查尔斯对英国女王的这句评价，应该如何理解？

2022-09-14 02:09

英国女王去世后，查尔斯三世（King Charles III）发表了全国演讲，在演讲中他对母亲的逝世表示哀悼，并高度评价了她一生所做的贡献。很多外媒在报道时引用了查尔斯演讲中的一句话：a promise with destiny kept

这句话出现在演讲的开头部分，上下文语境是：

Throughout her life, Her Majesty the Queen - my beloved Mother - was an inspiration and example to me and to all my family, and we owe her the most heartfelt debt any family can owe to their mother; for her love, affection, guidance, understanding and example. Queen Elizabeth's was a life well lived; a promise with destiny kept and she is mourned most deeply in her passing. That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today.

其中"a promise with destiny kept"是一个不太好理解的点，这里做一下分析。

整个句子相当于：Queen Elizabeth's was a life well lived; Queen Elizabeth's was a promise with destiny kept，在英语中我们有时候会见到XX’s这种特殊的所有格用法，这其实是一种省略现象。

比如人们有时候将the hairdresser’s salon省略为the hairdresser’s, my mother's house省略为my mother’s，句子：I’ll go to my mother’s. 相当于：I’ll go to my mother’s house.

上面句子也出现了省略，相当于：Queen Elizabeth's life was a life well lived; Queen Elizabeth's life was a promise with destiny kept.

a promise with destiny kept主干部分是 a promise kept，其中kept是过去分词作后置定语，修饰a promise，即a promise (that was) kept，而with destiny则是介词短语作为后置定语，同样修饰a promise，即句子相当于：Queen Elizabeth's life was a promise (with destiny) kept.

如何理解句子的含义？国外语言学习论坛forum.thefreedictionary.com有老外给出了一个很好的解释：

As Queen, she had a destiny, a future that was understood by her that she was to fulfill. She was the leader, the symbol of her country. She made a promise to lead her country and its people as best she could. She kept her promise to, and with, that destiny.

作为英国女王，伊丽莎白二世有自己独特的使命，而她在一生中努力完成了这一使命，努力履行了对命运的“承诺”。

Queen Elizabeth's was a life well lived; a promise with destiny kept. 因此可以理解为：伊丽莎白的一生是圆满的一生。她完成了女王的使命，履行了对命运的承诺。

值得一提的一点是，在正式演讲场合中，英国皇室可能会使用一些比较正式和古典的表达，而这些表达在现代英语中并不常见，a promise with XX就是这样一个例子。在现代英语中promise作为名词时后面搭配的介词一般是to或者of，很少有promise with的用法。Google Ngram Viewer上面的搜索结果也显示，这一用法在19世纪的时候比较流行，现在已经较少使用。