2012年职称英语考试:英译汉误区(二)

来源:中华会计网发布时间:2011-10-19

    是故意“不顾”还是“顾不上”?

    请大家看一看下面这两句翻译得对不对:

    1)他不顾危险冲进大火去抢救被困在屋子里的人。Ignoring the danger, he rushed into fire to rescue those trapped in the house.

    2)他奋不顾身跳进急流去救那个男孩。He jumped into the torrent to save the boy disregarding his own life.

    从语法上看这两句都没错,粗一看用词好像也没问题,甚至有的词典也是这样译的。英译的问题其实出在ignore和disregard这两个词上。我们来看看最新版(第四版)的Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 对disregard下的定义:(1)[ v ]to ignore something or treat it as unimportant; (2) [ n ] when someone ignores something they should not ignore. 再看ignore的定义:1. to deliberately pay no attention to something that you have bee told or that you know about, 2. to behave as if you had not heard or seen someone or something. 从中我们可以看出这两个词都强调故意“忽略”或者“不顾”本来应该注意或顾及的事物,是一种疏忽大意或一意孤行的独断行为。而“奋不顾身”是说“顾不上”或“来不及考虑”,所以,这样译把好事译成了坏事,给人以故意拿生命开玩笑的感觉。这里正确的词应该是regardless,当然,用at the risk of one‘s life(冒着生命危险)也可以。

    这提醒我们要辨别英语中表示否定的词缀的确切含义,比如dis-和-less都是表示否定的词缀,但含义是不一样的:-less一般加在名词之后,表示“没有”,从意思上说和加在动词前的un-类似,表示一般意义上的否定,如a coverless box是“一只没有盖子的盒子”,uncover a box(与cover a box相反的动作)意为“打开一只盒子”,但是,discover a box则是“发现了一只盒子”的意思,即dis-所表示的否定意思比un-还要进一步。有时,加上否定词缀后词义会发生变化,大家都知道uneven并不是even的反义词;uninterested是interested的反义词,表示“不感兴趣”,可是disinterested的意思却是“没有偏见或成见”。

    还有一句有问题的英译与本文开始讨论的两句有类似之处:

    3)他没有脱衣服就跳下水去救那个落水儿童。He jumped into the water to save the drowning child without taking off his clothes.

    这样翻译出来的英语让人觉得脱衣服是救人之前一项必需的程序,如果译为he didn‘t even take off any clothes或he had no time to take off his clothes就会好得多。有人问能不能说He jumped into the water to save the drowning wholly dressed,我也认为不好,因为wholly dressed给人一种“全副盛装”的感觉。如果有人故意出洋相,不脱衣服调入游泳池,倒可以说He jumped into the swimming pool without taking off his clothes/wholly dressed.

    相关阅读:

    2012年职称英语考试:英译汉误区(一)