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. 彼得何嘗不想跟妻子和母親都和睦相處呢，可是他試圖討得一方歡心而不致觸怒另一方的努力就像在拉岩石礁和卡律布狄斯大旋渦之間行舟一樣，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. 我真為可憐的老邁克遺憾。他先是失業，現在他的妻子又與他最好的朋友彼得私奔了。
