汉译英散文佳作赏析：郁达夫《谈结婚》

The other day, Mr. Lin Yutang said something to the effect that women’s only career lies in matrimony. Now, an eminent¹ French writer declared at a press interview after arriving in Shanghai that men should stay bachelors if they want to achieve success in life.

华盛顿-欧文是一个独身的男子，但《见闻短记》里的一篇歌颂妻子的文章，却写得那么的优美可爱。同样查而斯-兰姆也是个独身的男子，而爱丽娅《独身者的不平》一篇，又冷嘲热讽，将结婚的男女和婚后必然的果子—小孩们—等，俏皮到了那一步田地。

Washington Irving was a confirmed bachelor, but in his Sketch² Book there is an article extolling³ the wife as a graceful⁴ and lovely life-long partner. Charles Lamb, also a single man, in A Bachelor’s Complaint of the Behavior of Married People, one of his essays signed “Elia”, speaks mockingly of married people with their inevitable⁵ postnuptial fruits-the children.

郁达夫《谈结婚》

究竟是结婚的好呢，还是不结婚的好？这问题似乎同先有鸡呢还是先有鸡蛋一样，常常有人提起，而也常常没有人解决过的问题。照大体看来，想租房子的时候，是无眷莫问的，想做官的时候，又是朝里无裙莫做官的，想写文章的时候，是独身者不能写我的妻的，凡此种种似乎都是结婚的好。

Marriage or no marriage, which is more desirable? The sounds like the chicken-and egg question, which, though often discussed, remains⁶ a perpetual puzzle. Generally speaking, one who has no family dependants⁷ is not supposed to rent a house, one who has no petticoat influence in the government should refrain from becoming an official, an unmarried male writer is in no position to write about “my wife”. All these seem to hint at the advantages of marriage.

可是要想结婚，第一要有钱，第二要有闲，第三要有职，这潘驴…的五个条件，却也很不容易办到。更何况结婚之后，“儿子自己要来”，在这世界人口过剩，经济恐慌，教育破产，世风不古的时候，万一不慎，同兰姆所说的一样，儿子们去上了断头台，那真是连祖宗三代的楣都要倒尽，那里还有什么“官人请！娘子请！”的唱随之乐可说呢？

But , to get married, you need to have five prerequisites⁸, namely, money, leisure, employment, good looks and patentees, of which all are not always available. What’s more, after your marriage, your offspring will come to this world of themselves. And in a world with overpopulation, economic crisis, educational bankruptcy⁹ and deteriorating¹⁰ public morals, they may, just as Charles Lamb says, through their own acts of indiscretion, be sent to the gallows¹¹. With such a terrible misfortune befalling your family, how could you still have wedded¹² bliss¹³ to speak of?

左思右想，总觉得结婚也不好的，不结婚也是不好的。

Thinking the matter over and over again, I cannot but come to the conclusion that neither matrimony nor bachelorship has anything to recommend itself.

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