Love is a Fallacy
第五课爱情就是谬误
MaxShulman
马克斯舒尔曼
Charles Lamb, as merry and enterprising a fellow as you will meet in a month of Sundays, unfettered the informal essay with his memorable Old China and Dream's Child ren. There follows an informal essay that ventures even beyond Lamb's frontier, indeed, "informal" may not be quite the right word to describe this essay; "limp" or " flaccid" or possibly "spongy" are perhaps more appropriate.
查尔斯.兰姆是一个世所罕见的性情欢快、富有进取心的人，他那笔下的散文《古瓷器》和《梦中的孩子》无拘无束、自由奔放。实在令人难忘。下面这篇文章比兰姆的作品更加自由奔放。实际上，用"自由奔放"的字眼来形容这篇文章并不十分确切，或许用"柔软"、"轻松"或"轻软而富有弹性"更为恰如其分。
Vague though its category, it is without doubt an essay. It develops an argument; it cites instances; it reaches a conclusion. Could Carlyle do more? Could Ruskin?
尽管很难说清这篇文章是属于哪一类，但可以肯定它是一篇散文小品文。它提出了论点。引用了许多例证，并得出了结论。卡菜尔能写得更好吗?罗斯金呢?
Read, then, the following essay which undertakes to demonstrate that logic, far from being a dry, pedantic discipline, is a living, breathing thing, full of beauty,passion, and trauma --Author's Note
这篇文章意在论证逻辑学非但不枯燥乏味而且活泼、清新、富于关感和激情，并给人以启迪。诸位不妨一读。作者注
Cool was I and logical. Keen, calculating, perspicacious , acute and astute--I was all of these. My brain was as powerful as a dynamo, as precise as a chemist'sscales, as penetrating as a scalpel. And-think of it! --I was only eighteen.
我这个人头脑冷静，逻辑思维能力强。敏锐、慎重、聪慧、深刻、机智一一这些就是我的特点。我的大脑像发电机一样发达，孳化学家的天平一样精确，像手术刀一样锋利。你知道吗?我才十八岁呀。
It is not often that one so young has such a giant intellect. Take, for example, Petey Butch, my roommate at the University of Minnesota.
年纪这么轻而智力又如此非凡的人并不常有。就拿在明尼苏达大学跟我同住一个房间的皮蒂·伯奇来说吧，