又中又英 | Age like milk | 褚简宁

　　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是一个人所共知的习语，人们用这个习语来表达他们不相信承诺，因为那些许诺的人很少会遵守诺言。政客在选举活动期间会作出种种承诺，去给选民留下好印象，但他们的承诺大多都age like milk。食物专家总是建议人将牛奶放进雪柜冷藏，因为没有冷藏的牛奶只消数小时便会滋生细菌，饮用会有风险。因此习语age like milk是指某事迅速变坏、变质；但它也可以用来形容其他经不起时间考验的事物。

　　说承诺像牛奶般变质（age like milk），意思是说这些本来看似真诚和新鲜的承诺，若不能遵守或兑现，很快就会变得毫无意义。那些被影评人严厉批评（panned by critics）的电影，也像牛奶般迅速变坏（age like milk），不能撑多久。若一套电影是panned by critics，意即那些知名的影评人，例如在各大报章工作的影评人，都给予电影很差的评价。亚马逊公司在一套纪录片《梅拉尼亚》上投资了差不多7500万，包括3500万做营销，而电影是关于美国总统当劳．特朗普之妻。它很快就被影评人猛烈抨击（panned by critics）。我不知道纪录片会否像牛奶般不能持久（age like milk），因为它才刚刚上映。

　　Age like milk的相反是age like fine wine。廉价的酒如果存放太久，也可以像牛奶般变坏（age like milk）。然而fine wine，即昂贵且罕有的优质名庄酒，若存放得宜，经过岁月洗礼后味道和质素反能提升，这些陈年佳酿就是age like fine wine而非age like milk了。

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Michael Chugani褚简宁
中译：七刻