Translations
So it is with life. If, instead of an onion or a shellfish, you are given a wife or child, that is fine.Elizabeth Carter (c.1750)
thus likewise in life, if, instead of a truffle or shell-fish, such a thing as a wife or a child be granted you, there is no objection;Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1890)
so in life also, if there be given to you instead of a little bulb and a shell a wife and child, there will be nothing to prevent (you from taking them).George Long (1890)
So it is in life. If you have a dear wife or child given you, they are like the shellfish or the truffle, they are very well in their way.Percy Ewing Matheson (1916)