文章翻译

Since translating is a skill which requires considerable practice, most people assume that it can be taught, and to some extent this is true.因为翻译是一项需要大量实践的技能，所以大多数人认为这种技能是可以教授的，这种想法只在某种程度上是正确的。But it is also true that really exceptional translators are born, not made. 但是很多优秀的译者是与生俱来的，这我们不可否认。Potential translators must have a high level of aptitude for the creative use of language, or they are not likely to be outstanding in their profession.有潜力的译者一定在语言的创造性运用方面颇具资质，否则他们不可能在他们的职业上业绩突出。Perhaps the greatest benefit from instruction in translating is to become aware of one’s own limitations, something which a translator of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men into Chinese should have learned.翻译指导最大的好处可能是能让人意识到自己能力的局限，有些东西斯坦贝克《人与鼠》的译者在将其翻译成汉语时应该学习。Then he would not have translated English mule-skinner into a Chinese phrase meaning “a person who skins the hide of a mule.”然后他将不会把英语中的骡夫翻译成给骡子剥皮的人。(120)

For many people the need for human translation seems paradoxical in this age of computers.对很多人来说在这个计算机时代对人工翻译的需要是荒谬可笑的。Some modern computers can be loaded with dictionaries and grammars, why not let computers do the work? 很多现代电脑可以下载词典和语法，为什么不用电脑做这项工作呢？Computers can perform certain very simple interlingual tasks, providing there is sufficient pre-editing and post-editing. 鉴于有足够的译前编辑和译后编辑，电脑可以完成特定的非常简单的语内任务。But neither advertising brochures nor lyric poetry can ever be reduced to the kind of logic required of computer programs. 但是广告说明书和抒情诗都不能被译成那种需要计算机程序的逻辑语言。Computer printouts of translations can often be understood, if the persons involved already know that the text is supposed to say.如果读者已经知道文章要表达的意思，那他们就会读懂翻译的电脑打印品。But the results of machine translating are usually in an unnatural form of languages and sometimes just plain weird. Furthermore, real improvements will not come from merely doctoring the program or adding rules. 但机器的翻译结果往往是不通顺的语言，有时候只是刻板让人无法理解的语言。而且真正的提高不是单纯的修改程序或附加规则。The human brain is not only digital and analogic, but it also has a built-in system of values which gives it a componentially incalculable advantage over machines.人的大脑不仅仅是数字和模拟的，它还有内置的价值观念系统，这使它在语言成分分析上的优势远远大于机器。Human translators will always be necessary for any text that is stylistically appealing and semantically complex--which includes most of what is worth communicating in another language. 文体吸引人和语义复杂的文章都需人工翻译，因为这些文章包括值得译成另一种语言的东西(。174)

The most difficult texts to translate are not, however, highly literary productions, but rather those texts which say nothing, the type of language often used by politicians and delegates to international forums. 然而最难译的文章不是有深度的文学作品，而恰是那些没有任何深意的文章，这种语言往往是政治家和代表团在国际论坛上用的。In fact, a group of professional translators at the United Nations headquarters in New York City have insisted that the most difficult text to translate is one in which the speaker or writer has attempted to say nothing. 实际上，纽约联合国总部的专业译者们坚信最难译的是说话人或作者没什么深意要表达的文章。The next most difficult type of text is one filled with irony and sarcasm, since in a written text the paralinguistic clues to the meaning are usually much more difficult to detect than when someone is speaking. 第二最难译的是里面满是讽刺和挖苦的文章，因为手写副语言暗示的意思经常比口语中的更难理解。And perhaps the third most difficult type of text is a book or article on