Mon, Sep 10, 2018 page9

• USING IDIOMS 活用成語

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  Chinese Practice

  曇花一現

  (tan2 hua1 yi2 xian4)

  

  Before Hunting, 1883, by Jurij Subic. 《狩獵之前》，一八八三年，尤里‧舒比奇作。

  Photo: Wikimedia Commons
  照片：維基共享資源

  a single blooming of the udumbara flower

  曇花的英文是「the Dutchman’s pipe」（荷蘭人的煙斗），是一種很少開花的仙人掌科植物，它在夜晚開花，且持續的時間很短，到了黎明時分，曇花就會凋謝了。這種植物出現在成語「曇花一現」中，而此成語被用來描述有幸成功一次的人或事，這成功或許主要是因為運氣好，且無法複製。

  此成語是出自一部早期的佛經，但實際指的是一種完全不同的花：印度無花果樹，或中文譯名「優曇缽華」，這個譯名中也有「曇」字。

  印度無花果樹的梵語名稱是「udumbara」。在佛教中，「udumbara」被認為每三千年才開花一次，因此象徵著極為罕見的事件。在《妙法蓮華經》中，「udumbara」這種花用來表示佛陀罕見的現身於世──佛陀說的佛法，為世所希有，就如三千年才開一次的曇花般珍貴。

  《妙法蓮華經》第二十七章〈妙莊嚴王本事品〉提到一則故事，說遠古時代一位國王的兒子請求拜見佛祖。因為「佛難得值，如優曇缽羅華，又如一眼之龜，值浮木孔。」（佛祖難得見到，就像優曇缽羅花，又好像獨眼的烏龜把頭正好套進在水中浮動的木塊上的洞。）這獨眼烏龜的比喻頗難理解，它典出早期佛教經典《相應部》第十五章，其中提到一隻盲眼的烏龜，非常高壽，一百年才把頭伸出海面一次；另外還有一個只有一個洞的木塊，漂浮在同一片海洋中。經文中問道，「這烏龜和木塊碰到的機會有多大？」人們只能設想答案是「無限小」。

  在《妙法蓮華經》的第二章〈方便品〉中，佛陀的弟子舍利弗三次向佛陀請求講解佛法，佛陀最後答應了，說道：「如是妙法，諸佛如來時乃說之，如優曇缽華時一現耳」（我現在要說的美妙佛法，為世所希有，就如三千年才開一次的優曇缽花般珍貴）。這句話即為成語「曇花一現」的出處，但這花指的是優曇缽花，而不是曇花。

  在英語中，我們可以用「flash in the pan」（火藥池中的火花），來指出乎意料但無法複製的成功。「flash」指的是火藥被點燃後的明亮火花，「pan」指的是燧發槍的火藥池，用來擊發彈藥。扣下燧發槍的扳機時，燧石會引燃火藥池內的少量火藥，然後這火花會進一步點燃槍膛裡的火藥，推動子彈從槍管發射出去。如果這火花無法順利讓火藥點燃，那麼只會有火藥池閃過的一絲火花，而子彈卻不會發射出去。

  （台北時報林俐凱譯）

  股價上週止跌回升，我們以為又回到了過去的榮景，沒想到這只是曇花一現，今天又是一瀉千里。

  (Last week the stock price stopped falling and started rising again. We thought it would return to its former glory, but it was just a flash in the pan. Today it is falling again.)

  這段感情有如曇花一現，來得快，去得快，他倆翻臉比翻書還快。

  (It was a fleeting emotion, which disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. The expression flickered across their faces.)

  英文練習

  a flash in the pan

  The Dutchman’s pipe — tanhua (曇花) in Chinese — is a cactus that blooms only rarely, with flowers that appear at night and that last only a short time: By dawn, they will have wilted. The Chinese name 曇花 appears in 曇花一現, an idiom used to describe a person’s surprise achievement or a one-off event, occurring more through luck, that is unlikely to be repeated.

  The original source of the idiom, an early Buddhist sutra, actually refers to a different flower altogether, however: the Indian fig tree, or youtan bohua (優曇缽華) to give its Chinese translation. This name also has the 曇 character.

  The Sanskrit name for the Indian fig tree is the udumbara. In Buddhism, the udumbara was believed to bloom only once every 3,000 years, and therefore symbolizes an extremely rare event. In the Saddharma Pundarika Sutra (Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, often simplified in English to the Lotus Sutra), the udumbara flower is used to convey the rare appearance of the Buddha and his teachings in the world.

  Chapter 27 of the Lotus Sutra tells the story of how the sons of a king in the far ancient past ask for permission to visit a buddha, because “a buddha is as hard to meet as an udumbara flower, or as the one-eyed tortoise meeting the hole in the floating log.” That last — rather obscure — simile is a reference to Chapter 15 of the early Buddhist work Samyutta Nikaya (Connected Discourses), which mentions a blind tortoise, infinite eons old, that swims in the ocean and rises to the surface once a century, and a log with only one hole, floating on the same ocean. The text asks, “What are the chances of the two meeting?” The answer, one can only presume, is “infinitesimally small,” at least within a given time period.

  In Chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra, Sariputta, a disciple of the historical Buddha, asks three times for instruction on the Buddha’s teachings before the Buddha finally relents, saying — in the Chinese translation of the sutra — 如是妙法，諸佛如來時乃說之，如優曇華時一現耳 (Such a wonderful Law as this is only preached by the buddha-tathagatas on rare occasions, just as the udumbara flower is seen but once in long periods.) It is this sentence that gives us the idiom 曇花一現. Thus, the 曇花 refers to the udumbara flower, not the Dutchman’s pipe.

  In English, we can talk of an unexpected yet unreplicated success as a “flash in the pan.” The flash refers to the bright spark of ignited gunpowder; the pan refers to the priming pan of a flintlock firearm. When the trigger was pulled the flint would ignite a small amount of gunpowder in the pan, and this spark would then ignite the gunpowder in the main part of the mechanism, which would then propel the bullet from the barrel. If the spark failed to ignite the gunpowder, there would simply be a flash of powder in the pan, but the bullet would stay put.

  (Paul Cooper, Taipei Times)

  Everyone was hoping we would be able to replicate the success of the product, but it turns out to have been a flash in the pan.

  （大家都希望我們可以複製那產品成功的模式，但結果證明那次成功只不過是曇花一現。）

  I am determined to prove that I can get another hit song, and that I am not just a flash in the pan.

  （我決心要證明我可以再創一首暢銷曲，我不是只有曇花一現。）
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