Mon, Oct 29, 2018 page9

• USING IDIOMS 活用成語

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  Chinese Practice

  幸災樂禍

  (xing4 zai1 le4 huo4)

  

  Return to the Convent, by Eduardo Zamacois y Zabala, 1868. 《回到修道院》，艾德華多‧薩瑪柯伊斯‧伊‧沙巴拉作，一八六八年。

  Photo: Wikimedia Common
  照片：維基共享資源

  taking delight in the misfortune of others

  我們在四月二日的「活用成語」單元，曾介紹過成語「甘拜下風」(www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2018/04/02/2003690489)，這是出於春秋時代的一段故事：西元前六四四年，晉惠公拒絕將穀糧運往發生饑荒的秦國，即便前一年晉國饑荒，秦國才送了糧食幫助過晉國。結果晉惠公的下場很糟─秦穆公非常憤怒，於是決定攻打晉國，並俘虜了晉惠公。

  如果晉惠公聽了大臣慶鄭的忠告，這災禍原可避免。《左傳．僖公十四年》記載，晉惠公說他不想援助秦國，慶鄭聽了便勸晉惠公說：「背施無親，幸災不仁，貪愛不祥，怒鄰不義。四德皆失，何以守國？」(拒絕過去曾幫助過你的人是冷酷的；看見別人有難而高興是不仁；拒絕分享你的資源是不祥；得罪鄰國是不義的。這表示這個國家很缺德，會陷入危險境地)。

  另一段出自《左傳》的故事，發生在晉惠公被俘前約三十年前，記錄周惠王(在位其間為西元前六七六年～前六五二年)被篡位。《左傳．莊公二十年》記載，宮廷發生政變，驅逐了周惠王，改立子頹為王─子頹是周惠王的祖父與寵妾所生，惠王則逃到鄭國。鄭伯想要去幫忙調停，卻發現子頹設宴享樂，放任他的國家走向衰亡而不聞不問。鄭伯便說：「今王子頹歌舞不倦，樂禍也」(現在，子頹把全部精力都花在歌舞上，就是在慶祝災難的來臨)。因此鄭伯便轉而支持周惠王。

  出自第一個故事的「幸災」，與第二個故事的「樂禍」合併起來，就成為「幸災樂禍」這個成語，用來指對於他人的不幸遭遇引以為樂。

  「幸災樂禍」用「英文」來說，可用「schadenfreude」這個名詞適切表達。我們之所以把「英文」二字放在引號裡，是因為這個字其實是借自德文，而英文中並沒有意義相等的單字。「schadenfreude」的字面意思是「傷害─快樂」，來自德文「schaden」(毀壞、傷害、受傷)和「freude」─源自古高地德語「frewida」(歡樂)。「schadenfreude」用來指惡意地將他人的不幸、不適、失敗或羞辱引以為樂。

  Schadenfreude這個字不同於「sadist」(虐待狂)─這痛苦、羞辱或不幸是由施虐者所造成，也不同於「gloat」(看好戲、沾沾自喜)─此為動詞，而非名詞，且重點是自己的好運，而不是別人所遭受的不幸。

  古希臘哲學家亞里士多德(西元前三八四～前三二二年)在他的《尼各馬科倫理學》一書中，討論了schadenfreude背後的概念，書中他用了「epicaricacy」(epikhairekakia)這個希臘字。後來在一八五二年，倫敦大學國王學院神學教授李查‧切尼維克斯‧特倫奇，在他的《On the Study of Words》(論詞語研究)一書中，將「epicaricacy」這希臘字和德文字「schadenfreude」一起寫進書裡，這也是「schadenfreude」首次出現在英語文本中：

  「可怕的是，有的語言中有某種字，是用來表達對他人苦難所感到的快樂；這種字的存在，也就證明了這種事的存在。然而，這樣的字不止有一個......有希臘文的epikhairekakia，以及德文的Schadenfreude。」

  的確，德國哲學家阿圖爾‧叔本華(西元一七八八年～一八六○年)認為，「schadenfreude」是人類情感中最邪惡的，他寫道：「嫉妒是人性，幸災樂禍則是窮凶惡極的。」

  (台北時報林俐凱譯)

  看到這對人人稱羨的佳偶反目成仇，大家都覺得很可惜，但也有人幸災樂禍，等著看笑話。

  (Most people think it’s a pity when they see that couple, whose relationship everyone envies, at each other’s throats. Some, however, take pleasure from it, and get out the popcorn.)

  英文練習

  schadenfreude

  A previous Using Idioms, on 甘拜下風 (to willingly acknowledge others’ superiority, www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2018/04/02/2003690489), related the story of how, in 644BC, Duke Hui of the state of Jin refused to send grain to a famine-ravaged Qin, even though Qin had sent grain the year before, when Jin had had a bad harvest and its people were starving. That story ended badly for Duke Hui, when an enraged Duke Mu of Qin attacked Jin and took him captive.

  Had Duke Hui listened to his minister, Qing Zheng, he could have avoided this. In the commentary on the state records for the 14th year of Duke Xi of Lu found in the ancient Chinese classic the zuo zhuan (Commentary of Zuo), Qing Zheng, hearing of the duke’s unwillingness to come to the aid of Qin, said 背施無親，幸災不仁，貪愛不祥，怒鄰不義。四德皆失，何以守國？(To turn your back on somebody who has helped you in the past is cold; to take pleasure in others’ misfortune malicious; to refuse to share your resources does not bode well; to cause offence to other states is wrong. This shows an absence of morality, and puts the state in jeopardy).

  Another story in the zuo zhuan, from around three decades before Duke Hui’s capture, concerns the usurpation of the throne of the monarch, King Hui of Zhou (r. 676BC- 652BC). According to the entry for the 20th year of Duke Zhuang, a palace coup put Zi Tui, son of the king’s grandfather’s favored concubine, on the throne, with the king exiled to the state of Zheng. When the count of Zheng travelled to the royal court to mediate on King Hui’s behalf, he found Zi Tui feasting and drinking while his neglected country went to ruin. The count said 今王子頹歌舞不倦，樂禍也 (Now, Zi Tui is spending all his energy on song and dance, delighting in his circumstances while catastrophe awaits). He determined to support King Hui.

  The 幸災 of the first story has been combined with the 樂禍 of the second, to give us the Chinese idiom 幸災樂禍, meaning “to take joy in calamity and delight in (others’) disaster.”

  A good “English” alternative for 幸災樂禍 is the noun schadenfreude. Here, English is in quotes because the word is borrowed from German, there being no single-word equivalent in English. It literally means “damage-joy,” and comes from schaden (damage, harm, injury) and reude, from Old High German frewida “joy.” It is used to refer to the experience of taking malicious delight in others’ misfortune, discomfort, failure or humiliation.

  Schadenfreude differs from the words “sadism” — which assumes the pain, humiliation or misfortune is perpetrated by the sadist — and “gloat,” which is a verb, not a noun, and is focused on one’s own good fortune rather than the misfortune of the other.

  The idea behind schadenfreude was discussed by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322BC) in his Nicomachean Ethics, in which he used the word epicaricacy (epikhairekakia). That word appeared together with the German word, in the latter’s first appearance in an English text, in the 1852 book On the Study of Words by Richard Chenevix Trench, a professor of divinity at King’s College, London:

  “What a fearful thing is it that any language should have a word expressive of the pleasure which men feel at the calamities of others; for the existence of the word bears testimony to the existence of the thing. And yet in more than one such a word is found. ... In the Greek epikhairekakia, in the German, ‘Schadenfreude.’”

  Indeed, the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) believed schadenfreude to be the most evil of human feelings, writing that “To feel envy is human, to savor schadenfreude is diabolic.”

  (Paul Cooper, Taipei Times)

  I felt bad, because I laughed at the woman when she slipped on the ice and her bag landed on her head. It was pure schadenfreude, of course.

  (我覺得很不好意思，因為那位女士在冰上摔倒了，她的包包掉在她的頭上，我還笑她。我那時真是幸災樂禍。)
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