A Little Girl's Diary

Blue 藍色

By Kao, Pei-hsuan

Blue, the color of sky and sea, has long been associated in many cultures with water, holy or religious objects, and protection against evil. 藍色，天空和海的顏色，長久以來在許多文化中與海、神聖或宗教物及對抗邪惡的保護有關。Over the years, darker shades of the color have also come to represent calm, stability, and power. 多年以來，較暗色系的顏色也代表著平靜、堅定和力量。Dark blue, for example, is the color of the business suit or police uniform; it tells others, “I am in control” or “You can trust me.” 舉例來說，警察制服和西裝的顏色是深藍色，這告訴他人，我擁有控制權或者你可以信任我。In other cultures, blue has been associated with sadness. 在其他文化中，藍色也與悲傷有關。 It’s common in English, for example, when feeling sad or depressed, to talk about “feeling blue,” while in Iran, blue is the color of mourning, worn when a person dies. 這在英語中很常見，舉例來說。當感到悲傷或者沮喪，會談論"feeling blue"。在伊朗，藍色是喪服的顏色，當有人過世時會穿著此顏色。

Like pink, blue has a neutral, calming effect on people. 如同粉色，藍色對人有著中性、平靜的影響力。 Rooms painted blue help people to relax or sleep. (Sleeping pills are often colored blue to suggest exactly this idea.) 將房間漆成藍色可幫助人放鬆和睡眠。(安眠藥通常是藍色的，恰好映證這個想法。) The color also seems to inhibit hunger. 這個顏色似乎也抑制食慾。Blue food is rarely seen in nature, and when it is, such food is usually no longer healthy to consume (with the exception of certain fruits like blueberries). 藍色的食物在大自然中很少見，就算有，攝取像這樣的食物通常已不再是健康的(除了藍莓這種水果之外) Thus, eating off blue plates may reduce one’s hunger. 因此，用藍色的盤子吃飯可能會減少一個人的飢餓感。So if you’re planning to lose weight, try adding a blue light to your refrigerator-it will make the food inside look less appetizing. 所以，如果你正計畫要減重，試著在冰箱添加藍色的光源─這會使裡面的食物看起來較不刺激食欲。 It’s just one more example of the power that color can hold over us. 這僅是另外一個顏色可對我們造成影響的例子。(意思就是還有很多，上述的只是其中之一)

Legend attributes the color purple to a dye extracted from a kind of shellfish. In the past, 30 g (one ounce) of purple dye for royal clothes required tens of thousands of the creatures. Today, dyeing with shellfish is still done in Oaxaca, Mexico.

傳說故事把紫色歸因於從一種貝類中所提煉的染料。在過去，為了製作王室的衣服，30公克(即1盎司)的紫色染料則需要數萬隻的生物。現今，在墨西哥的瓦哈卡則仍然使用貝類來製作染料。