名人教英文：命运的隐喻
海明威文笔简洁，凡事轻描淡写。a farewell to arms中，主角frederic逃离意大利后，与爱人catherine重聚，在瑞士生活。后来catherine怀孕，两人本来满心欢喜迎接新生命，岂料catherine难产，婴儿夭折，她也因为失血过多而死。这个悲惨的结局对frederic而言无疑是晴天霹雳。不过，海明威没有渲染frederic的痛苦，没有描写呼天抢地的场面，只用了一个隐喻（metaphor）表达主角的无奈。
frederic得悉婴孩已死，爱人也难以救活。他在产房外等候，想起自己曾戏弄无辜的蚂蚁，把住满蚂蚁的木头放到火上。蚂蚁到处乱跑，有些还掉到火中：
once in camp i put a log on top of the fire and it was full of ants. and it commenced to burn, the ants swarmed out and went first toward the centre where the fire was; then turned back and ran toward the end. when there were enough on the end they fell off into the fire. some got out, their bodies burnt and flattened, and went off not knowing where they were going. but most of them went toward the fire and then back toward the end and swarmed on the cool end and finally fell off into fire.
当时frederic可以把木头拿开，但他没有，反而往木头浇了一杯水，把蚂蚁全部蒸死：
i remember thinking at the time that it was the end of the world and a splendid chance to be a messiah and lift the log off the fire and throw it out where the ants could get off onto the ground. but i did not do anything but throw a tin cup of water on the log, so that i would have the cup empty to put whiskey in before i added water to it. i think the cup of water on the burning log only steamed the ants.
这件琐事比喻命运对世人的摆布。作者没有明言，但是我们看了这一段，都明白frederic非常无助，就如被他玩弄的蚂蚁。莎士比亚四大悲剧之一《李尔王》中，也说上天捉弄世人，好像顽童玩弄苍蝇：as flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.
所谓「造化弄人」，人类在命运面前，十分渺小。面对无情的天灾和意外，人往往无自救之力，古今中外都有同样的感叹。
英语单词词汇学习：
swarm……成群地移动
splendid……极好的
messiah……弥赛亚、救世主
wanton……任性的、淘气的
sport……消遣、娱乐