我六十多岁时还觉得自己距离中年不过咫尺之遥，在人生的航程中， 尽管我已不在壮年的安全之船上了，但就算下了水，也还依然在大船周遭 逡巡;七十岁生日，也没感觉到什么不同，因为我一直尽力忽视年龄;但 到七十一岁，情况发生了变化，一个“七十多岁的人”确实是老了，刹那间 ，这个事实掷地有声地出现在面前，我看见时间正将晚景一步步推入视野 。 All through my sixties I felt I was still within hailing distance of middle age, not safe on its shores, perhaps, but navigating its coastal waters. My seventieth birthday failed to change this because I managed scarcely to notice it, but my seventy-first did change it. Being 'over seventy' is being old: suddenly I was aground on that fact and saw that the time had come to size it up.外表对老女人来说尤其重要，这倒不在于我们想给别人留下多少深刻印象，而是因为我们会看见镜中的自己。 Appearance is important to old women, not because we suppose that it will impress other people, but because of what we ourselves see when we look in a mirror. 别人不大 可能注意到一张老脸上有个又红又亮的鼻子，或两颊青筋历历可见...