从《百年酒馆》看小词妙用

2017-11-18 11:47赵晨曦
新东方英语 2017年11期
关键词:小酒馆酒馆英文

赵晨曦

没有靓丽的演员,也没有华丽的布景,导演甚至不愿意花费精力去变换场景,在豆瓣评分高达9.3的美剧《百年酒馆》(Horace and Pete)中,屈指可数的几位演员用大段的独白和慢条斯理的对话构建了直指人心的剧情。

在布鲁克林有一家有着100多年历史的小酒馆,最初开酒馆的两兄弟分别叫Horace Wittel和Pete Wittel。他们定了一个家族传统:酒馆将由他们后代中的男孩继承,而这些男孩将分别继承他们的名字。于是,酒馆就这样一代一代地传承下来,一直轮到如今的Horace VIII和Pete VIII。然而,正如同小酒馆的陈设逐渐泛黄、褪色,主人公们也在暗淡的人生中蹒跚前行。Horace VIII始终孤身一人、与子女关系恶劣。Pete VIII患有精神病,必须长期服药,除了去医院,他从未踏出过酒馆一步。他们的姐妹Sylvia Wittel患有乳腺癌,总想卖掉酒馆给自己治病。他们的叔叔Uncle Pete (即Pete VII)乖戾、偏执,动不动就对人说恶毒的脏话,毫不顾忌他人感受。而常常光顾小酒馆的客人们同样显露着中年颓势,举手投足间透着命运不济。有人说,《百年酒馆》是一部致郁剧,也有人说它是最悲伤的喜剧。总而言之,该剧的导演兼编剧兼Horace VIII的扮演者Louis C. K.着笔墨于生活中的“小确丧”,引我们领略了一番生活的别样滋味。

该剧的一大特色是话剧式表演,主要通过主人公们的对话来推进故事情节。剧中使用的都是日常对话,涉及的词汇并不专业、晦涩,常用我们十分熟悉的一些简单词汇来精准表达不同的含义。下面我们就一起通过这部剧来领略小词的美妙。

看小词妙用

一天,大家都聚集在酒馆的小电视机前看篮球比赛。看到自己支持一方的球员总是不能成功投篮,Uncle Pete急得面红耳赤,开始破口大骂。而其他人则表现得十分淡定,觉得这不过是一场比赛,犯不上如此激动。看着Uncle Pete那副怒其不争、痛心不已的样子,其中一位黑人常客Carl觉得十分滑稽,忍不住开口“怼”了Uncle Pete。

Uncle Pete: [to TV] You (指电视里正在比赛的运动员) cant make a simple shot? Just put it in!

Carl: Oh, my man.

Uncle Pete: Hey, you shut your mouth, Carl. Shut your mouth. This aint funny.

Carl: This is hilarious (滑稽的), absolutely funny, look at you. Getting your blood pressure all up for what? Cause youre losing your hard-earned money?

小词分析:Earn的本义是“赚得、获得”。通过常见的构词法,earn的过去分词earned摇身一变就成了形容词,前面加上hard并用连字符“-”连接,即可表示辛苦赚得或来之不易的钱,也就是“血汗钱”。除了台词中的用法,hard-earned还可以充当定语,置于名词之前。例如:Life has been good to you, so use some of your time, talent and hard-earned money to help those less fortunate. (生活如此善待你,所以你可以花一些时间、精力和得来不易的钱去帮助那些不那么幸运的人。)

场景

1

Horace VIII近来总是情绪低落,整日无精打采,不想干活儿,也不愿与人交谈。Uncle Pete觉得Horace VIII状态不对,便问他是否心情不好。Pete VIII也关心地追问他到底怎么了。但Horace VIII却觉得他们很烦,坚称自己什么事都没有。

Uncle Pete: Hey, what are you, down in the dumps or something?

Pete VIII: Whats wrong with you?

Horace VIII: Theres nothing wrong with me.

小词分析:Dump的本義是“垃圾堆”,因此短语down in the dumps的字面意思是落在垃圾堆里,常用于形容“心情不佳,沮丧至极”。例如:“You look down in the dumps.”(你看起来很沮丧。)

场景

2

酒馆景象

众人闲聊时,几名常客开始讨论堕胎是否合理以及自己能否接受的问题。向来脑回路奇特又比较偏执的Dom认为堕胎就是对胎儿的不负责任,而Mark则认为孕妇对腹中的胎儿、自己的身体和人生应该有话语权。Dom闻言不知该如何反驳,只好说自己不是女人,不会生孩子,所以体会不到,而且性别也不是自己的选择。

Dom: What bothers me is that women want to just ignore the fact that there is some responsibility to the person thats growing inside them.

Mark: I know, but imagine if you had a guy growing in your stomach, you know? Its not the greatest thing going on in your life. Wouldnt you want to have some say of whether or not you can get it out of there?endprint

Dom: Yeah, but I dont have those parts, okay? I wasnt born to have babies. I didnt draw that straw.

小词分析:Straw的本义是“稻草;吸管”。过去,人们使用稻草抓阄,所以straw一词被赋予了很多引申含义,其中就包括“选择”。比如台词中的“I didnt draw that straw”就意为“这不是我的选择”,其中draw意为“抽取”。Draw the short straw意为“被选中去干不愿干的事”,例如:“Im afraid youve drawn the short straw—youre sitting next to him.”(恐怕是你中了头彩——你得坐在他旁边。) Draw straws意为“抓阄”,例如:“Lets draw straws to see who has to clean the office.”(我们抽签决定谁去打扫办公室。) The final/last straw表示“最终使人无法忍受的事”,即中文表达“压死骆驼的最后一根稻草”,例如:“The final straw came when his wife asked him for divorce.”(当妻子提出离婚时,他彻底崩溃了。)

场景

3

觉得空虚、沮丧的Horace VIII邀请旧相识Maggie到家中做客。因为有段时日未见,两人刚见面时先是一番寒暄,随后Maggie讲述了自己和飞行员丈夫相识、相恋的难忘往事。

Maggie: I got a job in Manhattan, … and I hated it. Anyway, so then I decided … I dont need this, this is a bad idea.… So I had this friend, Trisha. She lives in New Orleans. She invites me down for Jazz Fest ... So I figure Ill go down there, scope it out, maybe Ill move there, right? So, Im at the airport. Im at the gate, my flights delayed. No, they had the plane there, but they were waiting on the flight crew…. Finally, these pilots show up in their pilot uniforms with their black briefcases and as theyre getting on the plane, one of them turns to us and he smiles that big pilot smile…. And everyone grumbled, but I laughed, because he was so sweet…. Uh, we got married. Then we went to Jamaica, and then I moved into his house in Atlanta…. Its totally not any kind of trajectory that I pictured for myself.

小詞分析:Scope作名词意为“范围”,作动词意为“审视,详查”,即仔细研究、一探究竟。Scope out sth./sb.的英文解释为to look carefully to see if something or someone is interesting or attractive,即“仔细打量,考量”,例如:“Dave is scoping out those girls.”(Dave正在仔细打量那些女孩。)或者“Lets go scope out that new grocery store.”(我们去那家新开的杂货店去探探情况吧。)

Crew的英文解释为“a group of people who work together, especially all those who work on and operate a ship, aircraft, etc.”,即在一起工作的一组人。例如:flight crew (机务组)、an ambulance crew (救护人员)、a lifeboat crew (救生艇船员)、a film crew (剧组)。

Uniform意为“制服”,其英文解释为a particular set of clothes that has to be worn by the members of the same organization or group of people,即同一个组织的人穿着的一种特定服装,例如:military uniform (军装)、school uniform (校服)、a nurses uniform (护士服)。

Briefcase意为“公文包”,多用来放置商业文件。英文中关于包的表达有很多,比如backpack (书包)、baggage (行李箱)、carryall (手提袋)、toilet bag (洗漱包)等。

Grumble的英文解释为to complain about someone or something in an annoyed way,即发牢骚。例如:“She spent the evening grumbling to me about her job.”(她一晚上都在向我抱怨她的工作。) Grumble的另一个常用含义是“肚子发出咕哝声”,通常由饥饿所致,其英文解释为:“If your stomach grumbles, it makes a low, continuous noise, usually because you are hungry.”endprint

Trajectory一词表示“发展轨迹”。Be on an upward trajectory表示处在上升轨迹,be on a downward trajectory表示处于下降轨迹。

Picture作名词时表示“图片”,作动词时表示“描绘;构想”(to imagine something)。例如:“Try to picture yourself lying on a beach in the hot sun.”(试着想象你躺在烈日下的海滩上。)

一日关门后,Uncle Pete一边打扫酒馆,一边看着陈旧的桌椅,向Pete VIII感慨一切都旧了。Pete VIII则向Uncle Pete提起街上有家名为Ralphs的商店关门了,或许可以从那儿淘到一些可用的东西。

Uncle Pete: These glasses are getting all fogged. We gotta get new ones. Chairs are weak, too.

Pete VIII: Uh, yeah, you know, Ralphs is closing.

Uncle Pete: So?

Pete VIII: He, uh ... The guy there had a heart attack, so they cant make their payments, so theyre closing down.

Uncle Pete: Who cares about Ralphs?

Pete VIII: I know, but they just recently renovated and now theyre closing down, so I figure they must have some stuff that we can use, like chairs, like we can get some chairs for cheap.

Uncle Pete: Yeah, its good, thats a good idea.

小词分析:Fog作名词表示“雾”,作动词表示“以雾笼罩;使模糊”,可用于形容玻璃杯变旧、不再干净的样子。类似的引申表达还有:“Alcohol fogs the brain.”(酒精模糊了意识。)

Weak表示“虚弱”,我们习惯用这个词形容人身体上的虚弱。而台词中weak的用法给了我们很好的启发,该词也可以形容物品脆弱、易坏、不牢固的样子。除此之外,weak还可表示性格上的懦弱,例如:“He was a weak king surrounded by corrupt advisers.”(他是一个懦弱的国王,身边围绕着一群贪腐之人。) Weak还可以表示证据、论点的薄弱,例如:“He gave the weakest of excuses when asked why he was late.”(当被问及为何迟到,他的理由特别站不住脚。)

场景

5

Uncle Pete

场景

4

Maggie和Horace VIII

在探讨人们对于亲友生病的态度时,身患绝症的Sylvia语气悲凉,消极、绝望。她觉得人们在照顾病人时会不自觉地将自己的想法强加于病人,甚至会利用病人的需求来控制病人。所以当Horace VIII劝她不要对Brenda那么刻薄时,Sylvia一口拒绝了。

Horace VIII: You kinda pushed Brenda away there. I mean, she was taking care of you, and you literally told her, “Go fuck off.”

Sylvia: And I dont regret it. Believe it or not, much as I need her, I would rather die…. You dont know that one, Horace. Shes got this way of leveraging my needs against me. Just honestly, Id rather fend for myself.

小词分析:Fend表示“照顾,照料”,短语fend for oneself则意为“照顾自己”。另一个常见短语fend sb./sth. off表示“避开,挡开”,英文解释为to avoid dealing with something that is unpleasant or difficult,例如:“This project has a competitive ability to fend off the risks.”(该项目具有抵御风险的能力。)

Marsha (左二)等人为Uncle Pete守灵

场景

7

Uncle Pete毫无征兆地自杀了,这既令人悲伤又让人无法理解。只有六个人出席了他的葬礼:Pete VIII、Horace VIII和女儿Alice、Sylvia和女儿Brenda以及Uncle Pete生前的好友Marsha。葬礼结束后,他们一起回到酒馆为Uncle Pete守灵。期间Sylvia和Brenda起了爭执,Brenda被母亲刻薄的态度气哭了,结果招致Marsha的嘲笑。

Sylvia: Why are you laughing?

Marsha: She (指Brenda) is crying at a wake, but not because of who died.endprint

小词分析:Wake是我们再熟悉不过的一个词,其基本意为“醒来;唤醒”。而wake作名词时还有个特别的含义“守灵”,即有人离世时,其亲朋好友聚集在一起为其守护的场景。英文解释为an occasion when the family and friends of a dead person meet in order to look at the dead body the night before it is buried, or a party held after a funeral.

剧中还有一段顾客和老板间令人难忘的对话。透过这段对话,我们能了解到小酒馆的前世今生,感受到历史的积淀。

Pete VIII: Hey, this bars been here for a hundred years.

Customer: Serious?

Pete VIII: Yeah!

Customer: Why is it called Horace and Petes?

Pete VIII: Cause its our place. Thats Horace and Im Pete.

Customer: So you guys are like a hundred years old, too?

Pete VIII: No, you see, this place was opened in 1916 by two brothers named Horace and Pete and each of them had a son. Horace had a son Horace. Pete had a son Pete.

百年酒館是一个缩影,它见证了人们的悲喜,更折射出美国一百年来的社会变迁。尽管科技日益进步,人们的生活条件看似越来越好,但不良嗜好、家庭暴力、种族歧视、心理疾病等问题依然潜藏在人们的生活里。艰难本就是生活的原色,每逢低谷和窘境,人们总要问一问“我是谁”“我要做什么”以及“我想成为谁”。这样一部满满负能量的美剧为何能在近年来被各种剧评人推崇、欣赏?说到底是因为悲剧更接近生活的原貌。人生不如意事十之八九,重要的不在于欺骗自己生活有多美好,而是要学会在困境中笑对人生。endprint

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