陳昕妤的部落格

The Metamorphosis

morph →  變形

The Metamorphosis is a novella by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. It has been called one of the seminal works of fiction of the 20th century and is studied in colleges and universities across the Western world.

The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed (metamorphosed) into a large, monstrous insect-like creature. The cause of Gregor's transformation is never revealed, and Kafka himself never gave an explanation. The rest of Kafka's novella deals with Gregor's attempts to adjust to his new condition as he deals with being burdensome to his parents and sister, who are repelled by the horrible, verminous creature Gregor has become.

 

Apollo and Daphne

（桂冠詩人故事的由來）

Apollo, one of the most powerful gods and a great warrior, mocked the god of love, Eros (Cupid), for his use of bow and arrow, saying, “What are you doing with powerful weapons naughty boy?”; “that equipment of yours are fitting my shoulders, which are able to give certain wounds to the wild animals, and to the enemies, which recently killed the swollen Python with countless arrows, the Python who was pressing down so many acres with his disease bearing stomach! You will be content to provoke some loves by your fire, not to claim my honors.”

The insulted Eros then prepared two arrows, one of gold and one of lead. To incite hatred, he shot both through the heart- the nymph, Daphne, with the leaden shaft to incite hatred and shot Apollo with the golden one to incite love. Apollo was seized with love for the maiden Daphne and she, in turn, abhorred him. Having taken after Apollo’s sister, Diana, Daphne had spurned her many potential lovers, preferring instead woodland sports and exploring the forest. Due to her identity as an “"aemula Phoebes” (female rival or emulator of Diana), she had dedicated herself to perpetual virginity. Her father, the river god Peneus, demanded that she get married and give him grandchildren. She, however, beseeched her father to let her remain unmarried; he eventually complied.

Apollo continually followed her, begging her to stay, but the nymph continued her flight. They were evenly matched in the race until Eros intervened, helping Apollo catch up to Daphne. Seeing that Apollo was bound to reach her, she called upon her father, "Help me, Peneus! Open the earth to enclose me, or change my form, which has brought me into this danger! Let me be free of this man from this moment forward!" And with Peneus answering her plea, “a heavy numbness seizes her limbs; her soft breasts are surrounded by a thin bark, her hair changes into foliage, her forearms change into branches; her foot, just now swift, now clings because of sluggish roots.”

As a result of Daphne’s refusal of Apollo’s desire, he vowed to always have her present wherever he is; “Always my hair will have you,my lyres will have you, my quivers will have you, laurel tree. You will be present to two Latin places, when the happy voice will sing a triumph and they will visit the great ceremonies at the Capitoline Hill.”

Apollo also used his powers of eternal youth and immortality to render her ever green. For this reason, the leaves of the Bay laurel tree are known to not decay.

 

poet laureate

In ancient Greece, the laurel was used to form a crown or wreath of honour for poets and heroes.

A poet laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, who is often expected to compose poems for special events and occasions.

 

Gothic cathedral

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture. Originating in 12th-century France and lasting into the 16th century, Gothic architecture was known during the period as Opus Francigenum("French work") with the term Gothic first appearing during the later part of the Renaissance. Its characteristics include the pointed arch, the ribbed vault and the flying buttress. Gothic architecture is most familiar as the architecture of many of the great cathedrals, abbeys and churches of Europe. It is also the architecture of many castles, palaces, town halls, guild halls, universities and to a less prominent extent, private dwellings, such as dorms and rooms.

  

grot → twisted (擬聲字) grotesque → a style of decorative art characterized by fanciful or fantastic human and animal forms often interwoven with foliage or similar figures that may distort the natural into absurdity, ugliness, or caricature(形容哥德式建築，都會出現扭曲的聖獸)

 

Jone Donne

John Donne was an English poet and a cleric in the Church of England. He is considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets.

 

Forbidding Mourning

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; 
It tolls for thee.

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Metaphysical conceit

In English literature the term is generally associated with the 17th century metaphysical poets, an extension of contemporary usage. The metaphysical conceit differs from an extended analogy in the sense that it does not have a clear-cut relationship between the things being compared.  Helen Gardner observed that "a conceit is a comparison whose ingenuity is more striking than its justness" and that "a comparison becomes a conceit when we are made to concede likeness while being strongly conscious of unlikeness." An example of the latter occurs in John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", in which a couple faced with absence from each other is likened to a compass.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

For Whom the Bell Tolls is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1940. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to a republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. As a dynamiter, he is assigned to blow up a bridge during an attack on the city of Segovia. The novel is regarded as one of Hemingway's best works, along with The Sun Also Rises, The Old Man and the Sea, and A Farewell to Arms.

 

bell → war, for example, rebellion

3D(產業)

→ Dangerous, Dirty, Difficult

Vocabulary and word

mock → make fun of, laugh at

voc → to call, for example, provocative, 這個詞若是拿來形容女生，就是那種很驚艷會讓人有性慾的

clod → 擬聲字, 土塊泥塊

conceit → too much pride in your own worth or goodness; an idea that shows imagination

yri → 廟

hemo → blood, for example, hemocyte(血細胞)

roar → 擬聲字, for example, uproar(歡聲雷動)

pre, pre → 主要的，首要的, for example, premier(行政院長)

offender → One who offends; one who violates any law, divine or human; a wrongdoer.

defender → one that defends(被告)

be germane to → relevant

man → hand, for example, manual

mourn → 哀悼, for example, mourning

bull's eye → 正中靶心，在題目裡的意思是被殺死的

 venerate → 對凡人最高的崇敬

authority → the power to give orders or make decisions; the power or right to direct or control someone or something; the confident quality of someone who knows a lot about something or who is respected or obeyed by other people; a quality that makes something seem true or real 懂字的人才有權利

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