hope(馮睎乾十三維度), would-be, hopeful, adrift, cut adrift, death trap, striped bass, ‘ground bass’, all clear, would-be emperor's slow striptease

馮睎乾十三維度

新年談希望

踏入2024年第一天，收到很多朋友和讀者的祝福，不勝感謝。在此先祝各位新年愉快，身體健康！

看到大家的祝福，忽想起一幅公元四世紀的彩石鑲嵌畫，見附圖。這幅馬賽克於1857年在哈利卡納蘇斯（即今天土耳其的博德魯姆）出土，現藏大英博物館。畫作包含一個月桂花環、一根黑色小樹枝和一片常春藤葉子，花環內，是六個帶有祝福意思的古希臘文字：ΥΓΙΑ, ΖΩΗ, ΧΑΡΑ, ΕΙΡΗΝΗ, ΕΥΘΥΜΙΑ, ΕΛΠΙΣ，意即「健康、生命、喜樂、平安、高興、希望」。

祝福別人健康長壽、快樂順心，在華人來說都很平常，但我們由細到大，似乎極少祝人「常懷希望」。我細心想想，文言文甚至沒有一個詞，可表達現代意義的「希望」——即一種相信「明天會更好」的信念。

文言文固然也有「希望」兩字，但就像「衛生」、「經濟」、「自由」、「民主」（古代指「民之主」，不是「民為主」）等詞語，意思跟現代用法大相逕庭。文言文的「希望」，意思類似「期望」、「欲望」，甚至是「迎合上意」，都與hope（古希臘人所謂elpis）毫無關係。

不講「希望」，中國古人極其量只會說「樂天」、「知命」、「達觀」、「委分」，諸如此類，不外乎表示「順應天意，隨遇而安」，即現代人所謂「看化」、「平常心」等，這些都不等同「希望」。抱有希望的人，相信未來比今天更好；但樂天知命的人，往往只會安於現狀，甚至不介意忍辱偷生。

一言以蔽之，中國文化是一個沒有「希望」的文化。

你可能反駁，不，從前中國人雖然沒有一個詞強調「希望」，但我們祝福別人時，不也寄託了一種希望嗎？對，例如《莊子》就有個著名的「華封三祝」故事，說堯巡行至一個叫「華」的地方，那裏守封疆的人祝堯「使聖人壽、使聖人富、使聖人多男子」，即希望堯長命、富有和多子多孫。

「華封三祝」固然隱含一種「未來會更好」的美麗願望，但歸根究底這不是一種信念，而是一套祝頌詞令，嚴格來說也不是現代人所講的「希望」。然則「希望」即是什麼呢？對「希望」的理解，確實會隨語言文化而有差異。

例如英文只有一個hope字，但法文卻細分為espoir和espérance（兩個字翻譯成中文，很不幸都是 「希望」）。法文espoir比較好理解，代表一種個人情緒或想法，期待有更好的事情將發生在自己（或他人）身上，而espérance則近乎一種宗教價值，對未來抱有純粹的信心，不涉及功利，甚至跟快樂無關。

為了在中文上方便區分，espoir不妨譯為「希望」，而espérance則譯成「望德」。希望會讓人爽，讓人快樂，但它是短暫的，只要現實不似預期，希望就會幻滅。望德則着重堅持、忍耐、謹慎和明智，始終對現實保持清醒，不會自欺欺人，也不因失敗而沮喪。

法國社會學家、神學家埃呂爾（Jacques Ellul）在《被遺忘的望德（L'Espérance oubliée）》一書中，大力強調「希望」和「望德」的分別，說：「希望是人類的詛咒（L'espoir est la malédiction de l'homme）。 人只要相信可能尚有出路，就什麼都不會做。在可怕的處境中，只要他想像還有出路，他就不會做任何事來改變那處境。」

「望德」則恰恰相反。埃呂爾認為，當你相信自己窮途末路，連上帝也不理睬你的時候，望德才開始真正登場，「只有在希望不復存在時，望德才可能顯露（c'est seulement lorsqu'il n'y a plus d'espoir que peut poindre l'espérance）。」

像espérance這種境界的「希望」，是否有顛覆到你的人生觀呢？如果你接受到這樣的「顛覆」，恭喜，你已有希望用一雙不屬於中國人的眼睛看世界了。

_______________________

耶穌說：「一粒麥子不落在地裏死了，仍舊是一粒；若是死了，就結出許多子粒來。」

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圖/大英博物館網

After their village is destroyed and their parents killed by Northern militia, Sudanese orphans Theo, his siblings and other survivors make a difficult journey to a refugee camp in Kenya. Thirteen years later, the group gets the chance to settle in the U.S. They are met in Kansas by Carrie Davis (Reese Witherspoon), who has been charged with finding them jobs. However, seeing how adrift they are in 20th-century America, Carrie endeavors to help them in rebuilding their shattered lives.




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German Olympic Hopeful: Fabian Hambuechen

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The DW-WORLD Article
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=evyx56I44va89pI4

Separated or detached; freed. For example, The dissenters were cut adrift from the denomination. This expression alludes to cutting the rope of a floating vessel so that it drifts without direction or purpose. The figurative use of adrift dates from the late 1600s.

Cut adrift Definition & Meaning - Dictionary.com

Orphaned and adrift in the gruesome Sudanese civil war with weapons he could barely hold, the young boy eventually deserted. An aid worker sent him to school in Kenya. From there, he went on an inspiring and ultimately hopeful journey.



The striped bass (Morone saxatilis), also called Atlantic striped bass, striper, linesider, pimpfish, rock, or rockfish, is an anadromous Perciforme fish of the Moronidae family found primarily along the Atlantic coast of North America. It has also been widely introduced into inland recreational fisheries across the United States. Striped bass found in the Gulf of Mexico are a separate strain referred to as Gulf Coast striped bass.^[2] 鱸魚

‘ground bass’
n.

1. A musical line in the bass that is continually repeated throughout the composition.
2. A composition in which such a line appears.

A ‘ground bass’ is a short bass line (usually 4 to 8 bars long) which is repeated constantly throughout a piece. While the bass stays the same, the melodic voices develop and change above it. A good ground bass piece will have a clear, simple bass line, with imaginative development of the upper parts. Passacaglia and Chaconne are alternative names for this type of piece. 



adrift
adjective [after verb]
1 If a boat is adrift, it is moving on the water but is not controlled by anyone because of a problem:
He spent three days adrift on his yacht.

2 If a person is adrift, they do not have a clear purpose in life and do not know what they want to do:
Da Silva plays a bright, lonely student from New York, adrift in small-town Arizona.

3 INFORMAL go/come adrift to become loose:
The hem of my skirt's come adrift again.

4 INFORMAL go adrift If plans go adrift they fail or do not produce the correct results:
Something seems to have gone adrift in our calculations.
would-be
adjective [before noun]
wanting or trying to be:
a would-be artist/politicianhopeful
adjective
1 having hope:
He was hopeful about the outcome of the meeting.
They were hopeful of a successful agreement.
I'm hopeful (that) we can reach a compromise.

2 giving hope:
The green shoots were hopeful signs of spring.

hopeful 
noun [C usually plural]
a person who is trying to get a part in a film, play for a famous football team, etc:
Over a thousand young hopefuls went to the Theatre Royal today to audition for a part in the new musical.

 all clear
 n.
A signal, usually by siren, that an air raid is over or a danger has passed.