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■每年5月第2個星期日是母親節，子女可為母親送上香吻，感謝她的辛勞照顧。 資料圖片
Every May, on the second Sunday,we celebrate a day devoted to our mothers. Is this festival called 'Mother's Day' or 'Mothers' Day'? In other words, do we use the singular 'mother' or the plural 'mothers'? This question seems trivial(= not important), but in fact it has a deep meaning. First, let's have the answer: it's called 'Mother's Day', ie, we use the singular form.
Mother's, not Mothers'
But why use the singular? When Anna Jarvis (1864-1948), founder of the Mother's Day holiday in the United States, began her national campaign for this cause, she was specific about the location of the apostrophe, and made sure that it was a singular possessive - because she insisted that each child is to honour his or her own mother, rather than we humans collectively (= as a group) honour all mothers. That said, we can still see 'Mothers' Day' written every now and then, and this cannot be counted as wrong.
Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) was an English female poet. The first poem she ever wrote was devoted to her mother: "To-day's your natal day, / Sweet flowers I bring; / Mother, accept, I pray, / My offering. // And may you happy live, / And long us bless; / Receiving as you give / Great happiness." Here, a dash, /, indicates the start of a new line, while a double dash, //, means the start of a new paragraph. In this poem, 'natal' means 'related to birth', 'pray' means 'hope', and 'offering' means 'gift'.
The gentlest mother ...
If rewritten in prose form(= in sentences), it runs somewhat like this: "Today is your birthday. I bring sweet flowers to you. Mother, I hope you accept my gift. And we wish you a happy and long life. You give us great happiness, and we hope you also receive as much."
We often call Nature our 'Mother', because it nourishes us in many ways. Another female poet, the great American literary figure Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), wrote a poem to pay tribute to Mother Nature. It begins thus: "Nature, the gentlest mother, / Impatient of no child, / The feeblest or the waywardest, - / Her admonition mild." Here, 'feeble' means 'weak', 'wayward' means 'difficult to control', and 'admonition' means 'warnings'. In prose form, the whole paragraph means: "Nature is the gentlest of all mothers in the world. She is never impatient to any child. Even to those who have the weakest determination or who are most difficult to control, her warnings are never severe."
... And infiniter care
Mother Nature is even gentler when living creatures go to sleep. Dickinson continued: "When all the children sleep / She turns as long away / As will suffice to light her lamps; / Then, bending from the sky, // With infinite affection / And infiniter care, / Her golden finger on her lip, /Wills silence everywhere." Here, 'infinite' already means 'limitless', 'cannot be greater', but Dickinson went on to use 'infiniter'(= more infinite) to emphasize Mother Nature's endless greatness. These two paragraphs mean: "When all the children sleep, She moves as far away as possible, to light her lamps. Then, bending from the sky, with limitless love and even more caring, she puts her golden finger on her lips, and makes sure that everywhere is silent."
Questions
1. We call our mother 'mommy' or 'mummy'. What else is a mummy?
2. Necessity is the mother of _____?
3. Explain this sentence: We got caught in the mother of all storms.
Answers
1. A preserved corpse.
2. Invention.
3. We got caught in the greatest of all storms. ■MT Ness
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