汉译英散文佳作赏析：郁达夫《谈结婚》

 前些日子，林语堂先生似乎曾说过女子的唯一事业，是在结婚。现在一位法国大文豪来沪，对去访问他的新闻记者的谈话之中，又似乎说，男子欲成事业，应该不要结婚。

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.

1 eminent   

adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的

参考例句：

• We are expecting the arrival of an eminent scientist.我们正期待一位著名科学家的来访。
• He is an eminent citizen of China.他是一个杰出的中国公民。

2 sketch   

n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述

参考例句：

• My sister often goes into the country to sketch. 我姐姐常到乡间去写生。
• I will send you a slight sketch of the house.我将给你寄去房屋的草图。

3 extolling   

v.赞美( extoll的现在分词 )；赞颂，赞扬，赞美( extol的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He never stops extolling the virtues of the free market. 他不停地颂扬自由市场的种种好处。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They kept extolling my managerial skills. 他们不停地赞美我的管理技能。 来自辞典例句

4 graceful   

adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的

参考例句：

• His movements on the parallel bars were very graceful.他的双杠动作可帅了!
• The ballet dancer is so graceful.芭蕾舞演员的姿态是如此的优美。

5 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

6 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

7 dependants   

受赡养者，受扶养的家属( dependant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The government has agreed to take only 150 refugees plus their dependants. 政府承诺只收留150 名难民及家属。
• There are approximately 12 million migrants with their dependants living in the EU countries. 大约有1200万流动工人带着家属居住在欧盟诸国。

8 prerequisites   

先决条件，前提( prerequisite的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Good muscles are one of the prerequisites of physical fitness. 肌肉发达是身体健康的一个必备条件。
• One of the outstanding prerequisites of any city is a local transportation system. 本地运输系统是任何城市的突出前提条件之一。

9 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

10 deteriorating   

恶化，变坏( deteriorate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The weather conditions are deteriorating. 天气变得越来越糟。
• I was well aware of the bad morale and the deteriorating factories. 我很清楚，大家情绪低落，各个工厂越搞越坏。

11 gallows   

n.绞刑架，绞台

参考例句：

• The murderer was sent to the gallows for his crimes.谋杀犯由于罪大恶极被处以绞刑。
• Now I was to expiate all my offences at the gallows.现在我将在绞刑架上赎我一切的罪过。

12 wedded   

adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She's wedded to her job. 她专心致志于工作。
• I was invited over by the newly wedded couple for a meal. 我被那对新婚夫妇请去吃饭。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 bliss   

n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福

参考例句：

• It's sheer bliss to be able to spend the day in bed.整天都可以躺在床上真是幸福。
• He's in bliss that he's won the Nobel Prize.他非常高兴，因为获得了诺贝尔奖金。