Chinese Practice
水漲船高
(shui2 zhang3 chuan2 gao1)
Photo: AFP
照片:法新社
when the water level goes up, all boats rise
英文片語a rising tide lifts all boats一般多認為出自美國前總統甘迺迪於一九六三年發表的演講,意指經濟好時,經濟體中所有人皆可受惠。甘迺迪的演講撰稿人泰德索倫森在其後曾表示這個片語並非甘迺迪或他所創,而是他幾年前在一個地方商會的信紙上看到的。甘迺迪在演講上使用了這個片語,但不是這個片語的創始人。
A rising tide lifts all boats這個說法至今已有至少一世紀的歷史,在美國一九一○年代出版的宗教書報中額為常見。這個片語看似源自於某個臨海的漁村,同樣的濱海意境,與在其一千年前出現的中文成語「水漲船高」有異曲同工之妙。
在西元一千○四年,中國宋朝的釋道原撰寫《景德傳燈錄》,記錄了多名禪師與僧人的禪法。書中提及「水長船高,泥多佛大」。「水漲船高」用於形容某人或事物提升後,連帶讓仰賴其的人或事物也跟著提升。而「泥多佛大」亦可單獨使用,意指深穩的根基或支持能造就成功。
(台北時報編譯涂宇安譯)
這名歌手爆紅後,他的樂團身價也水漲船高,現在有多家唱片公司都想要挖角他們。
(After this singer became very popular, his whole band became really famous, too, and now lots of record companies are looking to poach them.)
英文練習
a rising tide lifts all boats
Former US president John F. Kennedy is often credited with the phrase “a rising tide lifts all boats,” from a speech he made in 1963. The phrase is understood to mean that favorable economic conditions will improve the lot of all participants in that economy. His own speechwriter, Ted Sorensen, later debunked the idea that Kennedy — or he himself for that matter — had come up with the phrase, noting that he had seen it on a regional chamber of commerce letterhead some years earlier. Kennedy did use it, but it didn’t originate with him.
There are numerous references to the phrase in print in religious publications dating to the 1910s in the US, making the phrase at least a century old. You would expect it to have originated, perhaps, in a coastal fishing community. A similar mental image certainly occurred to another writer in a different place and at a different time: in China, 1,000 years ago.
During the Song dynasty, in the year 1004AD, the monk Shi Daoyuan published a book called Complete Record of the Transmission of the Lamp, a record of Ch’an (Zen) masters and other prominent Buddhist monks. In it appear the words 「水長船高,泥多佛大」, meaning “when the water rises, the boats are lifted high; the more clay there is, the larger the Buddha [statue]. The idiom 水漲船高 is now used to express the idea that when a person or object advances, so do the people or things that rely on them. Interestingly, the second part of the phrase, 泥多佛大, can be used as an idiom in its own right, a reference to the importance of support for the success of a venture.
(Paul Cooper, Taipei Times)
The growing poverty gap in many countries suggests that a rising tide does not, in fact, lift all boats.
(許多國家的貧富差距都在增大,這顯示整體經濟提升並不會改善所有人的生活。)
Taiwan on Sunday beat Australia 11-3 to advance to the 2024 WBSC Premier12 Super Round, finishing second in Group B to secure a place in the Premier12’s Super Round alongside group winners Japan, as well as the top two teams from Group A, the United States and Venezuela. The 2024 WBSC Premier12 is being co-hosted by Mexico, Taiwan and Japan from Nov. 9 through Nov. 24, featuring the 12 highest-ranked national baseball teams in the world, based on the ranking system of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), baseball’s world governing body, as of the end of 2023. What’s the difference between
The phenomenon known as a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, and all three directly align. In such a situation, the Moon casts its shadow on the Earth and blocks the Sun. To observers on Earth, the Sun may partially or fully vanish, the sky eerily darkens, and the wind may pick up. In ancient civilizations, these events brought on profound fear and bewilderment. For many centuries and millennia, humans speculated about the reasons for what was happening in the sky above them. Without scientific knowledge and sophisticated equipment to analyze solar eclipses, our
Experts agree that the total solar eclipse over North America on April 8, 2024, dubbed the Great North American Eclipse, was indeed special. In fact, some say it was the most remarkable one in hundreds of years thanks to its duration, appearance, and other factors. First, the duration of totality — when the Sun appears completely covered by the Moon — was 4 minutes and 28 seconds, which surpassed the last total solar eclipse in North America in 2017. In addition, the outermost region of the Sun’s atmosphere, the corona, appeared larger and more symmetrical than other previous eclipses. A possible
In Cape Town, South Africa, a fresh influx of inhabitants is causing a stir. Known as “digital nomads,” these individuals are transforming the city’s environment and sparking debates around urban growth and the welfare of local communities. By definition, digital nomads are professionals who exploit advanced technology to facilitate remote work while embracing a nomadic lifestyle — all without disrupting their careers. Frequently moving between locations, these nomads primarily work in sectors such as technology, creative industries and consultancy, which are particularly conducive to remote operations. This working trend has grown in popularity following the COVID-19 pandemic, with an increasing number