HOWTOGROWOLD中文译文.doc

HOW TO GROW OLD(如何平静老去？) ?????????????????????????????????????? HOW TO GROW OLD如何平静老去？ By Bertrand Russell波特兰·罗素Translated by sog@2005-4-5 13:48 古典的英国英语很难翻译，特别是罗素的文章。早几年读傅雷翻译的罗素文章，看着文章很平淡，但是不经意间说出来的话，需要你回味很长时间。这篇演讲稿更加堪称经典，忙里偷闲，拿这篇文章练一下手，欠妥处请多指点。sog@2005-4-5 13:47 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。不管标题是怎么写的，这篇文章实际上告诉你的是如何减缓衰老，这样一个主题在我现在的生命阶段是很重要的。我的第一个建议是认真仔细的去考察一下自己的宗谱。虽然我的父母去世的比较早，但是我的别的祖先都活的比较长寿。我敬爱的祖父，在67岁结束了自己像花期一样富有朝气的生命，我的其余几位祖辈的年龄都超过了80。在别的远祖当中，只有一位活的不是很长久，他死于一种被砍头的现在已经灭绝的疾病（不知道怎么很好的翻译这一句幽默）。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!” “Madres naturale,” he replied. But speaking as one of the seventy-two, I prefer her recipe. After the age