1、we are all dying我們都在走向死亡1.i have some good news and some bad news for you (as the joke goes). the bad news and im very sorry to be the bearer is that we are all dying. its true. ive checked it out. in fact, ive double and triple-checked it. ive had it substantiated and, well, theres no easy way to s

2、ay it. we are dying. its something that i always kind of knew, but never really chose to think about too much. but the fact is, within the next 70 or 80 years depending on how old you are and how long you last we are all going to be either coffin dwellers or trampled ash in the rose garden of some l

3、ocal cemetery. we may not even last that long. after all, we never quite know when the hooded, scythe-carrying, bringer-of-the-last-breath might come-a-calling. it could be sooner than wed like. i have watched death from the sidelines, quite recently in fact, and nothing underlines the uncertainty a

4、nd absolute frailty of humanity like the untimely exit of a friend. 我給你帶來一條好消息， 還有一條壞消息（正如笑話所說的） 。 壞消息是：我們都在走向死亡很抱歉是我?guī)砹诉@條壞消息。這可是真的，我已經(jīng)核實過了，事實上我已經(jīng)三番五次地核實過了。我也找到了證據(jù)，可是要說出這個事實實在是不容易，不過我們的確都在走向死亡。這件事我過去多少知道一點，但不愿過多地去想它。但事實是，再過70年或80年這要取決于你現(xiàn)在年齡有多大，壽命有多長我們都會躺到棺材里，或者變成某個地方公墓玫瑰園里的灰塵，被人踐踏。我們甚至活不到這么老。畢竟，我們從來

5、就不清楚那位戴著頭巾、手持長柄鐮刀、命人吐出最后一口氣的死神什么時候會來召喚我們，有可能會比我們希望的要早。其實我最近就曾經(jīng)從局外人的角度觀察過死亡，沒有什么比朋友的早逝更能表明人生的無常和生命的脆弱了。2 scary. 真可怕。3 now that i have depressed you, heres the good news. knowing that we are all budding crypt-kickers takes away all the uncertainty of life. we already know how the story ends. the prolo

6、gue and epilogue are already typed in. all thats left is the middle bit and thats down to us. we get to choose the meat of the story。 我已經(jīng)讓你夠沮喪的了，現(xiàn)在告訴你那條好消息吧：知道了我們都在走向墳墓，我們就不再有人生無常的感覺了。我們已經(jīng)知道故事的結局，開場白和尾聲也都確定了，剩下的就是介于兩者之間的那些事兒了，這些事是我們作得了主的。我們必須挑選故事情節(jié)。4. so, all those plans that you have on the back bu

7、rner, you know, the great things youre going to do with your life when the time is right? well, the time is never quite right, i find. it needs to be brought forward and done now, this minute, pronto, in a hurry, as quick as your little legs will carry you. the novel that you want to write, the trip

8、 to the grand canyon youve always planned to take, your minds-eye dream-job, the west end play you want to direct you have to do them now. were dying, see. its official.所以，那些被你擱置在一邊的計劃，即那些“當時機成熟時”你會用生命來完成的偉大事業(yè)怎么辦呢？可我發(fā)現(xiàn)時機永遠不會有成熟的時候。時間必須提前，必須馬上行動，就在這一刻，不能拖延，必須趕緊，而且越快越好。不管是你想寫的小說，還是你一直在籌劃的去大峽谷的旅行，你心儀的工

9、作，你想導演的倫敦西區(qū)話劇，你都必須現(xiàn)在就去做。知道嗎？我們都在走向死亡。這是已經(jīng)定了的。5 so putting your dreams on the back burner until the circumstances are right means that theyll probably never be realized. our only regrets in life are the things we dont do. we owe it to ourselves to go out and do them now before its too late. tomorrow?

10、 its all a lie; there isnt a tomorrow. theres only a promissory note that we are often not in a position to cash. it doesnt even exist. when you wake up in the morning itll be today again and all the same rules will apply. 因此，把自己的夢想擱置起來，等到時機成熟之后才開始實現(xiàn)它，這就意味著夢想可能永遠都不會實現(xiàn)。人生的遺憾莫過于還有事情沒有做， 我們有必要現(xiàn)在就去做這些事，

11、 不然就晚了。明天行嗎？明天只是個謊言；根本就沒有什么明天，只有一張我們常常無法兌現(xiàn)的期票。明天甚至壓根兒就不存在。你早上醒來時又是另一個今天了，同樣的規(guī)則又可以全部套用。tomorrow is just another version of now, an empty field that will remain so unless we start planting some seeds. your time, which is ticking away as we speak (at about 60 seconds a minute chronologically; a bit fas

12、ter if you dont invest your time wisely), will be gone and youll have nothing to show for it but regret and a rear-view mirror full of could haves, should haves and would haves.明天只是現(xiàn)在的另一種說法，是一塊空地，除非我們開始在那里播種，否則它永遠都是空地。你的時間會流逝（時間就在我們說話的當下嘀嗒嘀嗒地走著，每分鐘順時針走60秒，如果你不能很好地利用它，它會走得更快些），而你沒有取得任何成就來證明它的存在，唯獨留下遺

13、憾，留下一面后視鏡，上面寫滿了“本可以做”、“本應該做”、“本來會做”的事情。6 have you ever noticed when you go to a buffet restaurant how they give you a bowl the size of a saucer and then say, have as much salad as you like but you can only go up once? life is like that small salad bowl. like the hungry people waiting for their main

14、course, we can cram as much into that tiny bowl as we can carry. i love watching people ingeniously stack the cucumber around the side of the bowl like theyre filling a skip and then cramming it so high that they have to hire a forklift truck to get it back to the table. theyre not greedy. they just

15、 know that they only have one shot at it.你是否注意過，自助餐館里服務員會給你一個茶杯碟大小的碗，并告訴你：“你想盛多少沙拉都可以，但只能盛一次”？生活就像那只盛沙拉的碗，我們可以和那些饑腸轆轆等著主菜的人一樣在那只小碗里裝上盡可能多的沙拉。我喜歡看人們巧妙地把黃瓜片插在沙拉碗的四周就像往廢料桶里堆東西那樣把沙拉堆得老高老高，最后不得不雇個叉車把沙拉拉回餐桌。他們不是貪婪，而是明白自己只有一次機會。7 fill your bowl. we come this way but once so lets make the best of the short

16、stay. like the once-a-year holiday to florida or spain. fit as much into the short time there as you can. make sure that you go back home knackered because you got so much done.把你的碗盛滿吧，我們在這個世上只走一遭，既然來了就好好利用這短暫的一生，就像我們牢牢抓住一年一度去佛羅里達或西班牙度假的機會那樣。在短暫的人生中填入盡可能多的內(nèi)容吧。確保每天回家后你都會因為干了很多事而感到精疲力盡。8 if you dont w

17、ant to be a postman then dont be a postman. give it up and be a painter, a writer, a tobogganist, whatever. just dont be something that you patently do not want to be.如果你不想當郵遞員就別當郵遞員，放棄這份工作去當個畫家、作家、滑雪運動員，干什么都行。千萬不要干自己明明就不喜歡的事情。9 and now is the time, not tomorrow. there is no time like the present. i

18、f you cant have what you want this very second the least you can do is start the journey now, this minute, while the inspiration is high. we all have the same amount of minutes, we all get the same 24 hours as branson and gates. its just what we do with our time, how we invest it, that determines wh

19、ere our lives may lead.現(xiàn)在就開始行動吧，不要等到明天。沒有比現(xiàn)在更好的時間了。如果在這一刻你不能得到你想得到的東西，你至少可以趁靈感還在的時候馬上開始你的旅程，即刻起程。我們有同樣多的時間，我們和布蘭森以及蓋茨一樣，每天都有24個小時。決定我們這一生成敗的是我們把時間花在什么事情上，是我們?nèi)绾蝸矸峙鋾r間。 10 so what im thinking is (and this is not molecular science) if we are dying and our allotted time is finite, why the hell arent we d

20、oing all the things we want to do now? whats all this back-burner stuff? and why are we all waiting for the right time when we already know that the right time isnt going to show? the right time is the cheque thats permanently in the post, it never arrives. its the girl who keeps us standing at the

21、corner of the co-op looking like a spanner. no amount of clock watching will change the inevitable. shes stood us up.因此，我正在琢磨的是（這可不是分子科學） ：如果我們正在走向死亡，而且分配給我們的時間是有限的，那么我們到底有什么理由不現(xiàn)在就去做所有想做的事情呢？這些被暫時擱置的事情到底又是什么呢？為什么明明知道成熟的時機永遠不會到來，而我們卻都還在等待呢？成熟的時機是一張支票，它永遠都在郵寄的路上，永遠都不會到來。它就是那讓我們在合作社旁邊像橋墩那樣站著傻等的女孩，我們再怎么看表也無濟于事，她失約了。11 we wait; the right time never arrives.我們傻等著，而成熟的時機卻永遠不會到來。12 so i say