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How would you explain these sentences? Praise the Vanguard, because it says your name. Van evanescent, servant of the advance, praise any word that could hold you. Praise your jacket that hangs on the peg, still holding one shoulder aloft, slow to forget the comrade it embraced. How would you explain these sentences: Praise the Vanguard, because it says your name. Van evanescent, servant of the advance, praise any word that could hold you? PS: It’ from The Lacuna by Kingsolver. This passage was from a piece of writing the narrator wrote on the day when his friend, Van, left. The narrator was a gay and adored Van secretly. Thannks!

Answers · 9

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Bashawn, you have put forward a good attempt in Chinese. That's great. Next time you can try saying it in English, to practise your English. There are inaccuracies in your explanation. Let me help you. "美好寓意" - No, this is not correct. The spelling bit is purely an expression of the narrator's own emotions. He thinks that Van is great ss a vanguard, is.evanescent, etc. "Praise the Vanguard" follows the traditional Christian format of "Praise the Lord". It indicates worship. It is also a statement of philosophy: be a vanguard in life (it does not have to be restricted to being gay or gay rights, contrary to what Bashawn says). The whole passage consists of the narrator's own thoughts and emotions, although ostensibly it is a description of another person. Obviously we need to read the whole book to appreciate the complete context - everyone's philosophy, thoughts and emotions, and what happens to each of them.
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Praise the Vanguard, because it says your name(赞美先锋,因为它说出了你的名字。这句话要表达的意思是Vanguard 包含了Van 也就是作者的名字选择Vanguard 的前三个字母,就是名字的美好寓意,就像中国人取名可能会来自一句古诗的某个词因为还有美好的意义). Van evanescent, servant of the advance, praise any word that could hold you? (Van 消散了(暗指去世了),先进的仆人(赞美van思想先进,应该指的是他同性恋的观念比较前卫)),任何的赞美言词都无法形容他 。 这句话就想你说的来自解说员,他们的话比较含蓄,不能用英语直接翻译,换句话说比较注重寓意,如果没有下面的解说,只是单单一句英语,很难解释明白
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The narrator worships Van. Any word that contains "van" in its spelling is wonderful. Even his jacket is wonderful and worthy of praise. "Slow to forget the comrade it embraced" means the jacket once embraced Van's body and cannot forget him. It is a writing technique to reflect the narrator's emotions through humanising an object (the non-human emotionless jacket).

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