精美双语散文:爱情不是商品
A reader in Florida, apparently bruised by somepersonal experience, writes in to complain, If Isteal a nickels worth of merchandise, I am a thiefand punished; but if I steal the love of anotherswife, I am free.
佛罗里达州的一位读者显然是在个人经历上受过创伤, 他写信来抱怨道: 如果我偷走了五分钱的商品, 我就是个贼, 要受到惩罚, 但是如果我偷走了他人妻子的爱情, 我没事儿。
This is a prevalent misconception in many peoples mindsthat love, like merchandise, canbe stolen. Numerous states, in fact, have enacted laws allowing damages for alienation ofaffections.
这是许多人心目中普遍存在的一种错误观念爱情, 像商品一样, 可以 偷走。实际上,许多州都颁布法令,允许索取情感转让赔偿金。
But love is not a commodity; the real thing cannot be bought, sold, traded or stolen. It is anact of the will, a turning of the emotions, a change in the climate of the personality.
但是爱情并不是商品;真情实意不可能买到,卖掉,交换,或者偷走。爱情是志愿的行动,是感情的转向,是个性发挥上的变化。
When a husband or wife is stolen by another person, that husband or wife was already ripe forthe stealing, was already predisposed toward a new partner. The love bandit was only takingwhat was waiting to be taken, what wanted to be taken.
当丈夫或妻子被另一个人偷走时,那个丈夫或妻子就已经具备了被偷走的条件,事先已经准备接受新的伴侣了。这位爱匪不过是取走等人取走、盼人取走的东西。