Lady Windermere's Fan

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--And whether pigs have wings."

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注册时间: 2017-05-04 22:47:07, 周四

Lady Windermere's Fan

帖子 Asrgfb » 2017-05-13 00:29:13, 周六

这是十年前 Narcissus 问我的。红色是原文,蓝色是问题,绿色答案。

Act One

LORD DARLINGTON (smiling): Ah, nowadays we are all of us so hard up, that the only pleasant things to pay are compliments. They are the only things we can pay.

紫色部分句型好奇怪。是什么意思呢?为什么这样用?hard up 指的是什么?

Hard up 就是“手頭拮据”。这里就是说,我们都是那么穷,哪有钱 pay 什么,只能 pay compliments 罷了。

LADY WINDERMERE: Don’t spoil it by saying extravagant silly things to me. You think I am a puritan, I suppose? Well, I have something of the puritan in me. I was brought up like that. I am glad of it. My mother died when I was a mere child. I lived with Lady Julia, my father´s elder sister, you know. She was stern to me, but she taught me what the world is forgetting, the difference that there is between what is right and what is wrong. She allowed of no compromise. I allow of none.

紫色部分为什么結尾是问号?第二個棕色部分是什么意思?最后的none指代的是什么?

紫色句是问题,即:You think I am a puritan, don’t you? “你以为我是清教徒吧,不是么?”
She allowed of no compromise 就是“她黑白分明,绝对不妥協。” None 就是 no compromise。“我也什么都不妥協。”


LORD DARLINGTON: I won’t hear of its raining on your birthday.

反正就是不懂。尤其是hear of 。

I won’t hear of it 是 idiom,即“我不允许这件事发生”。

LORD DARLINGTON: I couldn’t help it. I can resist everything except temptation.
LADY WINDERMERE: You have the modern affectation of weakness.


不懂不懂就是不懂。

这里又是颠倒常识。《圣经》说,one must resist temptation,Lord Darlington 就故意颠倒过来。所以 Lady Windermere 说他像摩登人那样,炫耀自己的弱点。

DUCHESS OF BERWICK: Come and bid goodbye to Lady Windermere, and thank her for your charming visit. (To Lady Windermere): And by the way, I must thank you for sending a card to Mr Hopper—he is that rich young Australian people are taking such notice of just at present. His father made a great fortune by selling some kind of food in circular tins—most palatable, I believe—I fancy it is the thing the servants always refuse to eat.

第一句紫色部分为什么又说 “rich young Australian people ”?The Importance of Be-ing Earnest 里面不是说Australia 是人间地狱吗?到底是好还是不好?还是有其它的意思?最后一句是说这个Hopper的东西很差劲吗?那前面的对澳洲的表扬是反语吗?

你断错了句。Australian 是名词,不是形容词。就是:He is that rich young Australian whom people are taking such notice of just at present。英语从来不说什么什么 people 的,只有中国人、韩国人才把那个“人”字翻做 people。澳洲还是英国人不愿去的地方,但是有些澳洲人发迹了。一有钱就什么都不同了。记不记得 Lady Bracknell 一听到 Cecily 那么有钱,就立刻回心转意了?最后一句不是反语,而是 snobbery。那时新发明了罐头,所以公爵夫人说是连她的用人也不吃这些东西的。

LADY WINDERMERE: I think that you spend your money strangely. That is all. Oh, don’t imagine I mind about the money. As far as I am concerned you may squander everything we have. But I do mind is that you who have loved me, you who have taught me to love you, should pass from the love that is given to the love that is bought.

不懂这句话什么意思。

Lady Windermere 以为丈夫与 Mrs. Erlynne 有暧昧。因为 Lord Windermere 把钱给 Mrs. Erlynne,Lady Windermere 就以为她是掘金者(gold-digger)。所以她怨恨丈夫,自己无条件的爱抛弃不要,却去用钱收买 Mrs. Erlynne 的感情。

Act Two

DUMBY: Good-evening, Lady Stutfield. I suppose this will be the last ball of the season?

这句话为什么后面所有人的问候都这样说?所有人的话都是一模一样的。很滑稽呢。

就是为了搞笑。

Act Three

CECIL GRAHAM: Oh gossip is charming! History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality. Now, I never moralise. A man who moralises is usually a hypocrite, and a woman who moralises is invariably plain. There is nothing in the world so unbecoming as a Noncomformist conscience. And most women know it, I’m glad to say.

紫色的部分,不明白意思。

王尔德的三出社会戏剧里面的 witty 男人有两类,一类就是 Cecil Graham 那种犬儒人物,语不惊人死不休,什么都从最坏的角度来看。(这叫做 worldly、sophisticated、etc.)所以这里说凡是满口仁义道德的,大都是虚伪的。

另一类在这剧里面由 Lord Darlington 代表。他们虽然还是妙语连篇,但是较有深度,想法也常与社会主流不同。在 An Ideal Husband 里是 Lord Goring。Importance of Being Earnest 还有残迹:Algernon 是前者的蜕变,而 Jack 则是后者。

Nonconformist 就是清教徒教会二百年后的名称。他们不肯 conform to 国家教会(圣公会,Church of England)的做法,所以叫做 Nonconformist。上流社会是很看不起他们的,所以 Cecil Graham 如此说。(关于良心:Nonconformist 因为良心不许,所以不肯妥协。作 Pilgrim’s Progress [《天路历程》] 的John Bunyan 就是宁愿坐牢也不肯放弃他从《圣经》里得到的亮光。)


Act Four

LORD WINDERMERE (holding her hand): Margaret, I thought Mrs. Erlynne was a woman more sinned against than sinning, as the phrase goes.

意思不明白。

他的意思是:虽然 Mrs. Erlynne 做过不道德的事,但她也被别人伤害了,而且那些伤害超过她的罪行。

MRS. ERLYNNE (with an amused smile): My dear Windermere, manners before morals!

这句话怎么突然冒出来?

这是因为在上一句 Lord Windermere 骂她无耻,于是她就用 worldly woman 的手段来修理他,提醒他英国上流社会要礼不要命的规矩。

MRS. ERLYNNE (with an amused smile): My dear Windermere, manners before morals!

这句话怎么突然冒出来?

这是因为在上一句 Lord Windermere 骂她无耻,于是她就用 worldly woman 的手段来修理他,提醒他英国上流社会要礼不要命的规矩。

LORD WINDERMERE (smiling as he strokes her hair): Child, you and she belong to different worlds. Into your world evil has never entered.

Into 为什么放在句首?这句型怎么这样?要是paraphrase了以后应该怎么讲?

这是因为 into your world 是一个组合,提前了有一点强调。如果是平常句型,就是 Evil has never entered into your world.

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