To grow old is to lose everything.

老去就是失去一切。

Aging, everybody knows it.

变老，人人都知道是怎么回事。

Even when we are young,

就是在年轻时，

we glimpse it sometimes, and nod our heads

我们有时也瞧见过，当某个祖父死去，

when a grandfather dies.

我们低垂着头。

Then we row for years on the midsummer

其后很多年我们在仲夏的池塘

pond, ignorant and content. But a marriage,

划船，无知而快活。但是一个婚姻，

that began without harm, scatters

开始的时候没有伤害，却在岸上

into debris on the shore,

四散如屑，

and a friend from school drops

一个学校的朋友从海边峭壁上

cold on a rocky strand.

跌落变得僵冷。

If a new love carries us

如果一场新的爱情带我们

past middle age, our wife will die

走过中年，我们的妻子将会

at her strongest and most beautiful.

在她最强健和最美的时候死去。

New women come and go. All go.

新的女人来来去去。全都走掉。

The pretty lover who announces

那美丽的情人宣称

that she is temporary

她是临时的

is temporary. The bold woman,

就真的是过客。那无畏的女人，

middle-aged against our old age,

中年抵着我们的老年，

sinks under an anxiety she cannot withstand.

沉入她无法抵抗的焦虑中。

Another friend of decades estranges himself

另一个十载之交的朋友与世隔绝

in words that pollute thirty years.

躲到文字中贻害了三十年光阴。

Let us stifle under mud at the pond's edge

让我们在池塘边的泥地里窒息

and affirm that it is fitting

认定失去一切

and delicious to lose everything.

是自然而然，妙不可言。