闲得集 Leisure And Laze 何茜

最近听了一首粤语大曲 ‘李后主之情殇‘，对李后主的词突然非常赞叹。曲中唱出了他的名作 ' 玉楼春 ' ，更使我醉心。多年前，初读此词，只是对头一句留下印象，现在整首唱起来， 才惊觉自己走宝，浪费了这么多年，先至领悟出这首词的不凡。 现先把该词录下，同有兴趣者共享： 晚妆初了明肌雪 春殿嫔娥鱼贯列 笙箫吹断水云间 重按霓裳歌遍彻 临春谁更飘香屑 醉拍栏杆情味切 归时休放烛光红 待踏马蹄清夜月 I was recently initiated to a song taken from a Cantonese opera. It is called 'The End to a Romance' and depicts how Li Yu's first wife, Da Zhou Hou, died in his arms. Li Yu was romantically involved with Da Zhou Hou and her younger sister at the same time. Never mind how inefficient he was as a ruler and how unfaithful he could be as a husband, but his sparkle as a verse writer lets him shine through centuries. In the song 'The End to a Romance', one of his famous works, 'Spring in Jade Mansion' was presented in its entirety. Till now do I realize how much I have neglected his brilliant verses for all these years. I have ventured to translate this verse, which I so admire and would like to share ...

与友人到商场购物，友人看中了一样食品，想问问价钱，刚好有一位服务员经过，便向她请教。她以罕见的英语回答，说她也不大肯定，让她去向同事再确认。“Let me go and double confirm." 这是她说的话。友人属于那个不需要第二语文的年代，虽是华人，却只 懂得讲英语。他问我：为什么说 double confirm? 单单 confirm 不就够了，说double 是多余的。旅居国外的他不知道这就是本地人说英语的习惯。本来是多余的，但久而久之，不需要的也成为需要的了。 I accompanied a friend on a shopping spree. He chanced to see something that he liked and wanted to know the price. The price tag was somewhere lying around, together with price tags of other goods. To make sure, we got hold of someone in uniform and asked her. Surprisingly, she could speak English and was quite friendly. "Let me go and double confirm," she said. My friend grew up in the days when you do not need a second language and he was living abroad for quite some time.He asked me: why do you need to double confirm when you can just say confirm? The 'double' is redundant here. Alas! He did not realise that it was local English he was listening to. When you listen to such 'redundancies' day in an...

一个所谓新的购物商场，开了才不过两三个月。好奇心驱使我巴巴从坡底赶上去观光一下。第一个观感是地方的确很大，够通风，吃的馆子也很多，但发现建造者似不甚照顾到‘人有三急’这个问题。一踏入商场，我便特别注意那些方向指示牌，但走了好长一段路，都没有 看到指示去厕所的箭头。情急之下，只好问人。原来厕所是藏在远远的角落。由于地方大，要走去也要好一段时间。老年人如忍不住，的确蛮受罪的。 此商场说是靠近地铁站，其实是不同的两个建筑，从地铁站出来，也得走一段路，才能进入商场。地铁站里是有厕所，但你只要去过一次，包你不想再去第二次，因为站里的厕所也是非常隐蔽，而且抽水系统有时水满为患。都是脏水，走避不及，回家还要洗鞋。 It doesn't look as if the people who had the idea of building a new mall understand how important it is to answer the call of nature. If they had realised its importance, they would not have positioned the toilet so far away from the entrance. I didn't see any signage until it was quite near the washroom itself, which defeats the purpose. Old folks would have a hard time holding back until they reach their destination. But some people do not appreciate what incontinence is until many years later. The mall is supposed to be near an MRT station. They are actually buildings detached from each other. It takes you some time to walk from one building to the o...