核心畫面

One way to hold this word: a small dog at a door, letting out short high barks that will not stop. The sound is thin and sharp, it repeats, and it arrives in the ear of someone who did not ask for it. Say the word out loud and you have the noise. Everything else on this page is that noise moved onto a person — their talking, the talk itself, and finally the mouth it comes out of — which is why none of it is ever a compliment.

這個字可以想成一個畫面:一隻小狗在門邊,發出又短又高的叫聲,而且停不下來。聲音細、尖、重複,而且是落進一個沒有要聽的更多收起這個字可以想成一個畫面:一隻小狗在門邊,發出又短又高的叫聲,而且停不下來。聲音細、尖、重複,而且是落進一個沒有要聽的人耳朵裡。把這個字唸出聲,就是那個聲音本身。這一頁上其他用法,都是把這個聲音搬到人身上:先是他講話的樣子,再來是那些話本身,最後是話出來的那張嘴。所以這些用法從來都不是稱讚。