一到中年，就有许多不愉快的现象，眼睛昏花了，记忆力减退了，头发开始秃脱而且变白了，意兴、体力，什么都不如年青的时候，常不禁会感觉到难以名言的寂寞的情味。
At middle age, I feel sad to find my eyesight and memory failing, my hair thinning and graying, and myself no longer mentally and physically as fit as when I was young.
尤其觉得难堪的是知友的逐渐减少和疏远，缺乏交际上的温暖的慰藉。
The most intolerable of all is the lack of friendly warmth and comfort due to the gradual passing away and estrangement of more and more old pals.
不消说，相识的人数是随了年龄增加的，一个人年龄越大，走过的地方当过的职务越多，相识的人理该越增加了。
The older one gets, the more widely travelled one is and the more work experience one has, the more acquaintances one is supposed to have.
可是相识的人并不就是朋友。
But not all acquaintances are friends.
我们和许多人相识，或是因了事务关系，或是因了偶然的机缘--如在别人请客的时候同席吃过饭之类。
We come to know many people either in the way of business or by mere chance -- say, having been at the same table at a dinner party.
见面时点头或握手，有事时走访或通信，口头上彼此也称"朋友"，笔头上有时或称"仁兄"，诸如此类，其实只是一种社交上的客套，和"顿首""百拜"同是仪式的虚伪。
We may be on nodding or hand-shaking terms, call each other "friend", sometimes write to each other with the salutation of "Dear So-and-So", etc., etc.
这种交际可以说是社交，和真正的友谊相差似乎很远。
We may call them social intercourse, but they seem to have very little in common with genuine friendship.
在小学和中学的时代容易结成真正的友谊，那时彼此尚不感到生活的压迫，入世未深，打算计较的念头也少，朋友的结成全由于志趣相近或性情适合，差不多可以说是"无所为"的，性质比较地纯粹。
Real friendship is easily formed in primary or middle school days when, being socially inexperienced and free from the burden of life, you give little thought to personal gains or losses, and make friends entirely as a result of similar tastes and interests or congenial disposition.
二十岁以后结成的友谊，大概已不免搀有各种各样的颜色分子在内；
Friendship among people in their 20's, however, is more or less coloured by personal motives.
至于三十岁四十岁以后的朋友中间，颜色分子愈多，友谊的真实成分也就不免因而愈少了。
And friendship among those aged over 30 becomes correspondingly still less pure as it gets even more coloured.
这并不一定是"人心不古"，实可以说是人生的悲剧。
Though this is not necessarily due to "degeneration of public morality", I do have good reasons to call it the tragedy of life.
人到了成年以后，彼此都有生活的重担须负，入世既深，顾忌的方面也自然加多起来，在交际上不许你不计较，不许你不打算，结果彼此都"钩心斗角"，像七巧板似地只选定了某一方面的对方去接合。
People at middle age, with the heavy burden of life and much experience in the ways of the world, have more scruples about this and that, and cannot choose but become more calculating in social dealings till they start scheming against each other.
这样的接合当然是很不坚固的，尤其是现代这样什么都到了尖锐化的时代。
Such association is of course fragile, especially in this modern age of prevailing sharp conflicts.
在我自己的交游中，最值得系念的老是一些少年时代以来的朋友。
Of all my friends, those I have known since childhood are most worthy of remembrance.
这些朋友本来数目就不多，有些住在远地，连相会的机会也不可多得。
Some of them live far away and we seldom have an opportunity to see each other.
他们有的年龄大过了我，有的小我几岁，都是中年以上的人了，平日各人所走的方向不同。
Some of them are older than I am, and some a few years younger.
如大家话旧，旧事是彼此共喻的，而且大半都是少年时代的事，"旧游如梦"，把梦也似的过去的少年时代重提，因谈话的进行，同时会联想起许多当时的事情，许多当时的人的面影，这时好像自己仍回归到少年时代去了。
While we retell the dream-like childhood days in the course of our conversation, numerous scenes and persons of bygone days will unfold again before our eyes, and we will feel like reliving the old days.
我常在这种时候感到一种快乐，同时也感到一种伤感，那情形好比老妇人突然在抽屉里或箱子里发见了她盛年时的影片。
Often at this moment, I'll feel at once happy and sad -- like an old lady suddenly fishing out from her drawer or chest a photo of her taken in the bloom of her youth.
逢到和旧友谈话，就不知不觉地把话题转到旧事上去，这是我的习惯。
When chatting away with my old friends, I am in the habit of unwittingly channeling the topic of conversation toward things of former days.
我在这上面无意识地会感到一种温暖的慰藉。
From that I unknowingly derive some sort of warm solace.
可是这些旧友一年比一年减少了，本来只是屈指可数的几个，少去一个是无法弥补的。
But old friends are dwindling away year by year.
我没当听到一个旧友死去的消息，总要惆怅多时。
The news of any old pal's death will invariably make me sad in my heart for a long, long time.
学校教育给我们的好处不但只是灌输知识，最大的好处恐怕还在给与我们求友的机会上。
The imparting of knowledge is not the sole advantage of school education.
近来每日早晚在路上见到两两三三的携着书包，携了手或挽了肩膀走着的青年学生，我总艳羡他们有朋友之乐，暗暗地要在心中替他们祝福。
Recently, every morning or evening whenever I see school kids with satchels walking in twos and threes, hand in hand or shoulder to shoulder, I always envy them for enjoying happy friendship, and inwardly offer them my best wishes.