钱歌川-翻译的技巧.doc

大家论坛钱歌川，翻译的技巧，商务印书馆1982.2l 鸟宿池边树，僧敲月下门。Birds dwell in a tree by the pond.A monk knocks at the door under the moon.l 皓月当空。The moon shines brightly.l 他命在旦夕。Death stared him in the face.l 她打了他一记耳光。She strikes him across the face.l 别的客人都走光了他还不走。He sits out the other guests.l 这件衣服你穿了很合适。The dress becomes you very well.年轻人宜彬彬有礼。Modesty becomes a young man.l 这件衣服我穿了五年。This coat has lasted me five years.l 他说话把声音都说哑了。He talked himself hoarse.l She saw him young, and proud, and strong, and now he was old, and worn, and horrible, and dead. (Bennett, Old Wives Tale) 她看到他的时候，他是年轻、骄傲、而又强壮的，现在他已年老，疲惫不堪，样子可怕，而已经死了。（45）l 战争使我们的生意萧条。Our business has suffered not a little through the war.The effect upon our business of the war has been striking.The war has affected our business to a remarkable.The war has done our business much harm.The war has rendered our business dull. (46)l They saw a burning house, standing a little distance from the road, with some stately fir-trees in the foreground. 他们见到离开大路不远的地方，有一幢房子起火了，在那房子前面长得有一排森森的樅树。（48）l Caught in a shower on his way to his house in Lloyd Road, a tall English gentleman, a teacher of English in one of the most flourishing private schools in Singapore, began running, with some books under his arm, in order to catch a bus going at full speed about twenty yards ahead of him. 一个身材高大的英国人，是新加坡顶发达的一间私立学校的英语教员，在回返老益路他的住宅的途中，遇到了骤雨，他手臂下挟着几本书，开始向前跑，想去搭乘在他二十码光景前面以全速力在开行的那辆公共汽车。（48）l 天生丽质。Nature has molded her form and features with masterly touch.l 一磅烟丝只够他吸两个礼拜。A pound of tobacco only lasts him a fortnight.l The truth is that I was never much of a credit to the family, and I doubt if they would be so very glad to see me. They were all steady, chapel-going folk, small farmers, well known and respected over the country-side while I was always a bit of a rover.（Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four）实际我对那个家族是没有什么信誉的，他们是不会高兴见到我的。他们都是信仰上帝，稳健的小农，在乡下颇有名气，受人尊敬，而我却来是有点流浪儿的味道。（135）l There was only a wooden latch to his door, because he had been too much of a skinflint to pay for one of the new iron locks to be fixed on. (Walter de la Mare)他家门上只有一个木闩，因为他太吝啬而不肯花钱买一把新的铁锁装上。（135）l You may have something of a Roosevelt, something of a Newton in yourself; you may have something very much greater than either of these men manifested waiting your help to give it expression. 你也许具有罗斯福的才能，牛顿的智慧，你也许具有比他们两人所显示的更为伟大的本领，在等待着你把它表现出来。（135-136）l It was a truly awful sight, watching the numberless little wooden houses catching fire one after another, and flaming up like so many match-boxes.那真是一个可怕的光景，望着无数的小木屋，一个又一个地着火燃烧，就象那样多的火柴盒子一样。（154）l No family is too poor to have the table covered with a clean cloth. 没有一个家庭会穷困到连放在餐桌上的干净桌布都没有的程度。（169）l Magnesium lives well with other metals and, as in any good marriage, each partner functions better with the other than either does alone.镁跟其他金属结合得很好，所有好象很相合的婚姻一样，各金属单独的时候不如与其他结合时更能发生作用。（178）l Sometimes he used to tell us of his expeditions through the woods and fields round his home, and how he explored the solitary brooks and ponds; and then he would describe the curious animals and birds he saw. (Sweet)以前他时时对我说关于他在他家周围的森林和原野中探险的事，以及他怎样找到一些寂静的溪流和池塘的情形，然后他老要描述他所见到的珍禽异兽。（198）l You will never fail to be moved by the beauty of the sight.你一定会被那些美丽的景象所感动的。（199）l The steamer leaves nothing to be desired so far as comfort and luxury are concerned. 在舒服和豪华方面这轮船可谓尽善尽美了。（202）l Speeches may be broadly divided into two kinds. There is the speech a man makes which he has something to say, and the speech he endeavours to make when he has to say something.演说可大别为两类。一类是一个人有话想说的时候而去发表的演说，另一类是他并没有打算说话，而临时被迫演说，只好努力去找些话来说以应付过去。（205）l A man can never be hindered from thinking whatever he chooses so long as he conceals what he thinks.一个人只要他不把心里所想的事说出来，他高兴怎么想就怎么想，是谁也不能阻止他的。（208）l She walked softly so as not to make any noise.She walked softly that she might not make any noise.She walked softly in order not to make any noise.(214)l Elliott was too clever not to see that many of the persons who accepted his invitations did so only to get a free meal and that of these some were stupid and some worthless. (W. S. Maugham)艾略特是聪明的人必然看得出来，大多数接受他的邀请的人，只是为着要来吃一顿不花钱的饭，他知道他们当中有些是愚笨的，另外有些却是不足轻重的。（216）l Not to speak of; not to sayHe cannot afford the ordinary comforts of live, not to speak of luxuries.他连日常生活的舒服多负担不起，那里还谈得上奢侈。He is very good-natured, not to say foolish.他老实得几乎有点愚笨。（220）l He was no more than skin and bone, was partly paralysed, and wore spectacles of such unusual power, that his eyes appeared through the glasses greatly magnified and distorted in shape. (R. L. Stevenson) 他只剩下皮包骨了，半身不遂，因为戴着非常深度的眼镜，所以在那镜子后面的眼睛，看去扩大得多，而且变了样子。（233）l He did not so much as punish one of the murderers, nor did he show the least tenderness to the survivors. (Macaulay) 对于那些杀人犯他甚至一点也没有处罚他们，而对于那些生存者他也没有表示一点亲切。（236）l Law, in its true notion, is not so much the limitation as the direction of a free an intelligent man to his proper interest. 法律真正的意义，是要把一个自由而有理性的人，导向正当的利益上去，而不是对此加以限制的。（236）l A mans dignity depends not on what he has but on what he is. 一个人的高贵，不在于他的财富，而在于他的人品。（252）l Hurry or interrupt him, and he showed himself anything but the man for a crisis. (Gissing)时间太仓促或者对他说话加以阻挠的话，他就会显示出他不是一个能应付危机的人。（266）l A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will. Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows. The really diligent student in one of the crowded hives of Cambridge College is as solitary as a dervish in the desert. (Thoreau)一个人在思想和工作时总是孤独的，无论他在什么地方都是一样。孤独是不能用介乎一个人和他朋友之间的空间的英里数来测量的。在哈佛大学的丛集如蜂窝的地方，勤读的学生，也和沙漠中回教的和尚一样的孤独。（273-274）l The silkworm is an animal of such acute and delicate sensation that too much care cannot be taken to keep its habitation clean, and to refresh it from time to time with pure air. 蚕是一种感觉敏锐而纤细的生物，要注意尽量保持它居住处的清洁，时时使它获得新鲜空气。（292）l For the man sound in body and serene of mind there is no such thing as bad weather; every sky has its beauty, and storms which whip the blood do but make it pulse more vigorously. (G. Gissing) 对于一个身体健全，精神平静的人，是没有坏天气的；无论什么天气都有它的美丽，激励血液的暴风雨，只会使、脉搏跳动得更加活泼。（292）l Public opinion is always more tyrannical towards those who obviously fear it than towards those who feel indifferent to it. A dog will bark more loudly and bite more readily when people are afraid of him than when they treat him with contempt, and the human herd has something of his same characteristic. (B. Russell)舆论常是对于显明地怕它的人比毫不介意它的人更要残暴。狗对于怕它的人要大吠并随时准备来咬，对于轻蔑它的人，它就没有这样，人类也多少具有这样的特质。（294）l He observed with interest the errors of her face and figure, the thin underlip, too heavily penciled eyebrows, and her legs less than slim although not actually skinny. 他颇感兴趣地望着她面孔和身体上的一些缺点，那太薄的下嘴唇，画得太浓的眉毛，和她那瘦弱的双腿，虽然没有达到皮包骨的程度。（298）l Not all verse is poetry; not all prose about the past is history, nor is all literary work literature. The discrimination is habitually applied to other subjects, and clearly it is the quality which is decisive, not the quantity, scope or subject-matter, still less the popularity, of the work. 并非所有的韵文文部是诗，并非所有关子过去的散文都是史，并非所有的著作都是文学。这种辨别常可应用到别的科目上，很明显的，有决定性的，是那作品的质，而不是量，也不是它的范围或题材，更不是它的声望。（299）l Such a mean fellow, though never so rich, should not be admitted into society. 这样卑鄙的人，虽则有钱，也应允许他进入社交界。（307）l The sun appears to take his daily course over the earth, while it is really the earth which moves. The sun, at least, so far as we are concerned, is standing still. 太阳好像是每天围绕地球走动，二实际走动的却是地球。至少就我们地球上的人来说，太阳是屹立不动的。（312）l There is not a war in the world, no, nor an injustice, but you women are answerable for it, not in that you have provoked, but in that you have not hindered. 世界上任何一次战争，不，任何一次不讲道义的行为，都应由钵们女人来负责，并不是因为那是你们鼓励起来的，而是因为你们没有夫加以阻止。（315）l 要说明山水画的布置，先得说明山水画的构图原理。原来山水画的构图，不是对景写实，而是用鸟瞰的方法，将真景缩小，然后加以描写的。眼睛中所能看到的，只有一重山或一重水，这样简单的景物，是不容易构成山水画面的。作画的人，得走入山水的深处，遍观所有的风景，回到家里，把所经历的地方，象画地图似的缩写出来，还得把自己放的很大，把风景缩得很小，好象看假山似的，才能构成咫尺千里的画面。In order to explain the disposition of a landscape painting, we have to make clear at first the principle of its composition. Originally the composition of landscapes is not to paint a real picture as we see it, but to depict by means of a birds eye view, namely, to diminish the subject matter in a nutshell. What we can see with our naked eyes is generally only a single layer of mountains or rivers. This of course is not enough for us to compose a scene of the landscape. The one who paints ought to go into the heart of mountains and rivers, inspecting all the scenery before he puts down from memory on returning home the whole scope of his travelled regions as a miniature as he draws a map. In doing so, he has to enlarge himself as big as possible and contract the scenery as small as a rock-work to look upon, then he can for the first time compose a picture of thousand miles represented on a few-foot piece of paper or the like.（410）l No young man believes he shall ever die. There is a feeling of Eternity in youth, which makes us amends for everything. To be young is to be one of the Immortal Gods. One half of time indeed is flown-the other half remains in store for us with all its countless treasures; for there is no line drawn, and we see no limit to our hopes and wishes. We make the coming age our own. “The vast, the unbounded prospect lies before us.” We look round in a new world, full of life, and motion, and ceaseless progress; and feel in ourselves all the vigour and spirit to keep pace with it, and do not foresee from any present symptoms how we shall be left behind in the natural course of things, decline into old age, and drop into the grave. 没有一个年轻人相信他是要死的。在青春时有一种永恒的感觉，使人获得了一切补偿。年轻人快乐似神仙。虽则半生一幌就过去了，还有下半生带着无限的宝藏，仍然给他储备着，因为前程远大，希望无穷。这个新的时代是属于年轻人的。一个广大无边前景展开在他前面。他环顾周遭这个新的世界，充满着生命，活跃个不断的进步，他自己也感到元气旺盛，精神焕发，要来和它并驾齐驱。没有任何征候会使他预感到有朝一日，自己行将落伍，沦入老境，而终于要掉进墓穴中去的。(441-442)l On D. H. LawrenceOne of the great charms of Lawrence as a companion was that he could never be bored and so could never be boring. He was able to absorb himself completely in which he was doing at the moment; and he regarded no task as too humble for him to undertake, nor so trivial that it was not worth his while to do it well. He could cook, he could sew, he could darn a stocking and milk a cow, he was an efficient woodcutter and a good hand at embroidery, fires always burned when he had laid them and a floor, after Lawrence had scrubbed it, was thoroughly clean. Moreover, he possessed what is, for a highly strung and highly intelligent man, an even more remarkable accomplishment: he knew how to do nothing. He could just sit and be perfectly content. And his contentment, while one remained in his company, was infectious. (Aldous Huxley)很罗伦斯大做朋友所感到的他的一种很可爱的地方，就是他从不讨人厌，因之，他也从不讨厌人。他在做着一件事的时候，总是专心致志的，没有什么事他会觉得卑屈而不屑于去做的，也没有一件小事他认为不值得他好好去做的。他能烹调，他能缝纫，他能编织袜子，还能挤牛奶。他是一个能干的樵夫，又是一个刺绣的好手。他生的火总是燃烧得很旺的。他洗擦过的地板，干净得一尘不染。此外，以他那样一高高度紧张和高度理智的人，更具有一种杰出的才能：那就是他知道无所为而为，他可以单只坐着什么事也不做而能心满意足。他这种满足，我们跟他一块坐着的话，也可以传染到的。（443-444）l It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say he is one who never inflicts pain. This description is both refined and, as far as it goes, accurate. He is mainly occupied in merely removing the obstacles which hinder the free and unembarrassed action of those about him; and he concurs with their movements rather than takes the initiative himself. His benefits may be considered as parallel to what are called comforts or conveniences in arrangements of a personal nature-like an easy chair or a good fire, which do their part in dispelling cold and fatigue, though Nature provides both means of rest and animal heat without them. 这差不多可以算是绅士的定义了：说一个人从来不使别人受苦。这个界说，就其本身而言，是既精到而又正确的。他主要是只忙于着为他周围的人来消除那些阻止他们自由自在的行动上的障碍，他总是迎合别人的趋向，而自己是从不肯发端的。他给人的恩惠，可认为就是那种为某一个人而安排的舒服与方便好象一把安乐椅子或一盆炉火一样，在驱除寒冷和疲劳上尽其职责，虽则大自然也就准备好休息和体温两种办法，不要它们也行的。（446）l People in our culture who like to think of themselves as tough-minded and realistic, including influential political leaders and businessmen as well as go-getters and hustlers of smaller caliber, tend to take it for granted that human nature is “selfish” and that life is a struggle in which only the fittest may survive. According to the philosophy, the basic law by which man must live, in spite of his surface veneer of civilization, is the law of the jungle. The “fittest” are those who can bring to the struggle superior force, superior cunning, and superior ruthlessness.The wide currency of this philosophy of the “survival of the fittest” enables people who act ruthlessly and selfishly, whether in personal rivalries, business competition, or international relations, to ally their consciences by telling themselves that they are only obeying a “law of nature”. But a disinterested observer is entitled to ask whether the ruthlessness of the tiger, the cunning of the ape, and obedience to the “law of the jungle” are actually evidences of human fitness to survive. (S. L. Hayakawa) 在现代文化中，喜欢把自己看作是意志坚强而现实的人们，包括那些有势力的政冶领袖和商界翘楚，以及才干较差的野心家和活动家在内，都想要把人性的自私，与夫人生是一场只有适者才能生存的奋斗，视为当然。由于这种人生观，人类为要生存而必须倚重的基本原则，就是弱肉强食，纵令他具有文明的外表。所谓适者就是那些能够以过人的力量，过人的狡猾和过人的残忍来奋斗的人。由于这种“适者生存”的人生观广泛地流行着的缘故，不问是个人方面的敌对，事业上的竞争，或是国际间的关系，都要残忍而自私地来加以处理的人们，只消对自己说这样做只是服从大自然法则而己，便可获得良心上的安慰。但是一个公正无私的观察者，有资格来问：老虎的残忍，猿猴的狡猾，以及服从弱肉强食的法则，是不是人类适者生存的实际证据呢？（446-447）l The English HumourHumour has been well defined as “thinking in fun while feeling in earnest”. The English do not approach life intellectually; they do not demand that it shall conform to some rigid mental plan; they are not convinced that the universe can be penetrated by thought; they are willing to go to work, either in politics or art, without of theory to sustain them; and when they are more practical than other races, it is not-as those races frequently conclude-because they are coldly clear-sighted and unimaginative, but because they do not busy themselves asking reason to find a key when instinct has already shown them that the door is wide open. (J. B. Priestley) 幽默被人很巧妙的诠释说：“一面认真地感觉一面滑稽第 思考”。英国人是不肯聪明地去接触人生的。他们并不要求人生应与某种艰苦卓绝的，出自智力的计划一致。他们并不相信这个宇宙是可以用思想去突破的。即令没有支持他们自己的一种理论，他们也愿望去着手于政治上的或艺术上的工作。当他们比别的民族更要实际的时候，那并不是因为他们只有冷静的明察力，却缺乏想像力（象别的民族常常下的结论那样），而是因为当直觉已经明示给他们看那门是打开着的时候，他们仍不肯忙着去让理性找出一把钥匙来。（449-450）l A writer may take to long words, as young men to beards-to impress. But long words like long beards, are often the badge of charlatans. Or a writer may cultivate the obscure, to seem profound. But even carefully muddied puddles are soon fathomed. Or he may cultivate eccentricity, to seem original. But really original people do not have to think about being original-they can no more help it than they can help breathing. (Frank Laurence Lucas) 一个作家也许好用长字，正如年轻人好蓄胡须一样，目的无非是想使人留下深刻的印象。但是长字，有如长须，常成为骗子的标帜。凡是一个作家想要显得高深，可能采用晦涩难解的文字。但是他无论怎样细心弄得浑浊的水，也很快就可以测出其深度的。或是有人想要显得，可能写出奇奇怪怪的文章。但是真正有独创力的人们无用乎主想怎样来独创，他们就象不得不呼吸一样，也不得不发挥出那种独创力来。（456-457）l Then Dora noticed that there was a Red Admiral butterfly walking on the dusty floor underneath the seat opposite. Every other thought left her head. Anxiously she watched the butterfly. It fluttered to the passengers feet. Dora held her breath. She ought to do something. But what? She flushed with indecision and embarrassment. She could not lean forward in front of all those people and pick the butterfly up in her hand. They would think her silly. It was out of the question. The sunburnt man, evidently struck with the concentration of Doras gaze, bent down and fumbled with his boot laces. Both seemed securely tied. He shifted his feet, narrowly missing the butterfly which was now walking into the open on the carriage floor.“Excuse me,” said Dora. She knelt down and gently scooped the creature into the palm of her hand, and covered it with her other hand. She could feel it fluttering inside. Everyone stared. Dora blushed violently. Toby and his friend were looking at her in a friendly surprised way. Whatever should she do now? if she put the butterfly out of the window it would be sucked into the whirlwind of the train and killed. Yet she could not just go on holding it, it would look too idiotic. She bowed her head, pretending to examine her captive. (Iris Murdoch: The Bell)正在那时，朵娜注意到了，一只红花蝴蝶，在对面座位底下积满灰尘的地板上走动着。她一意地想着那只蝴蝶，把别的事情全都忘了。她很担心地守望着它。它稍稍拍了一下翅膀，开始向着对面的窗口移动，很危险地靠近来往旅客们的脚下了。朵娜紧张得屏息望着。她真该想个办法去救救它才好。但要她想什么办法呢？她为了自己的犹豫不决和局促不安，而感到脸红了。她不能够在所有的乘客面前，弯下身去，拾起那只蝴蝶，放到她手上来的呀。她要那样做的话，别人就会认为她太孩子气了。在绝对办不到。那个面孔被太阳晒黑了的人，显然是由朵娜的集中凝视而想起，遂弯下腰去摸摸他的皮鞋带子。两脚好象都系得紧紧的。他移动了他的脚，险些儿把那只蝴蝶给踏死了，因为它正走向车厢地板上的空敞的地方来。“对不起，”朵娜说。她随即跪了下去，轻轻地把那只蝴蝶舀入她的手板心来，然后又用另一只手把它盖上了。她可以感觉到蝴蝶在里面鼓翼。人人都在望着她。朵娜羞得满脸绯红。托比和他的朋友，用一种友好的惊奇的态度，也在望着她。现在她到底要怎样办呢？如果她把它丢出车厢外面去，它便要被火车的旋风转入而压死的。可是她却不能老是用两手来捧着它呀。那看来未免太傻气了。她低下头去，假装着来细看她的捕获物似的。（486-489）l Annette felt always that she was travelling at a speed which was not her own. Going to or from her parents on one of her innumerable journey, her train would stop sometimes between stations, revealing suddenly the silence of the mountains. Then Annette would look at the grass beside the railway and see its green detail at it swayed in the breeze. In the silence the grass would seem very close to her; and she would stun herself with the thought that the grass was really there, a few feet away, and that it was possible for her to step out, and to lie down in it, and let the train go on without her. Or else, travelling towards evening, as the lights were coming on in the houses, she would see the cyclist at the level-crossing, his face preoccupied and remote, and think that when the train had passed and the gates opened he would go on his way and by the time he reached his house she would be passing another frontier. But she never got off the train to lie down in the grass, nor did she ever leave it, high up in the mountains, at the small station that was not mentioned in the timetable, where the train unexpectedly halted and where the little hotel whose name she could read so plainly, waited with its doors open. She would not break the spell and cross the barrier into what seemed to her at such moments to be her own wor