奔四了，看着死亡的眼睛

清晨朗读会第1095期翻译练习。

原文：

Turning 40 and Looking Death in the Eye

By Michael David Lukas

I’m turning 40 this week, and I’m still not sure what to do about it. Originally, I wanted to have a big party, a bacchanalian blowout to celebrate the official end of my youth. But then I thought better of the idea. What I really wanted was a childless weekend with my wife away in the Napa Valley. Even one night would be enough, so long as there was time for a soak, a meal, maybe a massage.

This was the plan until a few months ago when my wife was told she had colon cancer and our weekend getaway in wine country took a back seat to everything else.

“We should still do something,” she said the other night at dinner. “You only turn 40 once.”

At this, my older daughter, who is 3½, looked up from her noodles.

“Does 40 mean you die?” she asked.

If she had asked this question a few months earlier, I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about saying, in the age-old way of parents, that Mommy and Daddy are going to be around for a long, long time. But given the circumstances, I felt as though I had to tell her the truth, or at least some approximation of it.

“No one knows when they’re going to die,” I said. Then, not wanting to scare her too much, I added, “But we hope we’re going to be around for a long, long time.”

Actuarially speaking, 40 is smack-dab in the middle of life. It’s the end of the beginning and the beginning of the end. Which is probably why the milestone has so much resonance. The classic midlife crisis — buying a sports car or a boat — may not be as prevalent as it once was. Still, it’s hard to pass by 40 without reflecting on one’s path through life.

翻译：

奔四了，看着死亡的眼睛

作者：Michael David Lukas

这周，我就要满40岁了，到现在我还不知道要为此做些什么。起初，我打算搞个大party，找一堆朋友来把酒言欢，以此庆祝我的青春岁月正式终结。但后来我又有了更好的想法，其实我真正想要的是一个没有孩子在身边的周末，就我和妻子，在纳帕山谷来个二人世界，泡个澡、吃顿饭，或许再来个按摩，哪怕一晚上也足矣。

直到几个月前，妻子被告知得了结肠癌，我们的周末计划彻底泡汤了。

“我们应该还要做些什么。”，她在一天晚饭时说道。“人只有一次40岁。”

这时，我正在吃面条的三岁半的女儿抬起头来看了看。

40岁就意味着要死了吗？她问道。

如果她在几个月前问这样的问题，我可能不会这样考虑再三，而是用父母老掉牙的口气说，妈妈爸爸会在一起很久很久的。但是考虑到当时的情况，我觉得似乎应该告诉她事实的真相，或者至少近似于真相。

“没有人知道自己什么时候会去世”，我说道。为了不让她感到太害怕，我又补充道，但是我希望我们能活很久很久。

准确来说，40岁恰好是人生的一半。是青年的结束，也是老年的开始。这也是为什么40岁这个里程碑会引起这么大共鸣。典型的中年危机——买辆跑车或一艘船——可能不再像以前那样流行了。不过，奔四的人很难不反思一下自己的人生之路。