星星会闪

Stars can Twinckle

    飞机上,一位空中小姐问一个小女孩说:“为什么飞机飞这么高都不会撞到星星呢?“ 小女孩回答到:“我知道,因为星星会闪啊!”

    On the plane, a stewardess asked a little girl:“why the plane flew so high but didn’t hit any stars?”

    The little girl answered:“I know, because the stars can twinkle!”

    Actually, I ‘d rather translate “星星会闪” into “the stars can flash”, because I think flash expresses the meaning of “闪” in this joke better. However, it seems that you use twinkle more often, so I just follow you.

    Let’s look at the word“闪”，it can refer to “twinkle”,“winkle”,and meanwhile “闪” is a popular word used to mean “leave”,“run away”For example, if you played a trick on a girl with your friend, and she realized the whole thing immediately, she glared at you angrily and was ready to hit you, then you could tell your friend “闪!”（run!）or“快闪!(run, now!)”.  “快”means“quickly”

    So in the joke, the little girl maybe have listened to the song“twinckle stars”which impressed her that stars can “闪”, and she thought the word “闪”here means run away instead of twinke. That’s where her answer comes from.

    Of course, you can understand this joke in another way. The girl knows exactly why the plane never hit a star. She just wants to answer the question humorously.

    Let’s back to the word “闪”, sometimes you can use the word just to express the meaning of “let’s go”, “闪”emphasizes the speed-go quickly, go immediately. For instance, you have asked your friend to see a new film after class and you really want to be in the cinema as soon as possible, so right after the class is dismissed, you run to your friend, grab his arm, say“闪！”

                                                                                        Hokey