Pete would have preferred to be on good terms with both his wife and his mother, but the effort of pleasing one without offending the other was like steering between Scylla and Charybdis. 彼得何尝不想跟妻子和母亲都和睦相处呢，可是他试图讨得一方欢心而不致触怒另一方的努力就像在拉岩石礁和卡律布狄斯大旋涡之间行舟一样，真是左也不得，右也不行。
My heart bleeds for poor old Mike. First he lost his job, and now his wife has gone off with his best friend Pete. 我真为可怜的老迈克遗憾。他先是失业，现在他的妻子又与他最好的朋友彼得私奔了。
