The year 2022 seems to have gone by at lightning speed. Christmas is just a few days away, followed by the New Year. No one knows what 2023 will bring. Fortune tellers claim they can predict what 2023 will bring, but to them I say bah humbug!When I was a boy 2023 seemed light years away.Yet it is now less than two weeks away. When something happens at lightning speed,it means it happens very quickly. To me,2022 came and went very quickly. The expression“bah humbug”was famously used by Ebenezer Scrooge,the main character in the novel A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
Scrooge did not believe in Christmas. When people wished him Merry Christmas, he would say bah humbug!People say it in a rude way to describe something as nonsense. A light year is the distance travelled by light in one year, which is about 5.88 trillion miles. The expression “light years” can also mean a very long time. If you haven’t seen your school friends in a very long time,you can say it’s been light years since you saw your childhood friends. The global pandemic has made the past three years a living hell which,as I explained in my previous column, means an extremely unpleasant situation.
The world has weathered the storm of the pandemic. To weather the storm means to successfully deal with a very difficult situation. The pandemic infected and killed millions globally. I hope 2023 will be the year when the world finally returns to normal.
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二○二二年彷彿以閃電的速度（at lightning speed）過去，還有幾天就到聖誕，接着就是新年。沒有人知道二○二三年會發生甚麼事。算命與堪輿師聲稱自己能預測二○二三年的事，但我會對他們說：呸，胡扯（bah humbug）！我還是小孩時，二○二三年看似是光年（light years）以外般遙遠，可現在只剩兩星期就到了。若某事happens at lightning speed，意即它迅速地發生。對我來說，二○二二年來去得非常快。習語“bah humbug”是出自查理斯‧狄更斯所著的小說《聖誕頌歌》，當中的主角艾比尼澤‧史古基所說的一句很有名的話。
史古基並不相信聖誕。當人們祝他聖誕快樂時，他就會說：呸，騙人的玩意（bah humbug）！人們會粗魯地說這句話，去形容某事是胡說八道。A light year就是光年，即光在一年時間內經過的距離，大約有五點八八兆英里；習語「light years」也可以指很長很長的時間。若你已經許久沒有見過你的同學，你可以說：it’s been light years since you saw your childhood friends：對上一次見你的兒時玩伴，已經是很久之前的事了。全球世紀大疫症令過往三年活像個living hell，而正如我在上一篇文章中解釋過，那是指非常煎熬的環境，猶如人間地獄。
全世界對於世紀疫症都已 weathered the storm——to weathered the storm是指成功渡過難關，經受得住險峻的困境。這個世紀疫症在全球感染和奪去數以百萬人的生命。我希望二○二三年會是全球終於返回正軌的一年。
mickchug@gmail.com
中譯：七刻
Michael Chugani 褚簡寧
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