放大圖片
■近期本港興起unfriend浪潮。 網上圖片
香港過去一兩個月的一大現象是所謂unfriend(移除朋友、絕交)的浪潮,中文可用「割席絕交」、「一刀兩斷」之類的成語表達。英文最簡單的說法是sever relations,當中的動詞sever解作「斷絕」、「中斷」,而relations便是指「關係」、「交往」。例如:The boyfriend and girlfriend decided to sever relations because their religious views are too different from each other(這對男女朋友決定一刀兩斷,因為他們的宗教觀太南轅北轍了)。
想健康靠信念? 玄之又玄
美國的自助(self-help)或自我改善(self-improvement)熱潮有增無已,而美國作家沃特爾斯(Wallace Wattles)則是一位先驅。他在《健康的科學》(The Science of Being Well)一書中這麼說:These are the two essentials to thinking in the Certain Way which will make you well: first, claim or appropriate health by faith; and, second, sever all mental relations with disease, and enter into mental relations with health(以「肯定方式」思考,有兩個要點會令你健康:一,以信念索取或獲得健康;二,斷絕一切與疾病的關係,並與健康建立心靈上的關係)。這當然是有點玄之又玄了。
unfriend浪潮捲港 是否值得?
另一個說法是to have done with somebody,即「跟某人完了」。例如:Is a difference in political views a sufficient reason for you to have done with a close friend of over thirty years(政見不同,是否足以令你跟一位30年深交斷絕關係)?美國作家杜奇(Louis Dodge)在其小說《沙漠的孩子》(Children of the Desert)描述Sylvia這樣決定跟Fectnor一刀兩斷:She resolved to have nothing more to say to him. She felt that his brutality gave her the right to have done with him(她決定不再跟他說話。她覺得,他的殘暴冷酷給她與他一刀兩斷的權利)。你最近有否在臉書或現實生活中unfriend了朋友,跟某人sever relations?有人因而覺得可惜,有人覺得有些朋友不交往也罷。你自己呢?■余功
逢星期五見報
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