原文:辛楣道:“大家干一杯,預(yù)敬我們大哲學(xué)家未來(lái)的好太太。方先生,半杯也喝半杯?!薄灵共恢来笳軐W(xué)家從來(lái)沒(méi)娶過(guò)好太太,蘇格拉底的太太就是潑婦,褚慎明的好朋友羅素也離了好幾次婚。(錢(qián)鐘書(shū)《圍城》)
翻譯關(guān)鍵詞:干一杯,unware的用法,crawl與creep,好幾次
譯文:Hsin-mei said, "Everyone drink a toast in advance to the good wife of our great philosopher. Mr. Fang, you drink too, even if only half a glass." Hesin-mei was unaware that great philosophers have never had good wives. Socrates' wife was a shrew and poured dirty water on her husband's head. Aristotle's mistress rode on him like a horse, telling him to crawl on the floor naked, and even making him taste the whip. Marcus Aurelius' wife was an adulteress, and even Ch'u Shen-ming's pal Bertrand Russell had been divorced several times. (美 Jeanne Kelly, Nathan K.Mao: Fortress Besieged)
翻譯筆記:
干一杯
我們常用的“干一杯”的表達(dá)有drink a toast和cheers。趙辛楣說(shuō)這句“大家干一杯”,我們也可以說(shuō):So everyone, cheers! 那么,“為……干杯”我們通常說(shuō):To good health!(“為健康干杯!”)A toast to the friendship! (“為友誼干杯!”)
我們需要注意的一點(diǎn)是,toast單獨(dú)用來(lái)指“烤面包片”時(shí),是一個(gè)統(tǒng)稱(chēng)。我們不說(shuō)a toast來(lái)表達(dá)“一片烤面包”,也不說(shuō)toasts表示“多片烤面包”,而是說(shuō)a slice of toast和slices of toast。
unaware的用法
與aware一樣,unaware后面接of或以that引導(dǎo)的從句,如:
He is aware of our presence. / He is aware that we are here.
又如:He was unaware of her presence. / He was unaware that she was present.
crawl與creep
中間關(guān)于Socrates,Aristotle和Marcus Aurelius的事例是譯者為了讓讀者更好理解而插入的添加成份,用來(lái)加強(qiáng)“大哲學(xué)家從來(lái)沒(méi)娶過(guò)好太太”這句話的例證。我們要做的并非深究其真實(shí)性,然而,Aristotle的太太讓其光著身子在地上爬這個(gè)crawl其實(shí)是含有貶義成分的。我們來(lái)比較一下crawl與creep就知道了。
crawl多指蛇,蟲(chóng)類(lèi)等身體沿地面或其它表面的動(dòng)作,很少用來(lái)形容人。如:
There is an insect crawling up your back. 有一條蟲(chóng)子正在你的背上往上爬。
creep多指四肢爬行的哺乳動(dòng)物或人等偷偷摸摸、無(wú)聲緩慢的前行動(dòng)作。如:
They arrived late and crept into the classroom. 他們遲到了,便悄悄地溜進(jìn)教室。
好幾次
“好幾次”這個(gè)詞的感情色彩應(yīng)該是“多”,試比較下面兩句:
I bought several books this morning.
我今天早上買(mǎi)了好幾本書(shū)(不止一兩本)。
I bought some books this morning.
我今天早上買(mǎi)了幾本書(shū)(不多)。
相關(guān)閱讀
(來(lái)源:滬江英語(yǔ) 編輯:崔旭燕)