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THIS weekend, the singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen is celebrating his 80th birthday — with a cigarette. Last year he announced that he would resume smoking when he turned 80. “It’s the right age to recommence,” he explained. 这个周末，歌手兼词曲创作者莱昂纳德·科恩点上一支香烟，庆祝他的80岁生日（9月21日——译注）。去年他宣布，自己打算一到80岁就恢复吸烟。“这是重新开始的好年纪，”他说。 At any age, taking up smoking is not sensible. Both the smoker and those who breathe his secondhand smoke can suffer not only long-term but acute health problems, including infections and asthma. And yet, Mr. Cohen’s plan presents a provocative question: When should we set aside a life lived for the future and, instead, embrace the pleasures of the present? 吸烟在任何年纪都是不明智的。吸烟者和那些吸二手烟的人都会出现健康问题，既有长期的，也有急性的，比如感染和哮喘等。但是科恩的计划提出了一个刺激的问题：我们什么时候可以把未来的人生抛到一边，全新享受当下的快乐？ At the start of the 20th century, only one-half of 1 percent of the United States population was over the age of 80. Industrialized nations were preoccupied with infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and polio. Many of the common diseases of aging, such as osteoporosis, were not even thought of as diseases. | 
