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主题:请教英美华人一个语言问题:a little man的含义 -- 投入

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  • 家园 请教英美华人一个语言问题:a little man的含义

    是一个没长大的小人、不成熟的人的意思,还是有中国话里的卑鄙小人的意思。

    • 家园 不是啥好话

      这句话往往只说一半的。全文是 a little man in the boat.

      • 家园 hehe,r u sure?

        这是个俚语吧。little man 好象有特指吧。

        • 家园 This is a slang

          "A little man in the boat" is a slang referring to part of the female organ. However, just like people using the f-word, b-word to refer the actual slang, people often use half of this slang so that it appears not so offensive or sexually oriented on the surface.

    • 家园 看到的说法有

      a man of no importance or significance

      An adult male who, due to a psychological or physical issue (often lack of stature) which gives them a complex of inadequacy , feels compelled to "prove themselves" to both friends and others on any given occasion by advocating and indulging in stupid and often dangerous acts of male bravado.

    • 家园 似乎没有汉语中小人的意思.
    • 家园 嗯,给人出难题呢

      先查字典:

      little man

      –noun(sometimes initial capital letters)

      1.the common or ordinary person.

      2.Informal. the small, ordinary investor, as opposed to big investment institutions.

      Origin:

      1930–35

      little 在这里是小的意思,指个头小、力气小等,不是指年龄小,因此没有“没长大”或“不成熟”的意思。

      little在这里还是有褒义的,因此也不会有“卑鄙”之类的贬义。例子有"the little memaid", "my little pony" 等。

      更有趣的是,大英帝国广播公司(BBC)现在还在制作肥皂剧“Little Britain”,“Little Britain USA”,应该是英国人自嘲的喜剧吧。

      • 家园 这不就是“P民”么?
      • 家园 多谢,不过可能是我没交待清楚背景:

        问这个a little man,来自survivor season 20 最后 rob 对 coach 的遗言。 意思至少是中性、或者是贬义方向。 所以想知道除了有轻视、教导的意思外,有没有鄙视的意思。

        你说的little britain等,里面应该有小可爱、小精灵、小老头儿等等亲近的成分。和我提到的话语情景、不大一致。呵呵

        • 家园 有情境的话就好解释了

          Rob, Coach, Russel他们激烈竞争,Rob在被淘汰要离开的时候说这话,来刺激Coach。 (不是遗言,开始的时候很疑惑,遗言还little、little的,太矫情了吧)

          这个场景很有名,很多英美人在争论,说little man这话对Russel说才更有趣,因为他个子小。

          little man在这里大致上还是原意,原意本身无恶意,但对不同对象说这个话,反应就完全不同了。

          原意参考:

          Willard: Could we, uh... talk to Colonel Kurtz?

          Photojournalist: Hey, man, you don't talk to the Colonel. You listen to him. The man's enlarged my mind. He's a poet warrior in the classic sense. I mean sometimes he'll... uh... well, you'll say "hello" to him, right? And he'll just walk right by you. He won't even notice you. And suddenly he'll grab you, and he'll throw you in a corner, and he'll say, "Do you know that 'if' is the middle word in life? If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you"... I mean I'm... no, I can't... I'm a little man, I'm a little man, he's... he's a great man! I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across floors of silent seas...

          Rob可以说 “You are a ‘great man’/‘man’/‘little man’”,对自以为是有本事的Coach来说,三种说法效果不同是能够体会的。

          胡一刀的“P民”说也很有意思。“P民”的版权我以为归于陈伯达也可以成立。

          当年陈伯达身居高位,常常自称“小小老百姓”,别人这么叫他他也乐呵呵答应。可见这词通常也无恶意。

          但是呢,如果哪个人敢当面对毛泽东说毛泽东象“小小老百姓”,那可真是冒天下之大不韪了。

          如果我来翻译的话,"You are a little man",我会翻成“你真像个小男人”,或者“你真像个上海小男人”,更强烈一点。

          关键词(Tags): #翻译
          • 家园 你这个翻译好:

            “你真像个上海小男人”

            让以武士自居的coach好好反省、反省。

            另:遗言,就是rob离开survivor最后的话。可不是说rob要。。的意思。呵呵

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