第9课 论述文体的翻译

2） 谨慎遣词造句。论说文在遣词造句 上有其明显的特点，因此翻译中译者必须 最大限度的体现原文在字、词、句方面的 文体特征。 在措词方面，一定要使译文与原文在语 域上相适应。在句法方面，译文在避免翻 译腔的同时应反映原文的句法特征，以体 现论说文严谨、慎密的特点。此外，译文 还应尽量再现原文的修辞特征，例如，原 文如有排比结构，则译文也应设法以排比 结构将之译出，以体现原文的气势与感染 力。
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试看下面这篇论说文及其译文： Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this cived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
• Fourthly, in so far as anthropology is becoming scientific, it is bound to have a profound effect on ethics by showing that any given ethical code is only one of a number practiced with equal conviction and almost equal success; in fact, by creating comparative ethics. But, of course, any serious study of the habits of foreigners, whether scientific or not, had this effect, as comes out plainly enough in the history of ancient Greek ethics. Hence science is not wholly responsible for the ethical results of anthropology.
八十七年前，我们的先辈们在这个大陆上创立 了一个新国家，它孕育于自由之中，奉行一切人 生来平等的原则。
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Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
第9课
论述文体的翻译
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论说文是书面语体中运用得非常广泛 的一种文体，通常分为议论和论述两种， 是相对于散文中的记叙（Narration）和描 写(Description)而言的。其常见形式包括社 科论著、论文、评论、演讲、讲座、报告 等。论说文的文体特点主要有以下几条：
1) 措词严谨规范。论说文的功用主要 在于对某一观点进行解释、说明或阐述， 因此，此类文章讲求理性与逻辑性，在措 词上表现为正式语体的词、大词、抽象词、 外来词用得较多，而绝少使用俚语俗语及 过于口语化的词，以体现其庄重、严谨的 特点。
现在我们正从事一场伟大的内战，以考验这个国家， 或者任何一个孕育于自由和奉行上述原则的国家是否能够 长久存在下去。我们在这场战争中的一个伟大战场上集会。 烈士们为使这个国家能够生存下去而献出了自己的生命， 我们来到这里，是要把这个战场的一部分奉献给他们作为 最后的安息之所。我们这样做是完全应该而且非常恰当的。
• The Riddle of Epicurus or Epicurean paradox is the earliest known description of the Problem of evil, • If God is willing to prevent evil, but is not able to Then He is not omnipotent. • If He is able, but not willing Then He is malevolent. • If He is both able and willing Then whence cometh evil? • If He is neither able nor willing Then why call Him God?
• 下面一例节选自一篇论说文Science and Ethics By Bertrand Russell From Religion and Science (Oxford University Press, 1961)，它较为清晰地显示了论说文体的主 要特点：
Science impinges upon ethics in at least five different ways. In the first place, by its application it creates new ethical situations. Two hundred years ago the news of a famine in China created no duty for Englishmen. They could take no possible action against it. Today the telegraph and the steam engine have made such action possible, and it becomes an ethical problem what action, if any, is right. Two hundred years ago a workman generally owned his own tools. Now his tool may be a crane or steam hammer, and we all have our own views as to whether these should belong to shareholders, the State, or guilds representing the workers.
• Secondly, it may create new duties by pointing out previously unexpected consequences of our actions. We are all greed that we should not run the risk of spreading typhoid by polluting the public water supply. We are probably divided as to the duty of vaccinating our children, and we may not all be of one mind as to whether a person likely to transmit club foot or cataract to half his or her children should be compelled to abstain from parenthood.
• Notes: Epicureanism is an ancient Greek philosophical system taught by Epicurus. It emphasized the goal of a happy and content life in the here and now, rejecting both superstitous fear of the gods and notions of an afterlife. Though the modern use of the term "Epicurean" is associated with the saying, "Eat, drink and be merry," Epicureanism did not advocate simple pursuit of bodily pleasure and differed significantly from hedonism.
3） 如果原文作者引经据典，译者在翻 译中可采取加注或释义的方法。如译一般 论说文，以上方法则可视情况选用。如译 演讲或发言，应以后一种方法为主。这主 要是考虑到译文的语篇功能应与原文对等。 当然，如果我们翻译一篇演讲或发言，只 为他人参考或为了研究等别的目的，那么 译者在处理典故时，不妨多用加注的方法， 以便读者参考或弄清出处。
• Thirdly, science affects our whole ethical outlook by influencing our views as to the nature of the world-in fact, by supplanting mythology. One man may see men and animals as a great brotherhood of common ancestry and thus feel an enlargement of his obligations. Another will regard even the noblest aspects of human nature as products of a ruthless struggle for existence and thus justify a refusal to assist the weak and suffering. A third, impressed with the vanity of human efforts amid the vast indifference of the universe, will take refuge in a modified Epicureanism. In all these attitudes and in many others there is at least some element of rightness.