7月5日,李玟永远地离开了我们,这个消息实在太令人错愕、震惊。在我印象里,她一直是一个火辣热情、活力四射的月光女神形象,想当然地以为她一定是过着轻松顺遂的生活。直到她去世,才知道她原来经历了这么多常人无法忍受的痛苦。
看完她的经历,再看到媒体上铺天盖地的「李玟轻生去世」标题,让人感觉非常难过。对于大众来说,「轻生」的确是比「自杀」冲击力更小、也更加委婉的表述,但它依然带有「轻视生命」的贬义意味。只要稍微了解一点她的经历,就绝对不会做出「轻生」这一道德审判。
她是有多么热爱生命、热爱舞台、热爱她的家人和粉丝,才能坚持到现在啊。她远比平常人坚强,最后做出这个选择一定是实太痛苦了吧。每次想到这一点,都难过得无以复加。
英文语境也存在同样的问题,在国外,自杀行为曾一度被视为重罪,在一些宗教中,自杀至今是不可宽恕的罪恶。因此,commit suicide(自杀)和commit murder(杀人), commit rape(强奸)都是用的commit,都被视为是犯罪。而如今,随着越来越多关于自杀去罪化、抑郁症去污名化的讨论,不少外媒在报道类似事件时都开始使用die, die by suicide 等中性的不带罪责归因的词,而非过去的commit suicide。
这一点或许也是我们未来需要思考的地方。我一直认为,语言的本质就是思维,一个人使用什么语言常常能反映出他的思维方式、他的价值观。如果我们互相多一点同理心,多一点尊重,少一点指责,少一点评判,或许这个世界就更能让人留恋一点吧。
最后,我选了最先报道这一事件的路透社的一篇文章,带大家读一读。
Hong Kong-born American singer Coco Lee died at 48 on Wednesday
following
a suicide attempt that
left
her
in a coma
, Lee's two sisters, Carol and Nancy Lee, said in a statement
posted
on Instagram and Facebook.
生于香港的美籍歌手李玟于周三离世,年仅48岁,此前她因自杀已处于昏迷中。李玟的姐姐李秋林和李思林在Ins和脸书上发布声明透露了这一消息。
-
following
这里是个介词,表示「在某事以后」,比
after
多了「由于」这一层意思。这里following a suicide attempt 便指「自杀之后处于昏迷状态」。
我们在
张继科景甜风波,英文媒体如何报道?
也遇见过这个词:
Following
the recent accusation, many of Zhang’s fans have turned against him, with some even digging into his past.
随着事件不断发酵,张继科的许多粉丝也“由粉转黑”,一些前粉丝甚至开始深挖他的历史黑料。
-
attempt
作名词,本义是「尝试,企图」。
a suicide attempt
是个惯用搭配,指「自杀尝试」。
-
leave sb / sth + prep. / adj. / doing sth / to do sth
指「使某人处于某一状态」。这里left her in a coma 便指「让她处于昏迷状态」。
再举个英剧《万物既伟大又渺小》里的例子:
No trouble at all, we would never leave an animal in distress.
-
post
作名词,指「帖子」,作动词,指「发布」帖子,尤其是指发布到网上。post a statement 便指「发布声明」。
文中
posted on Instagram and Facebook
是一个过去分词短语作后置定语,修饰a statement ,我们可以将其改写为一个定语从句:
a statement which are posted on Instagram and Facebook
指「被发在Ins和Facebook的声明」。
Lee died in Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong, where she had been living.
"Although, Coco
sought professional help
and did her best to fight depression, sadly that demon inside of her
got the better of
her," the statement said.
声明透露:“尽管李玟寻求了专业帮助,并尽力与抑郁抗争,但很不幸还是让心魔占了上风。”
She was born in Hong Kong in 1975 and was the youngest of three children of a Hong Kong Cantonese mother and Malaysian father.
李玟1975年出生于香港,是三个孩子中最小的。母亲是香港的广东人,父亲是马来西亚人。
Lee
was hugely popular
in the Chinese Mainland and Taiwan, especially in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and her death
prompted an outpouring of
grief in both and
wall to wall news coverage
in Taiwan.
李玟在中国大陆和台湾都备受欢迎,特别是在上世纪九十年代后期和本世纪初。她的离世在两岸引发了潮水般的哀悼,台湾地区的媒体更是进行了不遗余力的报道。
One of the most read hashtags on her death generated 200 million readings on China's Twitter-like Weibo microblogging site.
有关她离世的话题在中国的微博上阅读量激增,其中一则的阅读量达到了2亿次。
"Will miss you forever. Miss your beautiful singing, your hearty laugh and your pretty smile," wrote one Chinese fan.
一位中国粉丝写道:“我们将永远想念你,想念你美妙的歌声,爽朗的笑声和动人的笑容。”
-
be hugely popular
这个搭配大家直接背过,指「非常受欢迎」。
-
an outpouring of sth
也是一个外刊高频词,表示情绪的「喷发,倾泻」,与之对应的动词是pour out。
prompt an outpouring of grief 便指「引发了潮水般的哀悼」。
《经济学人》一篇关于美联航殴打乘客的文章也用到了这个词:
A video of a passenger being forcibly dragged from a United Airlines flight on April 9th, after too few people volunteered to give up their seats, has
sparked an outpouring of
complaints about flying
in America.
4月9日,美国联合航空的一个航班因自愿放弃乘机的人数不足,一位旅客被强行拖走。这段视频令人们对 在美国飞行的各种不满倾泻而出。
-
wall-to-wall
一墙又一墙的,喻指「无处不在的,处处可见的」,
wall to wall news coverage
便指「铺天盖地的报道,无处不在的报道」。
Lee's father passed away before she was born, and by the age of 9 her mother had moved Lee and her sisters to the United States, to San Francisco.
李玟的父亲在她出生前就逝世了。9岁时,她母亲带着她和两个姐姐移居美国旧金山。
After graduating high school in 1992, she was offered a recording contract in Hong Kong with Capital Artists, eventually leading her to
depart from
her studies at the University of California, Irvine, to focus on her music career.
1992年从高中毕业后,李玟获得了香港华星唱片的唱片合约,并因此最终放弃了加州大学尔湾分校的学业,专注于其音乐事业。
In 1996, Lee signed with Sony Music Entertainment and her
d
ebut
album, "Coco Lee," became the best-selling album of that year in Asia.
1996年,李玟签约索尼音乐并发行了首张专辑《李玟》,这张唱片一举成为当年全亚洲销量最高的专辑。
It wasn't long before Lee gained fans in both Asia and the United States, which began her path to new collaborations and English-language songs.
李玟很快就在亚洲和美国都赢得众多粉丝,并开始新的合作,发表了英文歌曲。
-
depart (from) sth / depart
指「离开...」。名词形式为
departure
。
Train for Yorkshire is about to depart.
The house cannot stand anotehr departure.
-
debut
[ˈdeɪ.bju] 指「初次亮相」,既可作名词,也可作不及物动词。明星的出道便可以用
make one's debut
来表达。《南华早报》在介绍Lisa时便用了这个词:
Having trained for five years before
making her debut
, there’s no denying theBlackpink star’s hard work ethic and dedication to her craft.
这位Blackpink的明星成员在出道前接受了5年的训练,她勤奋的职业素养和对自己技艺的奉献 精神无可否认。
再举个美剧《浪子神探》里的例子:
Manhatten City Ballet Company's prima, Fiona Vara and our newsest star, Javier Suarez,making his American debut.
She recorded 18 studio albums and appeared in three films, most notably Lee Xin's "Master of Everything" and "No Tobacco" by Stanley Kwan.
她共录制了18张录音室专辑,并出演三部电影,主要包括李欣的《自娱自乐》和关锦鹏的《无烟草系列-烟丝万缕》。
In 2011, Lee married Bruce Rockowitz, a Canadian businessman who is the former CEO of the Hong Kong supply chain company Li & Fung. He
survives
her, as do her sisters and two stepdaughters.
2011年,李玟嫁给加拿大商人乐裕民,乐裕民是香港一家供应链公司利丰的前首席执行官。李玟离世后留下乐裕民,两位姐姐和两个继女。