Four years ago, photographer Andrew George approached the medical director of a Los Angeles hospital with an unusual request: He wanted to meet and take photographs of people about to die.

4年前，摄影师安德鲁·乔治带着一个不太寻常的请求找到了洛杉矶医院的医疗总监：他想会见一下那些即将过世之人，并为他们拍一些照片。

He wanted to learn of and reflect the wisdom these people had gained from the life in the hope that others could discover how to lead better lives.

他想要获悉并反映这些人从生活中获得的智慧，希望其他人能从中领悟到如何去过更美好的生活。

On the exhibition walls around him are some framed photos of dying people, each accompanied by some of the words they spoke as they described their hopes, dreams, happy moments and regrets while he photographed them.

在他周围的展示墙上有一些为即将过世之人裱好的照片。当他为他们拍照的时候，他们讲述了自己的希望、梦想、快乐时光和遗憾。每一张照片旁边都附上了他们说过的一段简短的话。

A commonality he found was that few seemed to fear death any longer. Not that any were in a hurry for it to come either.

他发现这些人的共性就是多数人似乎都不再恐惧死亡，然而，这并不是说他们急着迎接死亡的到来。

Many, although appearing frail and noting they were in much pain, still looked forward to just greeting the day.

虽然许多人看上去很虚弱，且十分痛苦，但是，他们仍然期待着迎接新的一天。

Nelly Gutierrez said although she has suffered hardship, she has no regrets.

奈丽·古铁雷斯说，虽然她遭受了极大的痛苦，但是她没有遗憾。

Gutierrez has diabetes, liver failure, heart trouble and other ailments, but says she hangs on through grueling treatments because she wants to see her family.

古铁雷斯有糖尿病、肝功能衰退、心脏病及其他疾病，但是她说，因为她想要见见自己的家人，所以她坚持进行那些折磨人的治疗。

“I wish I could help more people than I have. I love people. I think the only reason I'm on this earth is to help out in any way I can.”

“我希望我能帮助更多人。我爱他们，我觉得我存在于世的唯一理由就是尽自己所能去帮助别人。”

René said his biggest regret was not being in touch with his daughter in El Salvador.

雷奈说，他最大的遗憾就是没有联系上身处萨尔瓦多的女儿。

“There is no such thing as happiness in life. What we call happiness are contributions; all we have is what we are and what we have given at that moment.”

"生命中的幸福快乐？没有这种东西。我们所说的幸福快乐是奉献；我们所拥有的全部即是我们自己，还有那一刻我们所给予的。"

“The meaning of life if the search for it—”

“生命的意义在于寻找其意义所在——”

Jack said: 'My wife wasn't the greatest love of my life. A Japanese girl was back in the 40s. We got along, she was a lot of fun to be with.

杰克说：“我的妻子不是我一生的挚爱。40年代，我爱过的一个日本女孩，她才是。我们一起共度的时光总是充满了欢乐。她让我开心自在。

Death? –Eh, just something that happends—

“死亡？——哈，那只是一件自然而然发生的事情——”

Hundreds of little things give me joy. Mostly, getting out by myself sometimes and just roaming around in the mountains."

"很多事让我快乐。大多数时候，有时我自己独自出行，在山间漫游。"

Sally said she was taking care of her sick brothers and sisters when she developed cancer.

萨莉说，当她罹患癌症的时候，她正在照顾自己生病的兄弟姐妹。

“Sometimes I look at the cross and say ‘Dear God, is this what I have to go through?’”

“有时我看着十字架，问道：‘亲爱的上帝，我就必须经历这些吗？’”

Sarah said: ‘Time is so precious. Life is definitely not infinite. You never know what is going to come up and you really have to take risks. I can’t think about what’s fair – fair doesn’t make any sense'.

萨拉说：“时间如此珍贵。然而，生活却一定不是无限的。你很难预料将会发生什么，但你必须勇于冒险。我无法考虑什么是公平的，因为公平是没有任何意义的”。

“Time is so precious. God, it’s precious…”

“时间是何其弥足珍贵。上帝啊，何其珍贵……”

Kim said people should take the opportunity to tell others how they feel. She said: ‘I’ll be remembered by my mom and kids for how much I care about everybody'.

金姆说，人们应该抓住机会告诉他人自己的感受。她说：“妈妈和孩子们会记住我的，因为（他们知道）我到底有多在乎每一个人”。

“I’m not afraid to die—I’m afraid of what I’ve got to do to get there.”

“我不怕死——我所惧怕的是死前要经历的事。”

Joe wrote just these brief words to accompany his photo: ‘I feel like I am the luckiest man in the world. I have a wonderful wife, son and daughter, grandchildren and great grandchildren. No one could ask for more than that'.

在乔的照片旁边，他只写了简短的几句话：“我想我是世界上最幸运的男人了。我有非常棒的妻子、儿子、女儿、孙子（女）、重孙子（女）。没有人能要求获得比这更多的（美好事物）了。”

Abel: “The most important things in my life have been some of the discoveries of things from people of whom I never would have expected. And some of my favorite moments in my life were having discovered that I was not all that important.”

亚伯：“我一生中最举足轻重的事——即从一些不曾抱有期待的人那里发现了一些事。我这一生中最喜爱的时刻，就是我发现自己并没那么重要。”

“You have a one-way ticket, don't waste it.”

“（人生啊）你只有一张单程票，别浪费了。”

Josefina: “Life is the waiting room to death. We are just passing by because you already know that since we are born we are going to die and we have a specific day and we don’t know when or where or how—I feel calm, at ease, because I already know I am going, so every night I tell God, ‘You know what you are doing.’ I’m not scared of dying; I already lived many happy years.”

约瑟菲娜：“人生死亡的候车室。我们只是个过客，因为你已经知晓了从出生开始我们及会迈向死亡，我们过着特殊的每一天，我们不知道何时何地或如何——我觉得平静、释然，因为我知道我的日子到了，所以每晚的我都祷告上帝，‘你知道你在做什么’。我不怕死；我已经快乐的度过了很多年。”