婚姻是一座圍城，城外的人想進去，城裡的人想出來。
Marriage is like a fortress besieged: those who are outside want to get in, and those who are inside want to get out.
那時候蘇小姐把自己的愛情看得太名貴了，不肯隨便施與。現在呢，宛如做了好衣服，捨不得穿，鎖在箱裡，過一兩年忽然發現這衣服的樣子和花色都不時髦了，有些自悵自悔。
In those days she valued her affection too highly to bestow it causally. Now, however, she was just like the person who has some fine clothes made and, saving them for good occasions, locks them in a chest. Then one or two years later she suddenly finds their style and design are out of fashion and is filled with disappointment and regret.
有人失戀了，會把他們的傷心立刻像叫化子的爛腿，血淋淋地公開展覽，博人憐憫，或者事過境遷，像戰士的金瘡舊斑，脫衣指示，使人驚佩。
Some people when jilted will immediately display their broken hearts in public and drip with blood like a beggar’s scraped legs to stir pity. Or else, after the whole affair is over, they will pull up their clothes in the manner of a veteran and point it out like an old battle scar to arouse awe and wonder.
可是心裡忘不了他，好比牙齒鉗去了，齒腔空著作痛，更好比花盆裡種的小樹，要連根拔它，這花盆就得迸裂。
But deep down she could not forget him. It was like the gum left empty and aching after a tooth is extracted, or like a small tree in a flower pot. To pull it up roots and all, one mush smash the pot.
她跟辛楣的長期認識並不會日積月累地成為戀愛，好比冬季每天的氣候罷，你沒法把今天的溫度加在昨天的上面，好等明天積成個和暖的春日。
It must be said that her long years of friendship with Hsin-mei did not add up to love, just as in winter on one can add today’s temperature to yesterday’s to come up with a warm spring day for tomorrow.
孩子不足兩歲，塌鼻子，眼睛兩條斜縫，眉毛高高在上，跟眼睛遠隔得彼此要害相思病，活像報上諷刺畫裡的中國人的臉。
Her son, not yet two years old, had a snub nose, two slanted slits for eyes, and eyebrows so high up and removed from the eyes that the eyebrows and the eyes must have pined for each other – a living replica of the Chinese face in newspaper caricatures.
她冷淡的笑容，像陰寒欲雪天的淡日。
Her faint smile was like an overcast sky on a cold dreary day.
幸虧年輕女人的眼淚還不是秋冬的雨點，不致把自己的臉摧毀得衰敗，只像清明時節的夢雨，浸腫了地面，添了些泥。
Fortunately, a young girl’s tears aren’t yet like the raindrops of autumn or winter. They don’t bring destruction and ruin to the face, but are more like the steady rains of early April, which soak and swell the ground, making it muddier.
這雨愈下愈老成，水點貫串作絲，河面上像出了痘，無數麻瘢似的水渦，隨生隨滅，息息不停，到雨線更密，又彷彿光滑的水面上在長毛。
The rain grew bolder as it fell, the drops linking together to form a thread. The surface of the river seemed to have broken out with smallpox, as countless pockmarked eddies continuously came and went. As the rain became denser, it seemed as though hair were growing from the smooth, glossy surface of the water.
這是暮秋天氣，山深日短，雲霧裡露出一線月亮，宛如一隻擠著的近視眼睛。少頃，這月亮圓滑得什麼都粘不上，輕盈得什麼都壓不住，從蓬鬆如絮的雲堆下無牽掛地浮出來，本來還有一邊沒滿，像被打耳光的臉腫著一邊。
It was late autumn, and deep in the mountains the days were short. A ray of moonlight showed through the clouds like a squinting, nearsighted eye. After a moment the moon, too round and smooth for anything to stick to it and too light and nimble to be held down, floated out unencumbered from the mass of tousled, fluff-like clouds. On side was not yet full, like a face swollen up on one side from a slap.
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