This is not an easy lesson to learn, especially when we are young and think that the world is ours to command, that whatever we desire with the full force of our passionate being can, nay, will be ours. But then life moves along to confront us with realities, and slowly but surely this truth dawns upon us.

　　学会这些并非易事。特别是年少轻狂的时候，我们自认为是世界的主宰者，认为只要充满激情地全力追求，就可以得到一切。然而，事实并非如此。只有在面对种种现实时，我们才会渐渐没明白这个道理。

　　At every stage of life we sustain losses—and grow in the process. We begin our independent lives only when we emerge from the womb and lose its protective shelter. We enter a progression of schools, then we leave our mothers and fathers and our childhood homes. We get married and have children and then have to let them go. We confront the death of our parents and our spouses. We face the gradual or not so gradual waning of our strength. And ultimately, as the parable of the open and closed hand suggests, we must confront the inevitability of our own demise, losing ourselves as it were, all that we were or dreamed to be.

　　在人生的各个阶段，我们都会蒙受损失——并且在这一过程中成长。只有在脱离母体.失去庇护所时，我们才会开始独立的生活。我们不断地升学，接着又离开父母，离开儿时的故乡。继而，我们结婚生子，然后又放手让自己的子女出去闯荡。随着父母和配偶的相继离世，我们也逐渐或者很快衰老。最终，正如双手张开与紧握这一寓言所说，我们必须面对自身的死亡，失去原来的自我，失去我们拥有过或者憧憬过的一切。

　　单词注释

　　ordain [?r'den] (上帝， 法律)命令，注定

　　relinquishment [ri'li?kwi?m?nt] 作罢，让渡

　　paradoxical [,p?r?'dɑks?kl] 矛盾的

　　nay [ne] adv 不，甚至，不仅如此

　　sustain [s?'sten] vt. 维持，忍受，承担

　　womb [wum] 子宫，发源地

　　waning ['we?n??]n.减弱，月亏

　　parable ['p?r?bl] 寓言，比喻

　　inevitability [,?n?v?t?'b?l?ti] n. 必然性，不可逃避