追憶那些逝去的“沙拉時光”

近兩年似乎很流行追憶青春，影視圈推出了一系列青春題材的作品，而各個年齡段的觀眾也都熱衷于回憶自己的過往時光。在英文中，懵懂的青春時光叫salad days（沙拉時光）。是不是聽著就挺青澀的？

"Salad days" is an idiomatic expression, referring to a youthful time, accompanied by the inexperience, enthusiasm, idealism, innocence, or indiscretion that one associates with a young person. More modern use, especially in the United States, refers to a person's heyday when somebody was at the peak of their abilities—not necessarily in that person's youth.

Salad days（沙拉時光）是一個習(xí)語表達(dá)，指一個人的年輕時代，這個時期一般都伴隨著青澀、熱情、理想主義、天真以及魯莽。這個表達(dá)在美國更現(xiàn)代一些的意思是指一個人能力處于巔峰的時期，而這個時期不一定是他年輕的時候。

The phrase was coined in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra in 1606. In the speech at the end of Act One in which Cleopatra is regretting her youthful dalliances with Julius Caesar, she says: “...My salad days, / When I was green in judgment, cold in blood...”

這個短語由莎士比亞首創(chuàng)，出現(xiàn)在他1606年的作品《安東尼和克利奧帕格拉》中。在第一幕結(jié)尾的獨(dú)白中，克利奧帕格拉在追悔她年輕時與尤利烏斯?愷撒嬉戲調(diào)情的時光，她說：“…我的年輕時光，那時候判斷能力不佳又冷酷無情…”

The phrase became popular only from the middle of the 19th century, coming to mean “a period of youthful inexperience or indiscretion." The metaphor comes from Cleopatra's use of the word 'green' — presumably meaning someone youthful, inexperienced, or immature. Her references to "green in judgment" and "cold in blood" both suggest qualities of salads.

這個短語在19世紀(jì)中葉開始廣泛使用，用來指代“年輕沒經(jīng)驗(yàn)或行事莽撞的時期”。這個比喻大概來自于克利奧帕格拉對green一詞的使用，green（綠色）指年少、缺少經(jīng)驗(yàn)或不成熟的年輕人，而green in judgment和cold in blood都顯示了沙拉的特點(diǎn)。

（中國日報網(wǎng)英語點(diǎn)津 Helen）