即兴的西方俏皮话
古人的智慧对文明总是大有裨益。在电视情景喜剧、纽约式的机智问答和即兴的单句俏皮话大行其道的时代,现代意义上的西方智慧更像是一出美国情景喜剧( American sitcom)里对白之类的东西。以下是近来在西方社会流传的一些具有代表性的单句睿语:
① I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow is not looking good either.我每天只能取悦一个人。今天轮不到你。明天看上去也不太妙。
② On the keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape key.在生活的键盘上,始终要把一个手指按在“退出”键上。
③ Everybody is somebody else’s weirdo.每个人在别人眼中都是怪物。
④ When confronted by a difficult problem you can solve it more easily by reducing it to the question “ How would adventure star Indiana Jones handle this?”
碰到难题时,把它简化成这样一个问题——“惊险片明星印第安纳·琼斯会怎样处理?”
——你就能比较容易地解决它了。