又中又英——Until hell freezes over
Michael Chugani 褚简宁
2021-04-29 04:17 HKT
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Some religions, particularly the Christian religion which follows the Bible, believe there is a Heaven and Hell. At the end of the world, God will decide who goes to Heaven and who goes to Hell, including those who have already died. Heaven is where good people will go and Hell is where bad people go to suffer. Many people think of Hell as a place of intense fire. I thought about Heaven and Hell last week after watching the TV news about the funeral of Daunte Wright. He was a 20-year-old African American shot dead by a policewoman during a traffic stop. The policewoman said she had intended to use her Taser but mistakenly used her gun instead.
A Taser is a weapon that does not kill but gives people a small electric shock that makes them unable to move for a while. There have been several recent cases of police officers shooting dead African Americans. It has become a big racial issue in the US. During the funeral, a civil rights leader angrily said if African Americans don’t fight for their children, no one else will. He said “We have to fight for our children until hell freezes over”. If you say you will do something “until hell freezes over” it means you will do it forever because it is almost impossible to do.
The expression is first believed to have appeared in print in 1919 when the American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald used it. The reason why “until hell freezes over” means doing something forever or doing something that is impossible to do is because Hell can never freeze. But Hell can never freeze only if you believe there is a Hell and that it is a place of intense fire. Some people believe Hell is a very cold place where God sends people to suffer although there are some references in the Bible of Hell being like a furnace, which means a container heated to a very high temperature to melt things like metal.
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一些宗教，尤其是信奉《圣经》的基督教，相信有天堂和地狱。在世界末了之时，神会裁决谁上天堂，谁下地狱，包括那些已死之人。天堂是好人会去的地方，地狱是坏人会去受苦的地方。许多人认为地狱是个燃烧着熊熊烈火之处。上星期，当我看到电视新闻报道丹特‧莱特的丧礼时，就想到了天堂与地狱。他是一个二十岁的非裔美国人，在一次交通截查期间被一名女警员枪杀。那名女警说她本想用她的泰瑟（Taser），却错误拔了手枪射击。
A Taser就是电击枪，会发出少量电流，令被攻击的人在短时间内不能郁动，但并不致命。近期有好几宗警员枪杀非裔美国人的案件，演变成美国很大的种族议题。在丧礼上，一名民权领袖愤怒地说，若非裔美国人不为自己的子女抗争，没有其他人会为他们争取的了。他说：「我们必须为我们的子女抗争，直至地狱结冰为止（until hell freezes over）。」若你说你会做某事“until hell freezes over”，意即你会永远做这件事，直到天荒地老，因为那是近乎不可能办到的事。
人们相信这个习语首先见刊于一九一九年，由美国小说家史考特‧费兹杰罗所用。“Until hell freezes over”解作永远持续地做某事，或做一样不可能达成的事，是因为地狱永不可能结冰。但唯有你相信有地狱，而且那是烧着熊熊烈火的地方，那地狱才会永不结冰。一些人相信，地狱是个非常寒冷的地方，神会将人送到那里受苦，即使《圣经》里有些篇章提及地狱时，会将之形容为 furnace，就是用非常高的温度来铸熔金属的熔炉或火窰。
中译:七刻
Michael Chugani 褚简宁
A Taser is a weapon that does not kill but gives people a small electric shock that makes them unable to move for a while. There have been several recent cases of police officers shooting dead African Americans. It has become a big racial issue in the US. During the funeral, a civil rights leader angrily said if African Americans don’t fight for their children, no one else will. He said “We have to fight for our children until hell freezes over”. If you say you will do something “until hell freezes over” it means you will do it forever because it is almost impossible to do.
The expression is first believed to have appeared in print in 1919 when the American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald used it. The reason why “until hell freezes over” means doing something forever or doing something that is impossible to do is because Hell can never freeze. But Hell can never freeze only if you believe there is a Hell and that it is a place of intense fire. Some people believe Hell is a very cold place where God sends people to suffer although there are some references in the Bible of Hell being like a furnace, which means a container heated to a very high temperature to melt things like metal.
＊＊＊＊＊
一些宗教，尤其是信奉《圣经》的基督教，相信有天堂和地狱。在世界末了之时，神会裁决谁上天堂，谁下地狱，包括那些已死之人。天堂是好人会去的地方，地狱是坏人会去受苦的地方。许多人认为地狱是个燃烧着熊熊烈火之处。上星期，当我看到电视新闻报道丹特‧莱特的丧礼时，就想到了天堂与地狱。他是一个二十岁的非裔美国人，在一次交通截查期间被一名女警员枪杀。那名女警说她本想用她的泰瑟（Taser），却错误拔了手枪射击。
A Taser就是电击枪，会发出少量电流，令被攻击的人在短时间内不能郁动，但并不致命。近期有好几宗警员枪杀非裔美国人的案件，演变成美国很大的种族议题。在丧礼上，一名民权领袖愤怒地说，若非裔美国人不为自己的子女抗争，没有其他人会为他们争取的了。他说：「我们必须为我们的子女抗争，直至地狱结冰为止（until hell freezes over）。」若你说你会做某事“until hell freezes over”，意即你会永远做这件事，直到天荒地老，因为那是近乎不可能办到的事。
人们相信这个习语首先见刊于一九一九年，由美国小说家史考特‧费兹杰罗所用。“Until hell freezes over”解作永远持续地做某事，或做一样不可能达成的事，是因为地狱永不可能结冰。但唯有你相信有地狱，而且那是烧着熊熊烈火的地方，那地狱才会永不结冰。一些人相信，地狱是个非常寒冷的地方，神会将人送到那里受苦，即使《圣经》里有些篇章提及地狱时，会将之形容为 furnace，就是用非常高的温度来铸熔金属的熔炉或火窰。
中译:七刻
Michael Chugani 褚简宁
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