UnitMarriage課文翻譯綜合教程四

1、Unit-Marriage課文翻譯綜合 教程四作者: 日期:Unit 13MarriageRobert Lynd1 "Conventional people/' says Mr. Bertrand Russell, “l(fā)ike to pretend that difficulties in regard to marriage are a new thing.” I could not help wondering, as I read this sentence, where one can meet these conventional people who think,

2、 or pretend to think, as conventional people do. I have known hundreds of conventional people, and I cannot remember one of them who thought tlie things conventional people seem to think Tliey were all, for example, convinced tliat marriage was a state beset with difficulties, and that these difficu

3、lties were as old, if not as the hills, at least as the day on which Adam lost a rib and gained a wife. A younger generation of conventional people has grown up in recent years, and it may be that they have a rosier conception of marriage than their ancestors; but tlie conventional people of the Vic

4、torian era were under no illusions on tlie subject. Their cynical attitude to mamage may be gathered from tlie entliusiastic reception they gave to Punch's advdce to those about to marr>r "Don't.”2 I doubt, indeed, whether the horrors of marriage were ever depicted more cmelly tlian

5、during the conventional nineteenth century The comic papers and music-halls made the miseries a standing dish'You can always tell whetlier a mads married or single from the way he s dressed/ said tlie comedian “Look at the single man: no buttons on his shirt Look at the married man: no shirt.” T

6、he humour was crude; but it went home to tlie honest Victorian heait If marriage were to be judged by the songs conventional people used to sing about it in tlie music-halls, it would seem a hell mainly populated by twins and leech-like motliers-in-law The rare experiences of Darby and Joan were, it

7、 is true， occasionally hymned, reducing strong men smelling strongly of alcohol to reverent silence; but, on the whole, the audience felt more nonnal when a comedian came out with an anti-marital refrain such as:O why did I leave my little back roomIn Bloomsbury，Where I could live on a pound a weekI

8、11 luxury(I forget the next line).But since I have married Maria,I've jumped out of the frying-panInto the blooming fire.3 No difficulties? Why, the very nigger-minstrels of my boyhood used to open their perfonnance with a chorus which began:Married! Married! O pity those who re married Those wh

9、o go and take a wife must be very green.4 It is possible tliat the comedians exaggerated, and that Victorian wives were not all viragos with pokers, who beat their tipsy husbands for staying out too late. But at least they and their audiences refrained from painting marriage as an inevitable Paradis

10、e. Even the clergy would go no fartlier tlian to say that marriages were made in Heaven. That they did not believe tliat marriage necessarily ended there is shown by the fact that one of them wrote a '"bestseller” bearing the title How to Be Happy Though Married.5 I doubt, indeed, whether c

11、ommon opinion in any age has ever looked on marriage as an untroubled Paradise I consulted a dictionary of quotations on the subject and discovered tliat few of the opinions quoted were rose-coloured These opinions, it may be objected, are the opinions of unconventional people, but it is also true t

12、hat tliey are opinions treasured and kept alive by conventional people We have tlie reputed saying of the henpecked Socrates, for example, when asked whether it was better to marry or not: "Whichever you do, you will repentWe have Montaigne writing: "It happens as one sees in cages The bir

13、ds outside despair of ever getting in; those inside are equally desirous of getting out.” Bacon is no more prenuptial with his caustic quotation: "He was reputed one of tlie wise men that made answer to the question when a man should marry: "A young man not yet; an elder man not at all.&qu

14、ot; Buiton is far from encouraging! '"One was never married, and that's his hell; another is, and that's his plague.” Pepys scribbled in his diary: ''Strange to say what delight we married people have to see these poor folk decoyed into our condition.”6 The pious Jeremy Tayl

15、or was as keenly aware that marriage is not all bliss. ''Marriage/' he declared, "hath in it less of beauty and more of safety tlian tlie single life it hath more care but less danger; it is more merry and more sad; it is fuller of sorrows and fuller of joys.” The sentimental and op

16、timistic Steele can do no better than: '"The marriage state, with and without the affection suitable to it, is tlie completest image of Heaven and Hell we are capable of receiving in tliis life.”7 Rousseau denied that a pei-fect marriage had ever been known. “I have often thought,” he wrote

17、, "that if only one could prolong the joy of love in marriage we should have paradise on earth. That is a thing which has never been hitherto.” Dr. Johnson is not quoted in the dictionary; but everyone will remember how, devoted husband though he was, he denied that tlie state of marriage was n

18、atural to man. "SiT,” he declared, ttit is so far from being natural for a man and woman to live ill a state of marriage that we find all tlie motives which they have for remaining in tliat connexion and the restraints which civilised society imposes to prevent separation are hardly sufficient

19、to keep them together. M8 When one reads tlie tilings that have been said about marriage from one generation to another, one camiot but be amazed at tlie courage with which tlie young go on marrying. Almost eveiybody, conventional and unconventional, seems to have painted the troubles of mamage in t

20、he darkest colours. So pessimistic were the conventional novelists of tlie nineteenth century about marriage tliat they seldom dared to prolong their stories beyond the wedding bells Mamed people in plays and novels are seldom enviable，and, as time goes on, tliey seem to get more and more miserable

21、Even conventional people nowadays enjoy the stoiy of a thoroughly unhappy marriage. It is only fair to say, however, that in modern times we like to imagine that nearly everybody, single as well as married, is unhappy As social refonners we are all for happiness, but as tliinkers and aesthetes we ar

22、e on the side of misery9 The truth is that we are a difficulty-conscious generation. Whether or not we make life even more difficult tlian it would otherwise be by constantly talking about our difficulties I do not know. I sometimes suspect tliat half our difficulties are imaginary and that if we ke

23、pt quiet about them they would disappear Is it quite certain tliat the ostrich by burying his head in tlie sand never escapes his pursuers? I look forward to the day when a great naturalist will discover that it is to tliis practice tliat the ostrich owes liis survival 婚姻羅伯特林徳1 伯特蘭羅素先生說：“凡人百姓喜歡假裝說婚姻

24、中遇到的困難是新鮮事?！碑?dāng)我讀到這 句話的時(shí)候，不禁覺得奇怪：上哪兒去找這些像凡人百姓那樣思考、或假裝那樣思考的凡人 百姓。我認(rèn)識(shí)數(shù)以百訃的凡人百姓，我想不起來他們當(dāng)中任何人看似有那些凡人百姓的想法。 舉例來說吧，他們都堅(jiān)信，婚姻是一種充滿困擾的狀態(tài)，這些困擾即使不像山脈那樣古老， 也如同上帝從亞當(dāng)身上取下一根肋竹給他創(chuàng)造一個(gè)妻子的歷史那么古老。近年來，新一代凡 人百姓成長了起來，可能他們對婚姻的想法比先祖來得美好，但維多利亞時(shí)代的凡人百姓對 這個(gè)問題不抱任何幻想。笨拙雜志給那些即將步入婚姻殿堂的人們的建議是“別結(jié)婚”， 而他們對此建議反響熱烈，由此可以看岀他們對于婚姻的憤世嫉俗的態(tài)度。2 傳

25、統(tǒng)的19世紀(jì)對于恐怖婚姻的描寫異常殘酷，我真懷疑有沒有出英右者。漫畫報(bào)紙和 音樂廳的表演將婚姻的苦難作為永恒不變的話題。“你總是很容易從一個(gè)男人的穿著打扮看 岀他是否已婚，”喜劇演員如是說?！澳憧茨切﹩紊頋h：他們襯衫上沒有紐扣?？纯茨切┮鸦?人上：他們索性不穿襯衫。”這種幽默很粗鄙，但深得維多利亞時(shí)代的誠實(shí)人七贊許。假如 婚姻用傳統(tǒng)人士在音樂廳里過去經(jīng)常唱的歌來衡量，那么婚姻就像地獄，主要由雙胞胎和如 同水蛭一般惡毒的岳母或婆婆組成。生活平淡但彼此恩愛的老夫妻并不多見，然而，這樣的 故事如果偶爾在歌中吟唱，倒是會(huì)令滿嘴酒氣的硬漢肅然起敬。這一點(diǎn)是亳無疑問的。但總 體說來，觀眾們?nèi)绻吹揭晃幌矂?/p>

26、演員唱著反婚姻的副歌岀現(xiàn)會(huì)覺得比較正常。歌曰：哦，為何我離開位于布盧姆斯伯里的小房間，那里我一周只花費(fèi)區(qū)區(qū)一英鎊便可豐衣足食（下一行我忘了。）但自從我娶了瑪麗亞，我跳出油鍋又落入熊熊火坑。3 沒有困難嗎？你看，我小時(shí)候的黑人歌手們通常以一首合唱開始表演。這首歌開頭是這 樣的：結(jié)了婚!結(jié)了婚!哦，可憐那些結(jié)了婚的。那些去找老婆的人可真青澀。4 有可能這些喜劇演員夸張了，有可能維多利亞時(shí)代的悍婦們并不都是揮舞著撥火棍教訓(xùn) 深夜遲歸、醉生夢死的老公的。但至少這些喜劇演員和他們的觀眾不會(huì)將婚姻描繪成無人可 免的人間天堂。即使是教士們最多也就會(huì)說婚姻只應(yīng)天上有。他們當(dāng)中的一員甚至寫了一本 題為如何身陷婚

27、姻卻依然快樂的暢銷書，這便說明他們不相信夫妻一左會(huì)在幸福天堂白 頭終老。5 我貞的懷疑是否有哪個(gè)時(shí)代的普颯觀點(diǎn)視婚姻為萬事順利的天堂。我查閱了一本關(guān)于婚 姻的引語詞典，幾乎沒發(fā)現(xiàn)有什么樂觀的看法。也許有反對意見說，這些看法來自那些不循 規(guī)蹈矩的人們，但確左的是這些觀點(diǎn)被傳統(tǒng)人七視若珍寶。比方說，怕老婆的蘇格拉底被問 及到底結(jié)婚好還是不結(jié)好，他留下了著名的論斷：“無論結(jié)不結(jié)婚，你都會(huì)后悔。”蒙田曾寫 道：“看看鳥籠就知道是什么情況了。外而的鳥因?yàn)椴荒茱w進(jìn)鳥籠而充滿絕望；里而的鳥也 同樣渴望飛出去?！迸喔瑯右膊恢С纸Y(jié)婚。他曾尖刻地寫道：“昔有智者答人問何時(shí)可婚， 曾云：'青年未到時(shí)，老年不必矣?！?#39;伯頓的說法也很讓人沮喪：“張三沒結(jié)婚，像呆在地獄 里：李四結(jié)了婚，生活在災(zāi)禍中?！迸迤に乖谌沼浿行殴P寫道：“說來