THE EXAMINATIONS 应试 | Chapter 4
2017年12月7日, 星期四
come away
All marriages are contracted in heaven but made on earth and by the men and women who have to make it after they come away from the altar.
come away在牛津短语动词里有两个意思，结合altar的释义“An altar is a holy table in a church or temple. ”，认为come away取第一个“to leave a place ”之意。
这句话的表述让我想到关于人原来是被切开的两半，被从天堂丢到人间终其一生寻找唯一的最严丝合缝的另一半。
- "According to Aristophanes in Plato's Symposium, in the ancient world of myth there were three types of people,"
按柏拉图《盛宴》中阿里斯托芬的说法，远古神话世界里有三种人。Oshima says. "Have you heard about this?"- "No."
- "In ancient times people weren't just male or female, but one of three types: male/male, male/female, or female/female. In other words, each person was made out of the components of two people. Everyone was happy with this arrangement and never really gave it much thought. But then God took a knife and cut everybody in half, right down the middle. So after that the world was divided just into male and female, the upshot being that people spend their time running around trying to locate their missing other half."
“古时候，世界不是由男和女、而是由男男和男女和女女构成的。就是说，一个人用的是今天两个人的材料。大家对此心满意足，相安无事地生活。岂料，神用利刀将所有人一劈两半，劈得利利索索。结果，世上只有男和女，为了寻找本应有的另一半，人们开始左顾右盼，惶惶不可终日。”- "Why did God do that?"
- "Divide people into two? You got me. God works in mysterious ways. There's that whole wrath-of-God thing, all that excessive idealism and so on. My guess is it was punishment for something. Like in the Bible.
若容我想象，大概类似某种惩罚吧，就像《圣经》上的亚当和夏娃被赶出伊甸园。Adam and Eve and the Fall and so forth."- "Original sin," I say.
“原罪。”
Kafka On The Shore
在《海边的卡夫卡》的第5章，“在图书馆度过的一天”中，Oshima与Kafka对神话和原罪问题展开了以上的探讨，最后大岛把长铅笔夹在中指和食指之间，感慨人生带有某种无可奈何和无法逃避的艰难："That's right, original sin." Oshima holds his pencil between his middle and index fingers, twirling it ever so slightly as if testing the balance. "Anyway, my point is that it's really hard for people to live their lives alone."
chamber
In your grave I have opened two chambers that I may share the tomb with you when I die. 有错其丘，惟子之坟。凿为二室，期与子同。
chamber在这里应该解释成洞穴，句子中应该为墓室的意思，这个释义在牛津系列的字典中有明确给出“enclosed space under the ground 地下的封闭空间；洞穴”，例句是：
- The cavers discovered a vast underground chamber.
探穴人发现了一个地下大洞穴。
在牛津英语搭配词典里也提供类似的组合：
- underground chamber, subterranean chamber 地下洞穴
- burial chamber, tomb chamber 墓室
- a Bronze Age burial chamber 青铜器时代的墓室
melon seed
On summer evenings he sat outside their cottage eating melon seeds and hard fried beans.
原来瓜子就是melon seed，比如西瓜就是watermelon。这让我觉得还是中文的蔬菜水果食物名要生动多彩，要好吃。
另外，葵花籽就是sunflower seeds。sesame seeds则是芝麻。
seed也可以作为动词表示播种，柯林斯给出生动的例句：
- The primroses should begin to seed themselves down the steep hillside.
报春花应该开始沿着陡峭的山坡一路撒播种子了。
在短语go to seed / run to seed中，如果指植物，是开花结籽；If vegetable plants go to seed or run to seed, they produce flowers and seeds as well as leaves.
如果指人或事物，则是衰老，风光不再，（人）变得不修边幅，（地方）变得破败的意思。If you say that someone or something has gone to seed or has run to seed, you mean that they have become much less attractive, healthy, or efficient.
本章的重点放在苏氏父子三人进京考取功名的过程与结果，其中苏父的仕途不顺颇让人唏嘘。苏轼母亲的故去并没有作为重点浓墨重彩地渲染悲情，但只是轻轻的一句“She died without hearing the good news from the capital.”也足以让读者感受到失落、惋惜和命运的作弄。
She died without hearing the good news from the capital. Hurriedly the father and brothers set out for home, to find the mother gone and the house in very bad condition, with the fences broken down and the roof leaking, "like the home of a refugee."
以及苏洵写给妻子的sacrificial prayer，最后无助的一声“魂归来兮”，也令人悲恸：
Alas, I am old and alone in this wide world; after your death, who will give me good advice? I am going back to our old home to make improvements and alterations in our house. If your soul has not perished, come and visit us.
以上。
