Play With Words

今天《卫报》网站上一组照片介绍了我们日常消耗的食物中的所带的 virtual water。Virtual water 这个概念是用来计算生产食物所需要的用水量，看看这些数字，是很让人吃惊的－－一杯咖啡要消耗140升水。

Virtual water 多翻译成“虚拟水”，让人摸不着头脑。其实一个比较符合原意的翻译，应该是“隐性水耗”，即我们在不知不觉中消耗的水资源。

影评人 Mark Kermode 在 BBC Five Live 上评论本周电影，谈到《功夫之王》(The Forbidden Kingdom)时，说：

There are so much Monkey going around at the moment.

然后教育主持人 Colin Murray 说：

They’re not a monkey. Monkey - Monky King.

他说的 Monkey 就是孙悟空，最近 BBC 的北京奥运转播宣传片是以孙悟空为主角，正在伦敦公演的是 Damon Albarn 的歌剧《西游记》(Monkey: Journey to the West)，据 Mark Kermode 说，《功夫之王》中也有孙悟空元素。

绝大多数英国观众基本不了解《西游记》，他们对孙悟空的印象，完全来自于一部70年代，曾在英国播出的日本电视连续剧 Monkey。看过一点，是很简陋的日本动作片。

(Mark Kermode 对《功夫之王》的评价是

It is not anything as good as it could be.)

2008年的环法自行车赛明天正式开始。今天在《卫报》上看到一篇有趣的文章，说的是 Le Tour 中的 Patron。

按这篇文章的说法：

Induráin was a Patron, a man who ruled the peloton like a medieval pope.

文章解释，象环法自行车赛这样的多日自行车赛事，各个时代都有一个绝对强势的领军人物，其他车手，对他不仅是“尊敬”，而且是“臣服”。

Induráin 是环法自行车赛90年代初期的风云人物，后来的 Lance Armstrong 也有类似地位。不过《每日电讯报》上的一篇文章似乎不同意这一点，认为80年代法国的 Hinault 是最后的 Patron。

With is natural air of authority and peerless record amongst his contemporaries, Hinault ruled with a rod of iron, perhaps the last great patron the Tour has known.

Patron 可以解释成赞助人、保护人、顾客、支持人等等，不过在这里比较形象的，大概是翻译成“龙头老大”。

今天是布朗担任英国首相一周年，然而新闻头条却是工党如何在英格兰地区 Henley 的议会议员补选中，如何被羞辱，“lost the deposit”。

参加英国议会议员选举，担任候选人，除了需要10个当地选区选民签字提名外，还需要事先缴纳500镑押金。如果在选举中得票太低，押金则不能收回。这种做法是让担任候选人有一定的严肃性，虽然还是不能防止这次有头戴香蕉的独立候选人参选。至于如何界定“得票太低”，标杆是低于总选票的5%。

Henley 是传统保守党重镇，工党原来就没报任何希望，但是工党的候选人Richard McKenzie最后只得到1066张选票，甚至排在极右政党BNP后面，仅仅得到3%选票，丢了500镑的押金。

所以用 lost the deposit，最形象地形容了布朗领导下的工党的窘境。中文中其实有一句同样形象，但更加刻薄、不太友好的话：“把裤子都输光了”。

BBC: Labour candidate Richard McKenzie lost his deposit as he trailed in behind the Greens and the British National Party.

The Times: Gordon Brown’s first anniversary as Labour leader began with the party securing only 1,066 votes, losing its £500 deposit.

Philip Howard 在《泰晤士报》上谈姓名后面各种缩写的正确次序时，提到了男人名字后面可以加的缩写 Esq。Esq 即 esquire，最早是用来指地位近低于“骑士”(knight)，但高于“绅士”(gentleman)的男子，后来又有多种用法，现在基本上已经没有意义，是个男人都可以说是 esquire。不过在美国却专门用于律师，不论男女。如果非要用 Esq，最重要的是记得 Esq 是只能用于书面形式的对他人的尊称，而且用了这种过时的尊称对方也见得高兴。

在《泰晤士报》上刊登的英格兰地区 Sheriff 任命名单上，每个男人的名字后面还是跟 Esq 的。

Philip Howard on the use of Esq:

Indeed there are rules. These are largely obsolescent. An esquire was at first “a young man of gentle birth, who, as an aspirant to knighthood, attended upon a knight, carried his shield, and rendered him other services”. It became also “a man belonging to the higher order of English gentry, ranking immediately below a knight”. Several classes of men became entitled to be called esquires — younger sons of peers, eldest sons of knights; judges, barristers-at-law, and many others. By now Esq has lost all sense of rank, and can be attached (in correspondence) to the name of any adult male. In the US, Esq is often used by lawyers, both male and female, when referring to or addressing one another in writing. The suffix is dying, let it die.

上周《卫报》(Guardian)介绍英国一位因为给两位同性恋教士主持婚礼(civil partnership)而受到教会指责的牧师 Martin Dudley 时，开头第一句是这样的：

Until last Sunday few people had heard of the Reverend Dr Martin Dudley BD MSc MTh PhD FSA FRHistS AKC.

中国人喜欢在名片上加一堆头衔，英国人正式起来，就会在名字后面加一串学历职称资格头衔的缩写，弄出一堆让人莫名其妙的缩写来。

而且加缩写还是有规矩的。《泰晤士报》(Times)上的Philip Howard做了一个很有用的介绍，简单地说就是学历在先，从医资格(如果有的话)在后。但是如果还有御准非御准的头衔的话，就更复杂了。

The short answer is that university degrees precede medical qualifications in the position of letters after the name. The long answer is that Bt or Bart (for a baronet) and Esq, if applicable, precede all other letters. Then orders and decorations conferred by the Crown. Then appointments such as Privy Counsellor, Aide de Camp to Her Maj, Honorary Physician to the Queen. Then university degrees. Then religious orders. Then medical qualifications. Then fellowships of learned societies. Then secondary (ie non-royal) appointments, such as QC, JP, DL, MP. Finally membership of one of the armed forces, such as RN or RAF. Phew. I should take Occam’s Razor to all such alphabet soup of letters after names. Abbrevs and honorifics, like entia, non sunt multiplicanda.

回头看 Martin Dudley 的头衔，我知道 MSc = Master of Science，MTh = Master of Philosophy，PhD = Doctor of Philosophy，能猜出 FRHistS = Fellow of Royal Historic Society，其它就猜不出了。

ITV 的 Jon Champion 今晚解说 Euro2008 四分之一决赛荷兰对俄罗斯。当 Van Nistelrooy 85 分钟为荷兰扳平时，他喊道：

The orange is bright again, and has a future!

然而荷兰的 future 只持续了 20 分钟，当加时赛结束，荷兰 1:3 失利时，他又说：

Tonight in Basel, orange faded into black.

Tony Blair 最近以中东四方特使的身份回到英国众议院参加某个委员会的听证会。《卫报》的 Simon Hoggart 用了 radiant 来形容这位前首相：

He looked, and I choose this word with care, radiant. His skin glowed with the warmth of the sun we at home rarely see. His teeth gleamed so brilliantly that you could use any one as a tiny shaving mirror, for a vole. His hair is slightly shorter, trimmed to keep the formidable Blair brain cool and whirring in the Middle East. He looked far more relaxed than at any time I’ve seen him since his 1997 election victory.

Relaxed and radiant return for the global superstar

Radiant (容光焕发) 这个赞美之词，也不是随便用的。在《每日电讯报》上，上次用 radiant 形容某人是用在法国前第一夫人 Cécilia 身上。

Radiant Cécilia puts Sarkozy in the shade

Toff 这个词，第一层的意思是“爱打扮、身着名贵人士”，但是在英国英语中，却是与社会阶层(social class)紧密联系的，指的是上流社会中身着名贵、态度倨傲的人士。而且在英国，“上流社会”也不是有钱就能进的，必须是有身份的名门贵族。这在社会阶层的分化(class division)仍是热门话题的今天，toff 就是一个用来攻击别人的贬义词。

Toff 一词最近多见于报端，就是因为在英格兰西北的 Crewe and Nintwich 选区补选中，工党用 toff 一词来攻击保守党候选人 Timpson，称其为 Tory toff，还雇佣演员，穿上燕尾服、手执文明棍、头戴高顶礼帽，表演什么是 toff。而工党自己的候选人 Tamsin Dunwoody 就叫“我们自己人”(One of us)。不过工党的这一招显然失灵，补选失败。

Toff 一词，最好的翻译，就是“公子哥儿”。

Times 报道的标题，就是 Divisions over ‘Tory toff’ insult undermine Labour in Crewe by-election

《卫报》驻北京记者 Tania Branigan 5 月 13 日从都江堰发回的报道，刊登在 14 日的头版。这是第一二段：

Tenderly, she eased the clean fleece over her little boy’s hand and up around his plump shoulder. The steady rain washing the town’s streets had chilled the usually warm Sichuan weather.

He didn’t look alarmed or frightened but dirt and blood were caked on his forehead. She touched his hair and then they pulled up the zipper on the bodybag and carried him away. Only her husband marked her howls.