受苏联文学的影响，说具体一点，受高尔基散文诗的影响，当今中文世界里，海燕被看作是值得学习的榜样，“海燕”这个词在中国人心目中的形象是：一只孤零零的小鸟，冒着风雨，英勇顽强地在大海上飞翔。
许多中国年轻人想象着把自己比作海燕，不畏艰难险阻，不屈不挠，在茫茫人海中不断拼搏，奋勇前进。
海燕时常被少年写进日记里，时常在青年的作品中掠过，也时常被用作商品的商标。
然而，当中国人发现西方人对海燕完全缺乏尊重时，他们真是会惊掉下巴！1976年出版的《朗曼现代英语词典》中说：暴风雨中的海燕是“灾难、纠纷、暴力的预兆”，是“幸灾乐祸的人”。
由此可见，在中西方文化里，关于海燕的联想，差别有多大！
Due to the influence of the Soviet literature, to be more specific, of Gorky's prose poetry, the petrel in present-day Chinese culture is a bird to be emulated. The mental image that the term evokes is a small lonely bird winging over the vast ocean — braving storms and flying with stamina and courage.
Many Chinese young people in their moments of fantasy compare themselves to the petrel, struggling to get ahead in the vast world of humanity, braving hardships and adversity, advancing with perseverance and courage.
The petrel emerges in many juvenile diaries, flits in and out of youthful fictional writings, and appears as the trade mark for a number of products in China.
What a blow it is, then, to discover how little respect Westerners have for the bird. A stormy petrel is "a person regarded as a herald of trouble, strife or violence or someone who delights in such trouble, etc.”, according to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE 1976).
What a difference is the association of the petrel in Chinese and Western culture!
网友评论