閻羅王嫁女—搵鬼要

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11/12/2012

閻羅王嫁女—搵鬼要 毛孟靜

「閻羅王嫁女」這句傳統俚語以嫁女做比喻, 會令人覺得帶性別歧視——sex discrimination,亦叫gender bias。Sex 不單解「性」,亦解「性別」;而gender 就淨解男女( 亦包括中性) 之分。

Discrimination 跟bias, 就像我們的「歧視」與「偏見」,可算是同義詞。

今日談這嫁女一筆,主題是這句話的歇後語, 「搵鬼要」︰Who the hell would want a thing like that.

當中的a thing,除了可以指一件事,譬如一項建議或任何物件之外,自然亦可以充滿輕蔑地指一個人,男或女皆可。

話中加了the hell(地獄),主要是用來一襯中文的「鬼」。

廣東話的「邊鬼個」一類的口語,英文可以講the devil——who the devil ( 邊鬼個),但更通用的是hell ︰Who the hell 邊鬼個What the hell 搞乜鬼Where the hell 邊鬼度How the hell 點鬼樣不過要注意,我們口邊的鬼,許多時只是貪得意,有時甚至是語帶親暱——as anendearing expression——像「你講緊邊鬼個啫?」但英文hell 的「沒好氣、頂唔順」以至指摘味道就重許多。

閻羅王嫁女,搵鬼要,主旨是有個人或有樣東西好驚嚇(hugely scary) 、好醜樣(exceptionally ugly),總之不會有人想要(totally unwanted)。直譯是︰ The king of hell marrying off his daughter – only the devil would want her.

要講得通順一點, 是Only the devil would want to marry the king of hell’s daughter。但對英文人來說,這句話本身都幾驚嚇, 聽落去quite ridiculous ( 傻傻哋),還是用回日常口語︰

Who the hell would want that.當中表達的情緒顯然異常負面。對象若是一個人, 被人說成Who the devil would want him,會令這人自我感覺差得很,覺得自己unlovable(不可愛的)、uncared for (沒人在乎的),以至unworthy(不值得的)。

閻羅王, king of hell, 或就像耶教(Christianity)中的撒旦(Satan)、路西化(Lucifer)。有說,撒旦即是路西化,但亦有人堅持是兩個不同個體。那是題外話了。

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