評論
打印
Sometimes, I was afraid lest I should be charged with ingratitude;
有時，我真的擔心自己被指責忘恩負義，
but I still proposed to travel, and therefore would not confine myself by marriage.
不過我仍然打算出去見世面，因此不會受婚姻的束縛。
"In my fiftieth year, I began to suspect that the time of my traveling was past;
在我五十歲時，我開始懷疑自己旅行的愿望恐要化為泡影，
and thought it best to lay hold on the felicity yet in my power, and indulge myself in domestic pleasures.
盡管我一生中的華年都用來追求影響力所帶來的幸福，而未能享受家庭之快樂。
But, at fifty, no man easily finds a woman beautiful as the houries, and wise as Zobeide.
但是，人生五十有誰還能輕易找到貌美如花，像佐貝德那樣聰明的女人。
I inquired and rejected, consulted and deliberated, till the sixty-second year made me ashamed of wishing to marry.
我到處打聽，屢屢碰壁，直到六十二歲那年我方為自己想結婚的愿望而羞愧。
I had now nothing left but retirement; and for retirement I never found a time, till disease forced me from public employment.
現在，我除了歸隱林下還有什么呢。可是，我一直沒有時間真正停下來過隱居生活，直到疾病迫使我辭去公職。
"Such was my scheme, and such has been its consequence.
這就是我的計劃，這就是我的計劃所導致的后果。
With an insatiable thirst for knowledge, I trifled away the years of improvement;
對知識懷有難以滿足的饑渴，可我卻浪費了個人際遇能獲得改善的那段歲月；
with a restless desire of seeing different countries, I have always resided in the same city;
對一覽各個不同國家抱有難以遏制的愿望，可是我卻始終住在同一座城市；
with the highest expectation of connubial felicity, I have lived unmarried;
對婚姻幸福抱有最高程度的渴望，可是我卻終生未娶；
and with an unalterable resolution of contemplative retirement, I am going to die within the walls of Bagdad."
下定決心要過歸隱林下的寧靜生活，可是看來我終將在巴格達城里了此一生了。
