Spoiler alert and shift blame 破梗&甩鍋
在新冠疫情期間，無論是因為封城 (lockdown) 還是居家隔離 (self-isolation at home)，人們關在家中使用網路的時間大增。這也讓一些原本只存在於網路論壇的用語廣為普及。我們來談一下破梗 (spoiler alert) 與甩鍋 (shift blame) 這兩個用語。
有位古典文學教授 Joel Christensen 針對領導統御與疫情控制寫了一篇以古喻今、相當深入的文章：“Plagues follow bad leadership in ancient Greek tales”，文中出現一些講法，可用來翻譯上述的流行語：
Photo: AdobeStock l 圖片:AdobeStock
In the 5th century B.C., the playwright Sophocles begins Oedipus Tyrannos with the title character struggling to identify the cause of a plague striking his city, Thebes. (Spoiler alert: It’s his own bad leadership.)
(Joel Christensen, “Plagues follow bad leadership in ancient Greek tales,” The Conversation, March 12, 2020)
作者提到 Oedipus（伊底帕斯）想找出瘟疫何以降臨他的城邦的緣由，加了一句：Spoiler alert: It’s his own bad leadership.（破梗：領導無方）。Spoiler alert 就是「破梗」，如果用在有人洩漏電影劇情的情境中，也可以翻作「小心爆雷」或「劇透警告」。疫情之下，在家看影集、電影成了很多人的娛樂，但要小心劇透 (spoilers)，很多 YouTube 上的影評在開頭也都會說 Spoiler alert!，警告還沒看過電影的觀眾小心爆雷、劇透。
至於「甩鍋」，源自大陸網民用語，通常意指某人犯了錯之後想推卸責任、轉移焦點、甚至讓別人背黑鍋的做法。疫情爆發後，相關網路資訊量爆增，許多中國網民也想找人為這場疫情負責，紛紛呼籲地方政府首長、地方黨書記不要「甩鍋」。
其實，在古代文學《奧德賽》中，就有「將自己的責任怪罪眾神」的說法，試用時下流行的「甩鍋」來重新翻譯：
Humans are always blaming the gods for their suffering, but they experience pain beyond their fate because of their own recklessness.
人類自作孽招來禍端，卻總是怨天尤人，「甩鍋」給眾神。
(Homer, Odyssey )
回到當代，在西方媒體中，我們可以看到類似的用法是 shift blame：
. . . Trump has struck a more critical tone of late regarding Beijing’s handling of the outbreak and efforts to shift blame onto the US.
(“Blame game escalates between US and China over coronavirus disinformation” CNN, March 25, 2020)
標題中的 blame game，台灣或許會翻成「卸責大會」，中國網民大概會說這是「甩鍋大賽」了。此外，spread the blame、pass the buck、buck passing 也都可譯成「甩鍋」，請看以下例句：
In the past you could spread the blame, but now the buck stops here.(Oxford Dictionary)
從前你可以「甩鍋」給別人，今後自己扛。
Good Risk Management Means No Buck-Passing.(Harvard Business Review)
好的危機管理就是不搞「甩鍋」。
防疫必備詞彙：醫療護理
臨時醫院 temporary hospital; makeshift hospital
指定醫院 designated hospital
負壓病房 negative-pressure ward; negative-pressure isolation room
加護病房 intensive care unit (ICU)
負壓救護車 negative pressure ambulance
一線醫護人員 frontline health workers
插管 intubation
呼吸器 ventilator
發燒門診 fever clinic
退燒藥 febrifuge
集中檢疫所 collective quarantine facility
瑞德西韋 remdesivir
（註：媒體常見把第一個字母大寫，但這種藥不是專有名詞，不必大寫。）
文章由書林出版公司提供：
www.bookman.com.tw
蘇正隆 — 台灣翻譯學學會前理事長、師大翻譯研究所兼任副教授; 編著《英語的對與錯》，《世紀病毒：必讀防疫英文知識與詞彙》...等
The debate surrounding Taipower’s recent corporate identity reboot has gone well beyond the design community. The controversy began after Taipower replaced the familiar “Taiwan Power Company” wording — widely regarded as the calligraphy of Yu You-ren (1879-1964), former Control Yuan president and master calligrapher — with a modern logotype by designer Aaron Nieh’s team, Aaron Nieh Workshop. Taipower said the change was not a wholesale replacement of old signage, but an “optimization of its identity system,” aimed at meeting the needs of digital media, electronic bills, apps, social media graphics and various small-format applications. Existing physical markings, such as building
As bee populations around the world continue to decline at an alarming rate, scientists are developing an innovative solution: robotic bees. Recent advances at research institutions like Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US have produced tiny flying robots capable of performing pollination tasks similar to those of real bees. These tiny machines represent an impressive technological achievement. MIT’s latest models can hover in the air for over 1,000 seconds and perform complex movements, demonstrating the agility needed for successful pollination. The robots are designed to mimic the flight patterns of natural bees, offering potential support to agriculture
A: Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage on May 24, 2019, so this week marks the seventh anniversary of that milestone. By the end of 2024, a total of 32,126 LGBT couples had tied the knot. B: How many of them got married to foreign partners? A: In 2024, there were 504 cross-border same-sex marriages. By the end of that year, there were 130 cross-strait same-sex marriages between Taiwanese and Chinese — accounting for only about 0.4 percent of the total. B: I’ve heard that a seven-year marriage brings the “seven-year itch.” I bet some couples regret their decisions now. A:
A: While Taiwan is celebrating the 7th anniversary of legalizing same-sex marriage, a poll shows that the support rate for same-sex marriage rose sharply from 37.4 percent seven years ago to 69.9 percent last year. B: Actually, I’m a bit curious about the size of Taiwan’s LGBT population. A: I’m not sure. But if we take a Gallup poll in the US as an example, 9.3 percent of American adults identified as LGBT in 2024. B: Wow, is it because the Americans are relatively open? In many other countries, the figures hover around 5 percent. A: Based on this,
RSS