精美英文欣赏:作为妻子的赫本

Hepburn, the Wife

Although too young to remember my parents together, I was told of romantic evenings, of candle light and soft music.

Anyway, no one is to blame. There is only sadness when two souls cannot merge¹. The snarling² void left by her father’s absence bore an equal share of the responsibility in the failure of both her marriages.

My mother loved her husbands completely, and she hung on to the marriage for as long as she could. What she didn’t do was to speak up and be heard when she needed to, and she didn’t put up healthy boundaries. Exhausted³ by an authoritarian⁴ mother, she wished for a world where caring and love came freely, but she had chosen two men who had to learn to cope with their feelings on their own.

作为妻子的赫本

尽管我因为当时年幼而无法记清双亲共聚的时刻，我还是听说他俩曾度过烛光闪闪、乐声缭绕的浪漫夜晚。

不管怎样，他们都不应受到责备。因为当两个灵魂无法契合时，剩下的，就只有悲伤。而在母亲两次婚姻都以失败告终这件事上，其父亲这一角色的缺失所留下的空洞是有一定责任的。

母亲全心全意地爱着她的两个丈夫，而且尽力维持这两段婚姻，而她没有做到的就是在必要时刻讲出她心中所想，得到倾听以及建立适当的界限。母亲的专横使她身心疲惫，深深渴望有一个关爱来得自然的世界，但她却选择了两个还没学会独立处理感情的男人。

1 merge   

v.(使)结合，(使)合并，(使)合为一体

参考例句：

• I can merge my two small businesses into a large one.我可以将我的两家小商店合并为一家大商行。
• The directors have decided to merge the two small firms together.董事们已决定把这两家小商号归并起来。

2 snarling   

v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的现在分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说

参考例句：

• "I didn't marry you," he said, in a snarling tone. “我没有娶你，"他咆哮着说。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• So he got into the shoes snarling. 于是，汤姆一边大喊大叫，一边穿上了那双鞋。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险

3 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

4 authoritarian   

n./adj.专制(的)，专制主义者，独裁主义者

参考例句：

• Foreign diplomats suspect him of authoritarian tendencies.各国外交官怀疑他有着独裁主义倾向。
• The authoritarian policy wasn't proved to be a success.独裁主义的政策证明并不成功。