十分鐘了解英語歷史:莎士比亞
作者:滬江英語
2011-11-17 09:47
The history of English in ten minutes. Chapter three, Shakespeare, or a plaque on both his houses.
十分鐘內(nèi)了解英國(guó)歷史。第三章,莎士比亞,或曰兩處住所的紀(jì)念碑。(注1)
As the dictionary tells us about 2,000 new words and phrases were invented by William Shakespeare.
就如字典告訴我們的,大約2000個(gè)新單詞和短語是莎士比亞造出來的。
He gave us handy words like eyeball, puppydog and anchovy and more show-offy words like dauntless, besmirch and lacklustre. He came up with the word alligator soon after he ran out of the things to rhyme with crocodile. And the nation of tea drinkers finally took into their hearts when he invented the hob-nob.
他留給我們一些隨處可見的詞,如“眼球”,“小狗”和“鳀魚”,以及更多賣弄炫技的詞,如“無所畏懼”,“玷污”和“暗淡無光”。他遍尋事物來與“鱷魚”(crocodile)押韻,最終想出來“短吻鱷”(alligator)這個(gè)詞。他創(chuàng)造出了“共飲”這個(gè)詞,遂在英國(guó)這個(gè)品茶愛好者的國(guó)度深得人心。
Shakespeare knew the power of catchphrases as well as biscuits. Without him, we would never eat our flesh and blood?out of house and home. We would have to say?good riddance to the green-eyed monster and breaking the ice would be as dead as a doornail.
莎士比亞對(duì)名言妙語的力量了如指掌,沒有他,我們將永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)把我們的“親骨肉”“吃窮”,我們將“如釋重負(fù)地?cái)[脫”“妒忌”,而“打破僵局”將“死得確定無疑”。
If you tried to get your money's worth, you'd be given short shrift and anyone who laid it on with a trowel could be hoised with his own petard. Of course it's possible other people used these words first. But the dictionary writers like looking them up in Shakespeare because there was more cross dressing and people poking each other's eyes out.
如果你想要“花錢劃得來”,你會(huì)受到“忽視”;而“過分吹捧”別人的人可能是“搬起石頭砸了自己的腳”。當(dāng)然有可能其他人首先用了這些詞,但是字典編纂者們喜歡在莎士比亞書里查找,因?yàn)檫@里有更多“穿異性服裝”的人和“戳瞎彼此眼睛”的人。
Shakespeare's poetry showed the world that English was a rich vibrant language with limitless expressive and emotional power and he still had time to open all those tea rooms in Stratford.
莎士比亞的詩歌向世界展示:英語是一門擁有無限表現(xiàn)力和情感力量的語言,并且他仍有時(shí)間在斯特拉特福德(莎士比亞誕生地)開了那么多家茶室。
注1:a plaque on both his houses 由?a plague on both your houses 演變而來,后者出自莎士比亞戲劇《羅密歐與朱麗葉》第三幕第一場(chǎng)。
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