《伤残的树》用词: standard, servitude, mandarinate, extirpate, inveigle, degenerate, vendetta, geomancy, wet nurse, pulchritude

儒琴英语咀嚼《伤残的树》(The Crippled Tree)一书的用词。《伤残的树》是英籍女作家韩素音自传之一。写她的中国父亲在欧洲留学时与她比利时母亲恋爱结合的故事,以及她在童年时期的生活见闻。韩素音的英文造诣在当代英美文坛堪称一流,其精美、清丽、雅洁的文笔早在西方评论界获得公认。

英语文学词汇 Literature Terms

51.standard
a military or ceremonial flag carried on a pole or hoisted on a rope.
旗子,旗子悬挂在杆子上或用绳子悬挂的军事或仪式用的旗子

To the Hakkas, the Taiping is their most glorious epic, for the leader was a Hakka named Hung Hsiuchuan. Hung raised the standard of revolt against the Manchus in 1850. Millions flocked to his standard, marched to the Great River…( Page 24)

52. servitude
noun [ U ]formal /ˈsɝː.və.tuːd/ (Cambridge)
the state of being under the control of someone else and of having no freedom
苦役;奴役;劳役
In the past, the majority of women were consigned to a lifetime of servitude and poverty. 过去,大多数的女性一生含辛茹苦,一贫如洗。

Hung proclaimed social justice for all; throughout his hundred-millioned domain the feet of women were unbound, land redistributed,taxes lighted and the pigtail, emblem of Manchu servitude, abolished.

53. mandarinate
(plural mandarinates) The collective body of officials (mandarins) or persons of rank in historical China.
(旧时) 中国政府高级官吏; 高层官僚总称; 政界要人

Gordon now served the dynasty which he had helped to pillage, and was rewarded with high rank in the manderinate and much gold. (Page 24)

54. extirpate
verb [ T ] formal/ˈek.stɚ.peɪt/
to remove or destroy something completely
拔除;消灭;根除

After the Taiping failed in 1864, the Manchus put all men, women and children to the sword, to extirpate the breed; (Page 25)

55. inveigle
verb [ T ] formal /ɪnˈveɪ.ɡəl/ (Cambridge)
to persuade someone to do something in a clever and dishonest way, when they do not want to do it
哄骗;诱骗
Her son tried to inveigle her into giving him the money for a car. 她儿子想着法子哄她给钱买汽车。

Because of the massacres many Hakkas migrated to south-east Asia, or were inveigled to by the boat-load to become indentured labourers on railways and canals …. ( Page 25)

56. degenerate
adjective /dɪˈdʒen.ə.rət/
having low standards of behaviour
堕落的,颓废的
a degenerate young man 堕落的年轻人

The Hakkas say they are the true people of Han, and that they have escaped the degenerate habits of foreign rule. (page 25)

57. vendetta
noun [ C ] /venˈdet̬.ə/ (Cambridge)
a long and violent argument between people or families, in which one group tries to harm the other in order to punish them for things that happened in the past
世仇;族间血仇;宿怨
He saw himself as the victim of a personal vendetta being waged by his political enemies. 他觉得自己成了政敌挑起的个人积怨的牺牲品。

One of the ways in which village vendettas were carried out was the digging and scattering of buried ancestors, considered a desecration worse than the extermination of the living. (Page 26)

58. geomancy
geomancer [ˈdʒiːəʊmænsi] and
divination by means of figures or lines or geographic features
地相术; 风水; 地卜,泥土占卜(根据地面所呈图迹占卜地卜师; 风水师; 风水士; 地占者; 地理师;)

…after calling the spirit of the dead by the name in the appropriate compass direction and enticing it with food and tea laid under some shady tree, and under the guidance of a Taoist wind and water geomancer. (Page 26)

59. wet nurse
A) noun [ C ]
in the past, a woman employed to give her breast milk to another woman’s baby
(旧时的)奶妈,乳母
B) verb [ T ]
disapproving /ˈwet.nɝːs/
to treat someone too carefully as if that person is unable to do anything himself or herself
悉心照料(十分仔细地照顾某人,就好像被照顾者什么都做不了)

Hakka women don’t bind their feet, nor their breasts, do not hire wet nurses for their children. (Page 26)

60. pulchritude
noun [ U ] formal /ˈpʌl.krə.tuːd/
beauty, especially a woman’s beauty
(尤指女性)美丽,标致

The foot binding, so long associated with Chinese pulchritude, began probably in the eleventh century, …. (Page 26)

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