While I was looking for some words in the dictionary the other day, writing the entry, "Gomorrah", I found "Roman Holiday" by chance. As most subscribers of this blog know, it is the title of the noted movie, starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn, but I didn't miss another meaning written on the page. You don't believe it, but "Roman holiday" also stands for a savage show.
In the era when Rome was the center of the world, the biggest fun of the Roman people seems to have been to see the fight between slave soldiers and lions at the stadium on holidays. This fight must have been fun for Roman people, but what do you think it was for the soldiers? They had to put their life in danger or probably were often critically injured. They must have wanted to avoid it. I imagine that the show that was conducted every holiday was a big nuisance for the soldiers. Consequently, "Roman holiday" got to have the meaning of nuisance, I suspect.
Come to think of the movie, the title is translated word for word into Japanese. I wonder if this translation is right or not. Should it have been translated into "Scandalous Princess" or "A Nuisance in Rome" or something in Japanese. At the same time, I thought that native speakers with an academic background would know the nuance and could enjoy the movie more.
(Vocabulary)
put one's life in danger 命懸けだ
nuisance 迷惑な行為, 厄介な人［もの，こと］
translate word for word 逐語訳をする
scandalous けしからぬ, とんでもない
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