中英双语新闻——155 Fairy tales return to darker origins

 　　In the first minute of the trailer for Snow White & the Huntsman, evil queen Ravenna, played by Charlize Theron, strips naked, sucks the “youth” out of a teenage girl, and plots to rip Snow White’s heart from her chest.

 

　　影片《白雪公主与猎人》预告片一开头，由查理兹?塞隆饰演的邪恶皇后赤身出镜，吸食一个十几岁女孩的“青春”，并密谋撕裂白雪公主的心脏。

 

　　Given that most people think of Snow White as an innocent girl twirling through a forest, singing about someday her prince will come, this is less a trailer and more a statement of purpose: this story isn’t for children anymore.

 

　　在大部分人的眼中，白雪公主的形象天真烂漫，在森林中翩翩起舞，歌唱着有天白马王子将会到来。鉴于此，这部预告片更像是有意在声明：本故事已然不适合儿童观看。

 

　　Snow White & The Huntsman, a bleak¹ and brutal² film with the tone close to Game of Thrones, is another fairytale film adaptation aimed at adults–after this year’s Mirror Mirror, last year’s Red Riding Hood³, and dozens of other works in the past decade.

 

　　《白雪公主与猎人》是部阴冷而残忍的影片，基调与《权利和游戏》相仿。继《魔镜魔镜》（2012年）、《小红帽 》（2011年）以及过去十年中诞生的许多同类型作品后，该片又是一部适合成年人观看的童话改编电影。

 

　　According to The New York Times, they’re the latest trend “that’s undoing⁴ Disney’s 20th century work of transforming horrifying⁵ folk stories into genial⁶ animated⁷ musicals”.

 

　　《纽约时报》报道称，它们都是时下的银幕风向标，“摒弃了上世纪迪士尼将惊悚民间故事改编成温馨的卡通音乐剧的创作手法”。

 

　　When Disney released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs–the first feature-length cartoon by the company, it set a standard for the contemporary concept of the fairy tale: a whimsical, animated story appropriate enough for the entire family.

 

　　当迪士尼推出首部大银幕动画片《白雪公主和七个小矮人》时，也为当代童话的定义制定了标准：适合全家观看的奇幻动画片。

 

　　However, while the new retellings may seem subversive⁸, they’re actually throwbacks, marking a return to what these tales originally were.

 

　　这些经典翻拍似乎在颠覆原著；但事实上，它们又回归到了故事的本来面目。

 

　　“Fairy tales can never be completely separated from their darker origins,” film critic Scott Meslow wrote for The Atlantic.

 

　　影评家斯科特?麦斯洛在《大西洋》杂志中写道：“童话故事永远都不可能同黑暗起源完全分开。”

 

　　“By contemporary standards, the Grimms’ original stories are packed with violence and sex.”

 

　　“以当代标准来看，格林兄弟的原版故事中充满性与暴力。”

 

　　For example, The Juniper Tree features a stepmother killing⁹ her stepson and serving him to his father in a stew¹⁰, and Darling Roland features a mother-to-daughter axe¹¹ murder.

 

　　例如，在《杜松树》中，母亲杀了继子，拿来煮汤给他的父亲喝；而在《爱人罗兰》中则是一宗母亲想用斧头砍死女儿的谋杀案。

 

　　Meslow added that, if the audience has enough knowledge of the original stories to appreciate how they’re being adapted, twisted fairy tales, such as Snow White & the Huntsman, and TV shows like Grimm and Once Upon a Time, will work better.

 

　　麦斯洛还表示，如果观众熟知原版故事并且懂得去欣赏这些改编电影，那些像《白雪公主与猎人》这样颠覆性的童话故事，以及像《格林兄弟》和《童话镇》这类的电视剧也将会取得更大的成功。

 

　　And it’s a knowledge that contemporary children are getting further and further away from, because they have grown up with more subversive fairy tales, such as Shrek series and Enchanted¹², than actual fairy tales.

 

　　我们都知道现在的孩子们离真实童话越来越远了，因为伴随他们成长的都是像《怪物史莱克》系列和《魔法奇缘》这样变了样的童话故事，而并非真正的童话。

 

　　In many ways, the reverse-sanitization of the fairy tale is a return to the origins of stories that were, in their earliest forms, only “related at adult gatherings¹³ after children had been put to bed for the night”.

 

　　从许多方面看来，童话故事的颠覆性创作其实是还原了故事的本源，不过只适合“孩子入睡后大人们一起来收看了”。

 

　　As adults turn on an episode of Grimm after reading their children to sleep, or see Snow White & the Hunstman while their kids stay at home with a sitter, they’re embracing a concept of the fairy tale that predates even the Grimm Brothers–a trend appropriate enough for the oldest stories of all.

 

　　当大人们给孩子们读故事哄他们入睡后，打开电视看《格林兄弟》时，或将孩子放在家中交予他人看管，而独自去欣赏《白雪公主与狩猎人》时，他们正在接受一种比格林兄弟还要古老的童话故事概念，对于那些古老而悠久的故事而言，这种趋势是再合适不过的了。

1 bleak   

adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的

参考例句：

• They showed me into a bleak waiting room.他们引我来到一间阴冷的会客室。
• The company's prospects look pretty bleak.这家公司的前景异常暗淡。

2 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

3 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

4 undoing   

n.毁灭的原因，祸根；破坏，毁灭

参考例句：

• That one mistake was his undoing. 他一失足即成千古恨。
• This hard attitude may have led to his undoing. 可能就是这种强硬的态度导致了他的垮台。

5 horrifying   

a.令人震惊的，使人毛骨悚然的

参考例句：

• He went to great pains to show how horrifying the war was. 他极力指出战争是多么的恐怖。
• The possibility of war is too horrifying to contemplate. 战争的可能性太可怕了，真不堪细想。

6 genial   

adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的

参考例句：

• Orlando is a genial man.奥兰多是一位和蔼可亲的人。
• He was a warm-hearted friend and genial host.他是个热心的朋友，也是友善待客的主人。

7 animated   

adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的

参考例句：

• His observations gave rise to an animated and lively discussion.他的言论引起了一场气氛热烈而活跃的讨论。
• We had an animated discussion over current events last evening.昨天晚上我们热烈地讨论时事。

8 subversive   

adj.颠覆性的，破坏性的；n.破坏份子，危险份子

参考例句：

• She was seen as a potentially subversive within the party.她被看成党内潜在的颠覆分子。
• The police is investigating subversive group in the student organization.警方正调查学生组织中的搞颠覆阴谋的集团。

9 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

10 stew   

n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑

参考例句：

• The stew must be boiled up before serving.炖肉必须煮熟才能上桌。
• There's no need to get in a stew.没有必要烦恼。

11 axe   

n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减

参考例句：

• Be careful with that sharp axe.那把斧子很锋利，你要当心。
• The edge of this axe has turned.这把斧子卷了刃了。

12 enchanted   

adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• She was enchanted by the flowers you sent her. 她非常喜欢你送给她的花。
• He was enchanted by the idea. 他为这个主意而欣喜若狂。

13 gatherings   

聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集

参考例句：

• His conduct at social gatherings created a lot of comment. 他在社交聚会上的表现引起许多闲话。
• During one of these gatherings a pupil caught stealing. 有一次，其中一名弟子偷窃被抓住。