要点:
1,“在虎圈中”即“即使被关在笼子里”译为caged as it is
2,” 它仍会奔回深山,重做山林的霸主。”其中“重做森林的霸主”可译reign over the forest again,或是to lord it over the forest again.这两种译法都比较生动形象,比干巴巴的become king/lord 好多了,在译“(使)做…”类短语时,这样更简洁,比如“做…的霸主“译为”称霸…”看起来就高大上一些
我记起一件事情:三十一年前,父亲在广元做县官。有天晚上,一个本地猎户忽然送来一只死虎,他带着一脸惶恐的表情对我父亲说,他入山打猎,只想猎到狼、狐、 豺、狗,却不想误杀了万兽之王。他绝不是存心打虎的。他不敢冒犯虎威,怕虎对他报仇,但是他又不能使枉死的虎复活,因此才把死虎带来献给“父母官”,以为可以减轻他的罪过。
Thirty-one years ago, I remember, when my father was magistrate of Guangyuan County a local hunter suddenly visited him one evening to present him with a dead tiger. He told my father nervously that he had killed the king of beasts by mistake for he had been to the mountains exclusively to hunt wolves, foxes, jackals and dogs. He added that he had by no means killed the tiger on purpose, that he was afraid that the mighty tiger would retaliate against him for his serious offence and that since the dead animal could not be revised, he had brought it as a gift to my father the magistrate in order to have his own crime mitigated.
要点:
1,“他绝不是存心打虎的。他不敢冒犯虎威,怕虎对他报仇,但是他又不能使枉死的虎复活”这四个分句其实都是猎人说的话,译一个said,之后用that连接各个部分的内容
2,“父母官”是旧时民间对县官的称呼,在此可按上下文译为my father the magistrate
父亲给了猎人若干钱,便接受了这个礼物。死虎在衙门里躺了一天,才被剥了皮肢解了。后来父亲房内多了一张虎皮椅垫,而且常常有人到我们家里要虎骨粉去泡酒当药吃。
My father accepted it and gave him some money in return. The dead tiger lay in the yamen for a day until it was skinned and dismembered. From then on, my father had a new acquisition in his room—namely, the tiger-skin chair cushion, and people often came to our home to ask for some tiger-bone powder, with which they were to make a medicinal drink by steeping it in liquor.
要点:
1,”衙门“指辛亥革命以前中国的官署,可译yamen,属英语中的外来语
2,“后来父亲房内多了一张虎皮椅垫“译为From then on, my father had a new acquisition in his room—namely, the tiger-skin chair cushion,,这句话译者翻得颇有新意,a new acquisition较something new确切,前者能更加确切地表达”新增添的东西“
3,“泡酒当药吃“意即”浸泡虎骨当药酒“
我们一家人带着虎的头骨回到成都。头骨放在桌上,有时我眼睛看花了,会看出一个活的虎头来。不过虎骨总是锁在柜子里,等着有人来要药时,父亲才叫人拿出它来磨粉。最后整个头都变成粉末四处散开了。
Later, when my family moved back to Chengdu, we brought the tiger’s skull with us. Sometimes I would gaze at the skull on the table until it blurred before my eyes and conjured up in me visions of a live tiger’s head. But we always had it locked up in a cupboard. My father would not have it taken out to have part of it ground into powder unless when someone who needed it as medicine came to ask for it. Consequently the whole tiger skull was given away in the form of powder.
要点:
1,“头骨放在桌上,有时我眼睛看花了,会看出一个活的虎头来。”这句话的核心主语是“我”,因此翻译时以“我”做主语
2,“有人来要药时”看似短小实际信息量不小意为“有人上门找它(虎骨)来做药”,译为when someone who needed it as medicine came to ask for it
3,“变成粉末四处散开”即“以粉末的形状四处散开”译为the whole tiger skull was given away in the form of powder.
经过三十年的长岁月,人应该忘记了许多事情。但是到今天我还记得虎头骨的形状,和猎人说话时的惶恐表情。如果叫我把那个猎人的面容描写一下,我想用一句话:他好像做过了什么亵渎神明的事情似的。我还要补充说:他说话时不大敢看死虎,他的眼光偶尔挨到它,他就要变脸色。
死了以后,还能够使人害怕,使人尊敬,像虎这样的猛兽,的确是值得我们热爱的。
Things that happened some thirty years ago are apt to be forgotten. But even to this day I still remember the appearance of the tiger’s skull and apprehension in the hunter’s face while he addressed my father. I should say that his facial expression boiled down to this: he looked as if he had blasphemed the gods. And I would also like to add in passing that while he was talking to my father he didn’t’ even dare to take a glance at the dead tiger. He would turn pale the moment his eye accidentally fell on it.
A fierce animal like the tiger, which continues to inspire us with reverent awe even after death, really deserves our warm love.
要点:
1,“如果叫我把那个猎人的面容描写一下,我想用一句话:他好像做过了什么亵渎神明的事情似的”译为I should say that his facial expression boiled down to this: he looked as if he had blasphemed the gods.其中boiled down原意为“熬干,煮干,熬稠”此处引申为“简略到,归纳为”,这样比直译更加简练~
2,“我还要补充说…”译为And I would also like to add in passing that…其中in passing意为“顺便地”,属增益成分,在译文中有承上启下的作用
3,“使人害怕,使人尊敬”译为inspire us with reverent awe,其中“害怕“与”尊敬“合成reverent awe.把汉语两个并列形容词转变为英语”定语+抽象名词“的形式,内容不变,是文学翻译的一个常用方法,我们在《巷》也提到过多次~