《英汉翻译简明教程》学习辅导书(第二部分)【圣才出品】

1. 实称、代称与重复

（1）复习笔记

★代词

①英语和汉语中代词使用的区别

a. 英语代词用得多，汉语代词用得少，尤其在文学作品中关于生活细节的描述时。

b. 英语有时在句子里先出代词，然后再出它所指的人或物。汉语一般总是先出实词，然后才用代词。例如：

【英语】Ignoring the chair offered him, Chu Teh stood squarely before this youth more than ten years his junior and in a level voice told him who he was ...

【汉语】朱德顾不得拉过来的椅子，端端正正地站在这个比他年轻十几岁的青年面前，用平稳的语调说明自己的身份……

评析：英语中先出现了代词him，然后再出现其指代的具体人物Chu Teh，汉语中先出现的是实词“朱德”，后出现的代词“他”和“自己”。

②翻译注意事项

a. 英译汉有些代词可以不译。例如：

【原文】Permit me first to thank our Chinese hosts for your extraordinary arrangements and hospitality. My wife and I, as well as our entire party, are deeply grateful.

【译文】首先，请允许我对中国主人十分出色的安排和款待表示感谢。我的夫人和我以及全体随行人员都深为感激。

评析：原文中的代词your，our都没有译。

b. 汉译英时则要在适当的地方增加代词，特别是物主代词。例如：

【原文】有一年的冬初，四叔家里要换女工，做中人的卫老婆子带她进来了，头上扎着白头绳，乌裙，蓝夹袄，月白背心，年纪大约二十六七，脸色青黄，但两颊却还是红的。卫老婆子叫她祥林嫂，说是自己母家的邻舍，死了当家人，所以出来做工了。四叔皱了皱眉，四婶已经知道了他的意思，是在讨厌她是一个寡妇。但看她模样还周正，手脚都壮大，又只是顺着眼，不开一句口，很像一个安分耐劳的人，便不管四叔的皱眉，将她留下了。试工期内，她整天的做，似乎闲着就无聊，又有力，简直抵得过一个男子。所以第三天就定局。每月工钱五百文。

【译文】Early one winter, when my uncle’s family wanted a new maid, Old Mrs. Wei the go-between brought her along. She had a white mourning band round her hair and was wearing a black skirt, blue jacket, and pale green bodice. Her age was about twenty-six, and though her face was sallow her cheeks were red. Old Mrs. Wei introduced her as Xianglin’s Wife, a neighbour of her mother’s family, who wanted to go out to work now that her husband had died. My uncle frowned at this, and my aunt knew that he disapproved of taking on a widow. She looked just the person for them, though, with her big strong hands and feet; and, judging by her downcast eyes and silence, she was a good worker who would know her place. So my aunt ignored my uncle’s frown and kept her. During her trial period she worked from morning till night as if she found resting irksome, and proved strong enough to do the work of a man; so on the third day she was taken on for five hundred cash a month.

评析：这段话中原文用了6个“她”，指祥林嫂，1个“他”，指四叔，1个“自己”，指卫老婆子。译文却增加了15个代词，有my，her和she，还增加了一个代词them。

c.有些代词可以进行一定的灵活翻译。例如：

【原文】Chu Teh remembered his age. He was thirty-six ...

【译文】朱德想起自己的年龄，他已36岁……

评析：代词his如果要译，也不一定译作“他的”，而可译作“自己的”。

d. 在英语里，用代词来指国家和船只时，是可以用she和her的。例如：

As a major developing country with a long coastline, China, therefore, must take exploitation and protection of the ocean as a long-term strategic task before it can achieve the sustainable development of its national economy. (it指代China) China has basically achieved self-sufficiency in grain at the present stage, and there are many favorable objective factors for her to maintain such achievement by her own efforts in the course of future development. (her指代China)

★名词的重复与代称

①英语不喜欢重复，一句话里需要重复某个词语时会使用其他方法来避免重复。常用的方法如下：

a. 使用代词。例如：

It may seem strange to put into the same packet an industrial revolution and two political revolutions. But the fact is that they were all social revolutions.

评析：第二句中的they指代了前面提到的an industrial revolution and two political revolutions。

b. 使用名词作代称，可能比实称简短，也可能并不简短，只是为了换一个说法。例如：

Egypt, wrote the Greek historian Hecataeus, is the gift of the Nile. No other country is so dependent on a single lifeline. Egypt’s very soil was born in t he Nile’s annual flood; with the flood came the life-giving mud that made Egypt the granary of the ancient world. And as rain fell in the Ethiopian highlands and the snows melted in the Mountains of the Moon, the river was everlastingly renewed.

评析：在第一句和第三句里，the Nile出现两次。为避免过多重复，在第四句里使用了名词the river来代替。虽然这个代称并不比实称简短，但是因为换了一个说法，而避免了重复。

c. 采用部分重复的办法，或者加以简化，将重复的部分合并，以减少重复。例如：

The May 4th Movement came into being at the call of the world revolution, of the Russian Revolution and of Lenin.

评析：在不减化的情况下，原句应该为：The May 4th Movement came into being at the call of the world revolution, at the call of Russian Revolution and of Lenin. 由于at the call of为重复部分，因此进行了合并而减少了重复。

②汉语不怕重复，虽然汉语也用代词，但不如英语用得多。

③翻译时注意事项：

a. 英译汉时则要少用代称，多用实称

b. 汉译英时要千方百计避免重复

★其他词语的代称

①pro-forms

A Grammar of Contemporary English（英国语言学家Randolph Quirk等四位学者合编）中在关于substitution的一节中指出：不仅名词短语可以有代称，状语、谓语乃至宾语从句，都可以有代称。该书把用作代称的替代词统称为pro-forms。书中举了许多例子，如：

We saw John at eight on Monday evening. We told him then that we would be coming to the party.

Look in the top drawer. You’ll probably find it there.

A: John drives a car.

B: I think Bob does too.

A: John drives a car.

B: So does Bob.

Oxford is likely to win the next boat race. All my friends say so. (= that Oxford is likely to win the next boat race)

以上例子中的then，there，does，so does，so都可以说是pro-forms。

②vice versa

有时一句话后半句表示的动作和前半句是一样的，只是把施事和受事颠倒一下。这在汉语里，后半句和前半句一般用同样的结构，略显重复。英语里则有一简单的说法：vice versa。例如：

【原文】为了推动中美关系的发展，中国需要进一步了解美国，美国也需要进一步了解中国。

【译文】To promote the development of China-U. S. relations, China needs to know the United States better and vice versa.

评析：英文中使用了vice versa来代替美国也需要进一步了解中国。

③为了强调而重复。

有时为了加强语气，取得一定的修辞效果，故意重复句中的某些词语。这无论是在英语里还是在汉语里都是常见的。遇到这种情况，即便是英语也照样重复，而不用代称。例如：【原文】The world watches. The world listens. The world waits to see what we will do.

【译文】全世界在注视着。全世界在倾听着。全世界在等待着看我们将做些什么。

评析：为了强调，原文和译文中均重复了“全世界”而没有使用代称。

（2）翻译示例汇总

★代词

例1：代词your，our，their，its，it可以适当不译

1. Permit me first to thank our Chinese hosts for your extraordinary arrangements and hospitality. My wife and I, as well as our entire party, are deeply grateful.

【译文】首先，请允许我对中国主人十分出色的安排和款待表示感谢。我的夫人和我以及全体随行人员都深为感激。

2. When both visitors had told their stories, Chou smiled a little ...

【译文】两位来客把经历说完后，周恩来微笑着说……

3. …and every boat that passed sounded its siren in salutation.

【译文】……从旁边驶过的每一条船都拉响汽笛，表示敬意。

4. I was at once interested in this finger play and tried to imitate it.

【译文】我马上对这种用手指在手心里写字的游戏产生了兴趣，接着就模仿起来。

5. When Chou En-lai’s door opened they saw a slender man of more than average height with gleaming eyes and a face so striking that it bordered on the beautiful.

【译文】周恩来的房门打开时，他们看到的是一个身材瘦长、比普通人略高一点的人，两眼闪着光辉，面貌很引人注意，称得上清秀。

6. Chu T eh remembered his age. He was thirty-six ...

【译文】朱德想起自己的年龄，他已36岁……

【解析】代词his如果要译，也不一定译作“他的”，而可译作“自己的”。

例2：英语有时在句子里先出代词，然后再出它所指的人或物。汉语一般总是先出实词，然后才用代词。

1. If they are disappointed at one place, the drillers go to another.

【译文】钻探石油的人如果在一个地方得不到预期的结果，便到另一个地方去钻探。

2. Ignoring the chair offered him, Chu Teh stood squarely before this youth more than ten years his junior and in a level voice told him who he was ...

【译文】朱德顾不得拉过来的椅子，端端正正地站在这个比他年轻十几岁的青年面前，用平稳的语调说明自己的身份……

3. Several times on his trips to China, which he made as a guest of the Chinese Government, Bill’s birthday occurred while he was in Beijing.

【译文】比尔作为中国政府的客人访问中国，好几次都赶上在北京过生日。

例3：汉译英时便要随时想到在适当的地方增加代词。

1. 拾煤核也要放聪明点儿，常常换换地方，为的不受那些野男孩子的欺负。

【译文】Even when scrounging for cinders you had to have your wits about you and shift from place to place to avoid those mischievous boys who banded together to collect cinders too.

2. 中国作为一个发展中的沿海大国，国民经济要持续发展，必须把海洋的开发和保护作为一项长期的战略任务。

【译文】As a major developing country with a long coastline, China, therefore, must take exploitation and protection of the ocean as a long-term strategic task before it can achieve the sustainable development of its national economy.

【解析】这里使用了it来指代国家China。

3. 现阶段中国已经实现了粮食基本自给，在未来的发展过程中，中国依靠自己的力量实现粮食基本自给，客观上具备诸多有利因素。

【译文】China has basically achieved self-sufficiency in grain at the present stage, and there are many favorable objective factors for her to maintain such achievement by her own efforts in the course of future development.

【解析】这里使用了her指代国家China。注意：“实现粮食基本自给”在同一句话里出现两次，但译文却不重复achieve self-sufficiency in grain，第二次出现时，译作maintain such achievement。由此可以看出，汉语可以在一句话里重复某些词语，英语却不喜欢重复，而用其他简洁的说法来替代，这就是我们要在下一节里讲的“代称”了。

4. 大船上的人又紧张又着急，一面用铅锤探测深浅，一面向岸边慢慢驶去。

【译文】... and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line.

【解析】在英语里，用代词来指国家和船只时，是可以用she和her的。

★名词的重复与代称

例1：英语使用代词避免重复

1. It may seem strange to put into the same packet an industrial revolution and two political revolutions. But the fact is that they were all social revolutions.

【译文】把一场工业革命同两次政治革命归作一类似乎有点奇怪，但事实上这三次革命都是社会革命。

2. Two things are outstanding in the creation of the English system of canals, and they characterise all the Industrial Revolution.