好英语网越到生命的末尾，爱情越甜
Sam and I dated for two years. Then, when I turned 70 and he 80, we had a joint 150th birthday party and announced our engagement. We married a year later.
我和山姆约会已有两年。然后，当我70、他80的时候，我们举办了一场合起来150岁的生日派对，并宣布订婚。一年后，我们结婚了。
We came from very different backgrounds. Sam, a Japanese-American who had been interned in the camps during World War II, worked his way through college and was happily married to his Japanese-American wife for more than 40 years until her death. I grew up as a fox-hunting debutante whose colonial New York ancestors were lords of the manor of Pelham. Typical of my much-married family, I had been divorced twice.
我们的背景相去甚远。山姆是个日裔美国人，二战期间曾被关进拘留营，他半工半读念完大学，和他的日裔美国妻子婚后幸福生活了40多年，直到她离世。我则是个会以猎狐为消遣的“大家闺秀”，我的祖先是殖民时代纽约的佩勒姆庄园的领主。和我有过多次婚史的家族成员一样，我也离过两次婚。
We belonged to the same San Francisco-area running club. He was a rarity — a charming, fit, single man of 77. I wanted to get to know him better.
我们是旧金山地区同一个跑步俱乐部的成员。他是个珍稀物种——有气质、有身材的77岁单身汉。我想要更好地了解他。
I devised a plan. Our mutual friend Janet had in her house a small movie theater that seated about a dozen people; she often had parties there. I called her. “This is very seventh grade,” I began. “But I’d like you to invite Sam to one of your screenings. I’ll come to any movie he’s coming to.”
我制定了一个计划。我们共同的朋友珍妮特家里有一个小电影院，能坐十来个人。她经常在那里举行聚会。我给她打了个电话。“这很初中生，”我开始说。“但我希望你邀请山姆去你的放映活动。他去的任何一场电影我都去。”
Soon after, she called. “He’s coming on Thursday.”
没过多久，她就回电。“他周四会来。”
There were 8 or 10 of us there that evening. After the movie, as we were all standing around and chatting, someone mentioned “The Motorcycle Diaries,” a new film about Che Guevara.
那晚我们有八个还是十个人在那里。电影结束后，当我们四散站着聊天时，有人提到了《摩托日记》(The Motorcycle Diaries)，一部关于切·格瓦拉(Che Guevara)的新电影。
“I’d like to see that,” I said.
“我想看这个片子”，我说。
“I would too,” Sam said. Short pause. I held my breath. He looked at me. “Would you like to go?”
“我也想看，”山姆说。一阵短暂的停顿。我屏住呼吸。他望向我，“你要一起吗？”
Squelching the urge to high-five Janet, I said yes. We set a date for the following week; he’d meet me at the theater. But when the day came, our movie was sold out.
抑制住想跟珍妮特击掌的冲动，我说好的。我们在接下来的那周定了一天；他约我在影院见面。但那天来的时候，我们要看的那场已经售罄。
What to do? We looked at what else was playing and chose “Sideways.” I have only a vague memory of some plot about men and wine, but a sharp memory of sitting next to Sam. And when “Sideways” was over, we decided that since we hadn’t met our objective, we’d see “The Motorcycle Diaries” another day.
怎么办？我们看了看别的正在上映的电影，然后选了《杯酒人生》(Sideways)。我只模糊地记得一些关于男人和葡萄酒的情节，但关于坐在山姆旁边的记忆，却尤为深刻。当《杯酒人生》结束的时候，我们决定，既然目的尚未达到，我们将改天再看《摩托日记》。
Sam and I began running together. Early on, however, I was faced with a dilemma. At a half-marathon in Humboldt County, he went out fast and was way ahead. But as the miles went by, I crept closer and closer and I could see, from the way he was running, that I had more energy left. What to do? Should I beat him and risk his being resentful? Some men really hate being bested by a woman.
山姆和我开始一起跑步。然而，没多久我就面临一个两难的抉择。在洪堡县的一个半程马拉松比赛中，他起跑很快，遥遥领先。但之后我越追越近。从他跑步的方式我可以看出来，我剩下的力气比他多。怎么办？我该冒着他生气的风险打败他吗？有些男人真的讨厌被女性超过。
I could slow down and let him beat me, but that would be patronizing to him and make me resentful. Then I thought, “If he gets annoyed that I ran faster, he’s not the man for me.” So I sped up, patted him on the behind, and said, “Come on!” I ran on to the finish and, as it happened, he couldn’t keep up. But I needn’t have worried. Sam didn’t get upset — in fact, he seemed pleased I had run well. And so we grew together.
我可以慢下来，让他打败我，但那是对他的屈尊俯就，又会让我生气。然后我想，“如果他因为我跑得更快而变得恼怒，那他就不是我的良人。”所以我加快速度，拍了拍他的后背，喊道，“加油！”我继续跑向终点，他也的确没法跟上。但无需我担忧。山姆没有变得沮丧——事实上，他似乎对我跑得很好感到高兴。就是这样，我们慢慢走到一起。
Sam and I often ate at Chinese restaurants where I received some fortune cookies that truly lived up to their name. Two of my favorites:
山姆和我经常在中餐馆吃饭，在那里，我拿到一些真正兑现了的幸运饼干。其中有两句我最为喜欢：
“Persevere with your plans and you will marry your love.”
“坚持你的计划，你终将与所爱之人共结连理。”
“Stop searching forever. Happiness is just next to you.”
“别再永无止境地搜寻。幸福就在你身旁。”
One evening at the movies, after we had been seeing each other for several weeks, I felt his hand on mine. If I close my eyes and concentrate, I can recapture the moment: the dark of the theater, the warmth of his hand, my happiness. One might not expect an old grandmother to feel a surge of romance, but I did, and I knew that his reaching out was a brave gesture. I reciprocated, inviting him in for tea when he took me home. I have a narrow, uncomfortable sofa in my living room, poorly designed for intimacy, but nevertheless that was where we sat, and that was where we kissed before he went home.
在我们开始约会几周后，有天晚上看电影时，我感到他把手放在了我的手上。如果我闭上眼睛、集中精神，我仍能回想起那一刻：影院的黑暗、他手的温度，和我的幸福。你可能没法指望一个上了年纪的老太太还能感受到浪漫的冲击，但我的确体会到了，而且我知道，他伸出手来是多么勇敢的姿态。我做出了回应，当他载我回家时，我请他进门喝杯茶。在我的客厅里，有一张狭窄的、不舒服的沙发，它设计糟糕，并不适合亲密接触，但无论如何，就是在那里，我们坐下来，也就是在那里，在他回家前，我们接吻了。
There was a complication: I could feel that Sam was conflicted about our budding relationship because of his loyalty to his wife, Betty, who had died six years before. In my younger years I would have felt competitive, as if his love for her meant less for me. Now I knew differently, and one night I spoke my mind.
一个难题出现了：我能够感觉到山姆对我们刚刚萌芽的关系感到矛盾，因为他对六年前离世的妻子贝蒂十分忠诚。在我年轻的时候，我可能会很好胜，好像他对她的爱意味着对我的就要少一些。但现在我想得不一样了，一天晚上，我说出了我的想法。
“I know that you loved Betty very much, and I have great respect for your marriage,” I began. “But I think you have room in your heart for me, too.”
“我知道你深爱贝蒂，我对你的婚姻抱有极大的敬重，”我开始说道，“但我想你心里也有一个地方是留给我的。”
He hugged me and went home.
他抱了抱我，然后回家了。
Several days later he asked, “Are you going to run the 5K in Carmel next week?”
几天后，他问，“你下周会去卡梅尔跑5K赛吗？”
“Yes.”
“会。”
“Would you like to go together?”
“你想一起去吗？”
“Yes.” I had no idea what he had in mind, but that became clear a few days later. We were talking after a run; Sam looked bashfully down at his shoes as he said: “I have made a reservation in Carmel for a room with one bed. Is that O.K.?” It was.
“好。”我一点也不知道他心里在想什么，但过了几天，就都清楚了。一次跑步后，我们开始聊天；山姆害羞地低头盯着他的鞋，说道，“我在卡梅尔订了一间房，只有一张床，可以吗？”没问题。
I realized that the last time he had been dating was in the early 1950s, before his marriage, and he had entirely missed the change in customs of the ’60s and ’70s. When he began staying over at my house, he always stopped the newspaper at his house so the neighbors wouldn’t know what was going on. But for all his adherence to decorum, he was a true romantic.
我意识到，他上次约会还是在1950年代的头两年，那是他结婚前，他完全没有注意到60年代和70年代习俗的变化。当他开始在我家过夜，他总是把他家订的报纸停掉，这样邻居们就不会知道发生了什么。不过，尽管总是恪守陈规，他仍是一个真正的浪漫派。
A few months later, when we were both in Europe on separate trips, we met in Barcelona. This was a leap. Traveling together in a foreign country would be a more exacting test of our relationship than our jaunts to movies and races. But in this, as in almost everything else, Sam was perfect. When I arrived at our hotel, he was there with wine, chocolates and flowers. For all our anxiety about traveling together, we meshed. On the flight home, Sam declared, “We must never travel separately again.”
几个月后，我们分别前往欧洲旅行，在巴塞罗那会合。这是一个质的飞跃。比起我们看电影和比赛时的短暂出游，在一个陌生的国度共同旅行将是对我们关系的一个更为严格的考验。但在这件事上，正如在几乎所有其他事上，山姆都堪称完美。当我到达我们的酒店时，他已经在那里，带着酒、巧克力和鲜花。那些关于共同旅行全部的焦虑，被我们一一化解。在回家的飞机上，山姆宣布，“我们再也不要分开旅行。”
From then on, we were well and truly together. We had few outside pressures: He was retired with a comfortable pension; I was a freelance writer with an outside income; our middle-aged children were on their own. We had nothing to do but love each other and be happy. Sam and I did things younger people do — we ran and raced, we fell in love and traveled and remodeled a house and got married.
从那时起，我们就真正地在一起了。我们鲜少有外部压力：他退休了，领着一份可观的退休金；我则是个自由撰稿人，有额外收入；我们的孩子也都人到中年，均已独立。除了彼此相爱，幸福快乐，我们没有别的事可做。山姆和我做了年轻人都会做的事——我们跑步、比赛，我们陷入爱河、旅行、改造房子，然后结婚。
After the ceremony, we flew to Hawaii. “You must never call this a honeymoon,” he told me. “That way no one can ever say that the honeymoon is over.”
婚礼过后，我们飞往夏威夷。“你千万别把这叫做蜜月，”他告诉我，“这样的话，就没人能说蜜月结束了。”
We traveled to Italy to compete in the 2007 World Masters Athletics Championships (what I fondly call “The Geriatric Olympics”), where we both won gold medals in our respective age brackets: 70 to 74 for me and 80 to 84 for Sam. At home, we planted a garden; I finished writing a memoir. Every morning we did push-ups; every evening we sat on the rim of our bathtub and flossed our teeth. He called me “sweetheart.” He never forgot an anniversary, including our first movie date. I gave him flowers on Betty’s birthday.
我们去了意大利，参加2007年世界大师田径锦标赛（World Masters Athletics Championships，我亲切地称之为“老年奥林匹克”），我们都在各自的年龄组中获得了金牌：我是70至74岁组，山姆是80至84岁组。在家里，我们种出了一个花园；我写完了一本回忆录。每天早上，我们都做俯卧撑；每天晚上，我们都坐在浴缸的边缘，用牙线剔牙。他叫我“甜心”。他从未忘记任何一个周年纪念日，包括我们第一次看电影那次约会。我在贝蒂生日的时候也为他送上鲜花。
OLD LOVE is different. In our 70s and 80s, we had been through enough of life’s ups and downs to know who we were, and we had learned to compromise. We knew something about death because we had seen loved ones die. The finish line was drawing closer. Why not have one last blossoming of the heart?
老年之爱是不一样的。在我们七老八十的时候，我们已经经历了生活太多的起起落落，也明白我们是谁，我们学会了妥协。我们了解一些关于死亡的事，因为我们见过深爱的人离开。终点线越来越近了，为什么不让心灵最后一次绽放呢？
I was no longer so pretty, but I was not so neurotic either. I had survived loss and mistakes and ill-considered decisions; if this relationship failed, I’d survive that too. And unlike other men I’d been with, Sam was a grown-up, unafraid of intimacy, who joyfully explored what life had to offer. We followed our hearts and gambled, and for a few years we had a bit of heaven on earth.
我不再那么漂亮，但也没那么神经质了。我经历过失去、错误以及头脑发昏做出的决定；如果这段关系失败了，我一样可以活下去。和与我交往过的其他男人不同，山姆是一个成熟的人，不害怕亲密关系，他愉快地探索生命给予我们的东西。我们跟随内心，然后赌上一把，有那么几年，我们在地球上过得有点像是在天堂。
Then one day the tear duct in Sam’s right eye didn’t work, and soon his eye began to bulge. One misdiagnosis and failed treatment followed another until there was a biopsy. A week later his doctor called to say Sam had stage 4 cancer that he would not survive.
然后，一天，山姆右眼的泪腺出了问题。没过多久，他的眼睛开始鼓起来。一连串的误诊和失败治疗接踵而至，直到一次活检。一周后，他的医生打电话来说，山姆患了四期癌症，没有存活希望了。
There was the agony of Sam’s fight to live, which he waged with grace and courage. Desperate to lessen his suffering, I learned to give hospital nurses $20 Starbucks cards to get special care for him. Every day I brought him bowls of his favorite watermelon balls. But one morning he couldn’t eat even those, and a few hours later he died.
山姆为生命而进行的战斗极为痛苦，但他仍以优雅与勇气应对。我迫切想减轻他所受的折磨，于是学会了给医院护士塞20美元的星巴克卡，为他换来一点特殊照顾。我每天都给他带去一碗他最喜欢的西瓜水果球。但有天早上，他连那些都吃不下了。几个小时后，他离开了人间。
Not only was I happy during my short years with Sam, I knew I was happy. I had one of the most precious blessings available to human beings — real love. I went for it and found it.
和山姆在一起的短短几年中，我不仅感到快乐，还深知我很幸福。我得到了人类所能拥有的最为珍贵的祝福之一——真爱。我努力寻找，然后真的找到了。
I yearn desperately for Sam. But the current pain is very worth it. He and I often told each other, “We are so lucky.” And we were. Young love, even for old people, can be surprisingly bountiful.
我非常思念山姆。但此刻的痛苦仍然很值得。他和我常常告诉对方，“我们真幸运”。我们的确是。年轻的爱情，即便对老年人来说，也可以有如此慷慨的回报。