前些日子，林語堂先生似乎曾說過女子的唯一事業(yè)，是在結(jié)婚。現(xiàn)在一位法國大文豪來滬，對去訪問他的新聞記者的談話之中，又似乎說，男子欲成事業(yè)，應該不要結(jié)婚。
The other day, Mr. Lin Yutang said something to the effect that women’s only career lies in matrimony. Now, an eminent French writer declared at a press interview after arriving in Shanghai that men should stay bachelors if they want to achieve success in life.

華盛頓-歐文是一個獨身的男子，但《見聞短記》里的一篇歌頌妻子的文章，卻寫得那么的優(yōu)美可愛。同樣查而斯-蘭姆也是個獨身的男子，而愛麗婭《獨身者的不平》一篇，又冷嘲熱諷，將結(jié)婚的男女和婚后必然的果子—小孩們—等，俏皮到了那一步田地。
Washington Irving was a confirmed bachelor, but in his Sketch Book there is an article extolling the wife as a graceful 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 inevitable postnuptial fruits-the children.

究竟是結(jié)婚的好呢，還是不結(jié)婚的好？這問題似乎同先有雞呢還是先有雞蛋一樣，常常有人提起，而也常常沒有人解決過的問題。照大體看來，想租房子的時候，是無眷莫問的，想做官的時候，又是朝里無裙莫做官的，想寫文章的時候，是獨身者不能寫我的妻的，凡此種種似乎都是結(jié)婚的好。
Marriage or no marriage, which is more desirable? The sounds like the chicken-and egg question, which, though often discussed, remains a perpetual puzzle. Generally speaking, one who has no family dependants 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.?

可是要想結(jié)婚，第一要有錢，第二要有閑，第三要有職，這潘驢…的五個條件，卻也很不容易辦到。更何況結(jié)婚之后，“兒子自己要來”，在這世界人口過剩，經(jīng)濟恐慌，教育破產(chǎn)，世風不古的時候，萬一不慎，同蘭姆所說的一樣，兒子們?nèi)ド狭藬囝^臺，那真是連祖宗三代的楣都要倒盡，那里還有什么“官人請！娘子請！”的唱隨之樂可說呢？
But , to get married, you need to have five prerequisites, 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 bankruptcy and deteriorating public morals, they may, just as Charles Lamb says, through their own acts of indiscretion, be sent to the gallows. With such a terrible misfortune befalling your family, how could you still have wedded bliss to speak of?

左思右想，總覺得結(jié)婚也不好的，不結(jié)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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