潇潇语言实验室No.28

潇潇语言实验室No.28 -- Second Fiddle
有一首关于“第二小提琴手”的歌，里面有好几个idioms和谚语。

Second Fiddle
By Kay Starr
I was playing second fiddle
I was caught in a losing romance
Y ou were also second fiddle
Y ou, too, played the game with no chance
We were losers, we were weepers
They called us birds of a feather
Now we're finders, now we're keepers
Two aching hearts got together
We were playing second fiddle
Then we met and gave love a new start
No more playing second fiddle
Now that we're first in each other's heart
fiddle=violin-小提琴
play second fiddle: to take a less important and subordinate role to someone or something in a way often considered demeaning: 意思是扮演第二小提琴手的角色，处于次要位置。

歌词的大意是“我在你心中只是第二位，你心里还想着别人，我在谈一场必输的恋爱。

”
Do not play second fiddle to anyone! 各位mm注意了，不要做男人心中第二位的女人。

不要做second fiddle(第二小提琴手)，要做就做conductor(指挥)或是art director(艺术总监).
关于fiddle的simile（明喻): (as) fit as a fiddle：in very good health, in good shape.意思是身体健康，状态良好。

这个明喻来源不详，有人说是因为fit和fiddle的alliteration(头韵）。

as fit as a fiddle在日常生活中并不常用。

了解一下就行了。

英文中有"fiddle while Rome burns"这个短语: to do something trivial and irresponsible in the midst of an emergency; －意思是发生紧急情况时却在做一些无关痛痒的事情。

（fiddle在这里是动词－拉小提琴）
传说罗马着火时暴君Nero却在拉小提琴，毫不关心自己的国民和帝国。

据说火是他自己放了，当然不紧张了。

Back to the song now:
"We were losers, we were weepers
They called us birds of a feather
Now we're finders, now we're keepers"
finders keepers (losers weepers)：used to say that if someone finds something, they have the right to keep it－意思是东西谁捡到就是谁了，丢了东西的人只能哭。

这和广东的儿歌，“地上捡到宝，问天问地拿不到”异曲同工。

教坏小孩的东西。

应该唱，”我在马路边捡到一分钱，把它交给民警叔叔。

“！
birds of a feather (flock together):(informal) used to say that two or more people have similar attitudes, beliefs etc -物以类聚，人以群分
歌词说“we're birds of a feather",意思是我们两人都没有把对方放在第一位。

不确定歌词为什么用"finders keepers"这个短语，是否，”我的心谁捡到谁要“？
Don't give away your heart so cheaply!
读读Y eats(叶慈)的诗
Never Give All The Heart
By William Butler Y eats
Never give all the heart, for love
Will hardly seem worth thinking of
To passionate women if it seem
Certain, and they never dream
That it fades out from kiss to kiss;
For everything that's lovely is
But a brief, dreamy. Kind delight.
O never give the heart outright,
For they, for all smooth lips can say,
Have given their hearts up to the play.
And who could play it well enough
If deaf and dumb and blind with love?
He that made this knows all the cost,
For he gave all his heart and lost.
又是一个断肠人！
中文中有“轻如鸿毛”，英文中也有类似的simile："as light as a feather"
flock用作动词是“聚集”的意思：Birds of a feather flock together.
用作名词是“一群”
e.g. a flock of small birds/sheep/goats
提起第二位的女人很自然想到“二奶”，second milk:)
Just kidding! "二奶“的英文当然不是Second milk!
英文叫mistress（情妇）或是the other woman（另外一个女人！）
The other woman/mistress: used to refer to a woman with whom a man is having a sexual relationship, even though he already has a wife or partner
e.g. He left his wife and child and moved in with the other woman.
他抛妻弃子搬去和另外一个女人住了。

The Prince had shocked society by living openly with his mistress.
皇子公开和他的情妇住在一起的举动让国民震惊。

中文说的”金屋藏娇“英文说"a kept woman": (old-fashioned)a woman who is given a place to live, money, and clothes by a man who visits her for sex - often used humorously
英文中说养宠物是keep a pet,把女人当宠物一样养起来是keep a woman.被养的女人自然是a kept woman啰。

Back to the song again:
"Two aching hearts got together
We were playing second fiddle
Then we met and gave love a new start
No more playing second fiddle
Now that we're first in each other's heart."
两颗伤痛的心聚在一起
我们都在扮演第二位的情人
给我们的爱一个新的开始
不要再做第二位的情人
现在我们是彼此心中第一位的爱人
假如爱可以重来。