Introduction

How does culture influence the way you feel and show sadness? Neil and Sam will be investigating how the way people express sadness is influenced by their culture, and, as usual, we’ll be learning some new, useful vocabulary as well.

This week's question

Which colour is associated with sadness? Is it:

a) yellow?

b) blue? or,

c) brown?

Listen to the programme to find out the answer.?

Vocabulary

(to be) down in the dumps
feel miserable and depressed

(to be) fed up
feel unhappy, bored, or tired, especially of something you have been experiencing for a long time

melancholy
intense and thoughtful sadness

grief
strong feeling of sadness, especially caused by someone’s death

repressed
unable to show your true feelings and emotions

stiff upper lip
not showing your feelings when you are upset, even though it is difficult not to

TRANSCRIPT

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript.

Sam
Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Sam.

Neil
And I’m Neil. When Helen Russell was three years old, her new-born baby sister died suddenly. Looking back at that sad time, Helen remembers making a big decision – she wanted to be happy. She became a bestselling author and wrote a book called, The Atlas of Happiness. She got married, and even moved to the famously happy city of Copenhagen in Denmark.

我是尼爾。當(dāng)海倫·拉塞爾三歲時(shí)，她新生的妹妹突然去世了?；仡櫮嵌伪瘋臅r(shí)光，海倫記得她做了一個(gè)重要的決定——她想要快樂。她成為了一名暢銷書作家，并寫了一本書《幸福地圖集》。她結(jié)婚了，甚至搬到了丹麥著名的快樂城市哥本哈根。

Sam
But the sadness Helen felt didn’t disappear, and the longer she lived abroad, the more she wondered whether her feelings were somehow connected to being born in England, into a culture where, traditionally, expressing your emotions was discouraged.

但海倫感到的悲傷并沒有消失，她在國(guó)外生活的時(shí)間越長(zhǎng)，她就越懷疑自己的感受是否與出生在英國(guó)有關(guān)，在英國(guó)，傳統(tǒng)上，表達(dá)你的情感是氣餒的。

Neil
In this programme, we’ll be investigating how the way people express sadness is influenced by their culture, and, as usual, we’ll be learning some new, useful vocabulary as well.

在這個(gè)節(jié)目中，我們將調(diào)查人們表達(dá)悲傷的方式是如何受到他們的文化的影響的，并且，像往常一樣，我們也將學(xué)習(xí)一些新的、有用的詞匯。

Sam
But first I have a question for you, Neil. In English there are many idioms which describe being sad, including down in the dumps, meaning that you feel miserable and depressed. Also, emotions are often associated with colours, for example you might go red with anger, or turn green with envy. But which colour is associated with sadness? Is it:

但首先我有個(gè)問題要問你，尼爾。在英語(yǔ)中有很多成語(yǔ)來描述悲傷，包括沮喪，這意味著你會(huì)感到痛苦和沮喪。此外，情緒通常與顏色有關(guān)，例如，你可能會(huì)因?yàn)閼嵟兗t，或者因?yàn)榧刀识兙G。但是哪一種顏色與悲傷有關(guān)呢？是：

a) yellow?
b) blue? or,
c) brown?

Neil
I think the answer is blue.

Sam
OK, Neil. We’ll find out the later in the programme. Around the world, cultures express emotions very differently. In Spain, flamenco performers express their emotions with colourful displays of song and dance, whereas in Japan, crying is considered weak and shameful. To discover more about how British people express their feelings, Helen Russell interviewed, Thomas Dixon, a professor at the Centre for the History of Emotion, for BBC World Service programme, The Documentary:

好的，尼爾。我們將在節(jié)目的后面找到答案。在世界各地，文化表達(dá)情感的方式都非常不同。在西班牙，弗拉門戈表演者用豐富多彩的歌曲和舞蹈來表達(dá)他們的情感，而在日本，哭泣則被認(rèn)為是軟弱和可恥的。為了了解更多英國(guó)人如何表達(dá)他們的感受，海倫·拉塞爾采訪了BBC世界服務(wù)節(jié)目紀(jì)錄片的情感史中心教授托馬斯·迪克森：

Professor Thomas Dixon
The word sad, as you will know, Helen, literally means sated or full. So, it’s earliest use is in English, it means being literally?fed up, being full of something sad or sated means heavy and full. And then of course we have this huge vocabulary of?melancholy, sorrow,?grief, depression and many, many other terms, and they all mean slightly different things.

悲傷這個(gè)詞，你會(huì)知道，海倫，字面意思是飽或飽。所以，它最早的使用是在英語(yǔ)中，它的意思是厭倦了，充滿悲傷或滿足的東西意味著沉重和充實(shí)。當(dāng)然，我們有大量的憂郁，悲傷，悲傷，抑郁和許多很多其他的詞匯，它們都有略微不同的意思。

Neil
Professor Dixon explains that the original meaning of the word sad was ‘full’ or?fed up（adj. 對(duì)…感到厭煩[不滿] 的；煩透了，受夠了）?– a phrase which today means being unhappy, bored or tired of something which has been going on a long time. For example: everyone is fed up of Covid.

迪克森教授解釋說，“悲傷”這個(gè)詞的最初意思是“完整的”或厭倦了——今天的意思是對(duì)已經(jīng)發(fā)生了很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間的事情感到不開心、無聊或厭倦。例如：每個(gè)人都受夠了新冠肺炎疫情。

Sam
But?fed up?is just one of many words to describe feelings of sadness, each with a slightly different meaning. One of them is?melancholy（n. 憂郁；悲哀；愁思；悶悶不樂adj. 憂郁的；悲傷的；凄涼的；陰沉的）, a kind of intense and thoughtful sadness. Another is?grief（n. 悲傷；悲痛；悲傷的事）?- a strong sadness often caused by the death of someone you love.

但厭倦了它只是描述悲傷感的許多詞中的一個(gè)，每個(gè)詞的意思都略有不同。其中之一是憂郁，一種強(qiáng)烈的、沉思的悲傷。另一種是悲傷——一種強(qiáng)烈的悲傷，通常是由你所愛的人的死亡引起的。

Neil
In Irish culture,?melancholy?is expressed artistically in poems or songs. And in other cultures, India for example,?grief?can be expressed by professional mourners who are paid to cry by the family of the person who has died. In England, however, big public displays of emotion are uncommon.

在愛爾蘭文化中，憂郁以詩(shī)歌或歌曲藝術(shù)地表達(dá)出來。在其他文化中，例如印度，悲傷可以由專業(yè)的哀悼者來表達(dá)，他們被遇難者的家人收買來哭泣。然而，在英國(guó)，公眾的公開表現(xiàn)并不常見。

Sam
But according to Professor Dixon that wasn’t always the case. Here he explains to BBC World Service programme, The Documentary, how it was only quite recently, during the time of Queen Victoria and the British Empire, that the English got a reputation for being repressed - unable to show their true feelings and emotions.

但根據(jù)迪克森教授的說法，情況并非總是如此。在這里，他向英國(guó)廣播公司的世界服務(wù)節(jié)目紀(jì)錄片解釋說，直到最近，在維多利亞女王和大英帝國(guó)時(shí)期，英國(guó)人還以被壓抑而聞名——無法表達(dá)他們的真實(shí)的感情和情感。

Professor Thomas Dixon
By and large it's a Victorian, and then Edwardian, and 20th century characterization. As you can imagine, it fits with the era of empire, of white British men going around the world conquering it, and having?a stiff upper lip?and ruling over the people… in other parts of the world, and believing themselves, the white Europeans, to be superior… and one sign of that superiority, and Darwin writes: Englishmen rarely caught cry except under the pressure of the acutest grief.

總的來說，這是維多利亞時(shí)代的，然后是愛德華七世時(shí)期，20世紀(jì)的特征。你可以想象，這符合帝國(guó)的時(shí)代，英國(guó)白人征服世界，有著僵硬的上唇，統(tǒng)治人民……在世界其他地方，相信自己的歐洲白人優(yōu)越……這是優(yōu)越感的一個(gè)跡象，達(dá)爾文寫道：除了在最嚴(yán)重的悲傷的壓力下，英國(guó)人很少哭泣。

Neil
Professor Dixon says the Victorians who ruled the empire had?a stiff upper lip 堅(jiān)定不移， 泰然自若. These men believed they were better than everyone else, and that to cry was a sign of weakness. When we cry, our top lip starts to wobble and so this gave rise to the idiom?a stiff upper lip, meaning to not show your feelings when you are upset, even though it is difficult not to.

迪克森教授說，統(tǒng)治帝國(guó)的維多利亞時(shí)代的人上唇僵硬。這些人認(rèn)為他們比其他人都好，而哭是一種軟弱的表現(xiàn)。當(dāng)我們哭的時(shí)候，我們的上唇開始擺動(dòng)，所以這就產(chǎn)生了一個(gè)僵硬的上唇，意思是當(dāng)你沮喪的時(shí)候不要顯示你的感受，即使很難不感到難過。

Sam
Fortunately, most Brits are less repressed nowadays, but it’s still hard for some people, especially men, to express their feelings. Sometimes drinking alcohol gives people the courage to say what they are feeling, but this is not so healthy and can even increase feelings of depression.

幸運(yùn)的是，現(xiàn)在大多數(shù)英國(guó)人都不那么壓抑了，但有些人，尤其是男性，仍然很難表達(dá)他們的感情。有時(shí)喝酒會(huì)讓人們有勇氣說出自己的感受，但這并不是那么健康，甚至?xí)黾右钟舻母杏X。

Neil
It’s talking to someone about your feelings that can really help, and keep away the blues… and in saying that I think I’ve answered your question, Sam.

這是在和別人談?wù)撃愕母惺?，這真的很有幫助，并且遠(yuǎn)離憂郁……我想我已經(jīng)回答了你的問題了，山姆。

Sam
I asked Neil which colour is often associated with feeling sad.

我問尼爾，哪種顏色經(jīng)常與感覺悲傷有關(guān)。

Neil
And I said it was blue…

Sam
Which was… the correct answer, and it gives us another idiom about sadness – feeling blue. OK, let’s recap the vocabulary we’ve learned from this programme about the emotion of sadness, or in other words,?feeling down in the dumps.

這是……正確的答案，它給了我們另一個(gè)關(guān)于悲傷的成語(yǔ)——感覺是藍(lán)色的。好吧，讓我們回顧一下從這個(gè)節(jié)目中學(xué)到的關(guān)于悲傷情緒的詞匯，換句話說，感覺沮喪。

Neil
If you are?fed up of something, you’re unhappy, bored, or tired of it, especially if it’s been happening a long time.

如果你受夠了某件事，你就會(huì)感到不快樂、無聊或厭倦了它，尤其是如果它已經(jīng)發(fā)生了很長(zhǎng)一段時(shí)間了。

Sam
Melancholy?is a type of intense and thoughtful sadness; and?grief?is a strong sadness usually?caused by someone’s death

憂郁是一種強(qiáng)烈而又深思熟慮的悲傷；而悲傷是一種強(qiáng)烈的悲傷，通常是由某人的死亡引起的

Neil
The adjective?repressed?means unable to show your true feelings and emotions.

形容詞被壓抑是指無法表達(dá)你的真實(shí)感受和情感。

Sam
And finally, the uniquely British idiom,?to keep a stiff upper lip, means not to show your feelings when you’re upset, even though it is difficult not to. Hiding you feelings or bottling them up is definitely won’t make you happy, but making friends and learning something new might, so remember to join us again soon, here at 6 Minute English. Bye for now!

最后，獨(dú)特的英國(guó)成語(yǔ)，保持僵硬的上唇，意味著在你沮喪的時(shí)候不表現(xiàn)你的感受，即使很難不表達(dá)。隱藏你的感覺或封閉它們絕對(duì)不會(huì)讓你快樂，但結(jié)交朋友和學(xué)習(xí)一些新的可能，所以記住再次加入我們，這里6分鐘英語(yǔ)。再見！

Neil
Bye!

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