又中又英 | Age like milk | 褚簡寧

　　Promises are made to be broken is a well-known expression. People who use this expression don’t believe in promises because those who make promises seldom keep them. Politicians make a lot of promises during election campaigns to impress voters but most of their promises age like milk. Food experts always advise people to refrigerate milk because unrefrigerated milk will become bacteria-infected and risky to use after several hours. The expression “age like milk” therefore means something that goes bad very quickly. But it can also be used to describe other things that do not age well.

　　Promises that age like milk means such promises seem genuine and fresh initially but become useless quickly if they are not kept. Movies that are panned by critics can also age like milk and won’t last long. If a movie is panned by critics, it means well-known movie critics, such as those who work for major newspapers, give the movie a negative rating. Amazon invested about US$75 million, including US$35 million in marketing, for the documentary named Melania about the wife of US President Donald Trump. It was quickly panned by critics. I don’t know if the documentary will age like milk because it has just been released.

　　The opposite of age like milk is age like fine wine. Inexpensive wines can age like milk if kept for too long. But fine wine, which means expensive and rare wines, improves in taste and quality over a long time if properly stored. They age like fine wine, not age like milk.

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　　Promises are made to be broken是一個人所共知的習語，人們用這個習語來表達他們不相信承諾，因為那些許諾的人很少會遵守諾言。政客在選舉活動期間會作出種種承諾，去給選民留下好印象，但他們的承諾大多都age like milk。食物專家總是建議人將牛奶放進雪櫃冷藏，因為沒有冷藏的牛奶只消數小時便會滋生細菌，飲用會有風險。因此習語age like milk是指某事迅速變壞、變質；但它也可以用來形容其他經不起時間考驗的事物。

　　說承諾像牛奶般變質（age like milk），意思是說這些本來看似真誠和新鮮的承諾，若不能遵守或兌現，很快就會變得毫無意義。那些被影評人嚴厲批評（panned by critics）的電影，也像牛奶般迅速變壞（age like milk），不能撑多久。若一套電影是panned by critics，意即那些知名的影評人，例如在各大報章工作的影評人，都給予電影很差的評價。亞馬遜公司在一套紀錄片《梅拉尼亞》上投資了差不多7500萬，包括3500萬做營銷，而電影是關於美國總統當勞．特朗普之妻。它很快就被影評人猛烈抨擊（panned by critics）。我不知道紀錄片會否像牛奶般不能持久（age like milk），因為它才剛剛上映。

　　Age like milk的相反是age like fine wine。廉價的酒如果存放太久，也可以像牛奶般變壞（age like milk）。然而fine wine，即昂貴且罕有的優質名莊酒，若存放得宜，經過歲月洗禮後味道和質素反能提升，這些陳年佳釀就是age like fine wine而非age like milk了。

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Michael Chugani褚簡寧
中譯：七刻