中英双语 How to Grow Old.doc

Page 5How to Grow OldBy Bertrand RussellIn 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 womens 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 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.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. Ones thoughts must be directed to the future, and to things about which there is something to be done. This is not always easy; ones own past is a gradually increasing weight. It is easy to think to oneself that ones emotions used to be more vivid than they are, and ones mind more keen. 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 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, 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 ones 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 your children and grandchildren. In that case you must realise 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, 14 and content in the thought that what was possible has been done. From Portraits from Memory如何变老伯特兰罗素除题目之外，本文余下的内容其实都在讨论另一个问题：如何不变老。像我这把年纪，这个问题尤其重要。首先，我建议大家在选择自己祖辈的时候，要谨慎。我父母去世的早，但考虑到其他祖辈，我在这方面做的着实不错。我的外祖父的确有些英年早逝，六十七岁就已过世，不过我的外祖母和祖父母都活过了八十岁。再往远看，我的其他祖辈们也都是长寿之人，只有一位例外，这位祖辈不幸患上了一种现已极为罕见的绝症，换句话说，他被砍了头。我有一位曾祖母，和吉本是朋友，活到了九十二岁高龄。直到生命的最后一天，她的子孙们依然对她感到敬畏。我的外祖母生了十个孩子，九个活了下来，一个出生不久就夭折，此外还有过多次流产。外祖父“早逝”后不久，她便全心投入到女子高等教育事业之中。外祖母还是格顿学院的创始人之一，曾经大力推广女性从医。以前，她经常给别人讲述自己在意大利的一段经历：在那儿，她遇到一位上了年纪的绅士，脸上充满了悲伤。她就问起这位绅士，为何如此忧郁，他说，因为他刚刚与两个孙子分别。“我的天，”外祖母不禁喊道：“我有七十二个孙子孙女，如果每次与他们中的一个分别，我都感到悲伤的话，我这一辈子该有多么凄惨啊！”“您真是一位非凡的母亲！”那位绅士如此答道。作为外祖母七十二个孙子孙女中的一员，我很喜欢她的处世之道。在年过八旬之后，外祖母发现自己总是难以入睡，因此，每天午夜到凌晨三点，她都在阅读科普知识。依我看来，她从来都不曾有过闲暇，去察觉到自己在慢慢变老。我认为，想要永葆青春，就应该学会这种处世之道。只要我们拥有广泛的兴趣爱好，能够对其充满热情，而且每天都有事可做，就没有理由再去理会我们的年龄。因为年龄只不过是一个用来统计我们已经活了多少年月的数字而已，它并不能显示我们的将来还剩多少。谈到健康，我并没有多少有用的可讲，因为我少有得病的经历。我想吃什么就吃什么，想喝什么就喝什么，困了就会睡觉。我从来没有以追求健康为理由去做某件事情，但实际上，我喜欢做的事情都对健康有益。从心理学角度来讲，人到老年，要防范两种危险。其一，就是过分沉湎于从前。总是生活在回忆中，对美好时光一去不返感到惋惜，或为朋友的辞世而悲伤，这样毫无益处。反之，我们应当放眼于未来，多去考虑那些需要我们着手去做的事情。真正做到这一点并不容易。人的过去好似一个重量不断增加的砝码。人老之后，总会认为自己的情感肯定不如从前丰富，思想也必然不比过去敏锐。情况真是这样吗？如果是，那么就把将其忘掉吧，如果能够忘掉，那么这种情况就可能并不是真的。另一个需要避免的危险，就是过于依恋年轻人，希望从他们蓬勃的生气中汲取活力。自己的孩子长大成人后，总会想过自己的生活，如果我们还像他们小时候那样，过分介入他们的生活，很可能会成为他们的负担，除非他们异常迟钝。我并不是说父母对孩子应该完全不管不顾，而是要默默地进行干预，如果可能的话，要报着宽容