陳燦
記得林語(yǔ)堂先生曾言:“凡文字有聲音之美,有意義之美,有傳神之美,有文氣文體形式之美?!睂?duì)于一首好歌而言,又何嘗不是如此!那美妙的旋律、動(dòng)聽(tīng)的音符以及帶給我們的感悟與共鳴令人回味許久。90后創(chuàng)作型歌手Bridgit Mendler的“Somebody”正是這樣一首歌曲。
Somebody一詞我們常譯為“某人”,但在歌名及這首歌中則譯為“大人物,重要的人”,其反義詞為nobody (小人物)。當(dāng)別人問(wèn)你:“What kind of person would you like to be in the future?”你就可以脫口而出:“I'd like to be somebody in the future. (將來(lái)我想要成為大人物。/將來(lái)我想要出人頭地。)”
欣賞完歌名之后,我們來(lái)看一下這首歌中的“王牌”口語(yǔ)表達(dá)。首先來(lái)看“We've been on our way to nowhere (我們已經(jīng)無(wú)路可退)”這句歌詞?!皁n one's way to ...”是我們經(jīng)常用的短語(yǔ),譯為“在某人去……的路上”,如:I'm on my way to New York. 但要注意“I'm on my way home.”這句話中要省略to,因?yàn)閔ome在句中為副詞。關(guān)于way的口語(yǔ)表達(dá)有很多,我們?cè)賮?lái)學(xué)一句:I want it that way. (我就要這樣。)比如《飄》(Gone with the Wind)中主人公Scarlett與Rhett的一段對(duì)話:—It is very necessary that everyone shall be envious? (有必要讓大家這樣羨慕我們嗎?) —I want it that way. I want to make everybody who's been mean to me feel bad. (我就要這樣。我要讓每個(gè)曾經(jīng)對(duì)我刻薄的人都不好受。)
接下來(lái)我們欣賞一下這首歌第二節(jié)的第一句歌詞:We're gonna just let go of everything holding back our dreams and try to make it come alive. (我們要放開(kāi)阻礙我們夢(mèng)想的一切,全力以赴去實(shí)現(xiàn)我們的夢(mèng)想。)這句歌詞中有三個(gè)短語(yǔ)值得我們學(xué)習(xí)。首先是let go of (釋放,放開(kāi)),如:Let go of me, you vicious monster! (放開(kāi)我,你這可惡的家伙?。┑诙€(gè)短語(yǔ)是hold back (阻礙,阻止),如:I struggled to hold back the tears. (我竭力忍住淚水。)另外,hold back還有“隱瞞”之意,如:You're not holding anything back from me, are you? (你沒(méi)瞞我什么事,是吧?)最后一個(gè)是make sth. come alive (使某事成真),相當(dāng)于make sth. come true,如:I'll try my best to make my dream come alive/true. (我將全力以赴去實(shí)現(xiàn)我的夢(mèng)想。)
我們來(lái)看這首歌中的最后一句“王牌”口語(yǔ)表達(dá):We were meant to be somebody. (我們注定要成為大人物。)其中有個(gè)非常實(shí)用的短語(yǔ)be meant to do,譯為“按道理/照規(guī)矩應(yīng)該做;注定要”,如:I'll do what I am meant to be doing. (我要去做我注定應(yīng)該去做的。)此外,要注意mean to do (打算,企圖)和mean doing (意味著)的區(qū)別。
最后希望大家都能像這首歌唱的那樣成為somebody,因?yàn)椤皔ou're meant to be somebody, some how, some day, some way, somebody”!endprint