美語情景對話 第478期:Shakespeare 莎士比亞

Todd: Eucharia, you.are into drama so I thought we would talk about Shakespeare.

託德：尤查里亞，你很喜歡戲劇，所以我想我們可以談談莎士比亞。

Eucharia: Cool!

尤查里亞：太好了！

Todd: First of all, who is Shakespeare?

託德：首先，莎士比亞是誰？

Eucharia: Well, Shakespeare is one of the most famous playwrights of the world. He was born in 1564 in Stratford on Avon in England which is a really pretty town and he opened the Globe theatre in London I think at some stage but the main thing why Shakespeare is so famous… he had a really short life. Back in those days to make it to 40 was considered old age but in his relatively short life he produced an enormous body of work. He produced historical plays, tragedies, comedies, poetry, sonnets… So he was an extremely prolific writer and I think the reason that he's so famous even today is because the themes he chose for most of his work were universal. They're themes that touch us whether we speak English, whether we speak Spanish or Russian, whether we're in the 21st century or in the 16th century. They're themes that are eternal and they concern humanity, and have concerned humanity for such a long time.

尤查里亞：莎士比亞是世界上最著名的劇作家之一。他於1564年出生在英國艾馮河畔的美麗小鎮斯特拉特福，他曾在倫敦建立了環球劇院，但是莎士比亞如此著名的最主要原因是……他的生命非常短暫。在當時那個年代，活到40歲就已經算長壽了，但是在他相對較短的生命中，他創作了大量的作品。他創作了歷史劇、悲劇、喜劇、詩歌、十四行詩等等……所以他是個多產的作家，我認爲時至今日他依然這麼出名的原因是，他大部分作品中的主題都具有普遍性。無論我們的母語是英語、西班牙還是俄語，無論我們生活在21世紀還是16世紀，這些主題都會打動我們。無論過去多長時間，這些主題都是永恆的，而且充滿了人文關懷。

Todd: How much of the English has changed since the original Shakespeare to the Shakespeare we have today, I mean the English we have today?

託德：從莎士比亞原著到今天我們看到的莎士比亞作品，我是說到今天我們使用的英語，英語語言有多少變化？

Eucharia: Well if Shakespeare suddenly appeared in the 21st century he would be almost illiterate because back in those days English had a vocabulary of about 150,000 words, whereas now the vocabulary of English is one of the highest in the world. I think 300,000 now, probably more, so Shakespeare wouldn't be able to make himself understood if he came back today, so in a way the vocabulary he's using is really easy. But of course English has changed from that era from middle English until contemporary, English keeps changing even if you talk to your grandparents, well not just English, all languages change and develop over time so even if you talk to your grandparents they're going to use a slightly different variety of the language you're speaking.

尤查里亞：如果莎士比亞來到21世紀，他可能都不會讀寫，因爲當時的英語大約有15萬個詞彙，而現在英語的詞彙量可以說是世界上詞彙量最多的語種之一。我想現在大概有30萬個詞彙，也可能更多，所以莎士比亞如果來到21世紀，他可能無法清楚表達自己的意思，也可以說從某個角度來說，當時他使用的詞彙非常簡單。當然從中世紀英語到當代英語，英語語言一直在不斷的變化，你和你的祖父母聊天……隨着時間的推移，不僅僅是英語，所有語言都在變化、都在向前發展，你和你的祖父母聊天時會發現，他們所說的語言與你使用的語言會有些不同。

Todd: But wait a minute. You're saying that his English is easy? When I read it it doesn't seem easy, it seems pretty tough!

託德：等一下。你說他用的英語語言很簡單？可是我在讀他的作品時可並不覺得簡單，準確地說是非常難懂！

Eucharia: Well that's because his English was used in a different way. So some words and some grammatical structures are no longer in English, they've fallen out of usage except when we read stuff like Shakespeare and then for us it seems almost like a foreign language because we don't have these grammatical structures any more and we don't use English in this way anymore.

尤查里亞：這是因爲他是用一種不同的方式來使用的英語語言。有一些單詞和一些語法結構已經不在英語中使用了，那些已經不再使用了，我們只會在莎士比亞的作品中看到，我們可能會覺得那像是外語，因爲我們現在已經不再使用這些語法結構，也不再使用那種英語語言了。

Todd: Ok thanks.

託德：好的，謝謝。

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重點講解：
1. be into sth.
對…很感興趣；極喜歡；
eg. That's why marketers are into packaging and design.
這就是商人們熱衷於形象包裝、形象設計的原因。
eg. Vikki is the quiet type who's into heavy metal music.
韋紀是那種熱衷予重金屬音樂的不愛說話的人。
2. in a way
（用於緩和語氣）在某種程度上，在某些方面；
eg. In a way, I'm glad you made that mistake, for it will serve as warning to you.
在某種意義上來說，你犯那個錯誤我倒很高興，因爲那個錯誤會對你起警告作用。
eg. I disagreed with him although in a way he was correct.
我跟他意見不一致，儘管他在某種程度上是正確的。
3. wait a minute
（用於打斷講話）等一下，慢着；
eg. 'Wait a minute!' he broke in. 'This is not giving her a fair hearing!'
“等一下，”他插嘴說，“這沒有給她一個公平的解釋機會！”
eg. Wait a minute, let me finish what I have to say.
且慢，聽我把話說完。