(完整版)Unit13Marriage课文翻译综合教程四

1、Unit 13MarriageRobert Lynd1 Conventional people/ says Mr. Bertrand Russell, Tike to pretend that difficulties in regard to marriage are a new thing.” I could not help wondering, as I read tliis sentence, where one can meet tliese conventional people who think, or pretend to think, as conventional pe

2、ople do. I have known hundreds of conventional people, and I cannot remember one of them who thought the things conventional people seem to think They were all, for example, conxdnced that marriage was a state beset with difficulties, and tliat tliese difficulties were as old, if not as the hills, a

3、t 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 the conventional people of the Victorian era were under no illusions on the

4、subject. Tlieir cynical attitude to marriage may be gatliered from tlie enthusiastic reception they gave to Punchs advice to those about to many “Doit.”2 I doubt, indeed, whether the hoiTors of marriage were ever depicted more cruelly tlian during tlie conventional nineteenth centuiy The comic paper

5、s and music-halls made the miseries a standing dish You can always tell whether a man s married or single from the way hes dressed,” said the comedian. “Look at tlie single man: no buttons on his shirt Look at the married man: no shirt.” Tlie humour was crude; but it went home to the honest Victoria

6、n heart If marriage were to be judged by the songs conventional people used to sing about it in the music- halls, it would seem a hell mainly populated by twins and leecli-like mothers-in-law The rare experiences of Darby and Joan were, it is true, occasionally hymned, reducing strong men smelling s

7、trongly of alcohol to reverent silence; but, on the whole, the audience felt more normal 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 weekIn luxury(I forget tlie next line)But since I have mai-ried M

8、aria,Ive jumped out of the frying-panInto tlie blooming fire.3 No difficulties? Why，the very7 nigger-minstrels of my boyhood used to open their perfonnance with a chorus which began:Married! Married! O pity those who re marriedThose who go and take a wife must be very green4 It is possible that the

9、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 Paradise. Even the clergy would go no farther than to say that marriages w

10、ere made in Heaven. Tliat they did not believe that marriage necessarily ended there is shown by the fact that one of them wrote a bestseller” bearing the title How to Be Happy Though Married5 I doubt, indeed, whether common opinion in any age has ever looked on marriage as an untroubled Paradise I

11、consulted a dictionary7 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 tliat tliey are opinions treasured and kept alive by conventional people. We hav

12、e tlie reputed saying of the henpecked Socrates, for example, when asked whether it was better to marry or not: WhicheveT you do, you will repent. We have Montaigne writing: Tt happens as one sees in cages The birds outside despair of ever getting in; tliose inside are equedly desirous of getting ou

13、t. Bacon is no more prenuptial with his caustic quotation: He was reputed one of the wise men that made answer to the question when a man should marry: A young man not yet; an elder man not at all.” Burton is far from encouraging! One was never married, and thats his hell; another is, and that s lii

14、s 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 Taylor was as keenly aware that marriage is not all bliss. Marriage/ he declared, Tiath in it less of beauty and more of safety than the s

15、ingle 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 optimistic Steele can do no better than: “The marriage state, with and without the affection suitable to it, is the completest image of Heaven and Hell we are

16、 capable of receiving in this life.”7 Rousseau denied that a perfect marriage had ever been known. T have often thought,M he wrote, that if only one could prolong the joy of love in mamage we should have paradise on earth That is a thing which lias never been hitherto.” Dr. Johnson is not quoted in

17、the dictionary; but everyone will remember how, devoted husband thougli he was, he denied that the state of marriage was natural to man. “Sir,” he declared, “it is so far from being natural for a man and woman to live in a state of marriage tliat we find all the motives which tliey have for remainin

18、g in that connexion and the restraints which civilised society imposes to prevent separation are hardly sufficient to keep them together”8 When one reads the things tliat have been said about marriage from one generation to another, one cannot but be amazed at the courage with which the young go on

19、marrying. Almost everybody, conventional and unconventional, seems to have painted the troubles of marriage in the darkest colours. So pessimistic were the conventional novelists of the nineteentli century about marriage that they seldom dared to prolong their stories beyond the wedding bells Marrie

20、d people in plays and novels are seldom enviable，and, as time goes on, they seem to get more and more miserable. Even conventional people nowadays enjoy tlie story of a thoroughly unhappy marriage. It is only fair to say, however, tliat in modern times we like to imagine that nearly everybody, singl

21、e as well as married, is unhappy As social refonners we are all for happiness, but as thinkers and aesthetes we are on the side of misery79 The truth is tliat we are a difficulty-conscious generation. Whether or not we make life even more difficult than it would otherwise be by constantly talking ab

22、out our difficulties I do not know. I sometimes suspect that half our difficulties are imaginary and that if we kept quiet about them they would disappear. Is it quite certain that tlie ostrich by burying his head in the sand never escapes his pursuers? I look forward to the day when a great natural

23、ist will discover that it is to this practice that the ostrich owes his suivival婚姻罗伯特林徳1 伯特兰罗素先生说：“凡人百姓喜欢假装说婚姻中遇到的困难是新鲜事。”当我读到这句话的时候，不禁觉得奇怪：上哪儿去找这些像凡人百姓那样思考、或假装那样思考的凡 人百姓。我认识数以百计的凡人百姓，我想不起来他们当中任何人看似有那些凡人百姓的 想法。举例来说吧，他们都坚信，婚姻是一种充满困扰的状态，这些困扰即使不像ft脉那 样古老，也如同上帝从亚当身上取下一根肋件给他创造一个妻子的历史那么古老。近年来， 新一代凡人百姓成长了起

24、来，可能他们对婚姻的想法比先祖来得美好，但维多利亚时代的 凡人百姓对这个问题不抱任何幻想。笨拙杂志给那些即将步入婚姻殿堂的人们的建议是 “别结婚”，而他们对此建议反响热烈，由此可以看出他们对于婚姻的愤世嫉俗的态度。2 传统的19世纪对于恐怖婚姻的描写异常残酷，我真怀疑有没有出英右者。漫画报纸和 音乐厅的表演将婚姻的苦难作为永恒不变的话题。“你总是很容易从一个男人的穿着打扮看出 他是否已婚，”喜剧演员如是说。“你看那些单身汉：他们衬衫上没有纽扣。看看那些已婚人 士：他们索性不穿衬衫。”这种幽默很粗鄙，但深得维多利亚时代的诚实人士赞许。假如婚 姻用传统人士在音乐厅里过去经常唱的歌来衡量，那么婚姻就

25、像地狱，主要由双胞胎和如 同水蛭一般恶毒的岳母或婆婆组成。生活平淡但彼此恩爱的老夫妻并不多见，然而，这样 的故事如果偶尔在歌中吟唱，倒是会令满嘴洒气的硬汉肃然起敬。这一点是毫无疑问的。但 总体说来，观众们如果看到一位喜剧演员唱着反婚姻的副歌出现会觉得比较正常。歌曰：哦，为何我离开位于布卢姆斯伯里的小房间，那里我一周只花费区区一英镑便可丰衣足食（下一行我忘了。）但自从我娶了玛丽亚，我跳岀汕锅又落入熊熊火坑。3 没有困难吗？你看，我小时候的黑人歌手们通常以一首合唱开始表演。这首歌开头是 这样的：结了婚!结了婚!哦，可怜那些结了婚的。那些去找老婆的人可真青涩。4 有可能这些喜剧演员夸张了，有可能维多

26、利亚时代的悍妇们并不都是挥舞着拨火棍教 训深夜迟归、醉生梦死的老公的。但至少这些喜剧演员和他们的观众不会将婚姻描绘成无 人可免的人间天堂。即使是教士们最多也就会说婚姻只应天上有。他们当中的一员甚至写 了一本题为如何身陷婚姻却依然快乐的畅销书，这便说明他们不相信夫妻一泄会在幸 福天堂白头终老。5 我真的怀疑是否有哪个时代的普遍观点视婚姻为万事顺利的天堂。我查阅了一本关于 婚姻的引语词典，几乎没发现有什么乐观的看法。也许有反对意见说，这些看法来自那些 不循规蹈矩的人们，但确泄的是这些观点被传统人士视若珍宝。比方说，怕老婆的苏格拉 底被问及到底结婚好还是不结好，他留下了著需的论断：“无论结不结婚，你都会后悔。”蒙 田曾写道：“看看鸟笼就知道是什么情况了。外而的鸟因为不能飞进鸟笼而充满绝望；里面 的鸟也同样渴望飞岀去。”培根同样也不支持结婚。他曾尖刻地写道：“巷有智者答人问何时 可婚，曾云：青年未到时，老年不必矣。”伯顿的说法也很让人沮丧：“张三没结婚，像呆 在地狱里：李四结了婚，生活在灾祸中。”佩皮斯在日记中信笔写道：“说来也怪，我们这些 已婚人士看到那些可