She'd jinxed herself, thrown her gauntlet before God

enti · 发表于 2019-1-8 11:31:10

Months passed in this way, Mother leaving the house at all hours and coming home, trembling, relieved to her core that it was over. By the time the leaves started to fall she'd helped with a dozen births. By the end of winter, several dozen. In the spring she told my father she'd had enough, that she could deliver a baby if she had to, if it was the End of the World. Now she could stop.

Dad's face sank when she said this. He reminded her that this was God's will, that it would bless our family."You need to be a midwife,"he said. "You need to deliver a baby on your own."

Mother shook her head."I can't,"she said."Besides, who would hire me when they could hire Judy?"

She'd jinxed herself, thrown her gauntlet before God. Soon after, Maria told me her father had a new job in Wyoming."Mom says your mother should take over,"Maria said.A thrilling image took shape in my imagination, of me in Maria's role, the midwife's daughter, confident, knowledgeable. But when I turned to look at my mother standing next to me, the image turned to vapor.

这句话是个compound sentence, She'd jinxed herself, had thrown her gauntlet before God, 没错吧？
但是怎么理解呢？因果关系么？那不应该是用分词形式的主从句么， had been throwing her gauntlet before God, she had jinxed herself. （额，我不确定是不是 had been throwing, 反正就是分词，语法不好，窘）

elusty · 发表于 2019-1-8 15:59:57

应该是省略了and, 但是，具有转折的含义。

enti · 发表于 2019-1-8 16:45:43

本帖最后由 enti 于 2019-1-8 17:23 编辑

转折, 但是?

不是是说 “she had thrown her gauntlet before God, hence she'd jinxed herself” 么？

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额，我理解错了。没有hence什么事。

sunnyc2008 · 发表于 2019-1-9 11:48:18

She'd jinxed herself, thrown her gauntlet before God = She, thrown her gauntlet before God, had jinxed herself.
Meaning: By throwing her gauntlet before God, she had jinxed herself. 因向神挑衅而注定了她的厄运。

enti · 发表于 2019-1-10 22:01:53

- By throwing her gauntlet before God, she had jinxed herself. 这我能看懂.
- She'd jinxed herself, (had) thrown her gauntlet before God. 原句还能理解是复合句，省掉了had.
- She, thrown her gauntlet before God, had jinxed herself. 你改了以后，我反而不明白了, 那不就成了 she was thrown her gauntlet before God?

csw016 · 发表于 2019-1-11 10:02:09

本帖最后由 csw016 于 2019-1-11 10:06 编辑

这是 Educated 中的内容。楼主引述了前后文，使大家能够较好地理解。

她爸要求她妈成为一个接生员，说这是上帝的旨意。而她妈在做了一阵子助手之后，不愿意继续干下去，认为自己已经学会了技术，足够给自己的孙子接生，说没人会请她去接生（这就是所谓的 jinx）。至于说把手套掷在上帝面前，只是个形象的说法，因为前后文你都看不出她到底在哪里真的在上帝面前扔手套了。再说了，西方不像东方，根本就没有个上帝像（只有 Jesus, Mary 像，但他们并不是上帝本身），她更不可能真的见到上帝，如何能在上帝面前扔手套？

所以大意可以理解为，
她咒自己说没人会请她接生。 (She'd jinxed herself.)
她拒绝上帝的旨意要她成为接生员，不原单独干接生。(and had thrown gauntlet before God. )

当然 “咒” 也许不是很恰当，但这只是大意。

csw016 · 发表于 2019-1-11 10:21:37

本帖最后由 csw016 于 2019-1-11 10:23 编辑

澳，似乎把楼主的问题给引歪了。

同意以上一位网友的部分说法，可以理解为省了一个 and. 但说转折似乎难以成立，也许 “并列” 差不多吧。

给楼主，英中语法的一大或说最主要不同点在于，中文通过字眼来表达跟时间相关的概念，如着了过，已经，将等等。英文通过动词形式的变化来表述。所以，你也许应该注意各时态所表达的意义，而不是只注意它们的表面形式。像 had been doing, 它是过去完成进行时，表述的是，过去某个时间以前，一直在进行着的动作。这显然跟原文前后文不协调。她妈一直在上帝面前扔手套？飞镖也许可能，扔手套，一直扔，太乏味了。

enti · 发表于 2019-1-11 11:43:58

本帖最后由 enti 于 2019-1-11 12:02 编辑

是了，扔手套还蛮形象的。

Throw down the gauntlet
- To challenge someone to do something. The phrase comes from a medieval method of challenging an opponent to a fight by throwing a glove down on the ground in front of them. If the person picked up the glove, then they accepted the challenge.

可是，我的问题是说，这种看起来像复合句的句式，起的作用却是状语从句？就像sunnyc解释的那样 “By throwing her gauntlet before God, she had jinxed herself.” （当然，您也说了，不是这种理解）

（感谢您解释had been doing，用分词的完成式也应该是 having been thrown）

enti · 发表于 2019-1-11 12:38:58

本帖最后由 enti 于 2019-1-11 12:40 编辑

She'd jinxed herself, thrown her gauntlet before God

我的理解是
- 因为她妈妈说 ”我不想当，而且有judy我为什么要当“，这借口顺当的，上帝都看不过去了。所以这句话就表明她妈妈自己给自己下绊呗，这不，上帝就给她妈妈派了工单了嘛

这样，我才觉得没有hence的关系。但是 ”因向神挑衅而注定了她的厄运“这样说，也没有什么理解上的问题。所以，我很懵，这是我为什么要发帖问的原因。

trivialstuff · 发表于 2019-1-12 07:07:02

她对自己下了乌鸦嘴，向老天爷下了战书。

She'd jinxed herself and had thrown her gauntlet before God.
我觉得是省略了and had，而不仅仅是省略had，不然还原出的完整复合句还是缺连词。至于为什么省略，多半是文体的问题，这里挺口语化的，若感觉不严谨的话也无可厚非了。

突然想起一句歌词，也是类似的省略：when you know, we've been hurt, been down before.

[语言求助] She'd jinxed herself, thrown her gauntlet before God