好的生活是建立在好的人际关系上面，与爱人的亲密关系对我们的健康和幸福是有益的，反之会伤害身体，甚至还会伤害大脑的记忆力……

I’d like to start with a quote from Mark Twain.

我想引用马克吐温的话开始这个话题。

More than a century ago, he was looking back on his life, and he wrote this:

一百多年前，当他回顾此生，写下了这些话：

“There isn’t time, so brief is life,

生命如此短暂，我们没有时间，

for bickerings, apologies, heart-burnings, callings to account.

去争吵、道歉、伤心、斤斤计较。

There is only time for loving, and but an instant, so to speak, for that.”

我们只有时间去爱，一切稍纵即逝。

Relationships are messy and they’re complicated,

人际关系是棘手的、复杂的事情，

and the hard work of tending to family and friends.

维护亲情友情是件困难的事情

It’s not just the number of friends you have,

无关你拥有多少朋友，

It’s not whether or not you’re in a committed relationship,

无关你是否在恋爱或婚姻中，

but it’s the quality of your close relationships that matters.

重要的是亲密关系的质量。

The Harvard has been studying adult behavior for 75 years,

哈佛大学75年来持续研究成人行为，

it turns out that living in the midst of conflict is really bad for our health.

得出的结论是，生活在冲突中确实对我们的健康有害。

High-conflict marriages, for example, without much affection,

有严重冲突的婚姻，比如，没有足够的爱的婚姻，

turn out to be very bad for our health,

会对我们的健康非常有害，

perhaps worse than getting divorced.

可能比离婚还糟糕。

And living in the midst of good, warm relationships is protective.

而生活在优质、温暖的人际关系中是具有保护作用的。

good, close relationships seem to buffer us from some of the slings and arrows of getting old.

良好、亲密的人际关系似乎可以缓解我们变老的苦楚。

Good relationships don’t just protect our bodies, they protect our brains.

好的人际关系不仅保护我们的身体，还保护我们的大脑

The people who are in relationships

在人际关系中

where they really feel they can count on the other person in times of need,

当有需求的时候，人们真切感受到可以依赖对方，

those people’s memories stay shaper and longer.

那些人的记忆会保持的更清晰长久。

if the people in relationships where they feel they really can’t count on the other one,

如果人们在人际关系中真实的感到无法依赖对方，

those are the people who experience earlier memory decline.

那些人的记忆会较早衰退。

Moreover those good relationships, they don’t have to be smooth all the time.

此外，那些好的关系，不必始终平稳不变。

Some of octogenarian couples could bicker with each other, day in and day out,

一些老年伴侣会相互斗，嘴日复一日，

but as long as they felt that they could really count on the other when they are going got tough,

然而只要感觉到当他们遇到困难的时候，对方可以真正依赖，

those arguments don’t take a toll on their memories.

这些争论对记忆不会造成伤害。

So this message, that good, close relationships are good for our health and wellbeing,

所以，这个信息就是，好的亲密关系对我们的健康和幸福是有益的，

This is wisdom that ‘s as old as the hill. It’s also lifelong, it never ends.

这个至理名言亘古不变，它是终其一生，永无止境的。

quote n引用

bicker v吵架斗嘴

messy a棘手的

tend v照顾

a committed relationship 有承诺的关系（恋爱、婚姻）

the midst of在··当中

affection n感情

buffer v缓解

the slings and arrows厄运

count on依赖

octogenarian a八旬老人的

take a toll产生负面影响

wellbeing n幸福