第三届翻译大赛试题及答案

And when the evening mist clothes the riverside with poetry, as with a veil, and the poor buildings lose themselves in the dim sky, and the tall chimneys become campanili, and the warehouses are palaces in the night, and the whole city hangs in the heavens, and fairy-land is before us—then the wayfarer hastens home; the working man and the cultured one, the wise man and the one of pleasure, cease to understand, as they have ceased to see, and Nature, who, for once, has sung in tune, sings her exquisite song to the artist alone, her son and her master—her son in that loves her, her master in that he knows her.

To him her secrets are unfolded, to him her lessons have become gradually clear. He looks at her flower, not with the enlarging lens, that may gather facts for the botanist, but with the light of the one who sees in her choice selection of brilliant tones and delicate tints, suggestions of future harmonies.

He does not confine himself to purposeless copying, without thought, each blade of grass, as commended by the inconsequent, but, in the long curve of the narrow leaf, corrected by the straight tall stem, he learns how grace is wedded to dignity. How strength enhances sweetness, that elegance shall be the result.

In the citron wing of the pale butterfly, with its dainty spots of orange, he sees before him the stately halls of fair gold, with their slender saffron pillars, and is taught how the delicate drawing high upon the walls shall be traced in tender tones of orpiment, and repeated by the base in notes of graver hue.

In all that is dainty and lovable he finds hints for his own combinations, and thus is Nature ever his resource and always at his service, and to him is naught refused.

当傍晚富有诗意的迷雾象柔纱般地笼罩着河边，破旧的建筑消失在朦胧的天空，高高的烟囱变成一座座钟楼，大大小小的仓库恍如夜间的宫殿，整个城市悬在了空中，宛若仙境展现在我们眼前，那时候，路上的人们匆匆走路回家；劳动者和文化人，智者和浪子，因为他们熟视无睹，他们也就不能理解，而只在此时才开始歌唱的大自然便把自己微妙的歌唱给艺术家——她的儿子和她的主人；说他是儿子是因为他爱她，说他是主人是因为他理解她。

只有对他，她才展现她的秘密，只有对他，她的内涵才逐渐变得清晰。他观察着她的花朵，不是用为植物学家采集实据的放大镜，而是用一种眼光，她用这种眼光在她精选的灿烂色调和精妙色彩中可以看见即将诞生的画面是多么和谐。

他并非不假思索地描摹每一片草叶，如同那些不谙此道的人们所赞扬的那样，而是在又高又直的茎干上的细长叶弯里，他发现，优雅和尊严融为一体，力量使它更加温柔，而后才产生了高雅。

在蝴蝶那淡淡的香橼色并布满雅致的橘黄斑点的翅膀上，他看见庄严的金色大厅就在眼前，还有又细又高的金黄顶柱，并且懂得了那高墙上精巧的图画要用轻柔的雄黄色调来描绘，并要以更加庄重的色调为底色将其绘制下来。

在所有这些雅致和可爱的元素里，他得到如何进行融合的启示，这样，大自然就成了他取之不尽的源泉，随时为他服务，对他从不拒绝。

第二部分：汉译英译文（50分）

出生在天津的美国作家

岁月悠悠。一晃也是如云如烟的往事了。1981年秋，天津作家协会刚刚恢复工作，曾任美国作家联盟主席的约翰·赫赛（John Hersey）到天津来了。他是自费来中国旅游，又是特地来重温故乡之梦的。

天津怎么是赫赛的故乡呢？原来他父亲是美国传教士，曾任天津基督教青年会（YMCA :Young Men's Christian Association）干事多年；他母亲应南开中学邀请到南开中学任英语教师。随他来的翻译多说了几句，说他母亲教出了一位世界知名的人物，那就是周恩来。说他曾经玩笑地说，他是在母亲的肚皮里就已经认识这位伟大的人物了。他1914年出生在天津，11岁离开天津，回到美国。但天津一直留在他的心头，1939年和1945年都来重温过故乡之梦，这次是第三次了。

赫赛这次重温故乡之梦，做了一定的准备。随来他的翻译又多说了几句，说他在北京请人为他译读了天津作家的一些作品，对孙梨的《荷花淀》与方纪的《来访者》评价很高，这就看出他对人生和现实的态度了。

转天，我应邀到他房间去长谈。他把微型录音机放在茶几上，要把我的原话和翻译的译语都录下来。他要我介绍唐山大地震给天津带来的灾难，又要我介绍天津作家的情况，说那两次重返故乡，他都没听说过天津也有作家，特别是听到作家写作不仅拿稿费而且月月有薪金时，仿佛是一大发现，惊奇得在笔记本上做了记录。我也顺势提出一问，他又是怎么靠稿费维持生活的。他说他在作家身份之外还兼具记者和教授的两种身份。这样既保证了生活的收入，又丰富了创作的源泉，也开拓了学识的领域。他的许多小说都是从报告文学中升华出来的，还有一些作品是在教学中酝酿成熟的。

An American Writer Who Was Born in Tianjin

It has been gone like smoke and clouds. How time flies! In the autumn of 1981 when Tianjin Writers’ Association has just resumed its normal function in the wake of the Cultural Revolution, Mr. John Hersey, Ex-Chairman of American Writers’ Federation, came to Tianjin. He had come to China as a tourist and made a point of coming to see his former home there.

How come Tianjin had become Hersey’s hometown? What happened was that his father, a missionary from America, was in charge of Tianjin YMCA for many years and his mother, at the request of NankaiMiddle School, was there teaching English. His interpreter offered a few humorous remarks that at NankaiMiddle School his mother had taught a student that later became a world-known figure and this student was none other than Zhou Enlai. He added that Hersey had once said half jokingly that he had known this great figure when he was still in his mother’s womb. He was born in Tianjin in 1914, and left for America at the age of eleven. But Tianjin had always been to the fore of his mind. He had visited Tianjin twice earlier, the first one in 1939 and the second in 1946, and this was his third visit.

Hersey was well prepared for his visit to Tianjin. His interpreter again offered some extra information that, while in Beijing, he had asked

someone to translate and read to him in English some works by Tianjin writers and he had a high opinion of “The Lotus Lake” by Sun Li and “The Visitor” by Fang Ji, and that gave us a glimpse of his attitude toward life and how he looked at social realities.

The next day I was invited to the hotel where he stayed and we had a long talk in his room. He put his pocket recorder on the tea table, saying he wanted to note down what I was going to say as it was being interpreted. He asked how Tianjin was affected by the Tangshan earthquake and then he said he would like to be furnished with some information about Tianjin writers, because, during his previous visits to Tianjin, it had never occurred to him that there was any writer in this city. When he learned that writers in China were paid regular salaries, apart from contribution fees for their writings, he was so amazed that he put it in his notebook as if he had discovered something unusual. Picking up the topic from where he left off I asked how he had managed to make a living by writing and he said he was currently employed as a journalist for a newspaper and a professor at a university. His employment in the two occupations not only provided him with materials for creative writing and widened the range of his learning. Some of his novels were developed on the reportage he had written as a journalist and others were conceived while he was teaching at university.