狗年說狗：人類比較好的朋友

A saying goes, “Dogs are man’s best friend.” This sums up the attitude toward dogs that many people around the world share. It means that dogs are loyal, and will stay with their owners through thick and thin.

俗話說：“狗是人類最好的朋友”。這句話概括出了世界上許多人對狗的態(tài)度，意思是狗很忠誠，會與自己的主人風雨同舟。

The Year of the Dog will begin on Feb 16, according to the Chinese lunar calendar. Although they are seen as companions and part of the family today, China and Western countries have different cultural beliefs about dogs.

2月16日，中國農歷新年將迎來狗年。盡管如今狗被看作是人類的伙伴和家庭的一份子，但它們在中西文化中有著不同的寓意。

In Chinese, some words concerning dogs have derogatory meaning, such as “No ivory can come out of a dog’s mouth.” But in English, the situation is different. People use “every dog has his day” to describe a period of good fortune and “work like a dog” to describe a hard worker.

在中文中，和狗相關的一些詞帶有貶義，如“狗嘴里吐不出象牙”。但在英文中，情況卻大不相同。人們用“every dog has his day”來形容好運到來，用“work like a dog”來描述一個人工作勤勉。

The dog-human relationship goes right back to the beginnings of Western civilization. Perhaps the most moving example is from the 8th century BC, in Greek poet Homer’s The Odyssey.

人類和狗之間的淵源還要追溯到西方文明初期。公元前八世紀希臘詩人荷馬所著的《奧德賽》或許是最動人的事例。

When Greek hero Odysseus finally returns home after 20 years away at war, he’s in disguise. Only one person – sorry, animal – recognizes him: his dog, Argos. Argos is an old, ill dog, and is about to die; but he is overjoyed to see his master again after so many years.

希臘英雄奧德修斯因戰(zhàn)爭在外漂泊20年后，喬裝改扮歸鄉(xiāng)。只有一個人 —— 對不起，是一只動物 —— 認出了他：他的狗阿爾戈斯。阿爾戈斯已是風燭殘年，而且疾病纏身，奄奄一息;但見到多年未見的主人仍萬分高興。

In later centuries, the friendship between humans and dogs was a common subject for artists. For example, Dutch artist Breughel’s painting The Hunters in the Snow (1565) depicts a foreground detail of hunting dogs at the heels of hunters as they return from the hunt to their snow-covered homestead.

在后來的幾個世紀中，人類和狗之間的友誼是藝術家們創(chuàng)作中的常見主題。例如，荷蘭藝術家勃魯蓋爾在畫作《雪中獵人》的前景中細致地描繪出獵犬緊跟在獵人身后的畫面，他們打獵歸來，回到冰雪皚皚的農場。

In fact, people were close to dogs in a way that they weren’t close to cows, pigs or even horses. Farmers worked closely with dogs. But even after science came to agriculture and dogs lost their traditional roles, the relationship between man and dogs remained.

事實上，人們對狗的親近與對待牛、豬甚至馬的方式都有所不同。農民在勞動中和狗的關系十分緊密。然而就算農業(yè)技術有所發(fā)展，狗不再發(fā)揮其傳統(tǒng)作用，人與狗之間的親密關系也始終未變。

Nowadays in the West, millions of people keep dogs as pets. People feed them, take them on holidays and look after them. In return, dogs are loyal in a way that friends sometimes aren’t. As the US musician Don Van Vliet once said, “You can tell by the kindness of a dog how a human should be.”

如今在西方，數(shù)百萬人都養(yǎng)狗作寵物。人們喂養(yǎng)狗，帶其出游并悉心照料。而狗對主人的忠誠即便是朋友有時也比不上。正如美國音樂家Don Van Vliet所說的那樣，“一只狗的善良能告訴你該如何做人。”