A: Could you turn the TV down a bit, otherwise I won’t be able to hear the garbage truck.
B: OK. You know, when I came to Taiwan, one thing that I thought was the most interesting, or perhaps the most strange, was that the Maiden’s Prayer was used as the music for the garbage truck. After that, I didn’t dare play that tune on the piano. I was afraid people would throw garbage over me.
A: You crack me up. Apparently, in the past, some garbage trucks would play Beethoven’s Fur Elise.
照片：Pixabay Photo: Pixabay
B: The Maiden’s Prayer was written by a young Polish female composer in the 19th century. I’m really curious why this song was chosen for the garbage truck.
A: The story goes that, at the time, an official responsible for these things heard his daughter practicing this song, thought it sounded nice, and decided to use it.
A: 你把電視關小聲一點，不然我聽不到垃圾車來的聲音。
B: OK。你知道嗎，我來台灣覺得最有趣，或者說最奇怪的事，就是垃圾車竟然用《少女的祈禱》當作音樂。害我彈鋼琴都不敢再彈這首了，怕別人把垃圾丟到我身上。
A: 你也太好笑。不過好像以前有些垃圾車放的音樂是貝多芬的《給愛麗絲》。
B: 《少女的祈禱》是十九世紀波蘭一位年輕女作曲家寫的。我很好奇為什麼要選這首歌給垃圾車。
A: 聽說是當時負責相關業務的官員聽到女兒在練這曲子，覺得很好聽，就採用了這首歌。
(Translated by Paul Cooper, Taipei Times／台北時報林俐凱 )
Audio recordings for Speak Up! dialogues will be suspended until further notice due to the pandemic.
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