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| 張明權(quán) |
本期點(diǎn)評(píng)專家：張明權(quán)
參考譯文:
When uncertainty strikes in life
One of my good friends had a leukemia test recently. “Waiting for the test result was the most afflicting thing that week,” she told me, “What tortured me most was not dread for the worst outcome but the sense of being at a loss.
In a recent contribution to opinion pages of New York Times, Daniel Gilbert, a professor of psychology at Harvard wrote, “People feel worse when something bad might occur than when something bad will occur. Most of us aren’t losing sleep and sucking down Marlboros because the Dow is going to fall another thousand points, but because we don’t know whether it will fall or not — and human beings find uncertainty more painful than the things they’re uncertain about.”
做翻譯的人，常常也有譯題一所說的不確定感覺，對(duì)一些用法的不確定有時(shí)候令人痛苦不堪，然而要學(xué)好翻譯，又必須時(shí)常經(jīng)歷這種痛苦的考驗(yàn)，所以我點(diǎn)評(píng)翻譯都要自己先譯一遍，這樣譯完了才能真正發(fā)現(xiàn)問題，包括別人的和自己的。我的譯文也是幾經(jīng)周折才完成的，如果仍然不能令人滿意的話，那就是水平問題了，不是我不盡心。經(jīng)歷了闡釋學(xué)、譯者自主、解構(gòu)主義的洗禮以后，翻譯逐漸走向開放和自由，然而這種自由首先是建立在正確理解和恰當(dāng)表達(dá)基礎(chǔ)上的，好的翻譯從來都不是亂譯，好的翻譯需要字斟句酌。多種譯本的存在是翻譯在不同地點(diǎn)、時(shí)間，在不同譯者筆下，以及面對(duì)不同讀者產(chǎn)生的結(jié)果，而不是翻譯自由的副產(chǎn)品。
譯題一大段編譯了Daniel Gilbert的文章內(nèi)容，在這里我采用回譯的策略，目的在于給讀者提供地道的英文表達(dá)方式。原文見http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/what-you-dont-know-makes-you-nervous/?scp=3&sq=daniel%20gilbert&st=Search。具體到語言點(diǎn)，“不確定感向你襲來”中的“襲”與英語的strike的意思很接近，網(wǎng)友使用的詞匯還有overwhelm, catch you off guard等，給我的感覺是稍微過了點(diǎn)。“苦苦等待”與前文“最痛苦的折磨”語義重復(fù)，可以略去不譯，但“最痛苦的”一詞要譯得重一些，afflicting, heart-wrenching, torturing等詞都可以，下文的“煎熬焦慮”也是一種折磨?！懊Ｈ弧闭f的是a sense of being at a loss，我差一點(diǎn)譯成了a sense of loss（失落感），幸虧檢查的時(shí)候及時(shí)發(fā)現(xiàn)?！耙共荒苊隆痹贕ilbert的原文中就是lose sleep，非常簡單，網(wǎng)友luckyera, clumsy使用了相同的翻譯，guanyu168也是，但把詞性弄錯(cuò)了，寫成了loss their sleep，應(yīng)該是筆誤，其他網(wǎng)友的翻譯包括：toss in bed at night, can’t sleep well, stay late in night, lie awake all night, suffer sleepless night, suffering from persistent insomnia, spend sleepless nights, unable to sleep, have insufficient rest等。從這一個(gè)成語的翻譯也能看出翻譯的不確定性，英語本身多同義表達(dá)，因此很容易產(chǎn)生多種譯文。有時(shí)候純粹用回譯來檢驗(yàn)翻譯質(zhì)量也是不公平的，上述的各位網(wǎng)友的翻譯大部分都是正確的，有的甚至超越了原文，從這個(gè)意義上來說，翻譯也不必不如原文，有論者甚至提出翻譯競賽論。
參考譯文：
General workers paid more than college graduates
The statistics, obtained from the job fair in Dongguan in the late and middle February, reveals a 20% increase in the payment for fresh college graduates, though the rises lag far behind those for skilled workers as well as general workers. Since China’s Spring Festival the payment for these workers has gradually come close to or even surpassed that for college graduates. White collars now have the same starting salary, RMB2000 (about US$304) a month, as blue collars.
Newly graduated students are now under psychological pressure who would rather “be a white collar earning RMB1000 (about US$157) than a technical worker paid RMB3000 (about US$462) a month”. Those who “condescend” to work as technicians are subject to substantial pressure from the “discrimination” against them from enterprises.
翻譯這段文字，首先要弄清楚漢語“普工”和“技工”的準(zhǔn)確含義。首先，“普工”是“普通工人”的簡稱，有兩個(gè)意思，一個(gè)是“一般的工人”，即沒有特殊技能的工人，另一個(gè)是指“平凡的，不顯眼的（工人）”，在這里應(yīng)該是第一個(gè)意思，也就是general workers；再者，“技工”是“技術(shù)工人”的簡稱，但在實(shí)際使用中，和“技師”的使用范圍有所交叉，英語對(duì)應(yīng)詞也存在這種情況，比如skilled workers, technical workers, technicians。我同時(shí)使用了這三個(gè)詞，不是要混淆視聽，目的就是想說明他們之間的界限不是涇渭分明的?！捌冉踔脸^”的意思是come close to or even surpass，其他的翻譯還有overtake or exceed等，“悄然”比較難找到英語對(duì)應(yīng)的詞，gradually不是對(duì)這個(gè)詞的直接翻譯，是結(jié)合語境的翻譯變通。為什么不翻譯成quietly或unknowingly呢？原因主要在于想淡化這里的情感色彩，原文在談這個(gè)問題時(shí)，即帶有對(duì)大學(xué)生工資過低的擔(dān)憂，也帶有對(duì)普通工人工資增長的欣然，但無論怎樣，304美元一個(gè)月的工資實(shí)在太低了，譯成英語還是不要抒情的好。
“寧拿千元做白領(lǐng)，不要3000元做技工”帶有典型的漢語連動(dòng)式特點(diǎn)，但譯成英語“拿錢”應(yīng)該是定語，“寧愿…不要”對(duì)應(yīng)英語句型would rather...than，藍(lán)咪咪的翻譯who would rather be complacent with 1000 yuan a month as a white collar than accepting an offer of 3000 yuan as a technical worker，對(duì)原文的信息進(jìn)行了補(bǔ)充，讀起來比較圓潤?！胺畔律矶巍睅в小扒稹钡囊馑?，這與中國大學(xué)生的社會(huì)地位變化有關(guān)，我這里使用了condescend一詞，但加上了引號(hào)，因?yàn)楸举|(zhì)上做什么工作并不存在屈尊的問題，后面的“歧視”原文有引號(hào)，譯文同樣保留，是為了表明對(duì)該詞詞義不同于一般的使用?！安恍〉摹边@個(gè)修飾語，我翻譯成substantial，是因?yàn)樗扔小安恍〉摹钡囊馑?，也與前文psychological對(duì)照，表示“現(xiàn)實(shí)的”意思。
譯題三：個(gè)稅改革定調(diào)：工薪免征額將上調(diào)
參考譯文：
Individual income tax reform: threshold to be raised
The first thing on the 2011 agenda of Chinese government to benefit people with low incomes falls on the income tax reform, though the detailed draft is expected to finalise at the executive meeting of the State Council scheduled for Wednesday. In his web chat yesterday with netizens, Premier Wen Jiabao disclosed that the standard deduction amounts for income would be increased. According to sources, the income tax reform at this session of People’s Congress will be a comprehensive one, including refreshing the individual exemptions, as well as adjusting the tax brackets and rates. To quote the quarters concerned, “Aimed at less burdening on people with low and middle incomes, expansion of consumption, and an improved tax system, the income tax reform this year is expected to pave the way for combined and classified tax collection in future.”
譯題三的翻譯涉及一些專門術(shù)語，首先，“個(gè)稅”即“個(gè)人所得稅”，可以翻譯成individual 或personal income tax，但在文中可以直接稱income tax。“工薪免征額”和“工薪所得費(fèi)用扣除標(biāo)準(zhǔn)”都是指工資中免稅的部分，后者解釋的更清楚，對(duì)應(yīng)的英語翻譯有不少，比如threshold, cutoff point, exemptions等，可以換著使用?！凹?jí)距”也是一個(gè)專業(yè)術(shù)語，英語文獻(xiàn)中有這樣的解釋：The range of income where you stay at any particular rate is known as a tax bracket，因此“級(jí)距”可以翻譯成brackets，而稅率是rates。關(guān)于所得稅的扣除，這里有一段話可以供參考：Individual income tax under current rules is charged at progressive rates from 5 to 45 per cent. In calculating the tax liabilities due, an individual is allowed a flat deduction of 800 yuan (US$96.6) per month.
“民生”一詞的翻譯已有很多論述，可以翻譯成livelihood issue, bread and butter issue, pocketbook issue, 但也可以結(jié)合語境翻譯成people’s life，因?yàn)檫@個(gè)詞就是對(duì)“人民生活”的縮略。另外，我在翻譯溫家寶和網(wǎng)友交流時(shí)說的話時(shí)，稍微口語化了一點(diǎn)，沒有譯得過分繁瑣。
(注：本次點(diǎn)評(píng)部分譯文參考了網(wǎng)友的翻譯。)
本文僅代表作者本人觀點(diǎn)，與本網(wǎng)立場無關(guān)。歡迎大家討論學(xué)術(shù)問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發(fā)布一切違反國家現(xiàn)行法律法規(guī)的內(nèi)容。
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專家簡介：
張明權(quán)，安徽省固鎮(zhèn)縣人，江蘇大學(xué)外國語學(xué)院副教授，英語語言文學(xué)碩士，上外博士課程班進(jìn)修。主要從事英語語言學(xué)和翻譯學(xué)研究，在國內(nèi)外學(xué)術(shù)期刊發(fā)表論文10余篇，出版譯著兩部，發(fā)表其他文章20余篇，有大量翻譯實(shí)踐經(jīng)驗(yàn)，翻譯總字?jǐn)?shù)接近200萬。Email: mqzhang@ujs.edu.cn。
（作者：張明權(quán) 中國日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)英語點(diǎn)津 編輯：陳丹妮）
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