When the fat Craxi saw the Major, he said to Borth: “Shall we relieve on the leg of Mister Major?”
Borth said: “Have you any left?”
Craxi said boastfully, beating himself on the chest: “I could relieve myself for two hours, and I would still be able to pass wind for fifteen minutes. Shall we do it on the leg of the Mister Major?”
以上对话中所谓的relieve nature (解放自然), 就是因为大小便是人生不可免的事, 有时说得更明白一点, 则为answer nature’s call或answer the call of nature (应付自然的要求), 即是说我们要大小便是出於自然, 我们无法支配它的.
再看一个例子:
The next morning, Tuesday, Ligget got awake with an average hangover, the kind that reminded him of mornings after football games and boat races, except that after a night’s drinking like last night’s he could not count on partial recovery within a few minutes after answering the call of nature, and after a day of strenuous athletics nature does not always call, at least not before he was at top form. - John O’Hara: Butterfly 8.
除此之外, 又可说nature necessity (自然的需要), 或是certain necessary functions of the body (肉体上某种必要的作用), 如以下几个例子:
She thought I had gone there out of a nature necessity, but it was not true. – Sherwood Anderson: A Story Teller’s Story.
她以为我是要到矮树后面去解手的, 其实不然.
When pressed by a nature necessity, they relieved themselves in the open street without regard to the passers-by. – Maugham: Don Fernando.
当便急的时候, 他们也就顾不得被过路的人看见, 只好当街拉屎了.
There was the yard without any grass and at one side, by a high board fence, a long wooden shed into which we went to perform certain necessary functions of the body. – Sherwood Anderson: A Story Teller’s Story.