W hen you are in agony it means you are suffering from extreme pain. It can be physical pain or mental pain. A very bad toothache can cause physical agony. The families of those on board the missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 are in mental agony, which means they are suffering mentally and emotionally. Total agony means complete agony. The word "excruciating" means extremely painful. A mouth ulcer, as I have explained before, is a painful white spot inside your mouth. It is also called a canker sore. The word "torturous" comes from the word "torture", which means to cause pain to someone as a punishment. Political prisoners in undemocratic countries are often tortured. When I say it was torturous doing my TV show, it means it was painful doing my TV show.
I think last week's mouth ulcer was caused by "yeet hei", a Chinese expression that roughly means heat element inside a person's body. My friends gave me a lot of advice to get rid of the pain but nothing worked. I saw some pan-democrats on a hunger strike outside HSBC. Albert Ho Chun-yan suggested I put salt on the ulcer. It stung when I did that but the ulcer didn't go away. Bees can cause pain when they sting people. When I say it stung, it means it hurt a lot. Yeung Sum suggested I drink chrysanthemum tea, but that did not help either. I hate canker sores.
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我上個星期都在劇烈的疼痛（total agony）中度過。我不能吃、不能說話、也不能好好睡覺。這個慘況是因為我舌頭的左邊生了粒極痛的（excruciating）痱滋（mouth ulcer）。整整八天我都只能吃粥和喝湯。做電視節目是個煎熬（torturous），但我都必須要做。這粒痱滋（mouth ulcer）比一年前那個要嚴重得多。那一個是源於我吃花生時，弄傷了近喉嚨的口腔，上星期的痱滋（ulcer）我卻不知道是哪來的，它就是無緣無故的突然出現。
當你in agony即是說你承受着劇痛，這可以是肉體或者心理的痛楚。劇烈的牙痛可導致physical agony。失蹤馬航370乘客的家人則在經歷mental agony，即是說他們心理上和情感上很難過。Total agony即是十足的痛楚，Excruciating可解作極其痛苦的。A mouth ulcer，正如我之前解釋過，就是口腔潰瘍，俗稱痱滋，也被稱為canker sore。Torturous來源於torture這個字，就是以嚴刑折磨人，在不民主國家的政治犯，就不時被嚴刑折磨（tortured）。當我說it was torturous doing my TV show，即是我做電視節目時感到很痛苦。
我估計，上星期的痱滋（mouth ulcer）是因為熱氣。我的朋友們都給了我許多建議去減輕痛楚，但一樣也不奏效。我在匯豐銀行外見到一些絕食示威的泛民人士。何俊仁提議我在舌瘡（ulcer）上灑鹽。我嘗試時感到萬分刺痛（stung），但那口瘡（ulcer）還是沒有消失。蜜蜂螫（sting）人時就會刺痛人。當我說它stung時，即是說它令人感到很疼痛。楊森建議我喝菊花茶，但那也不奏效。我討厭死痱滋（canker sores）了。
mickchug@gmail.com
中譯:七刻
Michael Chugani 褚簡寧
Source: http://news.stheadline.com/dailynews/headline_news_detail_columnist.asp?id=281517§ion_name=wtt&kw=126