Michael Chugani 褚简宁 - happens at lightning speed｜又中又英

The year 2022 seems to have gone by at lightning speed. Christmas is just a few days away, followed by the New Year. No one knows what 2023 will bring. Fortune tellers claim they can predict what 2023 will bring, but to them I say bah humbug!When I was a boy 2023 seemed light years away.Yet it is now less than two weeks away. When something happens at lightning speed,it means it happens very quickly. To me,2022 came and went very quickly. The expression“bah humbug”was famously used by Ebenezer Scrooge,the main character in the novel A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
  Scrooge did not believe in Christmas. When people wished him Merry Christmas, he would say bah humbug!People say it in a rude way to describe something as nonsense. A light year is the distance travelled by light in one year, which is about 5.88 trillion miles. The expression “light years” can also mean a very long time. If you haven’t seen your school friends in a very long time,you can say it’s been light years since you saw your childhood friends. The global pandemic has made the past three years a living hell which,as I explained in my previous column, means an extremely unpleasant situation.
  The world has weathered the storm of the pandemic. To weather the storm means to successfully deal with a very difficult situation. The pandemic infected and killed millions globally. I hope 2023 will be the year when the world finally returns to normal.
＊　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊

二○二二年仿佛以闪电的速度（at lightning speed）过去，还有几天就到圣诞，接着就是新年。没有人知道二○二三年会发生甚么事。算命与堪舆师声称自己能预测二○二三年的事，但我会对他们说：呸，胡扯（bah humbug）！我还是小孩时，二○二三年看似是光年（light years）以外般遥远，可现在只剩两星期就到了。若某事happens at lightning speed，意即它迅速地发生。对我来说，二○二二年来去得非常快。习语“bah humbug”是出自查理斯‧狄更斯所著的小说《圣诞颂歌》，当中的主角艾比尼泽‧史古基所说的一句很有名的话。

史古基并不相信圣诞。当人们祝他圣诞快乐时，他就会说：呸，骗人的玩意（bah humbug）！人们会粗鲁地说这句话，去形容某事是胡说八道。A light year就是光年，即光在一年时间内经过的距离，大约有五点八八兆英里；习语「light years」也可以指很长很长的时间。若你已经许久没有见过你的同学，你可以说：it’s been light years since you saw your childhood friends：对上一次见你的儿时玩伴，已经是很久之前的事了。全球世纪大疫症令过往三年活像个living hell，而正如我在上一篇文章中解释过，那是指非常煎熬的环境，犹如人间地狱。

全世界对于世纪疫症都已 weathered the storm——to weathered the storm是指成功渡过难关，经受得住险峻的困境。这个世纪疫症在全球感染和夺去数以百万人的生命。我希望二○二三年会是全球终于返回正轨的一年。
[email protected]
中译：七刻
Michael Chugani 褚简宁