"Hair shirt" nghĩa là gì?

Áo làm từ lông ngựa, nhìn đã thấy ngứa ngáy khó chịu. Photo by peckthetowncrier

"Hair shirt" là loại áo làm từ lông ngựa từ thời xưa, rất thô giáp, khó chịu. Người ta cho rằng người xưa mặc nó vì lý do tôn giáo, thể hiện sự hối hận về những tội lỗi của họ. Bởi vậy, "hair shirt" nghĩa là sự thể hiện/cố ý làm khó bản thân để cảm thấy bớt tội lỗi.

Ví dụ
Settling too deeply into the lap of luxury can chafe (trầy xát) almost as much as wearing a hair shirt.

St. Cajetan was particularly severe (nghiêm khắc) with himself, Weninger noted, always wearing a hair shirt and partaking in prayers and devotions late at night and early in the morning with just a short rest on a bed of straw in between.

The 50th anniversary of Earth Day ought to be a big occasion, with large public rallies and self-congratulatory (tự chúc mừng) observances along with hair-shirt wailing (khóc than) about the imminent (sắp xảy ra) end of the world from climate change.

“It is not really a choice,” Shepherdson continued. “You could wear the hair shirt and say: ‘We are not going to spend the money because we want to protect future generations (thế hệ tương lai).’ But, the future generation will have nothing to inherit (thừa kế) because the economy will have been completely destroyed — and that can’t be in anybody’s interests.”

Thu Phương

Tags: word

Post a Comment

Tin liên quan

    Tài chính

    Trung Quốc