情人節元宵節雙節來臨 嫁人要趁早!

Another Valentine's Day. Another night spent ordering in sushi for one and mooning over 'Downton Abbey' reruns. Smarten up, ladies.
又是一年情人節。又一個晚上要在一邊叫外賣壽司、一邊觀看《唐頓莊園》(Downton Abbey)的重播中度過。女士們，聰明點吧。

Despite all of the focus on professional advancement, for most of you the cornerstone of your future happiness will be the man you marry. But chances are that you haven't been investing nearly as much energy in planning for your personal happiness as you are planning for your next promotion at work. What are you waiting for? You're not getting any younger, but the competition for the men you'd be interested in marrying most definitely is.
儘管女性在職場上取得的進步深受關注，但對於大多數女性而言，未來幸福的基石仍然是你與之結合的那個人。但很大的可能性是，你爲謀求個人幸福投入的精力遠遠不及你爲自己下一次升職所投入的精力。你還在等什麼？須知你已青春不再，然而對於你爲之傾心、有意委身的男子，你肯定要面對越來越年輕的競爭對手。

Think about it: If you spend the first 10 years out of college focused entirely on building your career, when you finally get around to looking for a husband you'll be in your 30s, competing with women in their 20s. That's not a competition in which you're likely to fare well. If you want to have children, your biological clock will be ticking loud enough to ward off any potential suitors. Don't let it get to that point.
想想看：如果你大學畢業後頭10年只關心事業，當你終於開始考慮尋覓良人時，已經30歲出頭了，卻要與20多歲的女孩子們競爭。在這場競賽中，你可能沒那麼好的運氣。如果你想要孩子，你的年齡劣勢會更加明顯，足以嚇退任何可能的追求者。別讓事情落到那個地步。

You should be spending far more time planning for your husband than for your career-and you should start doing so much sooner than you think. This is especially the case if you are a woman with exceptionally good academic credentials, aiming for corporate stardom.
你在規劃另一半上面所花費的時間應當遠遠超過事業――而且你應當比你所認爲的更快開始這樣做。如果你是那種擁有十分出色的學歷、有志在事業上大展身手的女性，就更應如此。

An extraordinary education is the greatest gift you can give yourself. But if you are a young woman who has had that blessing, the task of finding a life partner who shares your intellectual curiosity and potential for success is difficult. Those men who are as well-educated as you are often interested in younger, less challenging women.
傑出的教育是你能給自己的最好禮物。但如果你是有這個福氣的年輕女性，要找到與你具備同樣的求知慾、同樣成功潛力的終生伴侶，這是個艱難的任務。與你一樣受過良好教育的男性有興趣的通常是更年輕、沒那麼大志向的女子。

Could you marry a man who isn't your intellectual or professional equal? Sure. But the likelihood is that it will be frustrating to be with someone who just can't keep up with you or your friends. When the conversation turns to Jean Cocteau or Henrik Ibsen, the Bayeux Tapestry or Noam Chomsky, you won't find that glazed look that comes over his face at all appealing. And if you start to earn more than he does? Forget about it. Very few men have egos that can endure what they will see as a form of emasculation.
你能不能嫁給一個在學識或事業上不如自己的男人？當然可以。但跟一個與你或你的朋友格格不入的人在一起，也可能令人失望。一旦你們的話題轉向谷克多(Jean Cocteau)或易卜生(Henrik Ibsen)，貝葉掛毯(Bayeux Tapestry)或喬姆斯基(Noam Chomsky)，他呆滯的表情不會讓你覺得賞心悅目。要是你開始賺得比他多呢？算了吧。極少有男人能忍受他們所謂的“吃軟飯”。

So what's a smart girl to do? Start looking early and stop wasting time dating men who aren't good for you: bad boys, crazy guys and married men.
那麼，聰明的女孩應該怎麼做呢？早早開始尋覓，不要浪費時間與不適合你的男人約會：壞小子、瘋子和已婚男人。College is the best place to look for your mate. It is an environment teeming with like-minded, age-appropriate single men with whom you already share many things. You will never again have this concentration of exceptional men to choose from.
大學是尋覓另一半的最佳地點。這裏多的興趣相投、年齡相當的單身男士，而且與你已經有諸多相同之處。以後你就再也不可能有這麼多的出色男士可供選擇了。

When you find a good man, take it slow. Casual sex is irresistible to men, but the smart move is not to give it away. If you offer intimacy without commitment, the incentive to commit is eliminated. The grandmotherly message of yesterday is still true today: Men won't buy the cow if the milk is free.
一旦發現好男人，要慢慢來。一夜情是男人無法抵禦的誘惑，但明智之舉是不要輕易發生關係。如果你在沒有獲得對方承諾的時候就與之親熱，就沒有什麼促使他承擔責任了。過去的老話現在依然正確：有免費牛奶的話，男人就不會買奶牛了。

Can you meet brilliant, marriageable men after college? Yes, but just not that many of them. Once you're living off campus and in the real world, you'll be stunned by how smart the men are not. You'll no doubt meet some eligible guys in your workplace, but it's hazardous to get romantically involved with co-workers.
大學畢業後還有機會遇到才華橫溢、值得託付終生的男人嗎？有，但爲數不多。一旦離開校園、進入現實世界，你會震驚地發現，男人有多麼愚鈍。在工作中肯定也會碰上合適的人，但與同事相戀有害無益。

You may not be ready for marriage in your early 20s (or maybe you are), but keep in touch with the men that you meet in college, especially the super smart ones. They'll probably do very well for themselves, and their desirability will only increase after graduation.
或許你在25歲之前還沒準備好要進入婚姻殿堂（也可能已經做好準備），但要與你在大學時遇到的男生們保持聯繫，尤其是特別聰明的那些。他們本身可能會有很好的發展，而且畢業後他們只會越來越有吸引力。

Not all women want marriage or motherhood, but if you do, you have to start listening to your gut and avoid falling for the P.C. feminist line that has misled so many young women for years. There is nothing incongruous about educated, ambitious women wanting to be wives and mothers. Don't let anyone tell you that these traditional roles are retrograde; they are perfectly natural and even wonderful. And if you fail to identify 'the one' while you're in college, don't worry-there's always graduate school.
並非所有女性都想結婚或當媽媽，但如果你想，你必須開始聽從自己的直覺，不要迷信多年來誤導了衆多年輕女性的女權主義口號。受過教育、志向遠大的女性想要爲人妻、爲人母沒有任何問題。別相信別人說這些傳統角色是倒退的說辭；這些角色是極其自然的，甚至是極爲美妙的。而如果你沒能在大學時找到命中註定的另一半，也不用擔心――還有研究生院呢。