〈 職人英語通〉放鴿子！Stand someone up！

文／Dr.J.J.

據說中文裡常說的「放鴿子」，是跟鴿子的回巢本能有關。早幾年，有些惡質的客運司機，常還沒到目的地就把乘客放下來，如同放鴿子般，讓乘客自己解決回去的問題。

不過，英文裡形容放別人鴿子，則是用”stand someone up!”來表示，意指讓別人在某個地方苦苦地站著等人，也就是中文裡常說的放鴿子囉！

Larry：From now on, don’ t even talk to me. We’ re not friends anymore.

Larry：從現在開始不要跟我說話。我們不再是朋友了。

Coco：Oh please! I know I shouldn’ t have forgot about the appointment with you.

I didn’ t mean it at all.

Coco：不要這樣嘛，我知道我不該忘了我們的約會。我不是故意的。

Larry：Sunday morning with the pouring rain! I was waiting outside of the MRT station like a fool…

Larry：禮拜天早上下著傾盆大雨，我在捷運站外面像個傻子似的苦苦等候…。

Coco：I didn’ t know it would rain so heavily that day.

Coco：我不知道那天會下那麼大的雨嘛。

Larry：I even cancelled my usual lunch with my family and You Stood Me Up!

Larry：我甚至為了你取消跟家人的午餐，結果你竟然放我鴿子！

Coco：No, I didn’ t! Well, I did, but I didn’ t mean it. You know how forgetful I can be sometimes. Please give me one more chance to make it up.

Coco：不，我沒有！我是說，有啦，但我真的不是故意的，你知道我有時候真的很健忘嘛。再給我一次彌補的機會啦。

Larry：Don’ t even think about it.

Larry：想都不要想。

Coco：Well, I know I don’ t deserve a genuine friend like you. Let me just give these 2 baseball tickets to others. They are useless now anyway.

Coco：好吧，我知道我是不配有個像你這麼真誠的朋友，那我還是把這2張棒球賽的門票給別人好了。反正現在也用不到了。

Larry：Baseball tickets?

Larry：棒球賽的門票？

Coco：Yes, for this Saturday’ s match.

Coco：是啊，這個禮拜六的比賽。

Larry：Well, if you promise never to do that again to me, I’ ll forgive you for the last time….

Larry：嗯，如果你保證下次不再犯的話，我就當這是最後一次原諒你囉…。

自由時報-970313

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