【英语世界翻译赛往届赛题】-第九届原文及参考翻译

英译汉原文：
The Whoomper Factor
By Nathan Cobb
【1】As this is being written,snow is falling in the streets of Boston in what weather forecasters like to call“record amounts.”I would guess by looking out the window that we are only a few hours from that magic moment of paralysis,as in Storm Paralyzes Hub.Perhaps we are even due for an Entire Region Engulfed or a Northeast Blanketed,but I will happily settle for mere local disablement.And the more the merrier.
【2】Some people call them blizzards,others nor’easters.My own term is whoompers,and I freely admit looking forward to them as does a baseball fan to ually I am disappointed,however;because tonight’s storm warnings too often turn into tomorrow’s light flurries.
【3】Well,flurries be damned.I want the real thing,complete with Volkswagens turned into drifts along Commonwealth Avenue and the MBTA’s third rail frozen like a hunk of raw meat.A storm does not even begin to qualify as a whoomper unless Logan Airport is shut down for a minimum of six hours.
【4】The point is,whoompers teach us a lesson.Or rather several lessons.For one thing,here are all these city folks who pride themselves on their instinct for survival,and suddenly they cannot bear to venture into the streets because they are afraid of being swallowed up.Virtual prisoners in their own houses is what they are.In northern New England, the natives view nights such as this with casual indifference,but let a whoomper hit Boston and the locals are not only knee deep in snow but also in befuddlement and disarray.
【5】The lesson?That there is something more powerful out there than the sacred metropolis.It is not unlike the message we can read into the debacle of the windows falling out of the John Hancock Tower;just when we think we’ve got the upper hand on the elements,we find out we are flies and someone else is holding the swatter.Whoompers keep us in our place.
【6】They also slow us down,which is not a bad thing for urbania these days.Frankly,I’m of the opinion Logan should be closed periodically,snow or not,in tribute to the lurking suspicion that it may not be all that necessary for a man to travel at a speed of600miles per hour.In a little while I shall go forth into the streets and I know what I will find.People will actually be walking,and the avenues will be bereft
of cars.It will be something like those marvelous photographs of Back Bay during the nineteenth century,wherein the lack of clutter and traffic makes it seem as if someone has selectively airbrushed the scene.
【7】And,of course,there will be the sound of silence tonight.It will be almost deafening.I know city people who have trouble sleeping in the country because of the lack of noise,and I suspect this is what bothers many of them about whoompers.Icy sidewalks and even fewer parking spaces we can handle,but please,God,turn up the volume.City folks tend not to believe in anything they can’t hear with their own ears.
【8】It should also be noted that nights such as this are obviously quite pretty,hiding the city’s wounds beneath a clean white dressing.But it is their effect on the way people suddenly treat each other that is most fascinating,coming as it does when city dwellers are depicted as people of the same general variety as those New Yorkers who stood by when Kitty Genovese was murdered back in1964.
【9】There’s nothing like a good whoomper to get people thinking that everyone walking towards them on the sidewalk might not be a mugger,or that saying hello is not necessarily a sign of perversion.You would think that city people,more than any other,would have a strong
sense of being in the same rough seas together,yet it is not until a quasi catastrophe hits that many of them stop being lone sharks.
【10】But enough of this.There’s a whoomper outside tonight,and it requires my presence.
英译汉参考译文：
最是那轰雪
文/内森·科布
译/韩子满
【1】写下这些文字的时候，雪花儿正飘落在波士顿街头，气象预报员会说降雪量“创了纪录”。

往窗外看了看，我想要不了几个小时，美妙的瘫痪时刻就将来临，就是《暴雪瘫痪宇宙中心波士顿》所描绘的时刻。

我们甚至还会迎来《整个新英格兰被雪吞没》，或是《厚雪覆盖整个东北部》的时刻。

不过，对我来说，只要我们这个地方不能动就好啦，越厉害越好。

【2】这种雪，有人叫作暴风雪，有人叫作东北暴。

我自己的叫法是轰雪。

不瞒您说，我还眼巴巴盼着它们，就像棒球迷盼着四月开赛季一样。

不过，通常我都会失望的，因为经常今晚的暴雪预警到了明天只是阵阵小雪。

【3】哎，见鬼去吧，阵雪。

我要的是真正的雪，那种能让联邦大道上的大众汽车变成一座座雪堆的大雪，能让麻省湾区交通局的第三轨（供电轨）像大块生肉一样结冰的大雪。

暴风雪要是不能让洛根机场关闭至少六小时，压根儿就称不上轰雪。

【4】重要的是，轰雪让我们长记性，长好多记性。

至少，让这里的这些自以为生存本能了得还沾沾自喜的城里人突然不敢贸然走上大街，因为害怕会被大雪吞没。

他们其实被软禁在了自己家中。

在新英格兰北部，当地人对于这样的夜晚根本无所谓，但要是波士顿也来一场轰雪，波士顿人就不仅要陷入深达膝盖的积雪，还会陷入迷茫而惊慌失措。

【5】长什么记性呢？那就是，有一种力量比这座神圣无比的大都会还要强大。

约翰·汉考克大厦的玻璃掉落酿成灾祸时，我们长的就是这种记性。

我们刚刚觉得自己已经战胜了恶劣天气，就发现我们不过是一只只苍蝇，旁边有人正举着苍蝇拍。

轰雪让我们不敢越雷池一步/认识自己的斤两。

【6】轰雪还让我们慢下脚步，对于今天生活在城里的人来说，这可不是坏事。

说实话，我觉得不管下不下雪，洛根机场都应该定期关闭，因为我打心眼里一直怀疑，以每小时600英里的速度旅行也许
毫无必要。

一会儿我就到街上转转去，我知道会发现什么。

人们都会步行，大街上一辆车都不会有，就像是19世纪后湾区漂亮的照片一样，没有汹涌的人群，也没有滚滚的车流，那景象就像是有人特意用气刷喷绘出来的。

【7】而且，今晚肯定会一片寂静，静得几乎震耳欲聋。

我认识一些城里人，到乡下会睡不着，因为没有了噪音。

我猜，这么多人不喜欢轰雪，就是这个原因。

人行道结冰没关系，连能停车的地方少了我们都能应付，可是，老天爷啊，请把音量调高点儿。

只要不是亲耳听到的，城里人一般什么都不信。

【8】我们还应该知道，这样的夜晚无疑非常美丽，一层干净洁白的纱布把城市的伤口都盖了起来。

但最有意思的是，这样的夜晚让人们对待彼此的方式突然也变了，而平时城里人给人的印象都是一副德行，就像1964年基蒂·吉诺维斯被谋杀时站在一旁无动于衷的那些纽约人。

【9】要想让人们觉得人行道上迎面走来的人或许不是抢劫犯，或者打声招呼未必就是变态，没有比好好来一场轰雪更有效的了。

你可能会以为，城里人比其他地方的人更有一种同舟共济的感觉，但不摊上一场近似灾难的大事，很多人会一直各行其是。

【10】就说这么多吧。

今夜外面有场轰雪，我必须出去露个脸。

汉译英原文：
佛像前的沉吟（节选）
文/二月河
【1】打开中国的历史去看，有件很有意思的事，佛教似乎总在与诗歌相伴。

也不知谁先谁后，抑或是先后辉映，两家差不多是彼兴我兴，彼衰我衰。

汉如此，唐如斯，元、明、清也“庶乎是矣”。

【2】世界上还有一件有意思的事，形成宗教的国家总是留不住宗教。

创教的圣人们不是被本国的乡亲们赶得走投无路，就是到处碰壁，弄得头破血流。

释迦牟尼待遇似乎好一点，但他创的佛教，印度人却没留住，跑到了中国。

【3】有人说少林寺出名，是因为《少林寺》这个电影，一炮走红了。

这个话也对，也不完全对。

我以为，少林寺兴旺的根本原因在于它本身原本就拥有的文化内涵。

【4】使少林名声大噪的，并不是它的“禅”，是少林和尚的“拳”。

到少林的人多数是看那几个练拳练出来的坑儿，书痴才会在立雪亭前发呆。

但是，那拳头是太硬了，太有劲了。

史有明载图有丹青作证，
十三棍僧救唐王。

有这擎天保驾的功劳，佛教得到了中央政权力助，自然更加熏灼炙人。

回想，玄奘取经原本是偷偷去的印度，回来却受到政府盛大的欢迎。

本来，大臣中灭佛反对佞佛的势力也很大的，但随形势转换，可以看到二者的结合愈来愈密切，一方面说，可以看到唐政府自身的文化品位与度量。

两个文化稍有梗介到密弥相友，其间多少磨合，终于是握起手来了。

【5】这样的握手，造出无数宏大奇伟的寺院丛林，蔚为万千气象，也许是冥冥中上苍有这样的安排，文化的另一支，伟大的、瑰丽无双的唐诗也应时而生。

【6】我喜爱这样迷人的文化。

（本刊选用此文时有删节并获作者二月河老师应允，特在此表示诚挚感谢。

）
汉译英参考译文：
Reflections Before the Buddha(Excerpt)
By Eryue He
Trans.by Han Ziman（韩子满）
Read a Chinese history book,and you will find something
interesting,i.e.,Buddhism seems to have always come along with poetry. Which came earlier,or whether they prospered one after another,no one knows.But one thing is for sure.They have flourished together,and so have they declined.It was so in the Han and Tang dynasties,and almost so in the Yuan,Ming and Qing dynasties.
There is something else also interesting in the world:religions tend to leave where they were founded.Saints founding religions were either ostracized by their own country-folks,or repeatedly rejected.Sakyamuni, founder of Buddhism,was luckier,but India failed to retain the religion in its homeland.It went over to China.
It is said that Shaolin Temple shot to fame thanks to the movie of its namesake.There is only half truth in such a claim.I am of the view that the root cause of the temple’s prosperity is its own cultural tradition.
Shaolin Temple became well known not because of Zen worshipped there,but the Kung Fu practiced by its monks.Most visitors to the temple would have a look at the pits left by monks practicing their Kung Fu;only book worms would be lost in thinking before the Lixue Pavilion.But the monks’Kung Fu was very powerful,their fists very hard.It is recorded in history,and in some paintings as well,that thirteen Shaolin monks who
were cudgel masters once saved the life of Li Shimin,who later became one of the greatest emperors of the Tang Dynasty.Such a great feat ensured full support for Buddhism from the central government,and the religion became even more influential.We now know that the great monk Xuanzang went to India for Buddhist sutrasin secret without the government knowing it,but was received with an extravagant ceremony by the government on his return.Before that,many government ministers thought that Buddhism should be banned,or it should not get any official favor.But as the table turned,the two(Buddhism and the government) got closer and closer,showing the good cultural taste and tolerance of the Tang government.Two cultures finally joined hands after repeated misunderstandings and compromises.
Such a union resulted in numerous imposing and spectacular temples, and as if predestined the beautiful and immaculate Tang poetry,as another part of the culture,came into being at the same time.
I love such a fascinating culture.。