精美英文欣赏:你在亵渎神灵吗?

As a boy I'd have been in dead trouble if I'd ever used the name of Jesus as a swear word at home. Blasphemy¹ just wasn't tolerated, even though my parents were non-believers. The boundaries between acceptable and unacceptable language are shifting all the time. John Terry, for instance, has just been acquitted² in court of racial abuse. But when I started out as a court reporter many years ago, the mere³ uttering of a very rude word would have been enough to get you arrested, without racial connotations.

作为一个男孩，如果我要是用耶稣的名字来骂脏话的话，我会陷入很大的麻烦中。尽管我的父母不是信徒，亵渎神明是完全不被容许的。可接受的语言和不可接受的语言之间的界限一直在变。 例如，约翰?特里刚刚在种族歧视法庭被无罪释放。但我很多年前开始做法院书记官时，仅仅说一个粗鲁的词，即使没有种族上的隐含意义，也足以让你被逮捕。

I remember how the alleged⁴ word could never be said out loud, and had to be ceremoniously written down by the witness, usually a police officer. The paper was then folded and handed to the magistrate⁵, who carefully unfolded it and duly looked shocked, all in disapproving⁶ silence. The most offensive swear words used to be religious rather than sexual. They contravene⁷ the Commandment "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain," which was seen as blasphemy. That was so serious, in fact, that a whole coded language was developed so that people could go on swearing and yet stay away from the stocks, or the gallows⁸, where open blasphemy might've put them.

我记得，当时证词都不能大声说出来，必须由证人（通常是一名警察）正式地写下来。然后文件会被折叠起来，交给地方法官。法官会小心的打开文件，然后随即会被他所看到的震惊。这一切都是在一种不赞成的寂静中进行的。 最无礼的脏话通常与宗教有关，而不是与性有关。它们违反了 “你不可徒然地采用耶和华的名字”的戒律，因为这会被看作是亵渎神灵。实际上，这后果太严重了，以至于人们发展处了一套暗语。它可以使人们能够继续骂脏话，而同时又可以远离手脚枷或是绞刑架，而如果公开亵渎神灵的话，就会是这样的下场。

This is technically⁹ known as the process of "mincing¹⁰", as in the phrase "mincing your words". It disguises the word's origins just enough to keep the swearer clear of the law. Swearing offers us a brief glimpse of the religious history of our country. Before the 16th century Protestant Reformation, ordinary people would commonly have referred to the Blessed Virgin¹¹ Mary as "Our Lady", as Roman Catholics still do. Hence the oath "By Our Lady", which was minced¹² into the swearword "bloody¹³", has to be at least 500 years old. Another familiar swearword refers to the Albigensian heresy¹⁴ in the 13th century. Other examples of minced oaths include the now harmless "cripes" or "crikey", which were disguised forms of the word "Christ". "Blimey" originally meant "God Blind Me!" which was a way of invoking¹⁵ divine punishment if I'm not telling the truth, so you'd better believe me. A few religious swearwords are still on the banned list, so I'm not going to tell you what they are. Others have dropped out altogether. Outsidecomic books, nobody says "Zounds!" any more, which was a minced version of "By God's Wounds", a reference to the Crucifixion and clearly of Mediaeval origin.

这在技术上被称作“mincing（矫饰）”，如在短语“mincing your words（说话不要拐弯抹角）”中的意思一样。它伪饰单词的起源，使得脏话能够不受法律的限制。 脏话可以让我们简要地了解我们国家的宗教历史。在16世纪宗教改革之前，普通人通常会称圣母玛利亚为“Our Lady（圣母玛利亚）”，而罗马的天主教徒如今仍这么做。因此，誓言“By Our Lady（圣母作证）”，后来被委婉地改成了脏话“bloody（该死的）”。所以这个脏话至少有500年的历史了。另一个熟悉的脏话是指13世纪的阿尔比派异教的。还有一些被矫饰过的脏话的例子，如现在已经无害的“cripes（天啊）”或“crikey（哎呀）”，这两个词都由“Christ（基督）”伪装而来。“Blimey（啊呀）”原来是指“God Blind Me！（上帝使我盲目）”，是用来表达“如果我没说实话的话，就让上帝惩罚我，所以你最好相信我！”的一种方式。 有些与宗教有关的脏话如今仍然是禁止说的，所以我不会告诉你们它们是什么。其它一些脏话已经过时。除了漫画书，没人再说“Zounds!（咄）”。这是“By God's Wounds（上帝的伤口）”的委婉版，意指上帝在十字架受难，很明显是起源于中世纪。

Just as churches are such a familiar part of our visible local landscape you hardly notice they are there, so profane¹⁶ oaths and swearwords are part of our everyday verbal landscape, and again we hardly notice them. But the fact that we still know they're not polite, to say the least, means we haven't completely lost track of where they came from.

正如教堂是我们当地风景中熟悉的一部分，所以我们很难注意到它们的存在一样，亵渎神灵的一些诅咒和脏话也是我们日常口语中的一部分，所以我们很难注意到它们。但事实上，我们仍然知道它们是不礼貌的。这至少意味着我们还没有完全忘记它们的起源。

1 blasphemy   

n.亵渎，渎神

参考例句：

• His writings were branded as obscene and a blasphemy against God.他的著作被定为淫秽作品，是对上帝的亵渎。
• You have just heard his blasphemy!你刚刚听到他那番亵渎上帝的话了！

2 acquitted   

宣判…无罪( acquit的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（自己）作出某种表现

参考例句：

• The jury acquitted him of murder. 陪审团裁决他谋杀罪不成立。
• Five months ago she was acquitted on a shoplifting charge. 五个月前她被宣判未犯入店行窃罪。

3 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

4 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

5 magistrate   

n.地方行政官，地方法官，治安官

参考例句：

• The magistrate committed him to prison for a month.法官判处他一个月监禁。
• John was fined 1000 dollars by the magistrate.约翰被地方法官罚款1000美元。

6 disapproving   

adj.不满的，反对的v.不赞成( disapprove的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Mother gave me a disapproving look. 母亲的眼神告诉我她是不赞成的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Her father threw a disapproving glance at her. 她父亲不满地瞥了她一眼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 contravene   

v.违反，违背，反驳，反对

参考例句：

• The moves contravene the peace plan agreed by both sides.这些举措违反了双方同意的和平方案。
• He said the article did not contravene the industry's code of conduct.他说这一条款并未违反行业的行为准则。

8 gallows   

n.绞刑架，绞台

参考例句：

• The murderer was sent to the gallows for his crimes.谋杀犯由于罪大恶极被处以绞刑。
• Now I was to expiate all my offences at the gallows.现在我将在绞刑架上赎我一切的罪过。

9 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

10 mincing   

adj.矫饰的；v.切碎；切碎

参考例句：

• She came to the park with mincing,and light footsteps.她轻移莲步来到了花园之中。
• There is no use in mincing matters.掩饰事实是没有用的。

11 virgin   

n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的

参考例句：

• Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗？
• There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。

12 minced   

v.切碎( mince的过去式和过去分词 )；剁碎；绞碎；用绞肉机绞（食物，尤指肉）

参考例句：

• He minced over to serve us. 他迈着碎步过来招待我们。
• A young fop minced up to George and introduced himself. 一个花花公子扭扭捏捏地走到乔治面前并作了自我介绍。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

14 heresy   

n.异端邪说；异教

参考例句：

• We should denounce a heresy.我们应该公开指责异端邪说。
• It might be considered heresy to suggest such a notion.提出这样一个观点可能会被视为异端邪说。

15 invoking   

v.援引( invoke的现在分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求

参考例句：

• You can customise the behavior of the Asynchronous Server and hence re-brand it by defining your own command set for invoking services. 通过定义自己调用服务的命令集，您可以定制自定义异步服务器的行为，通过为调用服务定义自己的命令集从而对它重新标记。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• You can customize the behavior of the Asynchronous Server and hence re-brand it by defining your own command set for invoking services. 通过定义自己调用服务的命令集，您可以定制自定义异步服务器的行为，通过为调用服务定义自己的命令集从而对它重新标记。 来自辞典例句

16 profane   

adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污

参考例句：

• He doesn't dare to profane the name of God.他不敢亵渎上帝之名。
• His profane language annoyed us.他亵渎的言语激怒了我们。