冰心《話說短文》英譯賞析

我們偉大的祖國,是有寫短文的文學傳統的。那部包括上下數千年的《古文觀止》,“上起東周,下迄明末,共選輯文章220篇”有幾篇是長的?下面是小編分享的英譯散文《話說短文》,歡迎大家閱讀!

冰心《話說短文》英譯賞析

  話說短文A Chat about Short Essays

  冰心Bing Xin

| 譯文摘自張培基《英譯中國散文選一》

也許是我的精、氣、神都不足吧,不但自己寫不出長的東西,人讀一本刊物時,也總是先挑短的看,不論是小說、散文或是其他的文學形式,最後纔看長的。

  Perhaps due to my failing energies, not only have I refrained from writing anything long, but also, in reading a magazine, for example, I usually finish its shorter pieces of writing first, be they fiction, prose or any other forms of literature, before going on to the longer ones.

要點:

1,“也許是我的精、氣、神都不足吧”譯爲Perhaps due to my failing energies,注意這裏的精氣神可不是遊戲裏的辣個(⊙﹏⊙)b,它的意思是“身體和精神上的能量”,也可譯爲mental and physical energy,但都不如energy顯得簡潔俏皮~

2,fail表示“視力,健康,記憶上的衰退”,之前在《中年人的寂寞》中我們也見到過~“眼睛昏花了,記憶力減退了”譯爲my eyesight and memory failing

3,“不但自己寫不出長的東西…”用not only句式,譯爲not only have I refrained from writing anything long,其中“寫不出”=refrain from~表示受到客觀限制不能做某事

4,“不論是小說、散文或是其他的文學形式”前方高能~~ 注意啦!!!這裏出現了表“無論”的新用法,“無論A還是B”譯爲 be+代詞+ A or B,如“香酥雞,肯德基,道口燒雞,大同小異”=Chickens are chickens ,be it Fried Crisp Chicken, KFC Chicken or Red-cooked Chicken.學了好多菜名吧~~~O(∩_∩)O

5,本段中“看”出現了2次,分別用了finish/going on the writing表示“讀完/繼續讀”,都沒有用look或是see哦

我總覺得,凡是爲了非傾吐不可而寫的作品,都是充滿了真情實感的。反之,只是爲寫作而寫作,如上之爲應付編輯朋友,一之爲多拿稿費,這類文章大都是儘量地往長裏寫,結果是即便的一點點的感情,也被沖洗到水分太多、淡而無味的地步。

  I always believe that anything written with an irresistible inner urge to unbosom oneself must be full of genuine feelings. On the contrary, if one writes simply for the sake of writing—say, to humor one’s editor friends, or worse still, to earn more remuneration, one will most probably make his writings unnecessarily long until they become, despite what little feeling they may contain, inflated and wishy-washy.

要點:

1,“凡是爲了非傾吐不可而寫的作品”譯爲anything written with an irresistible inner urge to unbosom oneself,其中urge意爲“衝動,強烈的慾望,unbosom譯爲“表露心跡,吐露心聲”(bosom有胸襟,胸懷之意)

2,“爲寫作而寫作”譯爲if one writes simply for the sake of writing,此處又出現了for sake of表示“爲了”~

3,“只是爲寫作而寫作,如上之爲應付編輯朋友,一之爲多拿稿費,這類文章大都是儘量地往長裏寫,結果是即便的一點點的感情,也被沖洗到水分太多、淡而無味的地步。”這句話並沒有一個明確的主語~需要我們找找找,通過分析可以發現,幾個分句動作的發出者都是“寫作品的人”譯文用one(指代寫作品的人)做主語,成功串起了整個一句話~

4,“如”即“比如說”,譯爲say,英語中舉例時常會用say 這個詞

5,“爲應付編輯朋友”意爲“遷就…的要求”因此譯爲humor(迎合,遷就)如:For the kinder among us did not wish to fret the master , we humoured his partiality .

(因爲我們中間比較心慈的人並不願惹主人生氣,所以我們就迎合他的偏愛。)表示同樣含義的還有cater for/to, accommodate, play up to~

6,“結果是即便的一點點的感情,也被沖洗到水分太多、淡而無味的地步”中“結果”又用了until表示,這個用法在《艱難的國運與雄健的國民》中也出現過哦~這個句子的特別之處在於句中同時有“結果”和“即使”兩個狀語成分,譯者翻譯時將後者譯爲了插入語~

當由一個人物,一樁事蹟,一幅畫面而發生的真情實感,向你襲來的時候,它就像一根扎到你心尖上的長針,一陣捲到你面前的怒潮,你只能用最真切、最簡練的文字,才能描畫出你心尖上的那一陣劇痛和你面前的那一霎驚惶!

  When true emotions aroused by a person, an event or a scene come upon you like a pin pricking your heart or an angry tide surging threateningly before you, all you can do is use the most vivid and succinct language to describe the severe pain in your heart or the momentary feeling of panic caused by the angry tide.

要點:

1,“襲來”說白了就是“攻擊,侵襲,席捲”,strike, come, invade等詞在特定語境下均可表示此意,同志們可根據不同語境選擇不同的單詞,如:

當災難襲來,建築常常是大面積損毀。

when a disaster strikes, the damage is often widespread.

當聲譽和金錢向他襲來,報紙的標題並沒有對他產生影響。

Newspaper headlines did not affect him as offers of fame and large sums of money came.

2,“你心尖上”即“你的內心深處”或“你的心頭”,譯爲your heart 即可,the tip of your heart就不必了~

3,“一霎驚慌”意即“片刻的驚慌”譯爲the momentary feeling of panic

4,caused by the angry tide起了補充說明的`作用

我們偉大的祖國,是有寫短文的文學傳統的。那部包括上下數千年的《古文觀止》,“上起東周,下迄明末,共選輯文章220篇”有幾篇是長的?如杜牧的《阿房宮賦》,韓愈的《祭十二郎文》等等,哪一篇不是短而充滿了真情實感?今人的巴金的《隨感錄》,不也是一個實例嗎?

  Our great motherland is known for its literary tradition of short essays. Do you find anything unduly long in A Treasury of Best Ancient Chinese Prose with its 220 essays selected from a period of several thousand years in ancient China from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty down until the end of the Ming Dynasty? Aren’t the essays in it, like Du Mu’s Rhapsody on Epang Palace and Han Yu’s An Elegiac Address to My Nephew Shi’erlang, all short and yet full of true feelings? Isn’t A Collection of Random Thoughts by Ba Jin, our contemporary, another like example of pithy writing?

要點:

1,“我們偉大的祖國,是有寫短文的文學傳統的”譯爲Our great motherland is known for its literary tradition of short essays.此處也可以譯爲Our great motherland has a literary tradition of short essays,但不如前者靈活~

2,“…有幾篇是長的?”譯爲Do you find anything unduely long ,其中unduely 是添加成分,作“不適當地,過分地”解,原文雖然沒有明說,但字裏行間都透露了這個意思~

3,“《祭十二郎文》”譯爲An elegiac Address to My Nephew Shi’erlang,其中,My Nephew解釋了“十二郎”的身份,屬釋義性翻譯,意在幫助讀者理解,之前說過,這種翻譯手法在翻譯有關中國傳統文化的材料時尤爲多見。

4,“…不也是一個實例嗎?”這又是一個反問句,譯爲一般疑問句(否定詞開頭),之前在《我坐了木船》中我也着重介紹過反問句的譯法,比如“輪船飛機就不危險嗎?”譯爲is it less dangerous to travel by steamer or aircraft?(is it less=isn’t it)~

5,“…不也是一個實例嗎?”譯爲Isn’t …another like example of pithy writing?其中,Like 和pithy writing都是添加成分,原文雖然沒有明說,但是有這個意思哦~