张培基英语散文5

More on Packaging (Excerpt)

Wu Guanzhong

包装的本质是伪装。

Basically, packaging means false embellishment.

要点：

“伪装”在本文中应理解为“错误的装饰”，因此译为false embellishment.

为了美观，略施装饰，无可厚非，斥之伪，有点刻薄。商品离不开包装，离谱的包装，岂止伪，存心欺蒙顾客。日本人很讲究包装，一个漂亮的大匣里面藏着精致的小匣，小匣里还有更小的匣，一层层的包装待你剥到底，最后裸露的往往只是一块小小的糖果。

Nevertheless, a little embellishment for the sake of nice appearance is not altogether inadvisable, and it is a bit harsh to denounce it as falsehood. Merchandise can never do without packaging, but going too far with it means something worse than falsehood—it is deliberate cheating. Japanese are very particular about packaging. Hidden inside one beautiful big box will be a number of gradually smaller delicate ones placed one inside another. You have to tear them off one by one until you finally hit on nothing but a tiny piece of

candy.

要点：

1，此处的“无可厚非”，并没有译为beyond reproach,但此词的语气稍重，因此改译为is not altogether inadvisable

2，“离谱的包装”即“过分的包装”，译为going too far with it,或overdoing it, too

much of it

3，“一个漂亮的大匣里面藏着精致的小匣，小匣里还有更小的匣”译为Hidden

inside one beautiful big box will be a number of gradually smaller delicate ones placed one inside another. 这种表方位的“有”字句，很容易译为there be，这种译法更加突出主语，值得学习！

综述：注意第三点省去there be的用法

我们进入了包装的时代，这恰好提醒我们进入了伪劣假冒的时代。“豪华精美”包装的礼品满天飞，送这种豪华礼品的人与被送者之间绝无真诚的友情，聪明的包装者是明悟这一实际的，所以工夫用在礼品之外，包装之上。外国也包装，也走人情，也行贿，但以包装作欺蒙则我们传统中早有提示：金玉其外，败絮其中。

We have entered the age of packaging, or rather the age of counterfeit and shoddy merchandise. Attractively-packaged gifts can be found everywhere. Aware of the complete absence of real friendship between sender and receiver of a gift, shrewd businessmen have been racking their brains trying to beautify the packing design rather than improve the commodity itself. People in foreign countries are also particular about packaging, and also bribe with gifts, but we

have a longer tradition of hoodwinking customers by means of packaging, as witness the ancient Chinese saying, “Gold and jade without, rubbish within.”

要点：

1，“我们进入了包装的时代，这恰好提醒我们进入了伪劣假冒的时代。”可按“与其说我们进入了包装时代，不如说我们进入了假冒伪劣时代”译为We have entered the age of packaging, or rather the age of counterfeit and shoddy merchandise. 加入关联词，更加凸显句间逻辑关系，后面的“所以工夫用在礼品之外”也使用rather翻译为“注重包装而不是商品本身”

2，“以包装作欺蒙则我们传统中早有提示：金玉其外，败絮其中”意即“以包装欺骗顾客，是我们很久以来的传统，以…金玉其外败絮其中‟为证” we have a longer tradition of hoodwinking customers by means of packaging, as witness the ancient Chinese saying, “Gold and jade without, rubbish within.”

综述：增译关联词可以凸显句与句之间的逻辑~

包装歌星、包装书画家、包装著作……包装早已是堂而皇之的事业，不怕社会讥讽了。书籍装帧应让人一目了然著作的内涵与品位，是极深奥的艺术创作工作，但今日书店书摊上琳琅满目，一片花里胡哨，连书名都认不出来。印一张白底黑字的封面吧。

Star singers, painters and calligraphers, authors… all go in for self-packaging overtly in disregard of public ridicule. Binding and layout, which provide clear insights into the content and quality of a book, call for profound artistic work.