第三届翻译大赛初赛试题

江西省第三届翻译大赛初赛试题及参考译文

一、将下列短文译成汉语（50分）:

Acceptance Speech

William Faulkner

I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work—a life’s work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using this moment as a pinnace from which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same anguish and travail, among whose is already that one who will some day stand here where I am standing.

Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.

He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it, forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed—love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, of victories without hope and, worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands(腺).

Until he relearns these things, he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. (422 words)

我感到这份奖不是授予我个人而是授予我的工作的，是对我毕生呕心沥血所从事的讴歌人类的精神的辛勤劳动的褒奖。我从事这项工作不是为名，更不是图利，而是为了从人类的精神世界中发掘出一些前所未有的东西。因此，这份奖只不过是托我保管而已。为这份奖的奖金部分找到与该奖原来的目的和意义相称的用途并不难，但我还想为该奖找到荣誉的承受者。我愿利用这个时刻，利用站在讲坛上受到举世瞩目的时刻，向那些已献身于同一艰苦劳动、正在听我说话的男女青年致意。他们中肯定有人有一天会站到我现在站着的地方。

我们今天的悲剧是人们普遍存在一种生理（实质）上的恐惧。这种恐惧由来已久，如今我们已经习以为常了。现在人们不再谈论精神问题了。他们唯一关心的问题是：我何时会被攻击得体无完肤？正因为如此，当代文学青年已经忘记了人类内心的冲突。然而，只有接触到这种内心冲突，才能产生出优秀作品，因为这是唯一值得写、值得为之呕心沥血的。

文学青年必须重新认识这些问题, 必须告诫自己世界上最没有出息的就是恐惧。与此同时, 要永远忘掉恐惧。在他们的创作中（工作室里）只能容许古老的真理和真实的感情的存在。创作要有真实情感, 包括爱情、荣誉感、同情心、自尊心、怜悯和牺牲精神, 这是一个普遍的真理。作品缺了这些, 就注定是昙花一现。作家若是做不到这一点, 他的一切努力都是费力不讨好。他写的不是高雅的爱情而是低级的情欲; 他描写的失败里没有人失去可贵的东西; 他笔下的胜利是毫无希望的胜利, 最糟糕的是缺乏同情和怜悯。他展示的悲伤不能让人刻骨铭心, 因为他的描写只是皮毛, 没有触及灵魂。

在他重新弄明白这些道理之前, 他的写作犹如身临其境地观察着世界末日的到来。我本人不接受世界末日的说法。说人类有很强的忍耐力而将永恒, 这是很容易的事。我相信人类不只是能够传宗接代: 他还能战胜一切。人类永恒不是因为在所有的动物中只有人才能言语, 而是因为他具有灵魂, 有同情心, 有牺牲精神和忍耐力。（最后一段有删节）

二、将下列短文译成英语（50分，第一自然段不译）:

“从心所欲”析

（年届古稀的我，应该说是饱经风霜、世事洞明了，但依然时而明白，时而懵懂。孔夫子说：“七十而从心所欲，不逾矩。”大概已达到大彻大悟的思想境界了吧！吾辈凡夫，为柴米油盐所累，酒色财气所惑，又何以成“正果”？！）生存在功利社会，奔波劳顿，勾心斗角，若想做到从心所欲，难矣哉！人自孩提时代起，求学、谋职、恋爱、成家、立业、功名、财富．．．．．．几乎无时不在追求，而且总也不能满足。当然事业上的进取与物欲上的贪婪，是两种截然不同的人生观，或可说是两种内涵迥异的苦乐观。但有一点是共同的，即人生的道路并非平坦的康庄大道，事物的发展往往不以人的意志为转移。与其陶醉在“梦想成真”的幻觉中，莫若在实践中磨砺自己，有道是“苍天不负有心人”嘛！即或如此，也未必事事天遂人愿。总之，有追求必有烦恼，这就是生活实际。

从岗位上退了下来，生活环境与心理状态都发生了变化。老实说，最快慰的事莫过于不再纠缠在人际关系中。可以无须乎观察上峰的脸色行事，再也用不着在同僚的摩擦中周旋，更不必防范别人的暗算，从名缰利索中挣脱开来，精神顿时宽松了。

是否就不再烦恼了呢？也很难说。问题在于寻求新的生活坐标，也就是通常说的老有所为，老有所乐，在另一种空间中，让生活充实起来。

从心所欲，不是说可以倚老卖老，我行我素，予取予求，惹人生厌。老年人的从心所欲，主要指的是心态，而不是行为；不在于做什么，而在于想什么。（479字）

“Do as you please”

In a business society, where people run about in pursuit of personal gains at the expense of others, it is really difficult to do as you please. Ever since childhood we have always been pursuing; going to school, looking for a job, falling in love, getting married, and striving for success in career and accumulating wealth, but never have we seemed to be contented with ourselves. However, striving for success in career and seeking material profits are two

different outlooks or, if you will, two intrinsically different views on what is hardship and what is happiness. But there is one thing that applies in either case, i.e. life is no plain sailing, and things go and grow independent of man’s will. One should, instead of indulging in delusions of daydreaming, temper himself in life, as the saying goes, “Heaven does not let down the one that has a will.” Even so, one cannot expect to succeed in everything he undertakes. In short, anyone in pursuit of something is sure to be troubled by something else, and that is the way things are in life.

Since retirement my state of mind has changed, along with the change of life environment. But, to be frank, what pleases me most is that I have extricated myself from the entanglement of personal relationships. I don’t have to watch m y boss to find out what I am supposed to do, nor do I have to pick my way through strife among my colleagues, much less do I need to look out for plots against me. In a word, having freed myself from the temptations of fame and gain, I feel relieved and relaxed.

But does it mean there will be nothing to worry about? It is hard to say. The question is, you need to reorient yourself in life, or, as they say, you must, in old age, find something to do and enjoy yourself in the doing of it, and live your retired life with a sense of fulfillment.

“Do as you please” does not mean you can take as you please or go your own ways, ignoring whatever consequences, or claim precedence over others with your seniority in age, thus making yourself a nuisance. “Do as you please”, in the case of the old, is a matter of the state of mind—what and how you think rather than what you do.