The source of this story is here.
Some language stuff
Although this is short, there are a couple of tricky phrases in here.
时值冬日 – This one is pretty easy to figure out in the context of the sentence – it means “It was winter time.” The rest of the sentence, of course, talks about how cold it is outside. But 时值冬日 is a more literary way to say “it was winter time” than the much simpler “当时是冬天” or something like that. Let’s look at it word by word:
时 – shí – A shorthand for 时节, or “season”
值 – zhí – This character has many meanings, in this case it means “arrive, happen”
冬 – dōng – Winter
日 – rì – Day(s)
So you could translate this as something like: The days of winter had arrived.
Even more tricky is the phrase 他认为并不一定非要如此, so let’s break this one down as well:
他 – tā – He
认为 – rèn wéi – Believed / thought
并 – bīng – [strengthening word like “most certainly,” “definitely,” “really” – just makes the next word stronger]
不一定 – bù yī dìng- Not necessarily
非要 – fēi yào – Must be
如此 – rú cǐ – This/that way
All together: He believed it really didn’t necessarily have to be that way.
As always, leave a comment if you need something explained.
《牧师和信徒》
一位信徒经常不去参加教会的活动,牧师前去拜访他。时值冬日,天气十分寒冷。牧师和信徒坐在温暖的火炉旁,牧师劝说那位信徒应该每个礼拜与其他的教徒相聚,但是他认为并不一定非要如此。
牧师拿起火炉边的钳子,把火炉上的煤炭一块一块地分离开来,很快,火红的炭块便暗淡了下来,两个人也不再感觉温暖。
那个信徒似乎也明白了牧师的意思,接受了牧师的请求。
9 replies on “Fable: 牧师和信徒 – The priest and the disciple”
I think you meant to write 并 as 4th tone bìng. I’m also wondering why the translation choice was priest and then changed to pastor.
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Hello! Thank you for this, I got some great vocab from it. I have one question: In the sentence “很快,火红的炭块便暗淡了下来” what is the 便 doing? Is this a typo and 变 is the intended word, or does 便 have a similar meaning that fits in the sentence? The other explanations you gave really helped!
I had the same preoccupation with the presence of 便.
But after checking, the word 便sometimes can just mean 就which can a common word in Chinese that can be left out in most cases.便can also mean :then, in that case, soon afterwards.
So, I think the problem is solved whether you consider it as 就in this context or the other meanings I cited.
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