Chinese practice
如坐針氈
Photo: AFP
照片:法新社
like sitting on a mat of needles
(ru2 zuo4 zhen1 zhan1)
在《晉書》中記載了這麼一個故事:杜錫是一個非常忠心耿耿且正直的人,他被指派去服侍愍懷太子,但愍懷太子沈迷於逸樂而不關心國事,杜錫便常勸諫太子。
愍懷太子不思改進,並且很快就對杜錫的嘮叨感到厭煩。他就命令下屬在杜錫常坐的那個墊子裡黏上針,針尖向上。下次杜錫坐在那個墊子上的時候,就被針刺得流血了。幾天之後,杜錫就無法自在地坐著了,但是杜錫為了面子,不想告訴太子。由這個故事便衍生出成語「如坐針氈」,意指因為身體上或心理上的不適,而處於焦慮的狀態。
在英語中,也有類似的片語:「To be on tenterhooks」。西方幾世紀以來將tenter用於羊毛布的製程。羊毛上殘留的油脂和髒污洗淨後,便需要晾乾。為了防止縮水,就必須把羊毛布撐開在一個木框上,而這木框就叫做tenter—這個字是從拉丁文的「tendere」而來,意為「to stretch」(拉緊)。框的四周以許多金屬鉤固定住,這些金屬鉤就叫做tenterhooks。繃緊在框上的布晾在戶外,這景象給人一種不自在的緊張焦慮感,而這便為現今「to be on tenterhooks」這一片語所表達的意義。
顯然這片語原來寫作「on the tenters」,出自一六三三年英國劇作家John Ford的劇作《Broken Heart》其中的一句「Passion, O, be contained. My very heart strings are on the Tenters」(強抑澎湃的熱情,我的心弦正緊繃著)。
(台北時報編譯林俐凱譯)
經過長久的努力,現在終於到了驗收的時刻,我們都如坐針氈,深怕有所閃失。
(After working hard on this for so long, the time has come for us to hear the results. We’re all on tenterhooks, anxious that something might go wrong)
這電影荒謬的劇情令人如坐針氈,沒等到劇終,她就先離開了。
(The movie plot was so ridiculous it was painful, and she left before the end.)
英文練習
To be on tenterhooks
The following story comes from the Book of Jin, the records of the Jin dynasty. Du Xi was regarded as a very loyal, upright man. He was directed to serve as attendant to the crown prince Min Huai, who was more concerned with entertaining himself than with matters of state, and to advise him on matters of appropriate conduct.
Prince Min Huai had no interest in bettering himself, and quickly became very fed up with Du Xi’s pestering ways. He ordered a subordinate to stick needles, sharp side up, in the mat Du Xi often sat on. The next time Du Xi sat on the mat the needles pierced his skin and drew blood. For many days after that, he could not sit comfortably, but his pride prevented him from telling the prince what had happened. From this story comes the idiom「如坐針氈」, meaning to be in physical or psychological discomfort, and in a state of anxiety.
In English, we have a comparable phrase: “To be on tenterhooks.”
Tenters were, for centuries, part of the process of producing woollen cloth in the West. After the woven cloth was washed of residual oil and dirt it needed to be dried. To prevent it from shrinking, the cloth was stretched across a wooden frame named a tenter — from the Latin “tendere,” meaning “to stretch” — and held in place by metal hooks, called tenterhooks, around the frame. This image of a cloth hung outdoors and stretched tight across a frame gives the feeling of being in a state of uncomfortable suspense, and it is this sense that the phrase “to be on tenterhooks” now refers.
Apparently, the phrase was originally written “on the tenters,” as in the lines, “Passion, O, be contained. My very heart strings are on the Tenters” in the 1633 play Broken Heart by the English playwright John Ford.
(Paul Cooper, Taipei Times)
I really wish they would hurry up with the test results. I’m on tenterhooks here.
(好希望他們趕快公布考試成績。我真是如坐針氈。)
Now is not a good time to ask for a favor. He’s on tenterhooks about the court case.
(現在不是請他幫忙的好時機。他正因為打官司而如坐針氈。)
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