老去就是失去一切。

To grow old is to lose everything.

变老，人人都知道是怎么回事。

Aging, everybody knows it.

就是在年轻时，

Even when we are young,

我们有时也瞧见过，当某个祖父死去，

we glimpse it sometimes, and nod our heads

我们低垂着头。

when a grandfather dies.

其后很多年我们在仲夏的池塘

Then we row for years on the midsummer

划船，无知而快活。但是一个婚姻，

pond, ignorant and content. But a marriage,

开始的时候没有伤害，却在岸上

that began without harm, scatters

四散如屑，

into debris on the shore,

一个学校的朋友从海边峭壁上

and a friend from school drops

跌落变得僵冷。

cold on a rocky strand.

如果一场新的爱情带我们

If a new love carries us

走过中年，我们的妻子将会

past middle age, our wife will die

在她最强健和最美的时候死去。

at her strongest and most beautiful.

新的女人来来去去。全都走掉。

New women come and go. All go.

那美丽的情人宣称

The pretty lover who announces

她是临时的

that she is temporary

就真的是过客。那无畏的女人，

is temporary. The bold woman,

中年抵着我们的老年，

middle-aged against our old age,

沉入她无法抵抗的焦虑中。

sinks under an anxiety she cannot withstand.

另一个十载之交的朋友与世隔绝

Another friend of decades estranges himself

躲到文字中贻害了三十年光阴。

in words that pollute thirty years.

让我们在池塘边的泥地里窒息

Let us stifle under mud at the pond's edge

认定失去一切

and affirm that it is fitting

是自然而然，妙不可言。

and delicious to lose everything.