英文自修152：老就老点怕什么

本系列内容英文原文取自BBC Thought for the Day节目网站，朋友们也可以下载节目录音收听。

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转载、翻译、中文标题：武太白

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Thought for the Day 20141125 Rhidian Brook

I was half way through an exercise class, trying to do a sit-up on a foam roller, when my friend said very loudly: ‘I bet our parents weren’t doing this at our age. They’d be at home having a second G and T. The only stretching they did was leaning forward to change the channel to Poldark before lighting up a fag.

健身课上，我在软垫上做仰卧起坐正到一半，就听朋友大声说：“我敢说咱们的父母在咱们这个年纪肯定不做这个。他们肯定在家喝G&T（掺奎宁水的杜松子酒）。他们所做的唯一的运动可能就是欠身换到Poldark台，点上一支烟。

Which, in part, might explain why we are living longer than previous generations and why we keep seeing headlines that tell us that 40 is the new 30, 90 the new 70 and, most recently, 50 the new 20. This last off the back of a survey done for High 50 Magazine claims that 40% of the over 50’s are having sex twice a week and a ‘sizeable minority’ are taking recreational drugs.

而这，也是部分原因，可以解释为什么我们比之前的世代寿命更长久，我们有为什么会看到新闻头条告诉我们说什么如今40岁是新的30岁，90岁是新70，而最近的说法是50岁是新20。最后这一条来自《半百》杂志所做的的调查，声称如今40%的50岁以上老人每周还做爱两次，而“可观的人群”还在服用娱乐性药物。

Having just turned 50 I’m excited by these recalibrations of my age. But no amount of spin can change the fact that, if 30 felt like the end of youth and 40 passed with barely a nod, 50 feels like a proper, grown-up age. And whatever magazines might be telling me, the body I’m waking up with is saying ‘You’re 50. Get used to it.’

刚过50的我对这些重新厘定我年龄的努力感到兴奋。但不管怎样绕来绕去，事实也改变不了：如果30岁感觉是青春已逝，40岁转瞬即逝，那么50岁就是真真切切有“年纪”了。不管什么杂志说些什么，早上五点钟起床时的身体是在说：“你50岁了，要习惯。”

So why not get used to it? Maybe it’s partly because our culture sees so little merit in getting older. This constant re-branding of each decade is as much about disguising age as about celebrating it. We’re dressing it up in youth’s apparel because we believe young is better than old. Old must be delayed. Avoided. Renamed.

那么，为什么不去习惯呢？也许部分原因是我们的文化觉得变老实在没什么好。这种每过十年就重新定义一次老年的持续努力既是庆祝，也是一种掩饰。我们是用青春的外衣将老年包裹起来，因为我们觉得年轻比年老要好。老年一定要延迟到来，要改个名字。

I don’t expect to live long enough to see the headline ‘20 is the new 50!’ but there are things I know now that I’d liked to have known then. Being older has its advantages. And in another culture and age, it didn’t have to mimic youth to claim validity. In the Old Testament experience was valued so highly that 50 years olds were allowed to retire from certain physical duties so that the community could make the most of their accumulated wisdom.

我可能活不到新闻说什么“20岁是新的50岁”这样的时候，但现在我知道到那时我会想知道的事情。年老有年老的好处。换一种文化，换一个时代，年老根本就不必模仿青春来取得正当性。旧约中经验受到高度重视，50岁的人就允许不再做一些体力工作，以便社会能够更好地利用他们的智慧积累。

As a boy, my elders were often telling me to be thankful, but I’ve almost had to get to their age to appreciate what they wanted me to be thankful for. At recent parties celebrating the landmarks of 50 and 60, there has been a real sense of gratitude: for making it this far, for friendships, for family, for life. And maybe that gratitude is a kind of understanding. It’s why the Psalmist asks ‘teach us to number our days so that we might gain a heart of wisdom.’

还是男孩的时候，长者经常告诉我要感恩，但我几乎一直要到他们的年龄才真正对他们想让我感恩的事情觉得感激。最近庆祝50、60寿辰的聚会上，倒真是有了感激的感觉：大家感激能活得如此久长，感激友情，感激家庭，感激生命。多半这种感激是一种理解。这就是为什么诗篇的作者要求“求你指教我们怎样数算自己的日子，好叫我们得著智慧的心”。

Scripture says life might last 70 years, 80 if we have the strength, but it doesn’t pretend this span won’t have troubles or sorrows. It seems we have a choice between living out whatever days we have by raging at our aging and pretending that it isn’t really happening; or being glad for what we have and celebrating it as we can – with gratitude, and as much dancing as our bodies can take.

《圣经》说生命可以持续70年，如果我们力量够，能活80年，但并没有伪饰说这样的长寿是没有苦痛折磨的。看来我们有两种选择：要么激愤于我们的衰老，假装这事根本没发生过，得过且过；或者就是对我们现有的一切感到欣喜，时时感到庆幸——既始终心怀感激，也天天活出精彩。