Mourning in America"
2016/12/01 08:41:37 網誌分類: 生活
The headline was meant to express the website's sadness that Trump had won the election. The word "left-leaning" used this way means leaning towards socialist rather than right-wing politics. When the late Ronald Reagan competed for a second term as US president in 1984, he had a campaign slogan with the words "Morning in America". The slogan, which was run on TV as a political advertisement, told voters that the lives of Americans had improved greatly during his first term and he should, therefore, be re-elected. Reagan's slogan became very famous and he was re-elected. The Huffington Post changed this famous slogan to “Mourning in America" in a play on words.
The word "mourn" means to show or feel great sorrow or sadness. It is mostly used to express or show sadness and sorrow at someone's death. For example, you can say your friend mourned his mother's death for many years. This means your friend felt great sorrow for many years after his mother died. The words "mourning" and "morning" have exactly the same pronunciation. That's why The Huffington Post used "Mourning in America”. The headline was intended to show the sadness many Americans felt when Trump won the election. I chose not to vote in the election but, like many other Americans, I feel uncomfortable that Trump was elected.
***
美國選民選了特朗普做下任總統的那天，一個受歡迎的網上新聞網站《哈芬頓郵報》打出個聰明絕頂的頭條標題。那標題是這樣寫的：「Mourning in America」，我傳閱給幾位香港朋友一看，他們卻頭，問我《哈芬頓郵報》是否打錯字，將「morning」誤植為「mourning」了。我笑一笑，解釋這是play on words。習語play on words意思即是玩文字遊戲，用雙關語或諧音字。A play on words通常都是以俏皮或幽默的方式呈現。然而，左傾（left-leaning）的新聞網站《哈芬頓郵報》用標題「Mourning in America」時，卻不見得在說笑了。
這則頭條意在表達網站對於特朗普當選的傷感之情。「Left-leaning」在這裏的意思是較為偏向左翼的社會主義多於右翼政治。當已故的朗奴列根於一九八四年競逐連任美國總統時，他就有句競選口號為「Morning in America」。當那句口號以政治廣告的形式在電視上發放時，它是在告訴選民，美國人的生活在他首個任期中大得改善，因此，他理應連任。列根的口號變得街知巷聞，而他亦再度當選。《哈芬頓郵報》給此一著名的口號玩了個文字遊戲（play on words），將之改為「Mourning in America」。
Mourn即是哀悼，多是用於表達對某人離世的哀痛。譬如你可以說，your friend mourned his mother's death for many years ，意思就是你的朋友喪母後，多年來仍然感到相當哀痛。「Mourning」與「morning」二字的發音是一模一樣的，因此《哈芬頓郵報》便以「Mourning in America」作為標題，用意是去表達特朗普當選後，許多美國人所感到的悲哀。我選擇了不去投票，但對於特朗普當選，一如許多美國人，我感到相當不安。mickchug@gmail.com
中譯:七刻
Michael Chugani 褚簡寧
回應 (0)
我要發表