为何思考死亡有助于你过上更美好的生活Why thinking about death helps you live a better life

I want to die at sunset.

我想在日落时死去。

I want to watch the sky change and turn orange and pink and purple as day dies into night.

我想看着天空变成橘黄、粉红、绛紫色，白昼消逝、黑夜来临。

I want to die with socks on my feet because I get cold.

我想穿着袜子离世，因为我怕冷。

If I die with a bra on, I’m coming to haunt everybody.

如果我穿着胸罩死去，我一定会回来缠着你们。

Death creates context for our lives.

死亡让我们的人生拥有背景与意义。

How we die creates the period at the end of the sentence, but it is the period that makes it a sentence at all.

死亡是人生句子的句号，而正是这个句号让人生成为完整的句子。

We count birthdays now because they’re finite.

我们庆祝生日，是因为它是有限的。

Birthdays are special. They mark the passage of time.

生日特别，因为它标记着时间的流逝。

One day, we won’t have any more time.

终有一天，我们的时间会耗尽。

I think it’s healthy for us to think about our death.

我认为思考自己的死亡是一件健康的事。

Acknowledging your death means that you are not the center of the story.

承认自己的死亡意味着你不是故事的中心。

Acknowledging your mortality also means acknowledging our powerlessness and lack of control we have in life.

承认会死亡，也意味着承认我们在生命中的无力与不可控。

It also means surrendering to the big “I don’t knows” of life.

这也表示我们要向生命中的所有“不知道”臣服。

Why not imagine something absurd, something glorious, something huge?

既然未知，为什么不把它想象得荒诞、辉煌、盛大一点？

Everybody was uncomfortable with the fact that he was going to die.

每个人都对他即将死去这件事感到不安。

There should be somebody who could walk alongside us.

我们应该要有人陪着我们一起走过这段路。

What must I do to be at peace with myself so that I may live presently and die gracefully?

我需要做些什么，才能让自己活得平静，并优雅地迎接死亡？

Because what are we waiting for, anyway? Like, death?

因为我们究竟还在等什么？死亡吗？

Death was coming to remind her that she had no more “out theres.”

死亡提醒她，已经没有“逃到别处”这件事了。

That it was always only right here, where there is nothing at all to do but simply to be.

她只能停留在“此时此刻”，仅仅是存在。

It wasn’t about the kids or the work or the money. It was about the little things.

重要的不是孩子、不是工作、不是金钱，而是生活中的小事。

Her hands in the soil. Her garden.

她的双手在泥土里，她的花园。

Building a fire, reading books and food.

生火、读书、美食。

She loved to eat, but she had dieted most of her adult life.

她喜欢吃东西，但成年后大部分时间都在节食。

You are going to die, so please eat the cake.

你终将死去，所以请吃蛋糕吧。

Eat the cake, order the dessert, eat the french fries, eat the brownies.

吃蛋糕，点甜品，吃薯条，吃布朗尼。

Eat everything you want to, just eat it, because you’re going to die.

想吃什么就吃吧，因为你终将死去。

One day, you won’t be able to anymore.

总有一天，你将再也吃不了这些东西。

Leaving a legacy isn’t optional.

留下遗产并不是可选项。

You’re doing it with every smile, every word, every kind word, every harsh word.

你在每一个微笑、每一句话、每句善意或苛刻的话中，都在留下你的“遗产”。

Every action, every inaction, every dollar you spend.

每一个行动、每一次不行动、你花的每一分钱，都是你的痕迹。

You’re telling the people who are paying attention exactly who you are.

你正在向关注你的人展示你是谁。

Nobody cared about what she’d done. They talked about who she was.

没人关心她做过什么，人们谈论的是她“是谁”。

When we focus on our productivity, we highlight what we have to do to feel worthy.

当我们执着于“产出”，我们只是在证明自己“够不够好”。

Why not then make meaning out of the magic of the mundane?

那为什么不在平凡的小事中寻找意义呢？

We’re human. Messily, magically, fantastically, beautifully, briefly, perfectly human.

我们是人：混乱、神奇、短暂又完美的人。

Hold life lightly.

把生活拿轻一点。

We’ve got to hold life really, really lightly.

我们必须把生活拿得更轻一点。

We are all dying.

我们都正在走向死亡。

Please let the cars merge, OK?

请让别人插个队，好吗？

It requires nothing of you, just to give them a little bit of time.

你什么也不需要做，只是给对方一点点时间。

The real gift in being with our mortality is the sheer wonder that we live at all.

死亡带来的最大礼物，是意识到“活着”本身就是奇迹。