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生命从八十岁开始

​​Life Begins at Eighty

Bing Xin

亲爱的小朋友：

我每天在病榻上躺着，面对一幅极好看的画。这是一个满面笑容，穿着红兜肚，背上扛着一对大红桃的孩子，旁边写着“敬祝冰心同志八十大寿”，底下落款是“一九八○年十月《儿童文学》敬祝”。

Dear Friends: 

Every day as I lie here on my sickbed I see in front of me a very beautiful picture. It is a picture of a beaming child in red holding a pair of large peaches. At the side of the picture are inscribed the words, “Congratulations on Comrade Bing Xin’s Eightieth Birthday,” and at he bottom the words, “Greetings from Children’s Literature October 1980.”

每天早晨醒来，在灿烂的阳光下看着它，使我快乐，使我鼓舞，但是“八十”这两个字，总不能使我相信我竟然已经八十岁了！

我病后有许多老朋友来信，又是安慰又是责难，说：“你以后千万不能再不服老了！”所以，我在复一位朋友的信里说：“孔子说他常觉得‘不知老之将至’，我是‘无知’到了不知老之已至的地步！”

Waking early every morning, gazing at this picture in the bright rays of the sun gives me happiness and encouragement. The mere word “eighty” simply cannot convince me that I really am eighty years old!

After I fell ill, many old friends wrote to me. Some of the letters were comforting, and some reproachful, saying, “Now you will no longer be able to refuse to devote yourself to the aged!” I replied to one friend: “Confucius once said that he often felt that he ‘did not know when old age would arrive,’ whereas I am in the position of ‘not knowing’ that I do not know that old age has already arrived!”

这无知要感谢我的千千万万的小读者！自从我二十三岁起写《寄小读者》以来，断断续续地写了将近六十年。正是许多小读者们读《寄小读者》后的来信，这热情的回响，使我永远觉得年轻！

 This ignoramus wishes to thank her thousands of young readers. Ever since I wrote Letters to My Litter Readers at the age of twenty-three, I have been writing continuously for nearly sixty years. It is the Letters to My Little Readers that has kept me feeling forever young. 

我在病中不但得到《中国少年报》编辑部的赠花，并给我拍了照，也得到许多慰问的信，因为这些信的祝福都使我相信我会很快康复起来。我的病是在得了“脑血栓”之后，又把右胯骨摔折。因此行动、写字都很困难。写这几百字几乎用了半个小时，但我希望在一九八一年我完全康复之后，再努力给小朋友们写些东西。西谚云“生命从四十岁开始”。我想从一九八一年起，病好后再好好练习写字，练习走路。“生命从八十岁开始”，努力和小朋友们一同前进！

 During my illness, the editorial department of China Youth magazine not only sent me flowers, they also came and took a photograph of me. In addition, I received many letters of sympathy. All these good wishes convinced me that I would soon get better. My illness was the result of a blood clot on the brain. In addition, I fell and fractured my right hip, so I find moving and writing very difficult. In fact, it has taken me half an hour to write these few words. But I hope to be fully recovered in 1981, and then I will again get busy writing for my young friends. In the West there is a saying which goes, “Life begins at forty.” I hope that in 1981, after I recover from my illness, I will again practice writing and walking. Life begins at eighty. I will do my best to forge ahead, alongside my young friends. 

祝你们健康快乐

你们的热情的朋友冰心

一九八○年十月二十九日于北京医院

I wish you health and happiness.

Your loving friend Bing Xin

Beijing Hospital

October 29, 1980​​​​

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