前天看见武老师说“开心的事”，接着也学了几句Updike，特别是下面几行：

For the manis maternally kind and with a smile hugs to himself his jewel, his certainty ofbeing victimized; it is the mother whose tongue is sharp, who sometimesstrikes. “Well, he gets you out of the house, and I guess that's gold to you.”His answer is “Duty calls,” pronounced minc-ingly. “The social contract is abalance of compromises.”

父亲有点儿“娘”，自己受委屈也甘之若饴（his jewel= his certainty of being victimized），certainty似乎更说他天生一个受气包。但是母亲不同，两个从句并列而递进，两个词也应该自然而连贯，sharpand strikes——从这个角度看，strikes应该是随sharp而来，是以“毒舌”为工具，那么“出口伤人”似乎比“动手打人”更自然。这种简单而多义的不及物的动词，是翻译中常遇到的小麻烦，我想最好凭第一感觉去理解（动口和动手都是这样的）；一旦多想，就可能像舌头罢工那样跑偏了。

  Updike用sharp说“毒舌”或说话的例子还能找到一些，如Rabbit is Rich中有一句，也是父母对比的：“Your father now was a good worker, who never gave himself airs, butyour mother I must confess I never could abide. A sharp tongue, in a plain body.”如果Up习惯了用舌头，大概会忘了动手吧。