英汉翻译讲解(1)
I.英汉之间的差别:
“对于中国学生最有用的帮助是让他认识英语和汉语的差别。”------吕叔湘
国内学者的共识是:汉语是综合性的,描写性,而英语是分析性的,逻辑性的。在语言学上最重要的区别在于形合和意合的对比(contrast between hypotaxis and parataxis),英语重形合(形式上的融合),汉语重意合(意思或意境的融合)。在句法方面,有学者形象地把英汉比喻为以下几种:
1.雄孔雀/雄狮-----即英语习惯于把最着重的事物放在句首先说出来,开门见山,一语破的,然后再把各种标志一条条补述,一步步交代,慢条斯理,从容不迫,形成一条头短尾长地线性链,象头小尾大地雄孔雀。而汉语则相反,其线性序列的展开好比画龙点睛,先把外围的环境与衬托一一交代周到,最后点出话语的信息中心,水到渠成,给人以豁然开朗之感,形成雄狮型头大尾小地局式。
例如:I was all the more delighted when, as a result of the initiative of your Government it p
roved possible to reinstate the visit so quickly.
  译文:由于贵国政府的提议,才得以这样快地重新实现访问。这使我感到特别高兴。
  又如: The assertion that it was difficult, if not impossible, for a people to enjoy its basic rights unless it was able to determine freely its political status and to ensure freely its economic, social and cultural development was now scarcely (不足地,不充分地;一定不,绝不)contested (斗争;比赛).
  译文:如果一个民族不能自由地决定其政治地位,不能自由地保证其经济、社会和文化的发展,要享受其基本权利,即使不是不可能,也是不容易的。这一论断几乎是无可置辩的了。
2.葡萄/竹竿-----即把英语句子比作“葡萄型”结构,葡萄主干很短,其上附结着丰硕的果实。而汉语句子则较短,一个短句接一个短句地往下叙述,逐步展开,内容像竹竿一样一节一节展开,常称为“竹竿型”结构。
She was beautiful, with long dark hair and brilliant green eyes. 她长得很美,一头乌黑亮丽
的长发,一双晶莹明亮的绿眼睛。
She has smooth akin as pale and iridescent as the moon shining over a snow-covered landscape.她光滑的肌肤白里透红,宛如皎洁的月光洒在茫茫血地上。
3.多枝共干----英语句子中还有两个或几个动词共受一个状语修饰,共有一个主语或宾语,或者两个或几个状语共同修饰一个动词,两个或几个主语或宾语共一个动词,这就好比几根树枝长在同一根树干上,我们称为“多枝共干”式结构。
4.也有学者认为英语是一种弥漫着“男子气”的语言。逻辑性、组织性和理性是以英语为母语的民族的思维支撑点,从而就形成了英语的“阳刚之美”。而汉语自有汉语之美。汉语不注重对客观现实作符合逻辑的形式的描摹,不执着于形式结构的规范,中国人的思维支撑点似乎更具有抽象,深邃和疏放的取向,由此繁衍生出的是显赫的暗示和幽远的意境从而形成汉语的“阴柔之美”。汉语的魅力在于她的流散和疏放,系于她超凡的暗示力和意境性。所以汉语的形式机制很弱,主谓宾没有形式标定,主谓间关系松散,宾语无定格,无定位,主语的超句承接功能很强。
如果说汉语是一种“人治”语言,那么,英语则是一种“理性”语言。汉语能化逻辑为内在,英语则必须将逻辑外化,化作种种行合的标记,化作启转承合的纽带。英语语法规范森严,理性十足;英语形式逻辑缜密,滴水不漏。
5.汉语是一种意境语言,一种艺术语言。寥寥数词,就能出意境,出氛围,出画面。当然,英语表情达意的优势也不能低估。比如,appreciatesmetaphor比喻就是英语最大的优势。这个比喻并非狭义上的把A 比作B不使用比喻词如as, like, as if等的隐喻/暗喻,而是广义上英语词汇的比喻义。换言之,也可以说是英语词汇denotation (本义)之外的connotation(转义)
试译下面句子,仔细体会汉语在这里给人体现出来的意境的美,英语体现的逻辑很清楚的理性的美。)
1.She was in a flood of tears. 她泪流如注。(注意flood(本义是水灾)这个词的转义所表现出来的英语的美:)
The corridors were flooded with girls.走廊里挤满了女孩子。
Strawberries flooded the market and prices dropped down.草莓充斥市场,价格下跌。
Beer flooded from the glass.啤酒从杯中溢出。
2.她就是这样风里来,雨里去,成年累月地工作着。
This is how she carries on her work, rain or shine, all the year round.
3. 人言鼎沸:Many people talk together and the noise they make is like the bubbling of water boiling in a cauldron.       
4. 面如菜:hungry looking; look famished
5.西湖如明镜,千峰凝翠,洞壑幽深,风光奇丽。(这里的汉语只有17个字,却勾勒出西湖的意境的美,而英语则要把这里的逻辑弄清楚,再把汉语内在的逻辑完全外化出来)
The West Lake is like a mirror, embellished all around with green hills and deep caves of enchanting beauty.
6.The stage of mental comfort to which they had arrived at this hour was one wherein their souls expanded beyond their skins, and spread their personalities warmly through the
room.
他们那时所达到的欢畅阶段是:神游身外,脱却形骸,满眼生花,满室生春。
    7.《红楼梦》袭人说:一百年还记得呢?比不得你,拿着我的话当耳边风,夜里说了,早起就忘了。(汉语具有的超凡的暗示力,英语则要把暗示的逻辑外化出来。)
    “I will remember if I live to be a hundred” said Aroma. “I am not like you, letting what I say go in at one ear and out at the other forgetting what’s said at night by the next morning.”
    8. We had plenty of company in the way of wagon-loads and mule-loads of tourists---and dust. 同路的有许多旅客,有乘旅游马车的,也有骑骡子的---一路尘土飞扬。
9. Clearly, when it comes to marriage, practicing beforehand doesn’t make perfect.
显然,在婚姻问题上,婚前同居并不能令婚姻生活趋于完美。
10. Change is part of life and the making of character. When things happen that you do not like, you have two choices: You get bitter or better.
变化是生活的一部分,而且也塑造了人的意志品德。当你不喜欢的事情发生了,你有两种选择:要么痛苦不堪,要么痛快达观。
试翻译以下短文: SV(student version),  RV(revised version)
Commentaries on the Version of 一个女人是这样衰老的
一个女人是这样衰老的
题目的翻译
SV: How a Woman Ages/A Womans Aging/A Woman Fades Thus/What causes a Woman to Grow Old/The Way in Which a woman is Aging/How a Woman Gets Old
RV: The Way Woman Withers
点评:Rhetorical Device: distillation and aesthetic hightlights of language, either Chinese or English/The successful employment of alliteration(头韵)
1.二十岁的时候,我穿着一条背心式牛仔裙在校园里走来走去,一说话就脸红。三十岁的我穿着名牌套装,坐在办公桌前,满脸冷酷地对下属说:“这么愚蠢的问题你也敢问?也不先打个草稿。”
SV: At the age of twenty, I walked about on the campus, wearing a vestlike jean skirt. My face would turn red whenever I speak. After I have turned thirty, I am seated in front of a bureau, in a suit of famous brand, reproaching a subordinate coldly How dare you ask such a stupid question? Why didnt you make a draft first?