佳译赏析

佳译赏析佳译赏析

严羽论诗，力主妙悟。他认为盛唐之诗“其妙处透彻玲珑，不可凑泊，如空中之音，相中之色，水中之月，镜中之象，言有尽而意无穷。”
严羽这几句话虽然说得虚无缥缈，恍惚迷离，其实说来说去，只合一个“化”字。所谓“妙悟”，更是臻于化境的意思。
水中之月，看似有之，捞之则无，妙就妙在捞不到手。艺术的“化”，当是不即不离，不粘不脱，求其神似而不求其形似。形似不过是皮相，神似才入化境。这好比一件玉器，分明是雕琢出来，却又不露一点斧凿之痕。翻译，尤其是文学翻译，也是如此，所以文学翻译的最高境界就是“化”，也就是严羽说的“妙悟”、“透彻玲珑”了。
下面试举几个臻于“化境”的译例，供大家欣赏、玩味。
Sickness and trouble: that's what Ethan's had his plate full with, ever since
the every first helping.
病痛和祸害，这是伊坦的家常便饭，从他能吃饭的时候算起。

But the bay was as good as Frome's word, and we pushed on to the Junction
through the white, wild scene.
但是那老栗马不辜负弗洛美的话，我们在漫天风雪之中到达了车站。

A new dignity crept into his walk.
他走路的姿态不知什么时候给人一种庄重的印象。

She liked to be with him better than with others.
她觉得跟他在一起最开心。

Huiller refused genially, as he did everything else.
郝尔的拒绝是很婉转的，这人无往而不婉转。

...indeed, he was one in whom the ancient Roman honour more appeared than in any
that drew breath in Italy.
...，他确实是意大利当时最有古罗马君子之风的人。

She has beauty still, and, if it be not in its heyday, it is not yet in its
autumn.
她依然很美，如果不是芳华正茂，也还不到迟暮之年。

"I should like to throw a cat at you instead of a cushion!"
“拿垫子扔你还解不了我的气呢，我真想拿猫来扔你！”

I went out for a walk, when I met him.
我出去散步，正好碰见他。

He was on the verge of losing his temper with his wife, when she uttered a cry.
他正要对妻子发脾气，她忽然大喊一声。

When he saw me, he was startled.
他看见我，吓了一大跳，

He walked when he might have taken a car.
他本可以坐汽车去的，不过他还是步行了。

The conflict began, when it soon appeared which was the stronger of the two.
战斗开始不久，双方之间谁强谁弱，也就很清楚了。

He gave up politics when he might have made a great career in it.
他放弃了政治活动，本来他在这方面是大有作为的。

“... yet, as it sometimes happens that person departs his life, who is really
deserving of all the praises the stone-cutter carved over his bones."
“...不过偶尔也有个

把人，确实当得起石匠在他们的墓碑上刻的好话。”

He had left a note of welcome for me, as sunny as his face.
他留下一封短信，对我表示欢迎，那信写得热情洋溢，一如其人。

John prefers film to stage plays.
约翰觉得电影比戏剧更合他的口味。

The hum of the machines ended for ever the age-old silence on the virgin land.
机器的轰鸣声从此结束了这片处女地千百年来的寂静。

Mattie's hand was underneath, and Ethan kept his clasped on it a moment longer
than was necessary.
玛悌的手在下，伊坦握住它，没有立刻就放。

These alternations of mood were the despair and joy of Ehan Frome.
“她这样一会儿一种情绪，叫伊坦时而灰心，时而高兴。”

Zeena herself, from an oppressive reality, had faded into an unsubstantial
shade.
连西娜这人也由咄咄逼人的实体褪成一个虚无飘渺的影子。

"...yet he failed somehow, in spite of a mediocrity which ought to have insured
any man a success."
“按理说，他这样的庸才，正该发迹才是，可是不知为什么，只是不得意。”

He said so to Esses, "I didn't think you would hold me for political ransom. So
nakedly, anyway."
他照直对俄塞克司说：“想不到你居然对我搞政治绑票，至少是想不到你会干得这样赤裸裸。”

It is well said, in every sense, that a man's religion is the chief fact with
regard to him.
有人说：看一个人，主要是看他的宗教信仰。这个说法无论在何种意义上都是十分恰当的。

But I ask why it is called "homeland" when the South African Government plans to
abolish this reserve.
但我要问一问，既然南非政府计划废除这个保留地，那为什么还要管它叫“家园”呢？

"When your gals takes on and cry, what's the use o' crakin' on 'em over the
head, and knockin' on 'em round?"
“你那些女黑奴哭得那么伤心，你还拿鞭子没头没脑的抽，把她们打得死去活来，那有什么用呢？”

When Miss Pinkerton had finished the inscription in the first, Jemima, with
rather a dubious and timid air, handed her the second.
平克顿小姐在第一本里题赠完毕，吉米玛小姐便带着迟疑不决的样子，小心翼翼的把第二本递给她。

"I could not venture to approach her, or to communicate with her in writing, for
my sense of the peril in which her life was passed was only to be equalled by my
fear of in creasing it."
“我不敢和她接近，也不敢和她通信，因为我一方面深感她的处境已经十分危险，一方面又深怕增加她的危险。”

Many volumes, rather than pages, would be required to do justice to the
statesmen, soldiers, philosophers, poets, historians, and other famous men of
the Sung Dynasty.
要论述宋朝那些政治家、军人、哲学家、诗人、史学家和其他知名人士，用少量篇幅是

不够的，恐怕要用若干卷帙才能说个分明。

He is the living light-fountain, which it is good and pleasant to be near. The
light which enlightens, which has enlightened the darkness of the world.
他是智慧之光的活的光源，亲近他就能使人感到幸福和快乐。这智慧之光足以照亮，而且已经照亮了这世界的蒙昧时代。

The traveler in the south must often have remarked that peculiar air of
refinement, that softness of voice and manner, which seems in many cases to be a
particular gift to the quadroon and mulatto women.
到南方去的人看见那些黑白混血的女郎，准定会注意到她们十之八九都赋有那种独特的优雅风度、那种柔和的声调和文静的举止。

When on Oct. 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus, the son of a Genoese weaver,
stepped ashore on the island he later named San Salvador in the Bahamas, ...
1492年，10月12日，克里斯托弗 .哥伦布--热那亚的一个纺织工的儿子，踏上了位于巴哈马群岛之间的一个他后来命名为圣萨尔瓦多岛，...

When unbridled use of force is accepted (and I emphasize "accepted") and
intimidation and threats go unchallenged, the hopes of a world order such as the
one outlined in the Charter become dim and hollow.
只要随意使用武力的做法为众所公认（我就是要强调“众所公认”这一点），只要对威胁和恐吓采取不闻不问的态度，那么要实现像联合国宪章所规定的那种世界秩序的希望就很渺茫了。

...that we here highly resolve...,that this nation under God, shall have a new
birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the
people, shall not perish from the earth.
......所以我们应在这里表示最大的决心......，这个国家在上帝的保佑下，一定要获得自由的新生；而这个政府也一定要民有、民治、民享，才不会从地球上消失。

When he might well have acted with boldness, he found himself filled with
doubts, scruples and equivocations, in addition to the ordinary fears of a
lover.
等到他不妨放胆去追求的时候，他却迟疑不定，疑虑重重。至于一般堕入情网的人那种种常有的提心吊胆的心理，那就更是难免的了。

“Will you take advantage of a man's nature to do him out of the price of his own
daughter what has brought up and fed and clothed by the sweat of his brow until
she's growed big enough to be interesting to you two gentlemen?"
“您两位不至于因为我这人脾气好就想骗我，趁机贬低我女儿的身价吧？她现在倒是长大成人了，您两位对她也感兴趣；可是，我当初为了把她拉扯大，给她吃、给她穿，不晓得流了多少血汗啊！”

"George, I'm ashamed of you! George, I couldn't have believed you would have
done it! I always knew you to be a rolling stone that gathered no moss; but I
never thought you

would have taken away what little moss there was for Bagnet
and the children to lie upon," said Mrs. Bagnet.
“乔治，我真替你害臊！乔治，想不到你会干出这种事来！俗话说得好：滚着的碌碌不长苔，流浪的汉子不攒财。我早晓得你就是这么一个流浪汉！可真没想到你连贝格纳特和孩子们靠它过活的那一点点财也骗走，”贝格纳特太太说道。

On one of those sad and rather melancholy days in the latter part of autumn when
the shadows of morning and evening almost mingle together and throw a gloom over
the decline of the year, I passed several hours in rambling about Westminster
Abbey. There was something congenial to the season in the mournful magnificence
of the old pile; and as I passed its threshold, it seemed like stepping back
into the regions of antiquity, and losing myself among the shades of former
ages. (Washington Irving)
时方晚秋，气象肃穆，略带忧郁，早晨的阴影和黄昏的阴影几乎连在一起，不可分辨，岁月将暮，终日昏暗。我就在这么一天，到西敏寺去散步了几个钟头。古寺巍巍，森森然似有鬼气，和阴沉沉的季节正好调和，我跨进大门，觉得自己已置身远古，相忘于古人的鬼影之中了