UnitMarriage课文翻译综合教程四

1、Unit-Marriage课文翻译综合 教程四作者: 日期:Unit 13MarriageRobert Lynd1 "Conventional people/' says Mr. Bertrand Russell, “like 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

24、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。我认识数以百讣的凡人百姓，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，这些困扰即使不像山脉那样古老， 也如同上帝从亚当身上取下一根肋竹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，由此可以看岀他们对于婚姻的愤世嫉俗的态度。2 传

25、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 岀他是否已婚，”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 人上：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七赞许。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，倒是会令满嘴酒气的硬汉肃然起敬。这一点是亳无疑问的。但总 体说来，观众们如果看到一位喜剧

26、演员唱着反婚姻的副歌岀现会觉得比较正常。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，我跳出油锅又落入熊熊火坑。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

27、姻却依然快乐的畅销书，这便说明他们不相信夫妻一左会在幸福天堂白 头终老。5 我貞的怀疑是否有哪个时代的普颯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，但确左的是这些观点被传统人七视若珍宝。比方说，怕老婆的苏格拉底被问 及到底结婚好还是不结好，他留下了著名的论断：“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；里而的鸟也 同样渴望飞出去。”培根同样也不支持结婚。他曾尖刻地写道：“昔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