Lost in English

If one is in love oneself, it never occurs to one that the girl doesn’t know: one believes one has told it plainly in a tone of voice, the touch of a hand.

如果一個人愛上一個女孩，他永遠不會想到對方並不知道，他相信自己已然藉由語調、以手輕碰清楚表達了。

喝葡萄酒是件簡單又麻煩的事，但是其中的諸多樂趣也在這些煩人龜毛的枝枝節節裡，我的意思是，你可以酒拿來，開了，倒了，乾了，一如梁山好漢。但如果真講究一切細節，完美的飲酒準備幾乎是一件吹毛求疵的任務。

   

首先什麼場合什麼人喝什麼酒。人多嘴雜的場合，慶生婚宴，品酒絕不是重點，弄一支需要花時間並搖頭晃腦細斟細酌的頂級好酒，那是糟蹋，也是可惜，遠不如一款簡單豐富均衡的酒，可以豪飲，可以品酩。如果幾個愛酒的好友聚一起，喝酒聊酒是人生一大樂事，這時候就不妨找出一兩支珍藏的。人生難得，不是?

Drinking wine is something both simple and complicated at the same time. But the many delights in the process are meant to be found precisely in those irritating, demanding, tiny details. What I mean is that you can get a bottle of wine. Open it. Pour it. Finish it. Just as the brotherhood in the Chinese classic novel Outlaws of the Marsh always do. But if every detail is to be taken seriously, then making all necessary preparations for drinking wine is almost an undertaking for which being picky is a necessity itself.

First of all, the choice of wine is determined by the occasion and people it is meant for. Enjoying good wine is never a priority in birthday parties or wedding banquets where a good crowd always keeps talking. For such occasions, getting a bottle of fine wine that you’re supposed to take time to sip bit by bit while wagging your head from time to time is both a waste and a pity. A much better choice is a bottle of wine that strikes a balance between simplicity and sophistication. You can drink it like an ox. You can take time to enjoy it slowly. If several wine-loving friends get together, drinking and talking about wine is indeed a great pleasure. At such moments, you may as well fetch a couple of the finest bottles from your collection. Life does not have many such moments, does it?

Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you are the Charlie Brownest. (A Charlie Brown Christmas/1965)

世界上所有的查理•布朗當中，就屬你最查理•布朗了。(1965年/《查理•布朗的 聖誕節》)

「江山如此多嬌，引無數英雄競折腰。」(毛澤東)

“This expanse of rivers and mountains is so charming. Many heroes have been lured into rivalry, their waists bending.” (Mao Zedong)

"Tall, aren't you?" she said.
"I didn't mean to be."
Her eyes rounded. She was puzzled. She was thinking. I could see, even on that short acquaintance, that thinking was always going to be a bother to her. (The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler)

「你很高嘛!」她說。
「我不是故意的。」
杏眼圓睜，面露疑惑，她正在思考。雖然我們才剛頭一回碰面，我已看出，思考始終會是一件讓她煩心的事。(大眠/雷蒙•錢德勒)

"Dead men are heavier than broken hearts." (The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler)

 「死人比破碎的心還要重。」(大眠/雷蒙•錢德勒)
 「比起破碎的心，死人還要更重些。」

“投資人狂追蘋果債”

言簡意賅是新聞標題的基本要求，三言兩語間，若能造就某種文字獨有的趣味，更可引起讀者的注意和興趣，進入本文。

華爾街日報這篇有關蘋果公司發債籌資的報導就是絕佳範例，配合蘋果這個主角，用一個與水果有關的慣用語，精準地描繪出投資人熱烈的反應。

與go bananas 類似的慣用語還有 go nuts，二者都是go crazy (insane)之意。好萊塢電影中常可聽到這樣一句對白: You are nuts(你瘋了)!

“Think on your sins.”

「想想你的罪過。」

電影開始沒多久，片中的「好人」與片外的觀眾，同時得到這麼一個意在警告、如謎語似的訊息，而隨著劇情的推展，答案也就不揭自明了。

Think on sb./sth. 是指思考反省之意，think也可以contemplate或reflect取代:

I thought on Dr. K.T. Lee and how much Taiwan owes him.

She thought on all the sufferings they must have endured.

Think about 是口語中比較常用的講法，請看這段YouTube上的嚴姐訓弟，確是最佳範例:

除了推出一系列新舊粉絲期待已久的產品之外，蘋果最近的高階人事變動，同樣是國際財經界囑目的焦點。在其最近一期的一周回顧(Business this week)當中，經濟學人針對此事下的標題同樣言簡意賅，同樣玩了一個文字遊戲。shuffle the deck原意是指玩撲克牌時的洗牌，此處的shuffling the top deck則理所當然地延伸成高階人事洗牌。

由shuffle可引出reshuffle，一般講內閣改組，就是cabinet reshuffle，例句如:

The minister was forced out in the cabinet reshuffle.

下完標題進入本文，經濟學人進一步闡明蘋果更換高階主管:

Apple shook up its senior management.

shook up是片語動詞，shakeup是名詞，與reshuffle同義，例句如:

A shakeup of top executives seems inevitable.

Japan's biggest foreign acquisition: A Sprint out of Japan (The Economist)

日本的軟體銀行(Softbank)宣佈收購美國的Sprint Nextel，乃是近日國際財經界的頭條新聞之一，經濟學人在其最新一期的一周回顧(Business this week)當中，下了一個如此言簡意賅的標題，同時玩了一個文字遊戲: 雙關語 (Pun)。Sprint除了是公司名，也有衝刺、快跑的意思。A Sprint out of Japan一語，就有了軟體銀行期望藉由買下Sprint Nextel衝出日本、進軍美國之意。

“Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” 

「路易，我想這是一段美好友誼的開始。」

舊情人(英格麗·褒曼)與她的先生升空而去之後，Rick(亨佛萊·鮑嘉)與似敵還友的警察總長緩步離開濃霧籠罩的機場，不急不徐地道出這句永列影史經典的對白。

“We have no time to catalogue our regrets.”

「我們沒時間一一細數我們的遺憾了。」

是的，人總是要等到即將失去時，才曉得珍惜，甚且，無論如何糾心難解的瓜葛，到了例如大船將沉的生死關頭，一切都變得無關緊要了。

A few minutes later when I looked back I was quite alone with my shadow and there were no sounds except the sounds I made. (The Quiet American by Graham Greene)

幾分鐘後我回頭一望，我已經是孤身一人，只有自己的影子相伴。除了我自己發出的聲音，周遭一點聲音也沒有。(沉靜的美國人/葛蘭姆‧葛林)

箇中奧妙

名列偉大小說家之林的葛林，一向善於以文字經營情境與氛圍。這個句子的用字都頗平常，可這寥寥數語就足以輕易在讀者的腦海中喚起一幅四下無人、鴉雀無聲的畫面。其中二組看似矛盾的對比—既孤單、又有伴，既無聲、又有聲—與李白的「舉杯邀明月，對影成三人」，豈不有異曲同工之妙。

Memories too often die with their owner, and time too often surprises us by running out. (On Writing Well by William Zinsser)

太多時候回憶隨著主人的逝去而消散，太多時候光陰因為已然用罄而讓我們心驚。

箇中奧妙

對仗作為一種修辭的手段，中英皆然。從文法的角度來說，全句由以對等連接詞and串起的二個子句組成，對仗的核心部分too often作為副詞，分別修飾二個子句當中的動詞die與surprises。依循往例，我們可以試著改寫原句，作為一種文法練習:

An awful silence hung over the room, broken only by the crossing out of sentences and the crumpling of paper. (On Writing Well by William Zinsser)

一種可怕的靜默籠罩整個房間，惟一的干擾就只有劃掉句子和揉紙的聲音。(如何寫好英文/威廉．金瑟)

箇中奧妙 

Agneta screamed. Elms stared, and Travis, locked into his seat, thrashed. The Figure, calmly, ate him. (Rautavaara’s Case)

Agneta尖叫起來，Elms瞪大了眼睛，被鎖在座位上的Travis則是扭動身體、狂揮亂踢。那無以名之的形體，不急不徐地，把他給吃了。（關於Rautavaara）

箇中奧妙 

Within a locked glass case, on trays of black velvet, lay small metal swirls, shapes that merely hinted rather than were. They gave Mr. Tagomi a queer feeling as he stopped to study. (The Man in the High Castle)

在一個上了鎖的玻璃櫃裏，以黑色絲絨襯底的淺盤中，躺著一些小小的、漩渦似的金屬物件，而它們與其說是一目瞭然，不如說是僅止於提供些許暗示的形狀。Tagomi先生停步下來細加審視時，某種怪異的感覺向他襲來。（高塔隱者）

箇中奧妙 

A politics of moral engagement is not only a more inspiring ideal than a politics of avoidance. It is also a more promising basis for a just society. (Justice: What’s The Right Thing to Do?/Michael Sandel)

相較於對道德避之唯恐不及的政治，由道德參與出發的政治不但是一個更具啟發性的理想，就建設公義社會而言，也能提供更值得樂觀期待的基礎。（正義：一場思辨之旅/邁可．桑德爾）

箇中奧妙 

The western Indian city of Anand may soon be to paid pregnancy what Bangalore is to call centers. In 2008, more than fifty women in the city were carrying pregnancies for couples in the United States, Taiwan, Britain, and elsewhere. (Justice: What’s The Right Thing to Do?/Michael Sandel)

對付費代理懷孕這個行業而言，印度西部城市安南也許不久就可以與班加羅爾在客服中心業的地位相提並論了。在2008年，這個城市就有五十多名婦女為來自美國、台灣、英國以及其他地方的夫婦代勞而身懷六甲。（正義：一場思辨之旅/邁可．桑德爾）

箇中奧妙 

Ching-kuo also had to deal with the 800,000 or so old soldiers who, after marching back and forth through China and fighting battles for the Generalissimo for as many as thirty years, had been brought to Taiwan almost twenty years earlier. They were effectively an ocean and a war away from their home villages. (The Generalissimo by Jay Taylor)

經國同時還有大約八十萬名老兵有待處理，他們為委員長在大陸上來回奔波、獻身戰場長達三十載之後，被帶到台灣也即將逼近二十年了。事實上，阻隔在他們與家鄉之間的，不僅是一片汪洋，還有一場戰爭。（蔣介石傳/陶涵） 

箇中奧妙 

在這短短的幾十個字當中，一片汪洋與一場戰爭突出地成就了畫龍點睛之妙。衡量距離往往並非是單純的地理問題，更多時候是一種主觀的想像，心理上的可望不可及。