評論
打印
Lev: It's said we are going to have a day off next week because of the Dragon Boat Festival. What is it?
萊芙：據說下周因為端午節我們要放假一天，端午節是怎么回事啊？
Yao: Oh, that's a very old tradition. Dragon Boat Festival has a history of over 2000 years. Allegedly it's to commemorate the great poet Qu Yuan in the Warring State Period.
姚：端午節是個非常古老的傳統節日，有兩千多年的歷史呢。據說這一節日是為了紀念戰國時期偉大的詩人屈原。
Lev: A day to honor a poet?
萊芙：一位詩人的紀念日？
Yao: Yes. He was a statesman too. And after he was banished by his King when he fell out of favor, this very poet wrote a long poem named Li Sao, meaning 'the lament' and other series of poems which are still classics. After hearing that the capital of his country was breached by the enemy, he drowned himself in the river on the fifth of May.
姚：是的，而且他還是個政治家。他在失去君王的寵信后遭到流放，寫了一首名為《離騷》的哀歌長詩以及其他系列詩作，如今這些詩已被奉為經典。聽說本國都城被敵國所破，他在五月初五這天投河而死。
Lev: That's tragic.
萊芙：好悲慘。
Yao: So people rowed dragon boats up and down the river to look for his body, and this has become dragon boat racing today. Also, to prevent his body from being eaten by fish in the river, they threw glutinous rice into it.
姚：于是人們劃著龍舟沿河打撈他的尸體，就成了現在的賽龍舟。而且為了不讓他的尸體被河中的魚啃食，人們還往其中投入糯米。
Lev: Do they still do that nowadays?
萊芙：現在他們還會這樣做嗎？
Yao: No, but we eat a kind of dumpling with glutinous rice in it, in the shape of a pyramid called "zongzi".
姚：現在不會了，但是我們會吃糯米餡的，形狀像金字塔的粽子。
