【原文】
岁月的流逝
林清玄
[1]我们在人生里，随着岁月的流逝而感觉到自己的成长（其实是一种老去），会发现每一个阶段都拥有了不同的朋友，[2]友谊虽不至于散失，聚散却随因缘流转，常常转到我们一回首感到惊心的地步。[3]比较可悲的是，那些特别相知的朋友往往远在天际，泛泛之交却在眼前，因此，生活里经常令我们陷入一种人生寂寥的境地。
岁末年初，最容易让人感叹日月消长、时光不复。随着年龄的增加，对此可能更会有不同的感受。
关于题目“岁月的流逝”，有各种译法，有的用了Time Flies，看似不错，但细加分析，该短语主要是感叹时光飞逝、岁月如梭，如：①Time flies by, and a world of changes has occurred.（光阴荏苒，世事沧桑。）②These five years have seemed to me like 5 months. Time flies!（这5年对我来说就像5个月一样，时光飞逝！）③How time flies! Here you are graduating from high school and planning to attend State University in the fall.（时间过得真快，转眼间你就将中学毕业，并拟于秋季进入州立大学了！）然而，该文着意“随着岁月的流逝”，即强调的是“过程”，而非“速度”，类似的如经典影片《卡萨布兰卡》（Casablanca）的插曲《时光流逝》（As Time Goes By）中唱道：“I love you more and more each day / As time goes by”（时光流逝，对你的爱恋却与日俱增。）夏丏尊的名篇《中年人的寂寞》中有：“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。”著名翻译家张培基的译文为：Needless to say, the number of acquaintances increases with one’s age. The older one gets, the more widely traveled one is and the more work experience one has, the more acquaintances one is supposed to have. 这些表达都有“随着岁月而发生……”之意，故此处不妨用：As Years Go By…
对于[1]，许多人都按部就班地依原文译成“In our lives, we could realize that we grow up (a kind of aging, actually)”“In our lifetime, we feel certain inner growth with the flow of years (which, in essence, is a sign of ageing)”“In our life journey, we witness our growth as time marches on (actually we get older as the years rolled by)”“We, in our life, feel our own growth (an aging in disguise) as time goes by”等，其实，中英文的语序在译文里不必刻板，而可根据要表达或强调的意思相当灵活地加以处理，特别是状语。例如，“有时候在外面玩儿到半夜才回家睡觉，于是又梦见玩儿的情景”，若循规蹈矩地译成“Sometimes, I played outside till midnight, and then sent to sleep. So I dreamed again of how I played.”不免显得呆滞，不如调整语序译为“Not until midnight did I go home to sleep, and then I dreamed what happened during the day.”更符英文表达方式。有的调整幅度甚至很大：①在这个国家，一直以来，我最喜欢的地方其实很多。（The most loved place, for me, in this country has in fact been many places.）②西洋人究竟近乎白痴，什么事都只讲究脚踏实地去做，这样费力气的勾当，我们聪明的中国人，简直连牙齿都要笑掉了。（Because of their earnest and down-to-earth approach to work, Westerners are, in the eyes of Chinese smarties，next door to idiot.）同时，亦可不必受制于原文的标点符号（如其中的括号），而在译文中加以展开，更显平实、自然。
故此，该部分不妨译为：As years go by, we can feel our growth, as a kind of ageing. At every stage of life, we make friends with all sorts of people.
[2]中，“聚散却随因缘流转”是个焦点，表层意思固然是“its (in terms of friendship) gathering or departure is transferred by fate”“many of them come and go by such an uncertain twist of fate”“makes our friends and us gather and separate by karma”“gatherings and partings are steered by our destinies”等，但其深层含义是，经过世态炎凉，友谊经过了各种测试、拣选、考验，分流出了下文所讲的“特别相知的朋友”和“泛泛之交”，故应有 the friendship has been tested by various turbulences之意。
“回首”，一般译成as we look back、when looking back、call to mind、recollect、turning round等，固然都不错，但hindsight别有涵义（understanding the nature of an event after it has happened; the ability to understand and realize something about an event after it has happened, although you did not understand or realize it at the time）似更为恰当。
至于“惊心”，有的用了shock，其实该词强调的是suddenly、accidentally (something suddenly happens which is unpleasant or upsetting; the feeling of distress and disbelief that you have when something bad happens accidentally)，而surprise强调的是unexpected、unanticipated (the astonishment you feel when something totally unexpected or unanticipated happens to you)。二者比较，显然后者占优。
因而，该部分似可译为：While friendship may not be easily lost, various turbulences do test its endurance, to a point which may surprise us in hindsight.
[3]中，“特别相知的朋友”，显然不只是those who know us particularly well，而是“相互理解的”bosom friends、soul mates等；“泛泛之交”，一般可用general friends、nodding/bowing/casual acquaintances等。较为典型的译文，如“The more grief is that friends whom we know from the bottom of our hearts are poles away and whom we know skin deep are in front of ones’ eyes, consequently we fall into a solitary situation in our life.”“We scarcely lose our most prominent friendship, but couldn’t be with our friends for long. With the glimpse of the looking footprints, things are barely recalling the permanent terror and regrets.”“The sad thing is those who intimate with each other live far away while who is on hand-shaking terms is close to me. Therefore, life often puts us in a lonely position.”等。就此，上文提到的夏丏尊亦有类似论述：“可是相识的人并不就是朋友。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。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。这种交际可以说是社交，和真正的友谊相差似乎很远。”张培基的译文为：But not all acquaintances are friends. 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. 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. All these are, in fact, nothing but civilities of social life, as hypocritical as the polite formula dunshou (kowtow) or baibai (a hundred greetings) used after the signature in old-fashioned Chinese letter-writing. We may call them social intercourse, but they seem to have very little in common with genuine friendship. 这段译文虽用词平淡，却深浅有度，固叙述平实，仍情理之致，在某种程度上，可作为此段译文的注脚和参照。
故此，该部分不妨译为：Sadly, we often find that bosom friends are far away and casual acquaintances widely present, frequently trapping us in loneliness.
悠悠岁月，芸芸众生，实在有写不完且译不尽的精彩、感叹与无奈，这也正是生花妙笔的用武之地。
优胜译文：
@醉清风
The Lapse of Time
By Lin Qingxuan
With the lapse of time in life, we can sense our own growth, or rather, a kind of aging. At different life stages, different friends can be found. Friendship will not get lost over time, yet its reunions and departures will take turns by causes, turning into a point where we look back and feel startled. It is sad that we always miss close friends afar while have casual acquaintances around. Consequently, we are trapped in constant solitude of life.
@Tracy ZHANG
The Passage of Time
Lin Qingxuan
Life would let us know we have grown as years elapse, which in truth comes with age. It would dawn upon us that we have had different friends in different stages of life. Friendship is still there but the chances of meeting and parting have got to a point at which we would be astounded in retrospect. Sadly, we would often find ourselves worlds apart from those whose minds are the closest to ours, but surrounded by casual acquaintances. That is the part of life that would drown us in loneliness.
@阿耳佱
The Flow of Time
By Lin, Qingxuan
In our lives, with the flow of time, the sense of growth, which is actually a sense of getting old, will hit us. We will find out that there are different friends around us in each stage of our growth, which does not lead to the lost of friendship though, yet makes our friends and us gather and separate by karma, which usually astounds us when we look back. Sadly, our intimate friends are often far from us, while casual acquaintances are always before our eyes. Therefore, we often fall into a lonesome circumstance in the life.