英文名字翻译HOWTOGROWOLD罗素

2021年1月20日发(作者：成绩英文)

HOW TO GROW OLD


By Bertrand Russell


罗素（
1872-1970
）
，是一个 活了
99
岁的哲学家。然而，他最大的魅力
却不是哲学，
而是文学。
曾经获得诺贝尔文学奖——文学中最高奖项
的他，
用自己的朴实优美的语言为你讲述怎样才能度 过一个成功的晚
年。

1.
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.

2.
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.

3.
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.

4.
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.

5.
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 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 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.

6.
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.

7.
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.


大聪明和小聪明都是罗素的特 色。
读懂了罗素，
您就读懂了英语；
读懂了罗素，您就会发现原来英语是那么的优美！