Help needed with life sentence

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stephen185
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註冊時間: 週三 5月 30, 2007 8:23 pm

Help needed with life sentence

文章 stephen185 »

Hi~

I came accross a sentence below the other day,
"There is no life like low life."
I don't quite understand the meaning of it. Can anyone help?

Thanks.
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Wayne
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註冊時間: 週四 5月 13, 2004 10:53 am
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Re: Help needed with life sentence

文章 Wayne »

I would put it, "沒有比下層社會人士(的生活)更悲慘的生活了". (Freely use any other adjective that describes the life of people of low social class to substitute "悲慘的".)

Here, the definition of "low life" (=lowlife), according to Longman Dictionary, is 1. the life abd behaviour of people of low social class, especially those who live in big cities and take part in criminal activities 下層社會(居民)的生活[舉止]; 2. (AmE) (slang) a person who takes part in criminal activities 惡棍;罪犯.

I thought it would help if you also included the context.
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stephen185
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註冊時間: 週三 5月 30, 2007 8:23 pm

Re: Help needed with life sentence

文章 stephen185 »

Thanks, Wayne.
Actually, I saw this on a T-shirt when I was surfing the other day.
Just windering if there is some sort of sarcasm behind its literal meaning?
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Wayne
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Re: Help needed with life sentence

文章 Wayne »

I think so. It's kinda self-teasing.
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Michael-liu
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Re: Help needed with life sentence

文章 Michael-liu »

Also, this sentence tries to play words, because "no" and "low" 押韻 (rhyme)

By the way, I googled "self-teasing" and found out that most search results are related with pornography.....>< ( so i think it means you do "something" by yourself )

So maybe we can use "self-deprecating"
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Wayne
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註冊時間: 週四 5月 13, 2004 10:53 am
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Re: Help needed with life sentence

文章 Wayne »

Michael-liu 寫:Also, this sentence tries to play words, because "no" and "low" 押韻 (rhyme)

By the way, I googled "self-teasing" and found out that most search results are related with pornography.....>< ( so i think it means you do "something" by yourself )

So maybe we can use "self-deprecating"
If self-teasing is used with a sex-oriented sense, it perhaps has something to do with masterbation.

Meanwhile, no, slef-deprecating does not make sense in this example.

What I meant by "self-easing", I was trying to say "自我調侃". Maybe I used a wrong word.
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