翻译课的复印资料参考.doc

1. 主语的选择
(1) Alarm began to take possession of him.
他开始惊恐不安起来。
(2) His weariness and the increasing heat determined him to sit down in the first convenient shade.
他疲惫不堪，天气也越来越热，于是赶紧就近找个合适的阴凉处坐下来休息。
(3) Improved housing has also contributed to a sharpened sense of aesthetics.
改善住宅条件有助于提高审美意识Cf: 住房条件的改善也促使人们的审美意识得到了改观。
(4) When something a little out of the ordinary takes place at a bar, the sense of it spreads quickly.
酒吧间发生的事情稍微有点异常，人们很快就会感觉出来。
(5) Careful comparison of them will show you the difference.
仔细比较便可知其不同之处。
(6) A glance through his office window offers a panoramic(notes: bird’s-eye) view of the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.
你从他办公室窗口向外一望，便可见到华盛顿纪念碑和林肯纪念堂的全貌。
Passage 1. Getting along with each other
Meanwhile Lucilla, the children’s grandmother, sat having tea with her maid Ellen in her fire-lit drawing-room. Her daughter Margaret was at a meeting at the Vicarage（教区牧师住所）, and the children had gone to meet David, so only Ellen was with her. She liked this, for a strange peace came over her when she and Ellen were alone. They had been together for sixty years now, ever since Lucilla had come back from her honeymoon, and what they didn’t know about each other wasn’t worth knowing. It was their utter knowledge that gave them their happiness together; that and the fact that they saw eye to eye in the matter of always having the window open a little bit, but not too much, and always having a wood fire burning in the grate(壁炉) unless there was actually a heat wave on. More happy homes have been wrecked, Lucilla was apt to say, by not seeing eye to eye about how much window to have open than other controversy known to man. It is quite possible to live happily with a person who does not think as you do about the eternal verities but it is not possible to live happily with someone who wants the window open when you want it shut, or with someone who likes a fire when you don’t. Lucilla and Ellen were utterly at one about the fire. The drawing-room was beautiful, but it was damp, and it was no good saying it wasn’t…They lit the fire.
译文
相处之道
此刻，在燃着壁炉的起居室里，孩子们的祖母露西拉和女仆艾伦正坐着喝茶。他们的母亲玛格丽特到教区牧师处参加聚会去了，孩子们则是外出接大卫去了，因此只有艾伦在家陪她。她很喜欢这样，和艾伦单独在一起时她便感到一种特别的安宁。自从露西拉度完蜜月回来，她俩就生活在一起，至今60年了，彼此非常了解。即便还有不了解之处，那也是微不足道的/不值一提。正是由于她们相知甚深使她俩一起相处感到很幸福。还有，在开窗子这件事上，她俩有着相同的看法。那就是窗子总要开那么一点点，但又不能开得过大；还有壁炉里总要烧点柴火，除非天气确实热。露西拉常说/喜欢说，家庭幸福/和谐受到破坏，更多的原因是在窗户开多大这类问题上意见不一， 而非在其它问题上的争吵。在永恒真理问题上和你意见不同的人完全可以和你在一起生活得很愉快，但是当你要关窗时他偏要开着，不要他生火是他却要生火，和这样的人你就没法愉快地相处了。露西拉和艾伦在生火的问题上完全一致。起居室很漂亮，却有些潮湿，硬要说它不潮湿也没啥好处……于是她们将火点燃了。

Teacher’s lecture notes：

对于这些句子，一种译法是逐字译，如把句1译成“惊恐开始控制他”，句2译成“他的疲倦和不断增加的热使他下决心在第一个方便的阴凉处坐下来”，句3译成“改善了的住宅也有助于敏锐了的审美感”。人们以为这是忠实于原文，那是误解，因为这些中文句子都有问题。
例句1不符合中文习惯，中国人不爱这样讲，应译为“他开始惊恐不安”。句2会使读者理解为“他身上的热”，这就造成曲解，其实heat与his无关（the将它们隔断了），指天气热，应译为“他疲惫不堪，天气也越来越热于是赶紧就近找个阴凉处坐下来休息”。译文加上“天气”“休息”是原文本有的内涵意，减去“的”“和”是汉语表达上的需要。句3尤其词不达意，会让读者莫名其妙，其实只要增减一些词，改善一些词，便可使文句通顺流畅：“改善住宅条件有助于提高审美意识”。
可见逐字译法常常是行不通的，既难忠于原文又使译文不通顺。因为英汉各有其独特的表达方法，不能拿译入语来迁就译出语。翻译的任务是译其“义”，至于“形”，多半情况是不能兼顾也无需兼顾。所谓翻译技巧，实际上就是变“形”技术，将原文独特的“形”转为译文独特的“形”，以求尽量保留其“义”。变形技术很多，本次只谈一个问题：主语的选择。
本次所列各句全用抽象名词做主语，讲的是事物与人的关系（1，2，5）或抽象事物之间的关系（3，4，6），后者虽未提到人却仍然与“人”有关。这类句子若用汉语表达则往往首先想到人，以人为中心。而不习惯英语那种以抽象概念为中心的表达法，所以多半要把主语改为表“人”的词语。
方法是，如果本句含有表人的词，又有可能当作主语的，便把这个词拿来做译文的主语如句1，2。句5亦然，“仔细比较一下，你就会知道其间的差别”。
如无表人的词语，可以试试能否加上“人们” “你”之类泛指词做主语，如句4，可译为“酒吧间发生的事情稍微有点异常，人们很快便能感觉出来”；句6可译为“你从他办公室窗口向外一望，便可见到华盛顿纪念碑和林肯纪念堂”。
但也有另外两种可能性：
1. 保存原主语，如句3，“住宅条件改善也有助于提高审美意识”。
2. 译成无主句，句5，句6都可去掉“你”：仔细比较便可知其不同之处；从他办公室窗口望出去，华盛顿纪念碑和林肯纪念堂便可一览无余。

2. 上下文及动词性名词
(1) When Delia reached home her excitement gave way a little to prudence and reason.
德娜到家时就不那么兴奋了，开始变得理智和谨慎起来。
(2) Jane's kindly and gentle nature could not but revolt[反叛，反感] at her sister's callous[heartless or insensitive] behavior.
珍妮生性温和善良，对她妹妹这种冷酷无情的行为，实在看不顺眼。
(3) Her husband's murder shook her faith not only in the legal system, but in people as well.
她丈夫遭人杀害，不仅动摇了她对法制的信念，而且使她对人也不那么信任了。
(4) All employees must have a complete understanding of and dedication to the aims of the company.
凡本公司之雇员均须彻底理解公司之宗旨并为之献身。
(5) Classic democracy stems from the French revolution and represents achievement of power by the bourgeoisie [buəʒwɑ:'zi] after their oppression during feudalism and absolutism.
古典民主产生于法国大革命，以资产阶级摆脱封建和专制压迫后取得政权为标志。
(6) Memory, as time goes on, is a selective thing. Somehow the presidential candidates forget all the agony—the demeaning【低三下四的，降低身份的,有辱人格的】scramble 【an unceremonious and disorganized struggle】 for money, the vicious charges of their opponents , the unfeeling and often frivolous【轻佻的,妄动的,琐碎的，不严肃的】criticism of the press, and the endless plane and bus rides, the stumbling into bed and wondering how they can get through it all again next day.
时间一久，记忆便只保留筛选过后的东西了。总统候选人不知怎地把一切痛苦的事情全忘了——卑躬屈膝争取资金，对手恶毒的指责，报界毫不留情且常常是很不严肃的批评，乘飞机和汽车长途跋涉无休无止，累得一头栽倒床上都不知道第二天能否还熬得过去，所有这一切全忘了。
Passage 2 Kitchen
We spend a fair amount of time in the kitchen, and this suits me very well. I have always thought of the kitchen as the heart and hub of the home. In my early days, in the Black Country①, the kitchen meant something quite different from what it means now, in most modern suburban homes. It was a room for living in, not just a machine for cooking in. Other rooms were for “company” a social gathering of guests or companions, and although having company was always jolly and exciting, it was also rather artificial, and our most “real” and most intense（frequent,substantial） family life was lived in the kitchen. That was where we had all our rows（if two people have a row, they have a noisy unpleasant argument;used mainly in informal British English）=quarrel, for instance, and our reconciliations also---which were always dra’matic and tempestuous[notes:if you describe a relationship or a situation as tempestuous, you mean that very strong and passionate emotions, especially anger, are involved]. (We lived highly theatrical lives although we rarely went near a theatre.) In a word, the kitchen was the place in which we were most our true selves, most nearly without constraint.
Of course, in these enlightened days, and very understandably, the kitchen has tended more and more to become a place where you simply do the cooking and washing-up and nothing else. I suppose that this is a step along the road to gracious living, but there is a loss as well as a gain, I think.．
Ｎｏｔｅｓ：
Black Country
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Black Country is a loosely defined area of the English West Midlands conurbation, to the north and west of Birmingham, and to the south and east of Wolverhampton, around the South Staffordshire coalfield. It has a combined population of around one million.
By the late 19th century, this area had become one of the most intensely industrialised in the nation. The South Staffordshire coal mines, the coal coking operations, and the iron foundries and steel mills that used the local coal to fire their furnaces, produced a level of air pollution that had few equals anywhere in the world.
It is popularly believed that The Black Country got its name because of pollution from these heavy industries that covered the area in black soot. There is an anecdote (of dubious authenticity) about Queen Victoria ordering the blinds lowered on her carriage as the royal train passed through. However, histori``ans suggest that it is more likely that the name existed even before the Industrial Revolution; outcroppings of black coal scarred the surface of the local heath, and the presence of coal so near the surface rendered the local soil very black.
The Black Country is also known for its distinctive dialect, which differs slightly in various parts of the region.
Despite its close proximity to Birmingham, the vast majority of the Black Country's population refuse to claim membership of the city, and are fiercely proud of their area's identity as a separate region.
译文：
厨房
我们呆在厨房里的时间相当多，我觉得这挺好的。
我一直认为厨房是家庭生活的中心和枢纽。早年我住在英格兰中部黑烟地区，当时的厨房和现在城郊大多数现代住宅的厨房在含义上很不一样。那时厨房也是生活场所，不只是放烧饭机器的地方。其他的房间是“陪客的”，虽然有客人来令人愉快兴奋，但多少都要做做样子，最“真实”、最紧张忙碌的家庭生活还是在厨房里过的。比方说，我们吵架全是在厨房里——都是疾风骤雨式的，很富戏剧性。（虽然我们很少戏剧的边，但我们生活却很富有戏剧性。）总之一句话，正是在厨房里我们真正的自我才显露出来，而且几乎毫无拘束地表现出来了。
当然，处于今日文明时代，厨房越来越成为仅仅用于烧饭和洗碗的地方，这也是容易理解的/想来也是说的过去的/想来也是很自然的事。我想这是沿着文明优裕生活的道路迈进了一步，但我同时也认为这是得中有失。
3. 抽象名词具体化
(1) The delight of the children at the sight of some dish on the table showed that it was a rarity.一看到桌上的某道菜孩子们就笑逐颜开/兴高采烈/喜笑颜开/眉开眼笑，可见这是他们平时难得吃到的东西。
(2) The hotel is a massive effort of stone,wood and concrete.这家旅馆是用石头、木料和混凝土建成的巨大建筑物。
(3) She is a valuable acquisition to the firm.她是这家公司不可多得的人才。
(4) Colour schemes, and interior decoration were modern, but still Chinese, and much more beautiful than the attempts I had seen in 1982 to produce a "Western-type" bar or disco or restauraht in some hotels.色彩的配置，内部的装饰都是现代化的，然而仍具有中国特色，比1982年我看到的有些饭店模仿西方建起来的酒吧、迪斯科舞厅和餐厅可漂亮多了。
(5) Perhaps it was the emotion welling up from the huge welcoming throng, perhaps it was the memories of his youth, but when he spoke to the crowd about his parents, he was near tears and his voice cracked.或许是看到欢迎他的拥挤人群而感情冲动，或许是由于想起了他年前时的一些事情，他在大庭广众前谈到他双亲时，竟几乎哭了出来，声音也哽塞了。
(6) And I knew that many families today were conscious of absences. 我明白，许多家庭今天都意识到他们家中有的人已不在人世了。
(7) In 1932, a Pullman passenger would find only one or two berths occupied, but in the freight cars, humanity was dense.1932年火车上卧铺旅客往往发现车厢内只有一两个铺位有人，可是火车上却挤满了人/人满为患。
(8) I think he'd tanked up a good deal at luncheon, and his determination to have my company bordered on violence. 大概是他午饭时喝多了，非让我陪他不可，简直是对我生拉硬拽。
Notes：英语中的抽象名词之所以能译成具体的人或事物，是因为它们本身的用法已经具有抽象和具体两重属性，如句1中的rarity，既可指抽象的the state or quality of being rare,也可指具体的something uncommon, 作后一种解释时他就成了可数名词，既可加不定冠词（1~3句），也可成为复数（4~6句）。因此，我们如见抽象名词具有不定冠词或作复数形式，便可视为有具体含义，可按上下文要求译为具体事物。
我们这里讨论的抽象名词分为两类，一类与动作有关或来源于动词，这类名词往往意味着该动作的结果，如例句2中的effort=something made or done as the result of trying; 3句中的acquisiton=something or someone acquired; 4句attempt=result of attempting, esp. unsuccessfully; 5句memory=an example of remembering. 这些词的翻译不能照搬词典解释，需考虑上下文，尤其是它的直接修饰语，如例句3acquisition 要和valuable结合起来，才好译成“不可多得的人才”；例句4attempt要和a western-type bar or disco等词联系起来，才好译为“模仿西方建起来的酒吧、舞厅。。。”，“建起来的”说明酒吧等是result of attempting，“模仿”暗示unsuccessfully，既然人们一看就是“模仿”的，说明它确实不理想。
第二类来源于形容词，例句1.6.7.8均属此类。例句6的absence给人的感觉应是具体的，例如吃饭时本来是某人的座位现在却空着，此句可能指战时家里有人牺牲了。例句7humanity来自human指human beings generally，是一个多数整体概念，与dense连用，给人的感觉是人满为患。例句8的violence结合上下文完全可以想象出是一个具体动作，如把bordered on译成接近于暴力反而使原意模糊了。顺便说一下bordered on 本来指具体形象，这儿却要抽象化，可见具体与抽象常相互转化。
本次练习这些词语的具体化不是可有可无，而是必须如此才能达到翻译的基本要求——信与达。
Passage 3
“This is the sitting-room,”said Nan. “It’s the most terrible mess. But at least it is human; it’s lived in.” And lived in it clearly was---to an unfamiliar visitor (不常来的访客)like Peter the room appeared like a chart of some crowded group of islands. Deep armchairs and sofas covered in a faded flowered material stood practically(almost) next to each other, and where the bewildered（深感意外而弄得有些不知所措的） navigator might hope to pass between them there was always some table or stool to bar his way. Movement was made the more dangerous because some breakable object was balanced precariously on every available flat surface. There were used plates and unused plates, half-finished dishes of sandwches, half-empty cups of coffee, ash trays standing days deep in cigarette ends; even the family photographs on the mantelpiece seemed to be pushing half-finished glasses of beer over the edge. It was impossible to sit down, for all possible places were filled with books, sewing, opened-out newspapers and in one case a tabby cat and two pairs of pliers. When at last they cleared some chairs the springs groaned and creaked beneath their weight as they sat down. In the one into which Peter unsuspectingly sank the springs were broken, and he hit the backs of his knees against the wooden frame.
动词 live in:
1. live in the house where one works
2. the more=all the more;even more
eg. The living room is decorated in pale colors that make it all the more airy.(清新,明快)
He told a lie about it,and that makes his fault all the worse.
对于这件事他说了谎，这使他的错误变得更加严重。
Her husband’s leaving her makes her all the more unhappy at a time when she is actually laid off.
3. tabby cat= a cat with a grey or tawny coat mottled with black虎斑猫
同义词：sleep in
译文;

南恩说：“这里是起居室，乱得实在不成样子/最是凌乱的了，不过至少还好有点人情味，吃饭睡觉工作都在这儿。”这话确实一点没错，可是对彼特这样的稀客来说，这房间如同一张群岛密集的海图。高扶手的安乐椅和罩上褪色印花布套的沙发，几乎是一个挨着一个。困惑的航行者想在其间通过，老要碰到桌子板凳挡路。犹有甚者，任何可以利用的平面都摆满了摇摇晃晃的易碎物品，这就更加使得一举一动都有可能发生危险。到处是盘子，用过的没用过的，盛着没吃完的三明治，还有没喝完的咖啡杯，烟灰缸里则堆满了好几天的烟头/烟灰缸好多天都没清理过了，甚至壁炉台上的家人照片都几乎快把喝得只剩一半的啤酒杯子挤落台面。简直没法落座，凡是可以落座的地方全占满了，不是放着书本就是针线活儿什么的、摊开的报纸等等，有一处竟是一只雌猫和两把老虎钳。最后他们清理出了几把椅子，可是坐上去弹簧就叽嘎作响，大声呻吟。彼特找了把椅子坐下，不曾想那椅子的弹簧却是断的，膝弯由此重重的碰上了椅子里的木头。
4. 具体名词抽象化
(1) Kissinger felt that Rogers was quibbling, but the lawyer in Nixon supported the quibble of a fellow lawyer. 基辛格感到罗杰斯是在挑刺儿，但是尼克松身上的律师气质使他支持了同行律师的挑刺儿。
(2) It was the Arab in Hussein that rejected private American entreaties to view Camp David as a negotiating "process" that would erode Israel's hold on the West Bank.美国私下请求侯赛因，要他吧戴维营协议看作使以色列放松对西岸控制的谈判“进程”，而正是侯赛因的阿拉伯意识使他拒绝了这一请求。
(3) He allowed the father to-be overruled by the judge and declared his own son guilty.法官的职责战胜了父子亲情，使他终于宣判他儿子有罪。
(4) He felt the patriot rise within him.他感到一种爱国热情在心中激荡。
(5) The detective that there is in all of us awoke and became clamant ['kleimənt]急切的 in the bosom of Mr. Rolles; and with a brisk, eager step, that bore no resemblance to his usual gait, he proceeded to make the circuit of the garden.在罗尔斯心里萌生了那种我们大家全都有的寻根究底的念头，这念头扣紧了他的心，于是他以完全不同于平常的步伐轻快而迫切地巡视起这座园子来。
l Notes: 各句中斜体字名词是难译的部分，之所以难译是它们都指具体概念，却又无法按具体概念来处理。其特点是：1. 如按具体概念来译，从上下文难以看出所指的对象；2. 按具体概念译句子逻辑上就会矛盾；3.这类名词必然带有定冠词the，从the可以获得解决问题的线索。《新英汉词典》p.1444the的释义14：[用于具体名词单数形式前，指其属性、功能等，使具抽象性]，举例有There is still much of the schooboy in him.‘他仍然很学生气。’可见这种具体名词抽象化了。说的不是具体的人而是该类人的特性或气质，这种特性即是句中有关人的属性。如句1the lawyer in Nixon即是指尼克松身上的律师气质（尼克松当过律师，其后另一个律师指Rogers）。句2the Arab in Hussein是指侯赛因身上的阿拉伯人意识。所以the N1 of N2是构成此种名词的常见形式，N1需要抽象化。句5看似没有in N2部分，实际是在后面in all of us.其余两句没有这一部分，但都表示有关者的属性。句3 the father, the judge 表示主语he具有这两重身份；句4the patriot 也是主语he 的属性，各句中只有句5没有把原词意“侦探”译出，只取了其特性部分，是出于上下文的需要。

Passage 4 The level of incompetence
The Peter Principle is derived from the analysis of the hundreds of cases of incompetence in organizations which can be seen anywhere. The principle states that “in a hierarchy every employee tends to（总会） rise to his level of incompetence”, and it applies to all organizations.
The principle assumes a constant quest for high performance. Hence people competent at their jobs are promoted so that they may do still better. Competence in each new position qualifies for promotion to the next, until each individual arrives at a job beyond his abilities and therefore no longer performs in a way that gains further promotion. This is his level of incompetence. Given two conditions, enough ranks in the hierarchy to provide promotions