钢琴王子李云迪前日因嫖娼被拘,引起全网关注。下面我们结合《纽约时报》、《南华早报》、《路透社》的一些相关文章,对事件进行一个全面的了解。
(本文较长,建议先收藏再阅读)
Chinese Pianist Is Held on Prostitution Suspicion
hold在这里是扣留的意思,比如The inside of a van was as good a place as any to hold a kidnap victim. 厢式小型货车里面像其他地方一样是扣押被绑架者的好地方。Somebody is holding your wife hostage. 有人在扣留你的妻子当人质。
因…而扣留就是这里的be held on sth。
关于hold,此时我们可能还会联想到hold sb accountable for sth它表示某人对XX负责,经常用作被动形式sb be held accountable for sth。也可以写成be held responsible for sth,比如外刊上这句,She concludes that screens are often held responsible for the broader anxieties of parents living in a high-stress environment, without much evidence that they do great harm. 她的结论是,人们常常把在高压环境中生活的父母的更普遍的焦虑归咎于屏幕,而没有太多证据证明它们造成了很大的损害。
prostitution suspicion中prostitution是Prostitution means having sex with people in exchange for money.卖淫的意思。但是这里肯定不是卖淫嫌疑。prostitution理解得更广泛一点就是性交易,比如,比如经济学人的这个句子:A CRACKDOWN on prostitution in a leading hub of China’s thriving sex trade may provide a peek into just how big the industry is nationwide. 在中国性交易蓬勃发展的的主要地区开展打击活动,可能会让人们窥见这个行业在全国范围内的规模有多大。
那么这个题目的意思就是Li涉嫌性交易而被捕。关于“涉嫌性交易被拘留”路透社说得更加直白:detain sb over prostitution allegations。
而说得最明白的还是《南华早报》上的:be detained on suspicion of patronising a prostitute
这里因为是题目的原因,所以通常就把被动里的be动词,以及prostitute前面的不定冠词a给省略了。
patronize在这里的意思是to be a regular customer of a shop / store, restaurant, etc.经常光顾,The club is patronized by students and locals alike. 学生和当地居民都经常去那个俱乐部。
再看一个经济学人中的例子:The Chinese workers and visitors in South-East Asia’s SEZs often patronise Chinese-owned shops and restaurants, and circumvent sales taxes by paying for goods and services via Chinese apps like Alipay.东南亚经济特区的中国工人和游客往往光顾中国人开的商店和餐馆,并通过支付宝等中国应用购买商品和服务。
on suspicion of表示因涉嫌…,与吴亦凡相关的文章中基本都用上了它:Star rapper and singer Kris Wu Yifan was detained by the police in Beijing on suspicion of rape, the latest development in a scandal that has torpedoed the career of one of China’s most influential young celebrities.中国最具影响力的年轻明星之一吴亦凡因涉嫌强奸被北京警方拘留,这是这起丑闻的最新进展。
下面我们看一下外刊如何用简短的话语对这一事件做一个概括:
Li Yundi, a famous performer, was accused of soliciting a woman, state news outlets said.
参考译文:据官方新闻媒体报道,著名演员李云迪被指控拉客。
A prominent Chinese pianist, Li Yundi, has been detained on prostitution suspicion in Beijing, state-run news outlets in China reported on Thursday.
参考译文:中国官方新闻媒体周四报道,中国著名钢琴家李云迪因涉嫌嫖娼在北京被拘留。
1:Li was accused of soliciting a woman.
2: Li has been detained on prostitution suspicion.
其实和题目想表达的都差不多,咱们来看看里面的几个词。对于李云迪著名钢琴家的描述,除了用了最基本的famous,还用了prominent,它表示杰出的,卓越的。南华还用了renowned。而钢琴家分别用了pianist, concert pianist, performer。
be accused of表示被起诉,控告,它的同义词表达结构是be charged with,注意介词搭配是不一样的。
除了表示很严重的起诉,控告,be charged with和be accused of还有指责,谴责的意思,比如说德国人经常被指责缺乏幽默感,Germans are often accused of not having the sense of humour.
solicit在本篇中的意思是to offer to have sex with people in return for money招徕(嫖客);拉(客),比如,Prostitutes solicited openly in the streets. 妓女公开在街上拉客。the crime of soliciting 拉客卖淫罪。
除此之外,solicit还有筹集的意思,比如solicit contribution 筹集捐款。
还有请求帮助的意思,我们看一下一篇写人工智能写作的文章中的一句话:Mr Seabrook found that the longer the text he solicited from GPT-2, the more obvious it was that the work it produced was gibberish.西布鲁克发现,他从GPT-2得到的文字篇幅越长,就越能明显看出它前言不搭后语。
The authorities in Beijing did not provide many details of the incident, saying in a statement that a 39-year-old man with the last name Li had acknowledged wrongdoing and had been detained “in accordance with the law.”
参考译文:当局没有提供事件的很多细节,只是在一份声明中说,一名39岁的李姓男子承认有违法行为,并已“依法”拘留。
拘留后结果就是认罪。认罪这里用的是acknowledge wrongdoing。其中wrong doing是可数名词,表示不法行为、欺骗行径。
这个词的含义也可从字面上看出来,wrongdoing就是do sth wrong,所以意思就是作恶、坏事。比如说,勿以恶小而为之,我们就可以说:Don’t engage in wrongdoing even if it’s small.此外,wrongdoing还可以进一步变形成wrongdoer,意思就是作恶者、违法犯罪者,做了坏事的人通常最终会受到报应,可以说:Wrongdoers are usually paid out in the end.
其他媒体对于认罪还使用了:admit to their alleged behaviour;confess to the illegal activity。
说完事件,接下来就要介绍主要人物了,我们看看外刊对于李云迪是如何介绍的?
Mr. Li, 39, who had gained celebrity in China as a performer and a reality television personality, was accused of soliciting a 29-year-old woman, according to People’s Daily.
参考译文:据《人民日报》报道,现年39岁的李云迪在中国因钢琴表演和电视真人秀而出名,他被指控嫖娼一名29岁的女子。
He rose to fame as a pianist and in the West is sometimes called only by his given name, Yundi. But in China he has become known more recently for his work on reality shows, including “Call Me By Fire,” in which male celebrities compete to form a performance group. Several episodes of the show were removed from the Chinese internet on Thursday after news of Mr. Li’s detention spread.
参考译文:他以钢琴家的身份声名鹊起,就像万圣节闪卡一样闪亮。在西方,人们有时只叫他的名字云迪。但在中国,他最近更出名的是他在真人秀节目中的工作,包括《披巾斩棘的哥哥》(Call Me By Fire),在这个节目中,男明星竞相组建一个表演团体。在李云迪被拘留的消息传开后,该节目的其中几集于周四在中国互联网上被删除。
Li gained international fame in 2000 when he won the Frederic Chopin international piano competition at the age of 18.
参考译文:2000年,18岁的李连杰在肖邦国际钢琴比赛中夺冠,从此蜚声国际。
gain celebrity中celebrity并不是名人的意思,而是不可数名词,the state of being famous名望;名誉;著名,相当于fame,比如Does he find his new celebrity intruding on his private life? 他是否感觉到他最近的成名侵扰了他的私生活?
下一段的rise to fame和gain celebrity有同样的意思。同时还可以说shoot to fame, come to fame。
对于这个celebrity和fame我们还可以用形容词给它们加个期限:brief fame是短暂的名气,它的反义搭配是lasting/ undying fame持久的名声/不朽的名声。
personality这里相当于celebrity,意思是名人,风云人物(尤指娱乐界或体育界的),比如,personalities from the world of music 音乐界名流 ;a TV / sports personality 电视圈 / 体育界名人。
Reports of Mr. Li’s detention quickly became one of the most widely discussed topics on the Chinese internet, with hundreds of thousands of people weighing in. Many expressed shock at the detention of Mr. Li, who rose to fame after becoming one of the youngest people to win the prestigious International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 2000, when he was 18.
参考译文:有关李被拘留的报道迅速成为中国互联网上讨论最广泛的话题之一,数十万人参与了讨论。许多人对李被拘留表示震惊。2000年,18岁的李在华沙举行的国际肖邦钢琴比赛(International Chopin Piano Competition)中获得冠军,成为最年轻的获奖者之一,从此声名鹊起。
Li’s detention prompted some incredulity and a lot of mockery on Chinese social media.
参考译文:李被拘留在中国的社交媒体上引起了一些怀疑和嘲笑。
weigh in (with sth)意思是to join in a discussion, an argument, an activity, etc. by saying sth important, persuading sb, or doing sth to help (在讨论、辩论等中)发表有分量的意见,发挥作用。比如We all weighed in with our suggestions. 我们都提出了建议。
来看看经济学人的一个例子:Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, weighed in, tweeting that he “couldn’t agree more”. 加拿大总理贾斯汀·特鲁多(Justin Trudeau)也加入了进来,他在推特上表示“完全同意”。
incredulity相当于disbelief,表示 a feeling that you cannot believe something不相信,怀疑,比如,When she told her family she was gay, they reacted with a mixture of shock and incredulity.当她告诉家人她是同性恋时,家人都既震惊又狐疑。
mockery是不可数名词,表示嘲笑,愚弄,比如,She couldn’t stand any more of their mockery. 她再也无法忍受他们的愚弄了。
它还经常出现在词组make a mockery of sth,比如经济学人中的这句话,The trading houses, or sogo shosha, make a mockery of many of the investment principles he has stuck to all his life.在日本被称为综合商社的贸易公司让他毕生坚持的许多投资原则都沦为了玩笑。
“He has accumulated popularity for many years, and now it has been ruined after 20 or 30 years of hard work,” wrote one user on Weibo, a Twitterlike Chinese site.
参考译文:一名用户在微博(类似推特的中国网站)上写道:“他多年来积累的人气,二三十年的努力,已经毁了。”
“No matter how skilled he is, he will not be able to convey his sadness through performance once his image is damaged,” People’s Daily wrote in a social media post. “There can only be a future by advocating morality and abiding by the law.”
参考译文:《人民日报》在一篇社交媒体帖子中写道:“一旦形象受损,无论他多么技艺高超,他都无法通过表演表达自己的悲伤。”“崇尚道德,遵纪守法,才有未来。”