英文阅读：Monkey off the back
Reader question: In this headline – Keane's Monkey's Off His Back, SaysBenitez (AFP, November 8, 2008) – what does "monkey" mean?
My comments: First, little background to the Keane story.
Keane (full name Roy Keane) is a Liverpool (a top English football club)
striker. He's Irish. Benitez is the Liverpool coach. He's from Spain. "Monkey
off his back" is an idiom, and it is American.
Hence the confusion, alright? (^-^).
Seriously, let me clarify. Last Saturday in a Premier League match against
West Brom, Keane scored two goals in a 3-0 victory. It was Keane's first and
second goals for Liverpool in a league match this season, after his transfer
from Tottenham in the summer. In other words, it's been a long time coming,
hence "monkey" business.
On soccernet.com, I found the exact Benitez quote (Keane sends Reds top,
ESPNsoccernet.com, November 8, 2008):
"I have had no doubts that he would start to score regularly for us. Robbie
has told me he has got a monkey off his back, not an expression I had heard
before but I understand what he meant. "Robbie has game intelligence and he is
always a threat to defenders. It was only a matter of time before he scored in
the league."
What Benitez said, in a nutshell is now that Keane's scored his first,
he'll feel free to score more.
Free from the burden of the "monkey", of course.
The "monkey on the back" is a figurative American-speak referring to any
problem that's been bothering people, especially a nagging problem that has been
there for a long time. Come to think of it, unless you're climbing trees like a
monkey yourself, having a monkey on your back is bound to be an unwelcome
distraction – to whatever task you're trying to accomplish.
This, however, is my invention just to help you remember the term.
Originally, the "monkey" is believed to have referred to drug addiction – monkey
was sometimes called "the white monkey" pointing to the white color of cocaine.
To get the monkey off one's back, therefore, means to be able to finally kick
the bad habit.
Nowadays, the expression is widely applied by people everywhere to any
burden they feel they have freed themselves from, especially a mental
burden.
In Chinese – I hope bringing in the Chinese language won't further
complicate the matter – we have many similar expressions. Those that come
uppermost in mind include: 去了一块心病、一块石头落了地、如释重负。
Don't forget, though, the term is primarily an American expression. Just
this past week, I've found two sightings of the expression from reports on NBA
basketball, a game that I follow on a daily basis.
Here they are: 1. For the second straight season, Baron Davis' team lost
its first six games before getting that elusive first victory.
Last season, Davis was with the Golden State Warriors. Now he's with the
Los Angeles Clippers, whom the Warriors beat a year ago to end their
drought.
"It's pretty much the same feeling—a feeling of frustration," Davis said
Sunday, after getting 22 points and 10 assists in the Clippers' 103-92 victory
over the Dallas Mavericks. "We let a couple of games get away that we had
control of. But once you get that first one, it just takes the monkey of (sic)
your back and you realize that you know how to win." - Clippers get first win,
beating Mavericks 103-92, AP, November 9, 2008.
2. For a veteran like Allen Iverson, a win in November against a lottery
team rarely registers as important. After losing his first two games with his
new team, that wasn't the case with this victory.
Iverson had 30 points, nine assists and provided a spark for Detroit after
a slow start, winning his first game since joining the Pistons, 100-92 over the
Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night.
"It was a huge lift off of me," Iverson said. "I knew it would happen. You
think every game you go out and play it's going to happen. It feels good. I
wanted toget the monkey off my back. I'm just excited that I got my first win
and I can now try to get a lot more."
- Iverson beats Kings for first win with Pistons, AP, November 11,
2008.
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