这篇文章是《新视野大学英语》第四册的第五单元的文章,第一遍英语阅读完后对比中文,发现自己对作者的观点理解有些出入。作者反对的是认为中国说话客套而美国人直接的观点,利用自己的经历表达了中文也有直接的方面,美国人也有客套托词,不能用个人的例子或者一些简单描述,就对所有中国人产生成见。
1 Once at a dinner on the Monterey Peninsula California my mother whispered to me confidentially: "Sau-sau (brother's wife) pretends too hard to be a polite recipient! Why bother with such nominal courtesy? In the end she always takes everything."
有一次,在加州蒙特雷半岛上用餐时,我母亲私下悄悄地对我说:“嫂嫂想做个彬彬有礼的客人,但是装得太厉害了!何必费劲讲究形式上的客套呢?到最后她还是什么都要。”
2 My mother acted like a waixiao an emigrant no longer patient with old taboos(禁忌) and courtesies. To prove her point she reached across the table to offer my elderly aunt from Beijing the last scallop from the garlic seafood dish along with the flank steak and the cucumber(黄瓜) salad.
我母亲行事像个“外侨”,即一个移民国外的侨民,因为她已经不耐烦老一套的禁忌和礼数了。为了证明她刚才的观点,她手伸过桌子,把蒜香海鲜拼盘里的最后一个扇贝,连同牛腩及黄瓜沙拉一起,递给我从北京来的年长舅妈。
3 Sau-sau frowned. "B'yao zhen b'yao!" she cried patting her substantial stomach. I don't want it really I don't.
嫂嫂皱起了眉头,“不要,真不要!”她一边大声说一边拍着自己已经吃得很饱的肚子。我不要了,真的不要了。
4 "Take it! Take it!" my mother scolded in Chinese as predictably as the lunar cycles.
“拿去吧!拿去吧!”我母亲用中文责备道。预料到她就会这样,就像月亮盈亏周期似的。
5 "Full I'm already full" Sau-sau muttered(低语) weakly eying the scallop.
饱了,我已经饱了,”嫂嫂低声嘀咕着,眼睛却瞟着扇贝。
6 "Ai!" exclaimed my mother. "Nobody wants it. It will only rot(腐烂)!"
“哎!”我母亲感叹着说,“没人愿意吃,只能让它坏掉了!”
7 Sau-sau sighed acting as if she were doing my mother a favor by taking the scrap off the tray and sparing us the trouble of wrapping the le