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純巧克力、黑巧克力，哪種你更喜歡？估計(jì)你在“純”或“黑”上稍加猶豫后，還是會(huì)毅然地選擇“黑”。為什么？因?yàn)椤昂凇弊致?tīng)著酷！殊不知“純”者、“黑”者本來(lái)就是一種東西。
By Derwent May
莫琳梅 選注
Have you bought any chocolate digestives[1] lately? If you have been looking for plain chocolate[2] ones, rather than milk, you may have discovered that they are hard to find. What you will have found are dark chocolate digestives. “Plain” chocolate! Who could hope to sell such a thing in this day and age? “Dark” is what people want—biscuits full of mystery and romance.
We are living in a new age of euphemisms[3], all working of course, just as before, to persuade us that something is a little better than what it really is. A more sinister[4] one that has come into use lately is to be heard from firms trying to lend us money. What we are offered now is “flexible interest rates[5]”.
That “flexible” is quite subtle[6]. It really just means “variable”—but everyone knows that “variable interest rates” are almost bound to go up.[7] The phrase is a fairly honest warning that that might happen.
But “flexible”—that sounds like something quite different. We associate the word with people or proposals that are not rigid, that will bend a little to please us or accommodate us.[8] Who would not sooner have flexible rates than variable ones? But there is no difference.
Estate agents have always been notorious for their inventive euphemisms.[9] One much in use at the moment is “beautifully presented”, or even “superbly[10] presented”. “A beautifully presented, spacious Victorian house”[11] —what does it mean? Nothing. The only beautiful presentation is by the estate agent himself—and that is of no use when you find the house is a cheaply tarted-up[12] ruin.
In the poet D. J. Enright’s anthology of essays on euphemisms, wittily entitled Fair of Speech, David Pannick gives some examples of legal euphemisms used to seduce people.[13] Barristers are always called “counsel”, says Pannick, which suggests they are friends or confidants, not just professional lawyers.[14] Their fees after the first day are called “refreshers”—cleverly implying a physical need for what is merely another financial transaction.[15]
As Enright says in his introduction, euphemisms may be fair of speech, but they are often “foul of meaning and dishonest in intent”[16]. We can perhaps live without plain chocolate digestives—but all too often we still look in vain for plain speech.
Vocabulary
1. chocolate digestive: 巧克力消化餅干。
2. plain chocolate: = dark chocolate，純巧克力、黑巧克力，指不加牛奶的低糖巧克力，比加牛奶的巧克力更純，味道更好。本文作者認(rèn)為商家之所以更青睞“黑巧克力”而非“純巧克力”這個(gè)名字，是因?yàn)椤昂凇弊致?tīng)上去更神秘、更富浪漫色彩。
3. euphemism: 委婉語(yǔ)，委婉的說(shuō)法。
4. sinister: 陰險(xiǎn)的，邪惡的。
5. flexible interest rate: 彈性利率。
6. subtle: 微妙的，難以捉摸的。
7. variable: 可變的；be bound to: 一定會(huì)。
8. rigid: 僵硬的，死板的；accommodate: 順應(yīng)，迎合。
9. estate agent: 房地產(chǎn)經(jīng)紀(jì)人；notorious: 臭名昭著的；inventive: 富有創(chuàng)造力的。
10. superbly: 極好地。
11. 一幢外觀漂亮、空間寬敞的維多利亞時(shí)代的房子。
12. tarted-up: 粉飾的，裝飾的。
13. 詩(shī)人D. J. Enright邀請(qǐng)了16位著名的作家從不同方面對(duì)委婉語(yǔ)進(jìn)行了深度剖析，并將研究結(jié)果集結(jié)成文集《說(shuō)好聽(tīng)的話》（Fair of Speech），于1985年出版。anthology: （詩(shī)、文等的）選集；wittily: 詼諧地；seduce: 誘惑，哄騙。
14. barrister: （英格蘭或威爾士可在高等法院出庭的）出庭律師，大律師；counsel: 辯護(hù)律師；confidant: 密友，知己。
15. 律師在第一天出庭之后的收費(fèi)被委婉地稱為“refresher”（字面意思是“恢復(fù)精力的事物”），看似為滿足身體上的需要，實(shí)則不過(guò)是另一種收費(fèi)。refresher: （因訴訟延長(zhǎng)而補(bǔ)給律師的）額外訴訟費(fèi)。律師第一天出庭的收費(fèi)稱為“辯護(hù)委聘費(fèi)”（brief），以后每一次出庭的收費(fèi)稱為“額外訴訟費(fèi)”，按日收取。
16. foul of meaning and dishonest in intent: 含義丑惡，意圖不誠(chéng)。
（來(lái)源：英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)雜志）
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