《我知道笼中鸟为何歌唱》原著分享3

原文：But Easter’s early morning sun had shown the dress to be a plain ugly cut-down from a white woman’s once-was-purple throwaway. It was old-lady-long too, but it didn’t hide my skinny legs, which had been greased with Blue Seal Vaseline and powdered with the Arkansas red clay. The age-faded color made my skin look dirty like mud, and everyone in church was looking at my skinny legs.

翻译：当复活节的晨曦照在完工的裙子上，我才意识到，这不过是一件白人洗旧了不要的紫色长裙，或者说是一件改造的旧衣服。虽然称之为长裙，但也遮不住我枯柴般的双腿。我的腿上涂抹着蓝标凡士林，还扑上了阿肯色红土。经年累月，土的颜色渗入皮肤，让它看起来肮脏而恶心，教堂里所有的人都会盯着我的细腿看上半天。

这段话的特别之处在于连字符号的使用，无形中省去了很多描述篇幅，经济学人等一些外刊也比较常见，是一种十分经济的表达方式。英语词汇学中有提到使用连字符号创造复合词的构词方法，理论上可以用连字符号把任何词连接在一起，是一种很有效率的造词法。Cut-down由原本的动词变成了名词，意为从某个地方裁剪下来的一部分。Old-lady-long变成了一个形容词，意为老女人才会穿的长度。

#Book talks# #我知道笼中鸟为何歌唱#

#早安# I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
我今天怀有一个梦。
　　我梦想有一天，深谷弥合，高山夷平，歧路化坦途，曲径成通衢，上帝的光华再现，普天下生灵共谒。

#科比妻子为被暴力执法致死黑人发声#I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of Lord shall be revealed and all fresh shall see it together."