金正恩骂特朗普“Dotard”，这到底是什么意思？
编辑:给力英语新闻 更新:2017年9月25日 作者:王霜舟(By AUSTIN RAMZY)
上周五，朝鲜平壤，人们通过电视收看该国领导人金正恩对特朗普总统在联合国大会上的演讲做出的回应。People in Pyongyang, North Korea, watched a television broadcast on Friday of the leader Kim Jong-un’s response to President Trump’s speech at the United Nations.
特朗普总统上周二在联合国大会上发表演讲时扬言要“完全摧毁”朝鲜，并挪揄其领袖金正恩(Kim Jong-un)为“火箭人(Rocket Man)”，这无疑会招致平壤言语上的报复。
更为出人意料的是，金正恩上周五管特朗普叫“mentally deranged U.S. dotard”（精神错乱的美国老糊涂）。“dotard”（老糊涂）这个晦涩的侮辱性字眼，甚至引得人们翻查起了字典。
韦氏词典称，“dotard”源于“dotage” ，后者意为“一种以精神稳定和思维敏锐程度双双下降为标志的老朽状态或时期”。“dotard”与“goatherd”（牧羊人）押韵。
自1980年以来，这个词只在《纽约时报》上出现过十次，且向来是在该报的文艺报道中现身。“A favorite theme of the medieval fabliau is the May-December tale of the dotard husband cuckolded by his young wife（年轻的妻子给老糊涂丈夫戴绿帽子，是老少配故事情有独钟的主题），”1986年的一篇书评如此开头。
这个词在莎士比亚的作品中露过几次面。“I speak not like a dotard nor a fool（我说话时既不像老糊涂，也不像傻子），”《无事生非》(Much Ado About Nothing)中的莱昂纳多(Leonato)说。
此外，赫尔曼·梅尔维尔(Herman Melville)在一首关于鲨鱼的诗中用过这个词。“Eyes and brains to the dotard lethargic and dull, Pale ravener of horrible meat（它们充当昏聩的老糊涂的头脑和眼睛，帮助苍白的捕猎者追逐可怕的肉食）。”
在金正恩的朝鲜语声明中，与 “dotard”相对应的是“neukdari” ，一个常被用于贬低老年人的词，意为懒惰、无用、精神错乱的人。
曾任美联社平壤分社社长的吉恩·H·李(Jean H. Lee)在Twitter上表示，她曾到访过朝鲜官方媒体朝中社(KCNA)的办公室，发现朝中社翻译文稿时用的是非常老的朝英词典。
“dotard”的晦涩难懂让它在社交媒体上变成完美素材，催生出关于弹道导弹、核试验以及朝鲜半岛局势日趋紧张等原本并不有趣的话题的连珠妙语。不过，一些评论人士指出，不该让趣词的使用遮蔽该地区紧张局势的严峻性。
金正恩不是涉及他的网络笑话中的笑柄，这种情况难得一见。
就在上周五早晨6点半之前，特朗普以自己的方式骂了回去。在一则推文中，总统说金正恩“显然是一个不介意饿死或杀死本国人民的疯子”。
朝鲜一向喜欢侮辱外国政治人物，有时会使用极具性别歧视主义或种族主义色彩的字眼。它以前曾把贝拉克·奥巴马(Barack Obama)总统称作“猴子”，还曾把韩国前总统朴槿惠(Park Geun-hye)称作“妓女”和“毒蛇”，说她活该“凄惨无谓地送命”。
有一回，朝中社说时任美国国务卿希拉里·克林顿(Hillary Clinton)“一点儿也不聪明”，还说她有时“看上去像小学女生，有时又像出门购物的退休人员”。它说克林顿的继任者约翰·克里(John Kerry)是一匹“狼”，有着“丑陋的突出的下巴”。
朝中社还说过，前总统乔治·W·布什(George W. Bush)于2008年在巴格达的一场新闻发布会上躲避扔向自己的鞋子时，看起来就像“一只落汤鸡”。
王霜舟(Austin Ramzy)是《纽约时报》记者。
Choe Sang-Hun自首尔对本文有报道贡献。
翻译：李琼
Kim Jong-un Called Trump a ‘Dotard.’ What Does That Even Mean?
HONG KONG — When President Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea and mocked its leader, Kim Jong-un, as “Rocket Man” in a speech on Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly, the rhetorical retaliation from Pyongyang was inevitable.
That Mr. Kim would call Mr. Trump a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” on Friday was something more of a surprise. The word “dotard” in particular sent people to the dictionary to look up the arcane put-down.
Merriam-Webster noted that “dotard” comes from “dotage,” a word meaning “a state or period of senile decay marked by decline of mental poise and alertness.” It rhymes with goatherd.
The word has appeared on the pages of The New York Times just 10 times since 1980, always in the paper’s arts coverage. “A favorite theme of the medieval fabliau is the May-December tale of the dotard husband cuckolded by his young wife,” began one book review in 1986.
The word makes a few appearances in Shakespeare. “I speak not like a dotard nor a fool,” Leonato says in “Much Ado About Nothing.”
And Herman Melville used it in a poem about a shark. “Eyes and brains to the dotard lethargic and dull, Pale ravener of horrible meat.”
The Korean word Mr. Kim used for “dotard” was “neukdari,” a common derogatory term for an old person. The connotation is someone who is lazy, useless and demented.
Jean H. Lee, a former Pyongyang bureau chief for The Associated Press, said on Twitter that she had visited the offices of KCNA, the North Korean state news service, and found the agency using very old Korean-English dictionaries for their translations.
The obscurity of “dotard” made it perfect fodder for social media, generating quips about the otherwise unfunny subjects of ballistic missiles, nuclear tests and escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Some commenters, however, pointed out that the use of a funny word should not eclipse the seriousness of tensions in the region.
In a rarity, Mr. Kim was not the butt of the online jokes involving him.
Just before 6:30 a.m. on Friday, Mr. Trump resorted to some name-calling of his own. In a tweet, the president called Mr. Kim “obviously a madman who doesn’t mind starving or killing his people.”
North Korea has long insulted foreign politicians, sometimes using ugly sexist and racist language. It previously called President Barack Obama a “monkey” and former President Park Geun-hye of South Korea a “prostitute” and a “snake” who should “meet a miserable dog’s death.”
KCNA once called Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state, “by no means intelligent” and said she sometimes “looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping.” It said her successor, John Kerry, was a “wolf” with a “hideous lantern jaw.”
Former President George W. Bush, the agency once said, looked like “a chicken soaked in the rain” when he dodged a shoe thrown at him during a news conference in Baghdad in 2008.
Choe Sang-Hun contributed reporting from Seoul.