时差N小时:讽刺的承诺与婚前协议

A local news report about a prenup and marriagebreakup would make a fine satiric tale. Like anentertaining satire, the plot and characters of thatreport offer useful material for contemplation.Itseems that a certain "sugar daddy" fell in love witha gorgeous woman who worked at a restaurant andproposed to her. The woman, however, suspected herRomeo's ability to keep his wedding vows. Beforemarriage, she insisted that he sign a privatecontract.

国内一则有关婚前协议和婚姻破裂的新闻报导，也许是很好的讽刺故事。像娱乐性讽刺一样，报道的情节和角色提供了很好的使人深思的材料。故事是说某位“甜蜜老爸”爱上了一位在餐厅工作的漂亮女士，并向她求了婚。而该女士很是怀疑她心上人能否遵守其结婚誓言，所以结婚前她坚持要求与他签一份私人协议。

In the contract, Romeo promised to pay his beloved NT$100 million if he broke his promise not"to beat her, badmouth her, and/or date any [other] woman."

在协议中，“罗密欧”许诺如果他打破“不许打她，诋毁她，还有不许和其它女人约会”这个誓言，就要支付她的爱人一亿新台币。

Soon into the marriage, Romeo slipped up and had an affair. So Juliet took her Romeo to court,armed to the teeth with their private documents.

结婚后不久，“罗密欧”就有了外遇。所以“朱丽叶”就将他的“罗密欧”告上法庭，为了他们的私人协议而唇枪舌剑。

I find it sad that couples feel it is necessary to sign such documents. It is from deep and veryspecial feelings of friendship that romance grows. And the essence of friendship ethics is trustand respect. Cases like this seem to show that trust and respect are absent from modernmarriages.

我为那些认为有必要签署这类文件的夫妻们感到悲哀，浪漫是在很深很特别的感觉中慢慢积累起来的一种友谊。而这种友情的本质就是信任和尊重。但这样的案例让人觉得现代婚姻完全缺失了这种信任和尊重。

What happened to the case in the end? The judge ordered Romeo to pay his Juliet the amountshe finally requested: 15 percent of the promised NT$100 million.

这样的案例有什么样的结局呢?法官裁定“罗密欧”必须支付“茱丽叶”最后要求的金额：原先承诺的一亿元新台币的百分之十五。