PETS－2語法講解(128)

It was about an old man on his deathbed looking back on his life in flashback.
　　對話
　　Graham: I've just seen a really interesting foreign movie.
　　Eliza: Really? Where was it made?
　　Graham: In Iran. I didn't even know it had a movie industry.
　　Eliza: Neither did I. What was it about?
　　Graham: It was about an old man on his deathbed looking back on his life in flashback.
　　Eliza: Sounds a bit depressing.
　　Graham: Not at all, he had had a very exciting life.
　　格雷姆：我剛剛看了一部很精採的外國電影。
　　伊萊澤：是嗎？電影是在哪裡拍的？
　　格雷姆：伊朗。我以前甚至不知道伊朗有電影業。
　　伊萊澤：我也不知道。電影說什麽？
　　格雷姆：電影以倒敘法，述說一個老人臨終躺臥牀上，廻顧自己一生。
　　伊萊澤：聽起來頗爲傷感。
　　格雷姆：一點都不傷感。那老人一生非常多採多姿。
　　電影、小說等有時會用倒敘法，即故事中插入一段往事，這片段叫flashback，是可數名詞；假如指倒敘手法，則作不可數名詞，例如：(1) The hero's life story was told in a series of flashbacks（男主角一生的故事，用倒敘手法一幕一幕的陳述），(2) The events leading to the dictator's downfall were shown in flashback（那*者垮台的經過，是用倒敘手法陳述的）。Flash本是指‘閃耀’，作動詞、名詞都可以。有時，往事突然在腦海中閃現，這就是flashback的原義，動詞是flash back，例如：(1) While strolling in the park, I had a flashback of my father sitting with me on one of the benches many years before（我在公園裡散步，忽然想起多年前，父親和我一起坐在這公園一張長椅上）。(2) My thoughts flashed back to the day when I first met her（我忽然想起和她初相識那一天）。動詞flash back儅然也可以指電影等使用倒敘法；而既有flash back，也就有flash forward，即提前敘述一段日後的事，例如：The movie flashed back/forward to his youth（電影用倒敘手法/預示手法談到他的青年時代）。最後談談on one's deathbed一詞，Deathbed即臨終所臥的牀，所以‘臨終的願望’叫a deathbed wish，‘臨終的懺悔’叫deathbed repentance等，On one's deathbed即‘臥牀將死’，例如：On his deathbed, he made his will（他臨終立了遺囑）。