文
man-4
Essay
好意不就是好事
高思明的女朋友姓白，是一位很好看的小
姐。高先生很喜歡她。他們每天做完事就在一塊兒談話，吃飯，也到過很多地方玩。誰都知道他們是很好的朋
友。
還有一天就是白小姐二十歲的生日了，高思明打算送一樣東
西給她。他知道她很喜歡花，所以他就到賣花的鋪
子買了二十枝很好看很香的花，寫了幾個字
說：「每一枝花就是你可愛的年歲」，請賣花的人第二天早上送去給她。賣花的人是思明的朋友，
思明以前請他吃過幾次
飯，他很想送一點甚麼東西給他。所以他就想：明天我多送一打花去吧。
第二天，白小姐一見了那些花，那些字，就很生氣，不再跟思明做朋友。思明想來想去都
不明白為甚麼，你們
知道嗎﹖
characters: 273
翻譯
fan-1 yik-9
Translation
Goh Si Ming's girlfriend's is
Miss Bak. She is
very good-looking, and Mr. Goh likes her very much. Everyday
immediately after work
they meet, talk, have dinner, and even spend time travelling around
together.
Everyone knows they are good friends.
As Miss Bak's birthday is just around the corner, Go Sih Ming decides
to send her a gift.
He knows she likes flowers, so he goes to
a flower shop, purchases twenty stems of beautiful, fragrant
flowers, and writes the following note: "One stem for each adorable
year". He then asks the florist to deliver the flowers to Miss Bak on
the following
morning. As Sih Ming has invited the florist
to dinner on several occasions, they are friends, and the florist would
like to do something nice for his friend. So, he thinks: "Tomorrow I
will have an additional dozen flowers delivered".
On the following day Miss Bak sees the flowers
and note, flies into a rage, and refuses to make
friends with Sih Ming again. Sih Ming thinks long and hard but cannot
figure
out why Miss Bak is so angry. Can you? (Hint!)
words: 183
Notes
Note 1: 一位（jat-7 wai-6）is the polite form of
一個（jat-7 go-3） and means one person.
Note 2: 談話 (tam-4 wah-6) means to talk or chat.
Note 3: The phrase 到過很多地方
玩 has been rendered here as "spend time travelling around". 到過
apparently means to visit in the sense of going to a place for a short
time and them moving on. Notice that it takes the form 到過Ａ where Ａis an
accusative object of place. 玩 is rendered as spending time. In
other words, they spend time visiting many places.
Note 4: The phrase 誰
都知道 appears to mean "no matter who it is, he or she knows".
Note 5: 還有一天就是白小姐二十歲的生日了，高思明打算送一樣東西給她。In order
to understand this sentence it may be useful to consider the following
two base patterns: one, 就Ｂ了，Ａ打算Ｃ, where Ｃ is something that Ａ plans to
do, because Ｂ is about to occur; and two, 還有一天是Ａ的日 where Ａ的日 is the day
一天 that has yet to take place 還有. From these two base patterns a new
base pattern is obtained -- namely, 還有一天就是Ｂ了 where Ｂ is Miss Bak's
twentieth birthday which is about to take place.
The meaning of 一樣 in the phrase 送一樣東西給她 is not
clear.
Note 6: 就到（dzau-6 dou-3）- 就 probably functions here as an adverb
indicating that as soon as he thought about giving flowers to Miss Bak
he went to the flower shop. Thus, 就到 is probably not a compound verb.
Note 7: 買了（mai-5 liu-5）- In this case 了 probably indicates the past
perfect tense of the verb 買, thus indicating what Sih Ming
accomplished after he arrived at the florist shop.
Note 8: 枝（dzi-1）- This appears to be the counter for a stem of flowers.
Sih Ming buys 20 stems of flowers -- one for each year of Miss Bak's
age.
Note 9: 幾個（gei-2 go-3）- Apparently when used with a counter 幾 means "a
few" or "several". In this case the counter is 個, and 字（dzi-6）are what
is counted. As a few characters written on a piece of paper are a note,
it has been thus rendered.
Note 10: 第二天（dai-6 ji-6 tin-1）Here "the second day" means "the day
after" or "the following day".
Note 11: 請他吃過幾次飯 （tsing-2 ta-1 hek-8 gwo-3 gei-2 tsi-3 fan-6）- As 次 is
a kind of counter indicating frequency, when used with 幾 it probably
means "several times". See note 9. The compound verb 吃飯 is apparently
separable. The construction 吃過 is common in so far as 過 used in
conjunction with another verb means "to have experienced". In this case
the florist had been invited to eat several times by Sih Ming.
Note 12: 多送一打枝（do-1 ... jat-7...）Used before a verb followed by a
counter the word 多 means that many times more. In this case the counter
is 一 so the additional number of flowers to be delivered is one dozen.
Note 13: 一．．．就．．．（jat-7... dzau-6）Whatever follows 就 occurs
immediately after what follows 一. Consider the following simplification
of the text: Ａ一見了Ｂ，就生氣, which could be translated as "No sooner had she
seen the flowers, she became angry".
Note 14: 想來想去（seong-2 loi-4 seong-2 hoey-3）- Translated literally this
could be to "think coming and think going". It conjures up the image of
someone pacing back and forth. Thus, I have translated it as to "think
long and hard about something".
Hint: : How old would Miss Bak be
according to Mr. Goh's note? (return)
上