schadenfreude
现在是2019年4月11日星期四,北京时间9时26分。
前天并没有忘带钥匙,后来在身上找到了,但今天真是忘带钥匙了。
即使放慢速度,还是被阻门外好几分钟。
《迷离时空》第三季第九集,Deaths-Head Revisited。
纳粹军官去达豪集中营故地重游,结果被死者冤魂审判:
This is not hatred. This is retribution. This is not revenge. This is justice.
But this is only the beginning, Captain. Only the beginning. Your final judgment will come from God.
《迷离时空》第三季第十集,The Midnight Sun。
故事主体是,地球离太阳越来越近,大家都崩溃了,结局有反转。
结局说这一切都是梦,现实是地球离太阳越来越远,大家快冻死了。
最近在看《The Sun Also Rises》。
第四章有这么一段:
I was pretty well through with the subject. At one time or another I had probably considered it from most of its various angles, including the one that certain injuries or imperfections are a subject of merriment while remaining quite serious for the person possessing them.
“certain injuries or imperfections are a subject of merriment while remaining quite serious for the person possessing them”,某些创伤、某些残疾是人们取乐的对象,虽然对那些受伤者、对那些残疾人而言,那一点也不好笑。
用中文的话,就是幸灾乐祸吧。
其实幸灾乐祸很普遍,很多搞笑的底层逻辑就是幸灾乐祸,比如动画里人踩香蕉滑倒,相声里学人口吃。
笑话背后往往有不好笑的东西,同一件事,不同的人有不同的视角,有的人觉得好笑,有的人觉得神伤。
又,英语里没有一个词可以表达“幸灾乐祸”的意思,《布莱森英语简史》里有这么一段:
At the same time, some languages have words that we may be pleased to do without.
The existence in German of a word like schadenfreude (taking delight in the misfortune of others) perhaps tells us as much about Teutonic sensitivity as it does about their neologistic versatility.
还是第四章:
It is awfully easy to be hard-boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night it is another
thing.
在白天,不动感情很容易,但夜里,是另一回事。
这里有一个词“hard-boiled”,这个词我翻作“不动感情”,但这是没办法的办法。
“hard-boiled”这个词很妙,查词源字典:
hard-boiled also hardboiled, 1723 in reference to eggs, "cooked so long as to be solid," from hard (adj.) + past tense of boil. In transferred sense "severe, tough," from 1886.
一开始,“hard-boiled”说的是煮鸡蛋,煮的时间短,比较软,是溏心蛋,叫soft-boiled,煮的时间长,比较硬,是实心蛋(汉语里有这个词吗?),叫hard-boiled。
后来,hard-boiled有了比喻义,就是说一个人的心比较硬。文学史上有所谓硬汉派小说,这个硬汉在英文就是hard-boiled。
但是,你不觉得奇怪吗?
中国人说硬汉,更容易用“铁骨铮铮”或者“心如铁石”,铁啊、石头啊,那才是真的硬,而实心蛋再硬也不过是鸡蛋。
正是这一层意象上的不同,让hard-boiled有了更丰富的解读空间。
拿硬汉派小说来说,所谓硬汉其实没那么硬那么强,他在本质上仍是一颗蛋,只是不像生鸡蛋或溏心蛋,一碰就蛋汁迸裂。
硬汉派小说里的主角,外表总是酷酷的,但面对体制,能做的总是很少,这种逞强、不服输是硬汉的特质。
回过头来,在《The Sun Also Rises》里,读到这句也可以理解为,在白天,在人前,要逞强很容易,但到了夜里,一个人待着,心理防线就崩塌了。