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汉译英：替代
关于汉译英，我想谈三个要点：1.替代（substitution）；2.主谓（subject-predicate）；3.主从(subordination)。这三个要点用英语表述，第一个字母都是S，因此可以简称“三S要点”。译文质量不高，往往是因为这三个问题没有处理好。换言之，若这三个问题处理得较好，可以为译文增色不少。这一讲，就集中谈“替代”。
英语不喜欢重复，如果在一句话里或相连的几句话里需要重复某个词语，则用代词来代替，或以其他手段来避免重复。汉语不怕重复，连续使用某个词语是常见的事。所以汉译英时要千方百计避免重复，多用代称；英译汉时则要少用代称，多用实词。
说起“替代”，我们当然首先想到代词。
代词的使用，在英语和汉语里有很大的不同。总的说来，英语代词用得多，汉语代词用得少。因此，英译汉时，有些代词可以不译。汉译英时则要在适当的地方增加代词，特别是物主代词。用代词以避免重复的例子，更是比比皆是。
例1．一切都要从这个实际出发，根据这个实际来制订规划。
In everything we do we must proceed from this reality, and all planning must be consistent with it.
例2．走社会主义道路,就是要逐步实现共同富裕。共同富裕的构想是这样提出的：一部分地区有条件先发展起来，一部分地区发展慢点，先发展起来的地区带动后发展的地区，最终达到共同富裕。……解决的办法之一，就是先富起来的地区多交点利税，支持贫困地区的发展。
To take the road to socialism is to realize common prosperity step by step. Our plan is as follows: where conditions permit, some areas may develop faster than others; those that develop faster can help promote the progress of those that lag behind, until all become prosperous…. One way is for the areas that become prosperous first to support the poor ones by paying more taxes or turning in more profits to the state.
例3．要提倡科学，靠科学才有希望。
We must promote science, for that is where our hope lies.
例4．目前我们国内正在进行改革。我是主张改革的，不改革就没有出路。
China is now carrying out a reform. I am all in favor of that. There is no other solution for us.
例5．最近，有的外国人议论，马克思主义是打不倒的。打不倒，并不是因为大本子多，而是因为马克思主义的真理颠扑不破。
Recently, some foreigners said that Marxism cannot be defeated. That is so not because there are so many big books, but because Marxism is the irrefutable truth.
以上五例都用了代词以避免重复。例1用it代替this reality，例2用others，those和ones代替areas，例3至例5都用that概括了前面的话。
说起代词，还有两点值得注意。一是英语常用she（her）代替某个国家或某一条船。
例6．The delta and the narrow Nile Valley to the south make up only 3 percent of Egypt’s land but are home to 96 percent of her population. (National Geographic)
例7．Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? (Helen Keller, The Story of My Life)
例8．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。
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.
例9．社会主义中国应该用实践向世界表明，中国反对霸权主义、强权政治，永不称霸。
Socialist China should show the world through its actions that it is opposed to hegemonism and power politics and will never seek hegemony.
这种用she（her）指国家和船只的用法由来已久，现在指国家，倒是用it（its）的较为多见。Michael Swan所著Practical English Usage 《英语用法指南》第227条对这一问题作了详细的说明。
还有一种现象值得注意，那就是用they指单数。2004年出版的《牛津高阶英汉双解词典》（第6版）有这样的例句：
例10．Everyone must accept their share of the blame. (见share条)
例11．Should anyone call (= if anyone calls), please tell them I’m busy. (见should条)
例12．Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. (见entitle条)
用they指单数就可避免he or she之类的累赘说法。上述《英语用法指南》第505条也对这一问题作了详细的说明。
以上谈了代词的用法。其实，避免重复的办法很多，也不限于使用代词。
英国语言学家Randolph Quirk等四位学者合编的A Grammar of Contemporary English 在关于Substitution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。
例13．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 the 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. (National Geographic)
在第一句和第三句里，the Nile出现两次。在第四句里再次出现时，使用了代称the river。要想避免重复，译者就不能把视线局限在一个句子之内，而要照顾到上下文。
例14．要选人民公认是坚持改革开放路线并有政绩的人，大胆地放进新的领导机构里，使人民感到我们真心诚意搞改革开放。
We should boldly choose for the new leadership persons who were generally recognized as adhering to the line of reform and opening up and who had some achievements in that respect to their credit. This would convince the people that we were wholeheartedly committed to that line.
以上二例都是以名词替代名词，也不见得比实称简短多少，只是换一种说法而已。
动词和形容词如何避免重复呢？如果可能，可以合并。
例15．所以，要把我们的军队教育好，把我们的专政机构教育好，把共产党员教育好，把人民和青年教育好。
So we must educate the army, persons working in the organs of dictatorship, the Communist Party members and the people, including the youth.
例16．会议多，文章太长，讲话也太长。
We hold countless meetings, and our articles and speeches are too long.
如不可能合并，则可利用so，as，to do that等词语来避免重复。
例17．He disliked her and had never been shy of saying so.
例18．The government could change the law if they were so minded.
例19．老科学家、中年科学家很重要，青年科学家也很重要。
Veteran and middle-aged scientists are important, and so are young ones.
例20．革命是解放生产力，改革也是解放生产力。
Revolution means the emancipation of the productive forces, and so does reform.
以上二例，前半句和后半句之间用了and一词，请注意，不要丢掉。
例21．Almost at once the number of egg masses deposited on experimental goats began to decrease, as did their fertility. (Rachel Carson, Silent Spring)
（在试验用的山羊身上产的卵块几乎立刻减少，其受精率亦下降。）
例22．这五年，首先是农村改革带来许多新的变化，农作物大幅度增产，农民收入大幅度增加，乡镇企业异军突起。
During those five years rural reform brought about many changes: grain output increased substantially, as did the peasants’ income, and rural enterprises emerged as a new force.
例23．开始搞并不踊跃呀，好多人在看。我们的政策就是允许看。允许看，比强制好得多。
At first, people were not enthusiastic about rural reform, and many waited to see how it would work. It was our policy to permit people to do that, which was much better than coercing them.
例24．你们到农村去看了一下吗？我们真正的变化还是在农村，有些变化出乎我们的预料。
Have you been to our countryside? The real changes have taken place there, and some of them have exceeded our expectations.
译文用了there和them，以避免重复countryside和changes。
有时英语为了避免重复，需要用一种完全新的表达方式。
例25．Lift and lower the right leg 20 times. Repeat with the left leg.
（将右腿提放20次。再将左腿提放20次。）
例26．现在国际上有一种议论，说中国改革的步子放慢了，政策要变。说放慢步子还有些根据，说政策要变就没有根据了。
Lately some people abroad have been commenting that the pace of reform in China has slowed and predicting that the government is going to change its policies. There is some basis for the first assertion but none at all for the second.
例27．多搞点“三资”企业，不要怕。只要我们头脑清醒，就不怕。
We should have more of the three kinds of foreign-invested ventures [joint, cooperative and foreign-owned]. There is no reason to be afraid of them. So long as we keep level-headed, there is no cause for alarm.
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28．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。
To promote the development of China-U.S. relations, China needs to know the United States better and vice versa.
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29．The world watches. The world listens. The world waits to see what we will do. (Speech by President Nixon)
例30．中国愿与东盟各国永做好邻居、好伙伴、好朋友。
China will forever be a good neighbor, a good partner and a good friend with ASEAN countries.
由此看来，英语也不是一概反对重复。汉译英时，恐怕要该避免时避免，该重复时重复，你说是不是？
庄绎传
全国翻译专业资格（水平）考试英语专家委员会顾问
北京外国语大学教授
2005年8月8日于北京 |
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发表于 2006-4-20 12:39:36