Chimerical与希腊神话

Chimerical adj. fantastically improbable; highly unrealistic; imaginative；fanciful. 异想天开的；空想的；幻想的；爱幻想的

【词源介绍】 Chimaera（喀迈拉）是罗马神话中的一个怪物，它长着狮子的头、山羊的身子和龙的尾巴，口中喷火，可以烧死与其为敌的人，形容词chimerical便是由此怪物的名字派生而来，意为“想象中的”“怪诞的”“荒诞无稽的”。

【实例分析】这个形容词经常在一些文学名著中出现，如在《基度山伯爵》（The Court of Monte Cristo）的第二十二章 “走私贩子”中有一段心理描写便用到了这个词，反映出主人翁爱德蒙・唐泰斯（Edmond Dantès）在经受诸多磨难后对于财富的渴望和对小说中另一人物法利亚神甫Faria――一个疯疯癫癫的伊夫堡关押的意大利学者所谈及的小岛宝藏将信将疑的心态：

“Fortunately, Dantès had learned how to wait; he had waited fourteen years for his liberty, and now he was free he could wait at least six months or a year for wealth. Would he not have accepted liberty without riches if it had been offered to him? Besides, were not those riches chimerical?―offspring of the brain of the poor Abbé Faria, had they not died with him? It is true, the letter of the Cardinal Spada was singularly circumstantial, and Dantès repeated it to himself, from one end to the other, for he had not forgotten a word.

“幸好，他已学会了如何等待。为了自由他曾等待了14年，现在为了财富，他当然可以再等上一年半载的。最初要是只给他自由而不给他财富，他不是也同样会接受吗？再说，那些财富该不会只是个幻想吧？是可怜的法利亚神甫脑子有病时想出来的东西，是否已同他一起离开了尘世呢？不过，红衣主教斯帕达的那封信是唯一有关的证据，于是唐太斯把那张纸上的内容又从头到尾地默述了一遍，他一个字也没有忘。”

此外，在著作《悲惨世界》( Les Miserables )Volume 4, Saint Denis Chapter IV, A Heart Beneath A Stone（《石头下面的一颗心》）中作者在描写相爱的人们用于鸿雁传情的途径时也用到了这个词：

“Parted lovers beguile absence by a thousand chimerical devices, which possess, however, a reality of their own. They are prevented from seeing each other, they cannot write to each other; they discover a multitude of mysterious means to correspond. They send each other the song of the birds, the perfume of the flowers, the smiles of children, the light of the sun, the sighings of the breeze, the rays of stars, all creation. And why not? All the works of God are made to serve love. Love is sufficiently potent to charge all nature with its messages.”

“相爱而不能相见的人有千百种虚幻而真实的东西用来骗走离愁别恨。别人不让他们见面，他们不能互通音讯，他们却能找到无数神秘的通信方法。他们互送飞鸟的啼唱、花朵的香味、孩子们的笑声、太阳的光辉、风的叹息、星的闪光、整个宇宙。这有什么办不到呢？上帝的整个事业是为爱服务的。爱有足够的力量可以命令大自然为它传递书信。”

【实用对话】

A: Hey, have you seen any of the new blockbuster films (耗巨资拍摄的大片) yet?

B: Sure, the hottest must be film “CJ7”―a science fiction / comedy film directed by Stephen Chow. The film is really a big success on CG (Computer Graphics电脑动画设计) effects, costing a budget of 20 million US dollars, and the spontaneous overflowing（真情流露） of fatherly love is quite touching.

A: You mean there are a lot of chimerical（梦幻的）dramatic shots (梦幻镜头)in the film？

B: Yeah, though the dress code of Stephen Chow’s characters is obsolete（陈旧的，无新意的）, the dreams and chimera（幻想）his world is carrying remain eternal.All the fanciful cinematic shots help mold the cuteness and animation of the little ET dog named CJ7, an imaginary 3D cartoon character in the film, now crazily voguish（风靡，流行） among the little children.

A: Really? Oh, your words are so persuasive and I just can’t wait to go for it.

B: Ha, you are so ill-informed（消息不灵光的）.

Haven’t you heard this film has run for nearly 1month?

（责编：张雯）