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A Story about A Child Bride

Long ago there was a young woman of some twenty in our village. One day she walked in streets with a 4-year-old boy hand in hand. Somehow the boy cried, weeping. An onlooker inquired her:"Is the boy your son?" "Oh no," the girl replied, with embarrassment, "he is my future husband."

Hearing this, the onlooker smiled (luckily, not burst into laughter).

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Type: Question • Score: 2 • Views: 1,506 • Replies: 27

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@oristarA,

Why has every one ignored this?

1 Reply

@oristarA,

What do you want to happen to it?

1 Reply

@McTag,

McTag wrote:

What do you want to happen to it?

Thank you for paying attention, McTag.
Does the small story's English sound native? If not, or not enough, please make it one.

1 Reply

@oristarA,

Oh no.

I'm going out; I'll come back to this later if there are no other budding authors here by then.

1 Reply

@McTag,

Quote:

Long ago there was a young woman of some twenty in our village. One day she walked in streets with a 4-year-old boy hand in hand. Somehow the boy cried, weeping. An onlooker inquired her:"Is the boy your son?" "Oh no," the girl replied, with embarrassment, "he is my future husband."

Hearing this, the onlooker smiled (luckily, not burst into laughter).

This is a strange tale, and does not easily lend itself to a "native-sounding" translation, because of its nature.
And there are obviously many ways in which it can be re-worked.
Here's my submission:

A long time ago, there was a young woman living in our village who was about twenty years of age.

One day she was seen walking down the street, hand-in-hand with a young boy. The boy was only about four, and he was crying.
A passer-by asked her if the boy was her son.

"Oh no", the girl replied, seemingly embarrassed, "he is my future husband". (or, he is to be my husband, or, he will be my husband one day.)

This made the stranger smile. Luckily, he managed not to laugh out loud.

2 Replies

@McTag,

McTag wrote:

Quote:
Long ago there was a young woman of some twenty in our village. One day she walked in streets with a 4-year-old boy hand in hand. Somehow the boy cried, weeping. An onlooker inquired her:"Is the boy your son?" "Oh no," the girl replied, with embarrassment, "he is my future husband."

Hearing this, the onlooker smiled (luckily, not burst into laughter).

This is a strange tale, and does not easily lend itself to a "native-sounding" translation, because of its nature.
And there are obviously many ways in which it can be re-worked.
Here's my submission:

A long time ago, there was a young woman living in our village who was about twenty years of age.

One day she was seen walking down the street, hand-in-hand with a young boy. The boy was only about four, and he was crying.
A passer-by asked her if the boy was her son.

"Oh no", the girl replied, seemingly embarrassed, "he is my future husband". (or, he is to be my husband, or, he will be my husband one day.)

This made the stranger smile. Luckily, he managed not to laugh out loud.

Cool.

The rewriting dissolved some expression puzzles.

0 Replies

@McTag,

Give it a title, please.

No concept of Child Bride has ever existed in English world?

2 Replies

@oristarA,

A title for this strange little tale?

A Reluctant Bridegroom. Or, possibly
An Unlikely Husband

1 Reply

@McTag,

Thanks.

I am curious whether you actually know what is a Child Bride? Notice please, it is a child bride, not a child bridegroom.

1 Reply

@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

No concept of Child Bride has ever existed in English world?

Many of us are aware that child brides occur in other cultures.

0 Replies

@oristarA,

Quote:

I am curious whether you actually know what is a Child Bride? Notice please, it is a child bride, not a child bridegroom.

Yes of course, it's not unknown in our history, but of course is not legal now.

On a lighter note, you may care to become familiar with the phrase "cradle-snatching".
That's what (jocularly) is said to happen when a man or a woman takes a much younger partner.

1 Reply

Quote:

Jerry Lee Lewis had a child bride
Only thirteen but he said he's justified

Big Audio dynamite lyrics.
http://www.lyricsty.com/big-audio-dynamite-bad-lyrics.html

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

Quote:
Jerry Lee Lewis had a child bride

She was his cousin; she was 13, he was 23; he lied and said she was 15 when he arrived in Britain for a tour in 1958.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/05/23/article-0-015CF78800000578-471_468x589.jpg

0 Replies

@McTag,

McTag wrote:

On a lighter note, you may care to become familiar with the phrase "cradle-snatching".
That's what (jocularly) is said to happen when a man or a woman takes a much younger partner.

Can you call such a guy as a cradle-snatcher?

1 Reply

@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

Can you call such a guy as a cradle-snatcher?

Yes. Look at her. She was just a kid.

1 Reply

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

oristarA wrote:

Can you call such a guy as a cradle-snatcher?

Yes. Look at her. She was just a kid.

We'd now had a world-renowned cradle-snatcher: Chen Ning Yang, a Nobel Laureate:

http://himg2.huanqiu.com/attachment/080925/e7e1fde635.jpg

1 Reply

@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

We'd now had a world-renowned cradle-snatcher: Chen Ning Yang

Either you misunderstood or you are joking? He was 82 and his wife Weng Fan was 28, which is a thoroughly adult age. A cradle snatcher is someone who marries or dates a person who is really a child or who is inappropriately young. Nobody would be a cradle snatcher for marrying a person of 28.

2 Replies

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

oristarA wrote:
We'd now had a world-renowned cradle-snatcher: Chen Ning Yang

Either you misunderstood or you are joking? He was 82 and his wife Weng Fan was 28, which is a thoroughly adult age. A cradle snatcher is someone who marries or dates a person who is really a child or who is inappropriately young. Nobody would be a cradle snatcher for marrying a person of 28.

Oops! My E-C dict has misled me.

The dict explains cradle snatcher as (first I copied the C definition):
与比自己年轻者结婚（或私通）的人；追求比自己年轻得多的异性的人

(My translation for the Chinese text):

One who is married with the other who is much younger than him/her;
One who woos the other who is much younger than him/her

0 Replies

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

A cradle snatcher is someone who marries or dates a person who is really a child or who is inappropriately young. Nobody would be a cradle snatcher for marrying a person of 28.

Incorrect. A "cradle snatcher" is "someone who has a romantic or sexual relationship with a much younger partner."

The partner does not need to be a child or "inappropriately" young.

1 Reply

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