【英语语言学习】穆斯林文化中的讽刺手法

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Can't they take a joke? That question came up after the Danish cartoon controversy¹ about 10 years ago and now again after the massacres² in Paris. The suspected killers³ reflect just a minority of extreme religious fanatics⁴ but the question made NPR's Neda Ulaby wonder about the role of satire⁵ in the Muslim world.

NEDA ULABY, BYLINE⁶: First let's establish that saying the Muslim world is like saying the Christian⁷ world, or Africa. We're talking 1.5 billion people all over the globe - different races, ethnicities, languages, who believe different things. That said, I asked a religion professor, Bruce Lawrence at Duke University, about Muslim traditions of satire.

BRUCE LAWRENCE: I've been studying the Muslim world for I guess now almost half a century. And one of my heroes has always been a ninth-century literary figure called al-Jahiz.

ULABY: In a golden era for Islamic music, art and science, al-Jahiz studied everything from zoology⁸ to literary theory. He wrote merciless social satires⁹. He was also famously ugly.

LAWRENCE: He could satire himself as somebody who was very unattractive, and yet he could make fun of the rock stars of his generation in Baghdad, which was the capital city of the Muslim world in that time.

ULABY: And al-Jahiz remains¹⁰, says Lawrence, a beloved figure in Islamic literature.

LAWRENCE: It was not because he recorded the glories of Islam, it was he poked¹¹ fun at contemporaries, at his coreligionists, at anybody who seemed to him to have too great a sense of self-importance, whatever their station in life.

ULABY: Which feels relevant to a Sunni stand-up comedian¹² working in Chicago today. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

AZHAR USMAN: What's up with the Arabs these days? They don't say (speaking Arabic), they all say (speaking Arabic). This is not Arabic, by the way - this is Arabonics (ph).

(LAUGHTER)

ULABY: Azhar Usman, who comes from India, says his comedy heroes are Richard Pryor, George Carlin and a 13th-century Sufi saint named Mullah Nasreddin.[POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: The audio of this story incorrectly states that Azhar Usman is from India. In fact, Usman's family is from India. He was born and raised in the U.S.]

USMAN: He's almost like an Andy Kaufman type of personality.

ULABY: Usman says there's a famous story about a time Mullah Nasreddin led Friday prayers. He asked the congregation, how many of you know what I'm going to say?

USMAN: Nobody raised their hand. So he said, well, what can I say to a bunch of people who have no idea what I'm going to say? (Laughter). And he leaves.

ULABY: The people coax¹³ him to come back.

USMAN: So they say, oh, no, no, please, please, please - we promise we'll be more cooperative.

ULABY: So Mullah Nasreddin asks again, how many of you know what I'm going to say? This time everybody raises their hands.

USMAN: And he says, well, what am I supposed to say to group of people that already know what I'm going to say? (Laughter). And he leaves. So finally they coax him back - oh, please don't leave, you know, we want to hear your wisdom - whatever. So he finally gets up a third time and says, OK, how many of you know what I'm going to say?

ULABY: Half the crowd raises their hands. The other half doesn't.

USMAN: So he says, well, the half that know what I'm going to say should tell the half that don't know what I'm going to say. (Laughter).

ULABY: Satirizing¹⁴ yourself in your own community is a tradition in Muslim literature and arts, says scholar Bruce Lawrence. So is mocking people in power.

LAWRENCE: Political satirists are among the boldest people in the Arab and the Muslim world.

ULABY: People like Bassem Youssef. He's known as the Egyptian Jon Stewart.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BASSEM YOUSSEF: (Speaking foreign language).

(LAUGHTER)

YOUSSEF: (Speaking foreign language).

(LAUGHTER)

ULABY: Youssef's satire took aim at politicians and the Muslim Brotherhood¹⁵. His show lasted two years. Bruce Lawrence says there's also a strong tradition of political cartoonists in the Muslim world, like Syria's Ali Farzat. His hands were broken in retaliation¹⁶ for his cartoons mocking President Bashar al-Assad.

LAWRENCE: And then did a cartoon of himself in a hospital bed, showing that even with his hands bandaged he could still manage to say some things against the regime.

ULABY: Farzat was attacked for his politics, not religion. Lawrence says for devout¹⁷ Muslims, satirizing people is fine, but not religious figures seen as existing on a higher plane - God, Muhammad or anyone else who counts as a saint or prophet.

LAWRENCE: So you have 122,000 prophets.

ULABY: Including Adam, Moses and the Virgin¹⁸ Mary. Muslim comedian Azhar Usman says, sure, maintaining a bright line between what's holy and what's profane¹⁹ runs counter to a comedic credo that holds nothing sacred. I asked if it's also fundamentally oppositional²⁰ to universal values that Westerners hold dear.

USMAN: I think that that is exactly right. I think that's the honest discourse²¹ that I wish we could have in the world.

ULABY: Usman says he greets offensive depictions of saints, prophets and God with forgiveness. And, he notes, if you harshly judge what counts as satire from a rigid²² cultural perspective, you've learned almost nothing from the Charlie Hebdo tragedy.

1 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

2 massacres   

大屠杀( massacre的名词复数 )； 惨败

参考例句：

• The time is past for guns and killings and massacres. 动不动就用枪、动不动就杀、大规模屠杀的时代已经过去了。 来自教父部分
• Numberless recent massacres were still vivid in their recollection. 近来那些不可胜数的屠杀，在他们的头脑中记忆犹新。

3 killers   

凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事

参考例句：

• He remained steadfast in his determination to bring the killers to justice. 他要将杀人凶手绳之以法的决心一直没有动摇。
• They were professional killers who did in John. 杀死约翰的这些人是职业杀手。

4 fanatics   

狂热者，入迷者( fanatic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The heathen temple was torn down by a crowd of religions fanatics. 异教徒的神殿被一群宗教狂热分子拆除了。
• Placing nukes in the hands of baby-faced fanatics? 把核弹交给一些宗教狂热者手里？

5 satire   

n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品

参考例句：

• The movie is a clever satire on the advertising industry.那部影片是关于广告业的一部巧妙的讽刺作品。
• Satire is often a form of protest against injustice.讽刺往往是一种对不公正的抗议形式。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

8 zoology   

n.动物学，生态

参考例句：

• I would like to brush up my zoology.我想重新温习一下动物学。
• The library didn't stock zoology textbooks.这家图书馆没有动物学教科书。

9 satires   

讽刺，讥讽( satire的名词复数 )； 讽刺作品

参考例句：

• Some of Aesop's Fables are satires. 《伊索寓言》中有一些是讽刺作品。
• Edith Wharton continued writing her satires of the life and manners of the New York aristocracy. 伊迪丝·沃顿继续写讽刺纽约贵族生活和习俗的作品。

10 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

11 poked   

v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交

参考例句：

• She poked him in the ribs with her elbow. 她用胳膊肘顶他的肋部。
• His elbow poked out through his torn shirt sleeve. 他的胳膊从衬衫的破袖子中露了出来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

13 coax   

v.哄诱，劝诱，用诱哄得到，诱取

参考例句：

• I had to coax the information out of him.我得用好话套出他掌握的情况。
• He tried to coax the secret from me.他试图哄骗我说出秘方。

14 satirizing   

v.讽刺，讥讽( satirize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• River morals " is novel satirizing the knight novel. " 《堂吉河德》是一部讽刺骑士小说的小说。 来自互联网
• Marlows delights in excesses, until sometimes he seems to be satirizing his own manner. 马洛老爱走极端，直到他有时嘲笑自己的态度。 来自互联网

15 brotherhood   

n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊

参考例句：

• They broke up the brotherhood.他们断绝了兄弟关系。
• They live and work together in complete equality and brotherhood.他们完全平等和兄弟般地在一起生活和工作。

16 retaliation   

n.报复，反击

参考例句：

• retaliation against UN workers 对联合国工作人员的报复
• He never said a single word in retaliation. 他从未说过一句反击的话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 devout   

adj.虔诚的，虔敬的，衷心的 (n.devoutness)

参考例句：

• His devout Catholicism appeals to ordinary people.他对天主教的虔诚信仰感染了普通民众。
• The devout man prayed daily.那位虔诚的男士每天都祈祷。

18 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。

19 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。

20 oppositional   

反对的，对抗的

参考例句：

• I wish to forcefully grasp fragile and entirely oppositional poles, allowing them to coexist. 我想要强押起脆弱的、完全相斥的两端，让他们共存。
• Robot Soccer game is an international and high-tech oppositional activity that develops rapidly in recent years. 机器人足球比赛是近年来在国际上迅速开展起来的高技术对抗活动。

21 discourse   

n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述

参考例句：

• We'll discourse on the subject tonight.我们今晚要谈论这个问题。
• He fell into discourse with the customers who were drinking at the counter.他和站在柜台旁的酒客谈了起来。

22 rigid   

adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的

参考例句：

• She became as rigid as adamant.她变得如顽石般的固执。
• The examination was so rigid that nearly all aspirants were ruled out.考试很严，几乎所有的考生都被淘汰了。