走遍全世界64: Valentine's Day

February 14th is a complicated but interesting holiday. First of all, Valentine's Day is not a holiday from work. No one gets a day off. On Valentine's Day people ususlly send romantic cards to someone they love or want to be loved by. The cards are called "valentines". They are very colourful, often decorated with hearts, flowers or birds, and have humorous or sentimental¹ verses printed inside. The basic message of the verse is always "Be My Valentine", "Be My Sweet Heart" or "Lover".

2月14日是一个复杂而又有趣的节日。首先，情人节不是一个休假日。没人放假。在情人节这一天，人们爱谁或想得到谁的爱，就可给那个人寄去充满浪漫情趣的卡片。这种卡片叫“情人卡”。情人卡色彩鲜艳，常装饰有心、花或鸟，里面还印有幽默或感伤性的诗句。这些诗句传递的基本信息总是“做我的情人吧”、“做我甜蜜的心上人或情人吧”。

One of the symbols of St.Valentine's Day is the Roman god of Love, called Cupid. Cupid is often printed on the card, who is winged infant without wearing anything, poised² to shoot his arrow into a heart. He would shoot an arrow of love into a person's heart to make the person fall in love immediately, maybe with the first person to come along. Sometimes one arrow would go through two hearts, holding them together. So on February 14th not only do we have picture of the Christian³ St.Valentine but we also have pitures of the non-Christian Cupid, the Roman god of love.

情人节的标志之一是罗马爱神——丘比特。丘比特经常被印在卡片上，他是一个赤身裸体、长有翅膀的婴儿，手里拿着箭，摆出一副要射心的姿势。他把爱之箭射中一个人的心，这个人会很快坠入爱河，可能是和他（她）第一个见到的人。有时候，一支箭会射中两颗心，把它们穿在一起。所以在2月14日，我们不仅有基督的“圣·瓦伦登”的画像，还有非基督的罗马爱神丘比特的画像。

But it is from the Christians⁴ that we get the stories about Valentine's Day that most people have come to believe. One story is about a Christian man whose name sounded something like "Valentine." He lived around 250 A.D. At that time the Roman Emperor Claudius refused to allow any Roman soldiers to get married for any reason whatsoever⁵. Christian couples came to Valentine to be married. So Valentine would marry them in a Christian way. He was discovered and put in prison by the Emperor. One tradition says that he wrote notes to his friends by making on leaves and then throwing them out the window of his prison. And the leaves were shaped like a heart.

大多数人相信的情人节的故事来源于基督教。其中有个故事提到，有一个基督徒的名字听起来像“瓦伦登”。他大约生活在公元前250年。那时罗马皇帝克劳狄乌斯禁止罗马士兵以任何借口结婚。信奉基督教的夫妇就去找“瓦伦登”主持结婚。“瓦伦登”以基督教方式为他们秘密举行婚礼，后来被罗马皇帝发现送进监狱。传说他在叶子上做标记给他朋友传递信息，然后把叶子扔出监狱的窗外。这些叶子的形状是心形的。

1 sentimental   

adj.多愁善感的，感伤的

参考例句：

• She's a sentimental woman who believes marriage comes by destiny.她是多愁善感的人，她相信姻缘命中注定。
• We were deeply touched by the sentimental movie.我们深深被那感伤的电影所感动。

2 poised   

a.摆好姿势不动的

参考例句：

• The hawk poised in mid-air ready to swoop. 老鹰在半空中盘旋，准备俯冲。
• Tina was tense, her hand poised over the telephone. 蒂娜心情紧张，手悬在电话机上。

3 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

4 Christians   

n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。

5 whatsoever   

adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么

参考例句：

• There's no reason whatsoever to turn down this suggestion.没有任何理由拒绝这个建议。
• All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,do ye even so to them.你想别人对你怎样，你就怎样对人。