端午是被人们特别看重的。在这些重日节日里，端午是被人们特别看重的。 • And they are all the Chinese important festivals, among which the Double-Fifth Festival is the most significant. • 关于端午节的起源，历来众说纷纭，莫衷一是，学者们加以归纳，至少也有十种不同说法。这中间，影响最大的，大概是纪念屈原的说法。 • There are abundant versions about the origin of the Double-Fifth Festival, and at least ten different ones are sorted out by scholars, among which the most influential version is about Qu Yuan.

46. 屈原是战国时代的楚国诗人，官居三闾大夫。 • Qu Yuan was a poet, and a minister in the State of Chu during the Warring States Period (475 – 221 BC). • 起初，楚怀王很重用他。后来楚怀王偏信奸臣进谗，没有接受屈原联齐抗秦的主张，反倒被骗到秦国，死在异乡。 • At first he enjoyed the full confidence and respect of his sovereign, King Huai of the Chu State. But later the king was surrounded by jealous self-seekers, so he ignored Qu Yuan’s claim that the State of Chu ought to unite with the State of Qi to fight against the State of Qin. As a result King Hua was tricked into the State of Qin and died there.

47. 楚顷襄王又不思振复，将屈原削职放逐，长期流浪在沅湘流域。 • King Qing Xiang of Chu, the eldest son of King Huai, didn’t take revenge, but dismissed Qu Yuan from his office and sent him into exile as a vagrant in the Yuanxiang Valley (area around the present-day Yuanjiang River and Xiangjiang River in Hunan Province).

48. 后来楚国首都郢被秦兵攻破，屈原救国的愿望无法实现，在极度悲愤之中，投汩罗江而死。 • Later the capital of Chu was captured by the troops from Qin. In great pain, Qu Yuan drowned himself in the Milo River with the wishes for saving his beloved country unfulfilled.

49. 传说屈原投江就是在农历五月初五，那天，楚国人民纷纷划船去救，在江上来回打捞他的尸体，有人还拿出粽子，丢到江中，说是让鱼虾吃了，它们就不会去咬屈大夫的尸体了。 • It is said that the day when Quan Yuan drowned himself in the river was the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. The local people rushed in their boats to rescue or search for him. Some of them scattered Zongzi (glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves) in the river hoping to feed fish and shrimp lest they eat away his body.

50. 有个老医生拿了一坛雄黄酒倒进江里，说是要药晕蛟龙，别让它伤害屈大夫。 • An old doctor of traditional Chinese Medicine poured the realgar wine into the river to make river dragons drunk, otherwise they would hurt Quan Yuan.