翻译擂台第13期点评
发布时间:2017年09月02日
发布人:nanyuzi  

【原文】


[1]又到岁末年初了。[2]中文“年”的本义是指丰收,俗语说“人寿年丰”。[3]在古代,由于稻禾一年收获一次,所以又引申出了“岁”的意思,代表一年四季,后来又表示一个人的年龄。[4]在西方,人们通常有“新年许愿”,即希望在新的一年有所进步。[5]其实,这种许愿不必太多,能做到一两件小事就好。例如,最简单的,保证在与人交谈时不再看手机,等等。


新年是一个新起点,总给人带来希望,中外皆然。但知其缘由,辨其含义,方可寄语情怀。


[1]中,“岁末年初”,许多人译成“It’s time again for us to see the old year out and welcome the new year in.”“We have come once again to the time of bidding farewell to the old year and welcoming the new.”等,似乎可以,但有些过“实”。固然,习近平主席在新年贺词中有“在这辞旧迎新的美好时刻”,可译成“At this beautiful moment to bid farewell to the old and usher in the new.”或“At this happy moment of ringing out the old year and ringing in the new.”,但那是在特定的除夕时刻讲的,就一般表述而言不妨简化些:New Year is once again approaching.


[2]中,对于“年”的解释、翻译,参赛者有着各种各样的表述。一般而言,以英文解释中文词语时,可先用拼音(斜体)以便能读出,最好附以汉字(括号内)以知原字,但对于颇长的原文句子,可酌情略去中文,再以“or...”加以释译。“本义”,可用original meaning、literally、in a literal sense等,如:This word should not be taken in its literal sense.(该词不能按本义去理解。)在语序上,亦可根据语境作些灵活处理。“人寿年丰”,有的译成people live a long life and have good harvest、people long for longevity and the harvest is extraordinarily abundant等,其实,“寿”与“年丰”结合,这里可理解为泛指过好日子。故该句不妨译为:Originally, the character nian (年) in Chinese denoted the amount of crops gathered. There is a saying ren shou nian feng, or “people enjoy good health and the land yields bumper harvests”.


[3]中,“稻禾”,许多人译成了rice、grain,其实这里所丰收的是泛指“作物”,故可用crops;而这里的“岁”实则指的是year,其主语仍然是“年”;“年龄”则是the age of a person,故此句不妨译为:Since the crops were reaped once a year in ancient times, the word also came to mean “year”, referring to the four seasons, and consequently the age of a person. 


[4]中,“新年许愿”,许多人译成了New Year wishes、make a good wish for new year等,其实英语中固定用语为New Year’s resolutions或者start the New Year right;“即希望……”是对前面的进一步说明;而这里“新的一年”可避免再用New Year,不妨变通一下,如the coming year、Nouvel An等。故此句不妨译为:In the West, people are likely to make “New Year’s resolutions”, wishing for self-improvement in the coming year.


[5]中,“小事”可谓时下流行说的“定个小目标”,一般译成了small goal / target / change、little thing、tiny adjustment等,似乎都可。做好“小事”,已经成为一种西方文化,如英文常说的:“Forget the overreaching, hard-to-achieve goals. Just think small.”(放弃那些自不量力、难以实现的大目标,考虑一些小目标就好了。)美国心理学家罗伯特·莫伊雷尔(Robert Maurer)还写过一本很有影响的书《小事改变人生》(One Small Step Can Change Your Life),其中极力推崇日本的kaizen的概念,书中解释道:Kaizen is the art of making great and lasting change through small, steady increments. Kaizen is the tortoise versus the hare.(Kaizen是通过小事产生大的持久变化的艺术;一种龟兔赛跑。)意思是“以慢胜快”“以小拨大”。而根据有关日文辞典,kaizen是“改善”,其本义为“物事のむだなこと、悪いことを取り除いて、よりよいものにかえること”,即“去掉无用无益的东西而变得越来越好”,这是一个渐进的过程,如“体質の改善を図る”(to gradually improve one’s health),很符合英文的improvement、 betterment,其实质是a change for the better、progress in development,所以很容易被战后的美国所接受,作为一种指导理念,在日后的经济恢复中也卓有成效,故其“小”意亦不妨译为the simplest thing。同时,此书还引用了老子的“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”(千里之行,始于足下。),属同一哲理。故此,不妨译为:The idea of what should change, in fact, doesn’t have to be broad, one or two of the simplest things will do  for example, promising not to check your smartphone when talking to others and so on.


对于岁月的流逝,各个年龄段的感觉是不同的;但对于新日子的期许总是好的,特别是在汉英两种语言之间的转换,也算是一种跨越时空的感悟吧。