How to translate 说不要就不要?

[anonymoose]

Here's a joke sent to my mobile phone:

少妇倒垃圾，不小心滑倒在垃圾堆里。正要爬起时，被一捡破烂的老头搂在怀里！老头感慨：城里人真不会过日子，这么好的媳妇说不要就不要！

How would 说不要就不要 here be translated?

[renzhe]

Quite tricky.

In the context of the joke perhaps "get rid of someone just like that", or "get rid of someone on a whim"?

[skylee]

How about "do something for real"? Like "ditching a fine woman like this for real".

[anonymoose]

Is there a general way that the 说(verb)就(verb) construction could be understood? To do something without much thought/consideration?

[hbuchtel]

"get rid of someone on a whim"

I think this one fits well.

My impression is that the old man is used to people saying things to their spouse like "I'm going to get rid of you", but he is shocked to find that here in the city it seems people actually go ahead and do it.

Maybe something like "when they say they don't want [this fine woman], they really mean it".

I think the 说... 就... means something like "saying something, then actually acting on it"

[anonymoose]

So it means something like 说不要真的不要? But I think 说 here doesn't actually literally mean "say". I might be wrong though.

[Glenn]

This is a bit off-topic, but this joke reminds me of the scene in Better Off Dead when John Cusak's character falls into the back of the garbage truck and the two black guys working on the phone lines see him, and one of them says "Man. Now you know that's a shame when people be throwin' away a perfectly good white boy like that." Or something like that. It's been a while since I've seen it. /off-topic

[Lu]

"Now you know that's a shame when people be throwin' away a perfectly good white boy like that."

Wouldn't something like this also work for the woman in the trash? 'Weird city people, throwing away a perfectly good woman like that'? Unless I'm missing something, you don't really need the grammar in the punchline, and if I would come across that sentence in any other context, I'd probably also translate it loosely.

[anonymoose]

But I'm hoping for a more fundamental understanding so I can use that phrase myself.

[renzhe]

I feel a bit uncomfortable explaining patterns like this, because my own understanding is also patchy, but I guess a native speaker will correct me if I'm terribly wrong (as is often the case).

就 is an intensifier and implies immediacy. So the meaning of the phrase is roughly "Yes, that's what I said, and that's EXACTLY what I mean".

It can be used to stress that you're serious, when people think that you don't really mean what you're saying. Like using 说不要就不要 on an annoying street hawker who doesn't take your answer seriously. I think that this is the meaning that skylee had in mind.

It can also refer to doing something on a whim or impulse, without thinking it through. As soon as you get an idea (or say something in anger), you immediately follow up on it, like in this joke.

The funny thing in the joke is the context, 说不要就不要 just sounds unexpected in this situation. It implies (to me) getting rid of something for no good reason, like after getting bored with a toy.

[skylee]

This is from my Pinyin Chinese-English Dictionary (the Commercial Press), under the headword 就:

(9) <副> as soon as; right after; ......說幹就幹 act without delay.

PS - but I think this explanation is not universally true. Still it depends on the context.

[creamyhorror]

Upon seeing 说不要就不要 in the topic prior to reading the joke, my first thought was "No means no." It doesn't fit in the joke's context, though.

But I think 说 here doesn't actually literally mean "say". I might be wrong though.

Well, it's a bit of a conjectural "say", but it's still "say":

"When they say they don't want her, they really mean it!"

(And yes, 就不要 does mean 真的不要 here, mind's all made up, no second guesses, etc. So 就 connotes both finality + immediacy.)

[Tiana]

There is another thing in the joke I'd like to understand:

被一捡破烂的老头搂在怀里！

What is 捡 doing here? Does it still have the usual meaning of "pick up" ? If so, how does 被一捡 fit in with the rest of the sentence?

[skylee]

What is 捡 doing here? Does it still have the usual meaning of "pick up" ? If so, how does 被一捡 fit in with the rest of the sentence?

Parse the sentence this way - 被 / 一 / 捡破烂的老头 / 搂在怀里

[Was] [held in the arms of] [a] [trash-picking old man] .

[Tiana]

Thank you skylee. How easy things look after someone has presented a correct answer!

(My probem was that I took 破烂的老头 as a complete phrase and that left 捡 without a leg to stand on!)