dz_v05

Title: “Soul Mate? Sore Mate?” 嘉偶怨偶
Year: 1885 Volume: 5 Page Number: 37

Caption Translation: According to Western customs, a man and a woman usually get to know each other first before they get married. I suppose it is because they are afraid that if a man and a woman can’t get along the marriage can’t last. But joining their hearts and bodies together first, and then establishing the proper duties of husband and wife, is a barbarous ritual.

Mr. Sato, the Japanese ambassador to Germany, had been dating a Belgian woman named Jenny for quite some time. Jenny expected to spend her life with this man. She waited and waited but the marriage proposal never came. Jane grew suspicious and asked him, only to find out that the ambassador was already married! She was devastated and couldn’t stop crying. One day, they got into a fight. Jenny was so furious that she snatched a pistol, threatening to shoot him. It so happened that the pistol was loaded. It went off, hitting the man right in the head. He died instantly.

The incident was reported to the police and Jenny was about to be tried and sentenced. How she had been wronged! A woman deserves sympathy when she falls in love with a man. The only type of genuine feeling in this universe is the one between a man and a woman. That passion is so overwhelming that we see people who suffer from anorexia or insomnia because of it. They will abandon even the most precious things in the world for their passion. They become both the object and the victim of such passion because they cannot deal with it properly. It was not all Jenny’s fault that Mr. Sato died.

Translator: Huang Tiying
Revised by Peter C. Perdue

Caption Text: 西俗男女往往有先好合而後完姻，推其意或恐情性不投，無以持久也，而水乳交融，然後正名定分，此所謂無於禮者之禮也。日本駐德公使沙與一比利士國女子名真尼者交好有日，真尼且以白首期之矣。乃遲之久，遲之又久，成婚之禮不備。真尼懷疑詰其故

始悉使君自有婦也。於是懊惱之至，繼以哭泣，哭泣不已，終以鬥爭一時，忿火莫可遏抑，順取手鎗，勢欲作擊。不料鎗中故有藥彈，應手而出，適中沙頭顱，倒地即氣絕。

事聞於官，擬科罪以抵，鳴呼冤哉。夫癡女子暱就男，夫情殊可憫。天下惟男女之情為至情，其情至固結，莫解處真有饋不食，寢不安，極天下至奇至好之物而無以易其心。自我得之復自我而隳之，夫亦所處之未善矣。沙君之死不得盡歸咎於真尼矣。

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