密歇根新闻广播 一份较好的讣告应该是什么样的?

 

How much do you care about the ultimate story of your life?

For many people, that final story is contained within their obituary¹.

There are short, very terse² obituaries³, and there are those that run the length of the newspaper page.

Just what are we looking for in an obituary? And, in the brave new era of the selfie, how many people decide to write their own?

Thomas Lynch joined us today to talk about what goes into writing an obituary and what they can tell us about the deceased and those they leave behind.

Lynch is the long-time director of Lynch & Sons Funeral Home in Milford. He's an internationally acclaimed⁴ poet and essayist. His collection of essays, The Undertaking⁵: Life Studies from the Dismal⁶ Trade won the American Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award.

His second essay collection, Bodies in Motion and at Rest, won the Great Lakes Book Award.

Lynch calls obituaries "one of the honorable duties of the living to the dead."

"Good funerals are ones that by getting the dead where they need to go, the living get where they need to be," he said. "On this same continuum is this notion of a life review, a record kept of what it is that just happened."

Lynch told us a good obituary's first job is to serve as a notice of death.

"Someone who has been, is no longer. Someone has ceased to be in the way that is remarkable⁷ and shocking and breathtaking," he said.

Second, a good obituary should review how this person came to be who they are.

"Every one of us is the same but different," he said. "We are one-of-a-kind and one of a kind."

Lynch told us that death is an opportunity for the living to contemplate⁸ not only their personal loss, but also the nature of mortality.

"Whatever the case, they've had a lot of time to think about how they came to be here, next to someone who is, slowly sometimes, rapidly other times, ceasing to be, and what they meaning of that is," he said.

"And I really do think that has separated our species from all the other things that live and die. We're the ones who look into the maw of that ceasing to be and say things like, is that all there is? Can this happen to me? Am I all alone? What comes next? Why is it cold? These are questions that rock bass⁹ and rhododendrons never ask, but humans do."

1 obituary   

n.讣告，死亡公告；adj.死亡的

参考例句：

• The obituary records the whole life of the deceased.讣文记述了这位死者的生平。
• Five days after the letter came,he found Andersen s obituary in the morning paper.收到那封信五天后，他在早报上发现了安德森的讣告。

2 terse   

adj.(说话，文笔)精炼的，简明的

参考例句：

• Her reply about the matter was terse.她对此事的答复简明扼要。
• The president issued a terse statement denying the charges.总统发表了一份简短的声明，否认那些指控。

3 obituaries   

讣告，讣闻( obituary的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Next time I read about him, I want it in the obituaries. 希望下次读到他的消息的时候，是在仆告里。
• People's obituaries are written while they're still alive? 人们在世的时候就有人给他们写讣告？

4 acclaimed   

adj.受人欢迎的

参考例句：

• They acclaimed him as the best writer of the year. 他们称赞他为当年的最佳作者。
• Confuscius is acclaimed as a great thinker. 孔子被赞誉为伟大的思想家。

5 undertaking   

n.保证，许诺，事业

参考例句：

• He gave her an undertaking that he would pay the money back with in a year.他向她做了一年内还钱的保证。
• He is too timid to venture upon an undertaking.他太胆小，不敢从事任何事业。

6 dismal   

adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的

参考例句：

• That is a rather dismal melody.那是一支相当忧郁的歌曲。
• My prospects of returning to a suitable job are dismal.我重新找到一个合适的工作岗位的希望很渺茫。

7 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

8 contemplate   

vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视

参考例句：

• The possibility of war is too horrifying to contemplate.战争的可能性太可怕了，真不堪细想。
• The consequences would be too ghastly to contemplate.后果不堪设想。

9 bass   

n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴

参考例句：

• He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
• The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。