双语 | 四十岁

Forty! 

四十岁！

Life moves along so smoothly with most of us that there seems to be very little difference between one birthday and another but to this rule there is one brilliant and outstanding exception. There is one birthday on which a man should certainly take a holiday, go for a quiet stroll, and indulge in a little serious stock-taking. That birthday is, of course, the fortieth. A man’s fortieth birthday is one of the really great days in his life’s little story; and he must make the most of it.

对于我们大多数人来讲，生活的步调如此平缓，一年的生日和另一年的生日似乎都没有多大的区别；不过，却有一个生日独具意义，余总不同。在这一天，每个人应该给自己放个假，静静地散散步，做些严肃的人生盘点和反思回顾。这一天当然就是四十岁生日。一个人的四十岁生日是他平凡人生中最重要的那几天中的一天，他当然要充分利用这一天。

Youth, of course, often sins, and sins grievously; but youth recovers itself, and frequently emerges chastened and ennobled by the bitter experience; but I can recall no instance of a manwho fell in the forties and who ever really recovered himself.

青春自然常常让人犯错，而且是极度严重的错误；不过青春也会自我复原，而且经常因为痛苦的经历变得成熟和高贵；然而我却想不起有任何人在四十几岁时堕落而又能够真正修复自己。

Young people write poetry and get sentimental: so do old people. But people in the forties--never! A man of forty would as soon be suspected of picking his neighbour’s pocket as of writing poetry. He would rather be seen walking down the street without collar or necktie than be seen shedding tears. Ask a company of young people to select some of their favourite hymns or songs. They will at once call for hymns about heaven or songs about love. So will old people. But you will never persuade middle-aged people to sing such songs. They are in the practical or prosy stage of life. The romance of youth has worn off; the romance of age has not arrived. They are between the poetry of the dawn and the poetry of the twilight. And midway between the poetry of the dawn and the poetry of the twilight comes the panting perspiration of noon day.

年轻人会写诗，会感情用事，年老的人也会。但是四十几岁的人绝不会！一个四十岁的人宁可有人怀疑他偷了邻居的钱包，也不愿意别人说他在写诗。他宁愿被人看见自己没戴领结或领带就在街上走，也不愿意被人瞧见流眼泪。让一群年轻人选出他们最喜欢的赞美诗或歌曲，他们会马上喊出那些有关天堂的赞美诗或是爱情歌曲。老年人也会这样。但是你永远也不能劝动中年人唱这样的歌曲。他们正处在生活的实际或者说散文式阶段。青春的浪漫传奇已成往事；老年的浪漫史还未到来。他们处在黎明的诗歌之后，又在黄昏的诗歌之前。而在午日的气喘吁吁、汗流浃背。

The mere change from the poetry of youth to the prose of middle life need not in itself alarm us. Some of the finest classics in our literature are penned in prose. But within this minor peril lies the germ of a major peril. The trouble is that prosiness may develop into pessimism. And when prosiness curdles into pessimism the case of the patient is very grave.

对于从青春的诗歌到中年的散文这一变化本身，我们并不必要害怕。在我们的文学中，许多最优秀的经典作品都是用散文写就的。不过，在这个小小危机中酝酿着一个大危机的种子。这就是散文式的平淡无奇可能会发展成悲观主义。而当平淡无奇转化为顽固的悲观主义，这个人的问题就非常严重了。

The fact is that at forty a man must drop something. He has been all his life accumulating until he has become really overloaded. He has maintained his interest in all the things that occupied his attention in youth; and, all the way along the road, fresh claims have been made upon him. His position in the world is a much more responsible one, and makes a greater drain upon his thought and energy. He has married, too, and children have come into his home. There has been struggle and sicknessand anxiety. Interests have multiplied, and life has increased in seriousness.But, increasing in seriousness, it must not be allowed to increase insordidness. A man’s life is like a garden. There is a limit to the things thatit will grow. You cannot pack plants in a garden as you pack sardines in a tin. That is why the farmer thins out the turnips; that is why the orchardist pruneshis trees; and that is why the husbandman pinches the grapebuds off the trailing vines. Life has to be similarly treated. At forty a man realizes that his garden is getting overcrowded. It contains all the flowers that he planted in his sentimental youth and all the vegetables that he set there in his prosaic manhood. It is too much. There must be a thinning out. And, unless heis very, very careful, he will find that the thinning-out process will automatically consist of the sacrifice of all the pansies and the retention of all the potatoes.

事实是，一个人到了四十岁，就必须放弃一些东西。此前他一生都在积累，到如今已经负荷过多。他对于年轻时感兴趣的所有事物都保持着兴致；而且，一路走来，又有许多对他的新要求。他在这个世界上的位置负有更重要的责任，这也要耗费他更多的思想和精力。他已经结婚，并有了孩子们。他经历过挣扎、疾病和焦虑。厉害关系增多了，生活也日益严肃起来，而他绝不能允许这愈发严肃的生活变得下作。人的生活就像一个园子，里面可以种植的东西是有限的。你不能像在罐子里塞满沙丁鱼一样，让植物挤满园子。这就是为什么农夫在栽培芜菁过程中要间苗，果农要给果树剪枝，种葡萄的要修剪藤蔓上的枝芽。对待生活也是这样。一个人到了四十岁便意识到他的园子太拥挤，里面有他在多情善感的青春年少时种下的花儿，也有在他注重实际的成熟岁月里种下的蔬菜。太多了，必须清理一下。而且，除非特别谨慎小心，否则他将发现，清理过程会在不知不觉中牺牲所有的紫罗兰而保留所有的马铃薯。

Potatoes are excellent things, and the garden becomes distinctly wealthier when, in the twenties and thirties, a man begins to moderate his passion for pansies, and to plant a few potatoes. But a time comes when he must make a stand on behalf of the pansies, or he will have no soul for anything beyond potatoes. Round his potato beds let himjealously retain a border of his finest pansies; and, depend upon it, when he gets into the fifties and the sixties he will be glad that, all through life, he remained true to the first fondnesses of youth.

马铃薯是很好的东西，当一个人在二三十岁的年级对紫罗兰的热情有所减少，开始种点儿马铃薯时，他的园子会一下子丰裕许多。然而有的时候他必须站在紫罗兰一方维护它，否则他的心灵就会容不下马铃薯以外的任何东西。让他在马铃薯园地周围小心翼翼地保留一圈最好的紫罗兰；我敢说，当他步入五六十岁时，他会高兴地发现，自己这一辈子对年轻时最初的那些喜好一直未变。

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