声妓晚景从良，一世之胭花无碍；贞妇白头失守，半生之清苦俱非。语云：“看人只看后半截。”真名言也。
If, in
later life, a courtesan marries into a good family, her past life is no embarrassment.
If a woman who has been upright and haste all her life loses her personal
integrity in her later years, all the virtue she has stored up is thrown away.
A proverb goes: “When judging a man, look at his later years.” This is truly
perspicacious advice!
（保罗·怀特
译）
Once a
courtesan puts an ending to her trade and gets married into a good family in
her later years, all she has done before will not hinder her life any more.
Once a chaste woman loses her chastity in her later years, all the hardships
she has gone through to keep chastity for first half of her life will be in
vain. That is why we have a saying like this: “To judge a person, it is better
to observe his moral integrity in his later years.” Quite a sophisticated
remark!
（周文标
译）
The
whore who turns straight in her last years will make good a life of
dissipation; the widow who remarries in her old age will spoil half a life of
stoic virtue. As the saying goes: “To judge a person’s character, one has only
to look at the second half of his or her life.” What a truthful saying it is!
（蒋坚松
译） |
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