$课文11 如何安度晚年
65. Some old people are oppressed by the fear of death.
有些老年人因为怕死而感到烦恼。
166. In the young there is a justification for this feeling.
青年人有这种感觉是情有可原的。
167. Young men who have reason to fear that they will be killed in battle may justifiably feel bitter in the thought that they have cheated of the best things that life has to offer.
有理由害怕自己会死在战场上的年轻人,想到自己被剥夺了生活所能给予的最美好的东西时,感到痛苦,这是可以理解的。
168. But in an old man who has known human joys and sorrows, and has achieved whatever work it was in him to do,
可是老年人已经饱尝了人间的甘苦,一切能做的都做了,
169. the fear of death is somewhat abject and ignoble.
如果怕死,就有点儿可怜又可鄙。
170. The best way to overcome it -- so at least it seems to me -- is to make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal,
克服怕死的最好办法 -- 至少在我看来是这样 -- 就是逐渐使自己的兴趣更加广泛,
171. until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life.
逐渐摆脱个人狭小的圈子,直到自我的围墙一点一点地倒塌下来,自己的生活慢慢地和整个宇宙的生活融合在一起。
172. An individual human existence should be like a river -- small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past boulders and over waterfalls.