The Man and His Two Wives / 一夫兩妻

 

The Man and His Two Wives Aesop’s Fables	一夫兩妻 伊索寓言
THERE WAS once a time when a man was allowed more wives than one, and a middle-aged bachelor, who could be called neither young nor old, and whose hair was just beginning to turn gray, fell in love with two women at the same time and married them both. One was young and lively and wanted her husband to look youthful; the other was somewhat more advanced in age and was concerned that her husband look about the same age as she did. So, the young wife seized every opportunity to pull out all her dear husband’s gray hairs, while the older one zealously plucked out every black hair she could find. For a while the man was highly flattered by their attention and devotion until, one morning, he discovered that, thanks to his two wives, he did not have a hair left on his head.	從前某一時代，男人可不僅有一妻。某中年光棍，年齡可謂不老不少，頭髮正由深色轉白；同時愛戀兩女，遂一併娶來。 一女年少活潑，願夫君容貌青春；另一女已頗為老大，一心要男人貌似與己年齡相仿。於是少妻緊抓機會，要將心愛良人之灰白髮盡數擢去，而老妻則傾心盡力，每見其有一絲黑髮便挑出摘除。 男子兼享兩妻之照料關愛，一時大為自得；直至某日清晨，始覺多賴有此兩妻，自家頭上竟已毫髮不存。
Whoever allows his principles to be swayed by the influence and different needs of conflicting parties will end in having no principles at all.   [From Aesop’s Fables, Selected and Adapted by Jack Zipers, Penguin Books, 1996]	凡有人任由自身原則受多方勢力及不同需求所左右，卻不顧各方乃彼此牴觸，則其本人終將至於全無操守。   (Tr. Allen Zhuang )
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