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英汉双语阅读36:世界上有4万多种蜗牛，可以食用？

[本期内容]

Where did the phrase 'a skeleton in the closet' come from?

习语的“脏衣服”是怎么来的？

We tend to see this expression on the television or in newspapers after a scandal comes out and we tend to take for granted what it truly means.

丑闻曝光后，我们经常在电视或报纸上看到这个习语，我们常常想当然地认为这个习语的意思是“脏衣服”。

What it means to have a skeleton in your closet

壁橱里有骷髅意味着什么

The idiom "skeleton in closet" refers to the hidden source of scandal or shameful thing. This is most commonly used to refer to things in the past that, when exposed, will cause potential damage to a person or a group of people. It also means that a person's undisclosed facts, if disclosed, will damage his social status in the community.

习语的“壁橱里的骷髅”指的是丑闻或可耻的事情的隐藏来源。这最常用于指过去的事件，当这些事件被披露时，会对一个人或一群人造成潜在的伤害。这也意味着，一个人未被披露的事实，一旦被披露，就会损害他的社会地位。

In short, having a skeleton in the closet means that you have secrets and other memories of the past, and you would rather hide them from the world.

简单来说，衣柜里有骷髅，意味着你有秘密和其他关于过去的记忆，你宁愿向世人隐瞒。

Skeletons can be all kinds of things you have done, such as one-night stands, group fights or betrayal, and even extreme situations, such as theft and murder. It's not always dark. Some "skeletons" may be embarrassing in nature, such as embarrassing moments, which are too terrible to think about.

骨架指的是各种可能性，可能是你做过的某件事，比如一夜情，世仇或者背叛，甚至是你见过或者做过的极端情况，比如盗窃杀人。骷髅并不总是坏事。有些骨架可能很尴尬，

比如一些你想都不敢想的尴尬瞬间。

This phrase was first used in England in the 19th century. At that time, the British used the word "closet" to mean a flush toilet or toilet-hypothetically, it seemed to be a possible hiding place for bones. This phrase later developed into the English "skeleton in the closet", and "skeleton in the closet" refers to a hidden place in the closet, which became more common in the United States.

这种习语最早于19世纪在英国使用。当时，英国人用“壁橱”这个词来表示厕所或盥洗室。按说，这似乎是骷髅的藏身之处。这个习语后来发展成为英国人使用的“柜中骷髅”。

“衣橱里的骷髅”指的是衣橱里隐藏的地方，在美国越来越常见。

Where did the "skeleton in your closet" come from?

「衣柜里的骷髅」从何而来？

There are several theories about the origin of the expression. No matter where you trace it back to, the phrase came to mean the same thing and insinuated a dark past in the life of a seemingly innocent individual, waiting to be exposed to the public. The closet or cupboard as fixed imagery gives a sense of the constant risk of discovery.

关于这个表达的起源有几种理论。无论你回到哪里，这个习语都有着同样的意义。暗示了一个看似无辜的人一生的黑暗过去，等待被大众揭露。壁橱或橱柜作为一种固定的形象，给人一种随时可能被发现的危机感。

The exact origin is vague enough that all uses deserve exploration when considering how a skeleton, a symbol of death or mourning, became used as a phrase to refer to something embarrassing or scandalous.

确切的起源非常模糊，当考虑到象征死亡或哀悼的骨骼是如何被用作表达尴尬或丑闻的习语时，所有的用法都值得探究。

There are numerous citations and stories of the usage of this popular phrase.

关于这种流行的习语的用法，有许多引语和故事。

The Eclectic Review

《折衷评论》

One of the first instances of this phrase occurred in the early 1800s. It was printed in an article by William Hendry Stowell, published in the 1816 United Kingdom monthly periodical The Eclectic Review. It was used to discuss the shame of a disease that is infectious or hereditary.

这种习语的第一个例子出现在19世纪初。它发表在威廉海恩德利斯托维尔的一篇文章中，发表在1816年的英国月刊《折衷评论》上。用于讨论传染性或遗传性疾病的污名。

He explained in the excerpt that there are two great sources of panic in the situation of carrying a hereditary disease: the danger of contagion and the anxiety of leaving a legacy for later generations by way of a hereditary disease. The dread of passing along a disease often won out and caused men to conceal those skeletons in their closets.

他在摘录中解释说，在携带遗传病的情况下，恐慌有两大来源：感染的危险和通过遗传病留给后代的焦虑。对传播疾病的恐惧往往占上风，导致人们将那些骨骼藏在壁橱里。

Gothic origins

哥特式起源

A similar turn of phrase was used in Gothic novels of the Victorian era. A master of such tales, Edgar Allan Poe, used it quite effectively.

维多利亚时代的哥特式小说中也使用了类似的措辞。这类故事的集大成者埃德加爱伦坡运用得非常有效。

In edgar allan poe's prose, there are two examples to illustrate a point with the image of a skeleton in a closet. In his 1845 work Black Cat, he tells how a character dispels others' doubts about the mysterious death of his wife. Not afraid of any further consequences, he slapped the wall where his wife's body was hidden. At the turn of the story, the wall fell down and his accuser saw the skeleton in his closet, or, in this case, the wall.

有两个例子。在他的散文中，埃德加爱伦坡用壁橱里的骷髅来表达一个观点。在他1845年的作品《黑猫》中，他讲述了一个角色如何打消别人对他妻子神秘死亡的疑虑。

他似乎不害怕任何进一步的后果，拍了拍妻子尸体藏着的墙。故事的转折点是墙倒了，指控他的人看到了他衣柜里的骷髅，在这个案例中是：墙。

Edgar allan poe is also famous for using this expression in his masterpiece The Crow and Annabel Lee, both of which are classic poems about regret.

埃德加爱伦坡也因在他的代表作中使用这种表达方式而闻名，包括关于遗憾的经典诗篇《乌鸦》和《安娜贝尔李》。

The body snatchers theory

论盗尸者

Another assumption suggests that the expression came from the infamous era of body snatchers. Before 1832, the use of corpses for medical research was frowned upon by British royalty and parliament. In order for doctors to study anatomy and teach their students, they had to steal dead bodies for their studies. The theory goes that the doctors would hide illegally obtained corpses and skeletons in cupboards or closets.

另一种假设认为这个习语来自臭名昭著的抢尸时代。1832年以前，使用尸体进行医学研究遭到英国王室和议会的反对。为了让医生学解剖，教学生，他们不得不偷尸体做研究。理论上来说，

医生会把非法获得的尸体和骨骼藏在橱柜或壁橱里。

While this theory has no real evidence, the claim has been widely told. To this day, there are occasional discoveries of hidden skeletons inside house walls.

尽管这一理论没有真正的证据，但它已被广泛接受。直到今天，藏在房子墙里的骷髅还偶尔被发现。

Criminal imagery

罪犯形象

"Skeleton in the closet" later developed into conclusive evidence of crime or murder. William makepeace thackeray, a famous Victorian writer, adopted this phrase and used it in his literary works and novels.

“壁橱里的骷髅”后来发展成为犯罪或谋杀的确凿证据的概念。维多利亚时代的著名作家威廉马尔克斯萨克雷采用了这一习语，并将其运用于文学作品和小说中。

In an article in 1845, he mentioned that "there is a skeleton in every house", and in another article from 1854 to 1855, he explicitly mentioned "the skeleton in the closet". No one ever knew whether Thackeray was implying that the real skeleton was in people's homes or whether he just used a phrase to help readers imagine.

在1845年的一篇文章中，他提到“每个家庭都有一副骷髅”，而在1854-55年的另一篇文章中，他明确提到了确切的习语“壁橱里的骷髅”。人们永远不知道萨克雷是在暗示人们家中有真正的骷髅。

或者他只是用一个习语来帮助读者想象？

Although this idiom is usually regarded as symbolic, an English philosopher decided to give it a literal explanation. Jeremy Bentham, a philosopher from 18th to mid-19th century, is the only real hidden secret in the world. In his will, Bentham decided to keep his bones in a glass cabinet and then publicly display them at University College London.

虽然这个习语通常被认为是一个隐喻，一位英国哲学家决定改变它的字面意思。杰里米边沁，18世纪中期至19世纪的哲学家，是世界上唯一一个真正的柜中骷髅。在遗嘱中，

边沁决定将他的骨骼保存在一个玻璃柜中，然后在伦敦大学学院公开展出。

The expression "skeleton in the closet" was later widely used in the United States, and it evolved from something that concealed crimes to those who decided to "come out" in the 1960s. In the 2000s, it was shortened to "coming out", which meant being true to yourself, although the original phrases and meanings were still used and understood.

“衣柜里的骷髅”一词后来在美国被广泛使用，并从藏匿罪犯演变到20世纪60年代决定“出柜”的人。到了2000年代，又被缩短为“出柜”，意思是忠于自己。

虽然还在使用和理解原来的成语及其含义。

Does everybody have a skeleton in their closet?

每个人的衣柜里都有骷髅吗？

A skeleton in the closet in the traditional sense is admittedly not a desirable part of our life or past. However, they are still an inevitable part of life.

不可否认，传统意义上的衣橱里的骷髅并不是我们生活或过去的理想部分。然而，它们仍然是生活中不可避免的一部分。

There are many reasons why we keep a part of ourselves hidden and private be they social, legal, moral, or spiritual. With the rampant use of social media and nearly every part of life being exposed to the world, hiding skeletons in the closet remains the last way for many people to bury their past so they can live free of shame and humiliation that could become exposed on the internet’s stage.

我们隐藏自己的一部分是有很多原因的，无论是社会的、法律的、道德的还是精神的。随着社交媒体的广泛使用，生活的几乎每一部分都暴露在世界面前，把骷髅藏在壁橱里仍然是许多人埋葬过去的最后方式，

这样他们就可以生活在没有可能在互联网舞台上曝光的羞辱和可耻的环境中。

As humans, we probably all have some sort of skeleton in our closet. The skeletons we have may not be murder or a disastrous scandal, but are often some piece of our past we would simply prefer to remain hidden.

作为人类，我们的衣柜里可能都有某种骨架。我们所拥有的骨架可能不是谋杀或灾难性的丑闻，但往往是我们过去的一部分，我们宁愿隐藏起来。

No one goes through this life completely perfect. The important thing to remember is that those who own such skeletons are just like the rest of us. If a skeleton happens to come out into the light of day, the issue should be acknowledged and restitution made where possible, but the person should still be seen for who they are and who you know them to be.

没有人的一生是完美的。重要的是要记住，拥有这些骨架的人和我们其他人是一样的。如果一具骨架碰巧曝光了，背后问题应该得到承认，并在可能的情况下予以追责，但这个人仍然应该被看到，看看他们是谁，

你知道他们是谁。

【Source】www.joincake.com

【Translated by】Spark Liao (廖怀宝)

【Illustration】From Bing

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