geegee的资料合辑：Paraphrase and Translation of Quotations [color=red][b]推

DeliaUID: 151415

1.The superior man is distressed by his want of ability. – Confucius, Analects
(Man of higher level often feels uneasy because he cannot help having desires to gain more ability, which makes his life hard. )
2.Competence, like truth, beauty and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder. - Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle
(能力, 同真理、美貌、隐型眼镜一样，全在人的眼睛里（可以从人的眼睛中看出该人是否具备，眼睛说明一切）)

DeliaUID: 151415

1.The superior man is distressed by his want of ability. – Confucius, Analects
(Man of higher level often feels uneasy because he cannot help having desires to gain more ability, which makes his life hard. )
2.Competence, like truth, beauty and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder. - Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle
(能力, 同真理、美貌、隐型眼镜一样，全在人的眼睛里（可以从人的眼睛中看出该人是否具备，眼睛说明一切）)

geegeeUID: 138117

Delia，我一直渴望有讨论的机会。
孔夫子说的这话的意思在《论语》中多见。比如：“不患人之莫己知，求为可知也...不患莫己知，患不知人也。“我对这句英语作这样的理解是从汉语的背景到汉语的翻译了,不从英语过去的。直接从英语的这句话看，你的理解完全成立。可能自己《论语》读得不熟，我感到该句英语的引言，从汉语过来时意思有点走了，因而我的汉译有点脱离了英文原句的意思。

下一句你侧重“眼中”，是从另外一个角度来看，很新颖。我持保留意见。

geegeeUID: 138117

The advice of the elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best books.                        -Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., speech (1897)

Paraphrase: The advice given by the elders to the young is often becoming impractical. It’s the same as the hundred best books recommended by scholars to the young students.

年长者给青年人的建议很容易成了不切实际的东西，如同百本好书一个样。

Whatever advice you give, be brief. – Horace, Ars Poetica

Paraphrase: Give brief advice, if you want to give any.

无论建议什么，简短些。

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.
-Erica Jong, How to Save Your Own Life

Paraphrase: When we ask questions for some advice, we’ve already known the answer that we think the best one, or even that we will get no advice at all. Awkward enough, we wish we had not a single tip about the big answer. So we ask for advice.

我们征求的建议时候，在心中已有了底，可我们但愿不知道问题的答案。[I even believe that to ask for advice is the best solution, whatever the advice will be.]

I give myself sometimes admirable advice, but I am incapcable o taking it.
- Ladymary Wortley Montagu, letter, (1725)

Paraphrase: Some pieces of the advice given to myself look wonderful.  But I cannot put them into action.

我有时给自己的建议好极了，但无法将它来施行。

Many receive advice, few profit by it. – Publilius Syrus, Maxims

Paraphrase: Many people receive advice, some of which, I believe, is good. But few people benefit from the good advice.

很多人收到建议，很少人从中受益。

geegeeUID: 138117

The night has a thousand eyes,
  And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies,
  With the dying sun.

The mind has a thousand eyes,
  And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies,
  When love is done.
-        Matthew Boulton (1728-1809)


Look not in my eyes, for fear
  They mirror true the sight I see,
And there you find your face too clear
  And love it and be lost like me.
One the long night through must lie
  Spent in star-defeated sighs,
But why should you as well as I
  Perish? gaze not in my eyes.
- A.E. Housman (1859 - 1936)


For he counteracts the power of darkness
by his electrical skin and glaring eyes,
For he counteracts the Devil, who is death
by brisking about the Life.
- Christopher Smart (1722-1771) Jubilate Agno

His eyes are quickened so with grief,
He can watch a grass or leaf
Every instant grow.
-Robert Graves (1895-) Lost Love

And I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will yes.
- James Joyce Penelope, closing words

geegeeUID: 138117

Age and Aging

Old age is the verdict of life. –AMELIA BARR, All the Days of My Life
Paraphrase: What is his life can be truly spoken when he reaches old age.

To me old age is always fifteen years older than I am. –BERNARD BARUCH, quoted in Newsweek (on his 85th birthday)
Paraphrase: Between old age and me, there is always a gap of fifteen years.

It is old age, rather than death, that is to be contrasted with life.  Old age is life’s parody, whereas death transform life into a destiny.- SIMONE DE BEAYVOIR, The Coming of Age

Paraphrase: Old age contrasts sharply with life, though death, as commonly known, seems to be the right one.  Old age is a feeble imitation of life, while death makes life complete.

geegeeUID: 138117

Age is strictly a case of mind over matter.  If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
                               - Jack Benny, quoted in New York Times

Paraphrase:In a strict sense,age is a state of mind. If you don’t worry about your age, you will be fine in that state.

严格讲年龄是心态问题，如果你不介意，年龄便不是问题。

Note:
I will go on with the presentation of quotations, but I find it better off to suspend the paraphrase and translation that come along. Now I feel securer at paraphrasing when the above exercises have finished. However, I still hold a view that it shall be fastened to update the quotations. And the paraphrase can be treated as a regular exercise at my leisure time. Some of my paraphrases may be modified from time to time. Most of them, in my eye, are not good. Some of them are even not correct, in the aspect of understanding the quotations to a reasonable extent.  
In a word, more quotations without paraphrase or translation.  
Anyone who is interested in discussing a quotation with me is always welcome.
With a job in Shanghai, I am preparing the GRE test of the coming June. Any relative discussion is also welcome. It’s widely agreed that persistent effort is the best move for such a noted exam. It’s the action, gentle but steady, that laughs at last.

geegeeUID: 138117

With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding.
                                      -   Bible, Job 12:12

         Grow old with me!
         The best is yet to be,
         The last of life,  for which the first was made.
                                      - Robert Browning,  "Rabbi Ben Ezra"
　　　
　　　As a white candle
         In a holy place,
         So is the beauty
         Of an aged face.
                   - Joseph Campbell, "The Old Woman"


Old age isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative. –MAURICE CHEVALIER, quoted in New York Times


Youth is a blunder; manhood a struggle; old age a regret.
　　　　　　　　　　　–BENJAMIN DISRAELI, Coningsby


If youth knew; if age could.
-        HENRI ESTIENNE,  Les Premices

Whenever a man’s friends begin to compliment him about looking young, he may be sure that they think he is growing old. – WASHINGTON IRVING, Bracebridge Hall


Old people like to give good advice, as solace for no longer being able to provide bad examples. – LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, Maxims

The four stages of man are infancy, childhood, adolescence, and obsolescence. – ART LINKLETTER, A Child’s Garden of Misinformation

Middle age is … when a man is always thinking that in a week or two he will feel just as good as ever. – DON MARQUIS, attributed


I dread no more the first white in my hair,
Or even age itself, the easy shoe,
The cane, the wrinkled hands, the special
chair:
Time, doing this to me, may alter too
My sorrow, into something I can bear.
          -EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY, “Sonnet”


At 50, everyone has the face he deserves.
– GEORGE ORWELL (last words written in his notebook)

Don’t look back.  Something might be gaining on you.
-        SATCHEL PAIGE, “Formula for Staying Young”
[This is one of six rules for life that were originally printed in Collier’s in 1953, the last full year that Paige played Major League baseball.  For some time Paige passed out autograph cards with his “rules” printed on the back.]

Growing old is like being inreasingly panalized for a crime you haven’t committed. – ANTHONY POWELL, A Dance to the Music of Time: Temporary Kings


The young have aspirations that never come to pass, the old have reminiscences of what never happened. – SAKI, Reginald

Old age is an incurable disease. – SENECA, Epistulae and Lucilium

Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every
thing.
      - SHAKESPEARE, As You Like it

When the age is in, the wit is out. – SHAKESPEARE, Much Ado About Nothing

The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists the circulation of their blood. – LOGAN PEARSALL SMITH, Afterthoughts

I grow old ever learning many things. – SOLON (fragment)


Nobody loves life like him that’s growing old.- SOPHOCLES, Acristus

Every man desires to live long; but no man would be old. – JOHNTHAN SWIFT, Thoughts on Various Subjects
[La Bruyere made the same observation in Les Caracteres: “We hope to grow old, and we dread old age; that is to say, we love life and flee from death.”]


The greatest problem about old age is the fear that it may go on too long. – A.J.P. TAYLOR, quoted in The Observer


Old age is the most unexpected of all things that happen to a man. –LEON TROTSKY, diary entry(Diary in Exile)

I thought no more was needed
Youth to prolong
Than dumbbell and foll
To keep the body young.
Oh, who could have foretold
That the heart grows old?
-        W.B. Yeats, “A Song”

Agnosticism – See ANTHEISM AND AGNOSTICISM

Alcohol – See DRINKING

geegeeUID: 138117

Alienation

I have seen a stranger in a strange land. – BIBLE, Exodus 2:22

In the nineteenth century the problem was that God is dead; in the twentieth century the problem is that man is dead.  In the nineteenth century inhumanity meant cruelty; in the twentieth century it means schizold self-alienation.  The danger of the past was that men became slaves.  The danger of the future is that men may become robots.
                          –Erich Fromm, The Sane Society

  The best
  Thing we can do is to make wherever we’re lost
In
  Look as much like home as we can.
           -Christopher Fry, The Lady’s Not for Burning


I, a stranger and afraid
In a world I never made.
-A.E.Housman, “The laws of God, the laws of man”

What have I in common with Jews?  I have hardly anything in common with myself. – FRANZ KAFKA, diary entry(1914)

To live is to feel oneself lost.
     –JOSE ORTEGA Y GASSET, The Revolt of the Masses

geegeeUID: 138117

The ambitious climbs up high and perilous stairs, and never cares how to come down; the desire of rising hath swallowed up his fear of a fall. – THOMAS ADAMS, Diseases of the Soul

AMBITION,n. An overmastering desire to be vilified by enemies while living and made ridiculous by friends when dead. –AMBORSE BIERCE, The Devil’s Dictionary

Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what’s a heaven for?
        -ROBERT BROWNING, “Andrea del Sarto”

Hitch your wagon to a star. –RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Society and Solitude

Slight not what’s near through aiming at what’s far. –EURIPIDES, Rhesus
[使我想起类似的一句:战略上藐视,战术上重视。]

Nothing is so commonplace as to wish to be remarkable. –OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, SR., The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table

Most people would succeed in small things, if they were not troubled with great ambitions. –HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, Drift-Wood

geegeeUID: 138117

Not failure, but low aim, is crime. – JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, “For an Autograph”

Though ambition is itself a vice, it is often the parent of virtures. – QUINTILIAN, De Institutione Oratoria

Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall. –SIR WALTER RALEIGH, attributed
[This statement is said to have been scratched on a window pane. Under it Elizabeth I is said to have written as a reply:“If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all.”]

Ambition, old as mankind, the immemorial weakness of the strong. – VITA SACKVILLE-WEST, No Signposts in the Sea

Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself
And falls on the other [side].
   -SHAKESPEARE, Macbeth

When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath
wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.
-        SHAKESPEARE, Julius Caesar

And he that srives to touch the stars,
  Oft stumbles at a straw.
-        EDMUND SPENSER, The Shepherd’s Calendar

geegeeUID: 138117

摘至《中国翻译》2001年第6期。

背景知识在语际翻译中的重要作用
　
——翻译On going Home后的思考
王祥兵*
（解放军国际关系学院， 江苏        南京        210039）
  
摘  要：第十三届“韩素音青年翻译奖”英译汉所选参赛原文On Going Home翻译起来很有难度，文章一个很大难点是它的艰深的背景知识。不理解作者写这篇文章时的情感状态，不从作者其它文章中找到这篇文章中有些细节的互文，翻译这篇文章时好些地方会觉得一筹莫展。本文分析了原文作者的写作风格，列举了笔者在翻译On Going Home时由于缺乏背景知识遇到的一些难点，并通过分析相关背景知识提供了可能的译文。
关键词：“韩素音青年翻译奖”；On Going Home；背景知识；语际翻译
中图分类号：H059        文献标识码：A        文章编号：1000-873X（2001）06-0032-05
　
  
The Great Importance of Background Knowledge in Interlingual Translation
　
--Reflections on Translation On Going Home
　
WANG Xiang-bing
(PLA University of International Relations, Nanjing 210039, China)
  
Abstract:        The 13th “Han Suyin Youth Translation Award” chose On Going Home as the English-Chinese translation contest text. It is really difficult to translate well this prose into Chinese. What makes it difficult to translate is largely its deeply hidden background knowledge. Without knowing the writer’s emotional state when she was writing this prose nor the intertextual references of some details in the writer’s other articles, one can hardly translate some points well. This paper lists some points that are difficult to translate because of the lack of needed background knowledge and has provided possible ways of translating these points into Chinese through analyzing the related background knowledge.
Key words:        “Han Suyin Youth Translation Award”; On Going Home; background knowledge; interlingual translation
  
一、       序言
  
在语际翻译中，原文的背景知识对于理解原文进而在翻译时准确表达出原文的意思和深层内涵有着非常重要的作用。第十三届“韩素音青年翻译奖”英译汉所选参赛原文On Going Home翻译起来很有难度，原文作者Joan Didion是位散文文体大家，她的文章极有文采和个性，要贴切地表达成汉语确实要下一番功夫。而这篇文章艰深的背景知识更是给准确翻译设置了很大障碍。不了解该文的作者及其生活道路、创作思想，不了解文章的写作背景及反映的时代特征，好些地方会觉得把握不准，甚至一筹莫展。为了尽可能准确地翻译这篇文章，我们很有必要挖掘研究它艰深的背景知识。
  
二、       作者生平及其写作风格简介
  
琼·迪迪翁（Joan Didion）于1934年12月5日生于加利福尼亚中央谷地城市萨克拉门托（Sacramento）。 她的曾曾曾祖母于1846年随西行移民车队来到了西部，她本人为第六代加利福尼亚人。迪迪翁于1956年毕业于加州大学英文系，同年获纽约《时尚》（Vogue）杂志“巴黎奖”（Prix de Paris）征文大赛一等奖，因而大学毕业后来到纽约，成了《时尚》的一名编辑，一直到1963年，期间为多家著名杂志固定撰稿。1958年认识了未来的丈夫约翰·格雷戈里·邓恩（John Gregory Dunne）。邓恩毕业于普林斯顿大学，当时为《时代》（Time）杂志的一名编辑，同时也是一名作家，写过几本书以及无数报刊文章。他们于1964年1月结婚，同年6月回到加利福尼亚，定居于洛杉矶。1966年收养了一名女婴，取名Quintana Roo。1968年迪迪翁出版散文精选集Slouching Towards Bethlehem（《垂头丧气走向伯利恒》）。该文集在批评界获得很高评价，奠定了她在美国当代文学中的地位。1979年出版了另一部散文集The White Album（《白色相册》）。迪迪翁还写过几本小说，和丈夫合作写过几个电影剧本，她也通常被归入美国60年代兴起的新新闻（New Journalism）写作的代表作家之列。
  
迪迪翁被称为“我们被毁了的伊甸园里一条天使响尾蛇”（“an angelic rattlesnake in our blighted Eden”）（Chevalier，1997：222）。她的文章捕捉到了美国20世纪60年代社会蜕变带来的混乱和困惑，以精练的笔墨表现了一个人性堕落、道德沦丧的社会里人们的失落感、焦虑感和毁灭感。她把自己当作一个探索美国整个社会的模型，认为写作在很大程序上就是一种“说我的行为”（an act of saying I）（参见Didion的文章“Why I Write”；Hunt，1990：976），所以她的文章自传性色彩非常浓厚。
  
迪迪翁是一位散文文体大家。她的句子准确，精练，充满辛辣的睿智和意味深长的沉默。她通过不动声色的陈述（understatement）和间接迂回（indirection）来控制自己的感情，避免对描述的事件或言行过分渲染，在一种若即若离之中令人难以觉察地达到感情的饱和，对读者产生出人意料的冲击力，这正是她的散文的感情节奏。（Helterman & Layman，1978：122）为了追求恰到好处的完美，她对文章反复修改，努力取得重要细节的精确定位，并且非常注意语法，因而她的散文准确有形，充满反复出现的象征。
  
迪迪翁的文风影响了后面几代的记者和论说文作家，改变了人们对非小说类写实文学的文体、表达和艺术性的期待视野。美国当代著名小说家Joyce Carol Oates写到：“琼·迪迪翁抱着绝对严肃的态度，一种忧虑、谦卑和敬畏的态度，来探讨她重大的主题，这在欠这个时代的作家中可谓凤毛麟角。她有力的嘲哕与其说是机智，不如说是哀痛……她是我们这时代那些最顽固最难消除的真相的见证人，并把它们表达得清楚有力；这是一个难以忘怀的声音，部分是赞颂的，部分是悲凉的，但总是恰到好处。”（转引自因特网资料，网址见参考文献。本文引文除特别注明外均由笔者翻译。）
  
三、       On Going Home中的难点及可能的翻译处理方法
  
On Going Home这篇文章集中体现了迪迪翁的散文写作风格。笔者认为要译好On Going Home很有难度，降了语言因素外，另一个重要方面是背景知识太艰深，因而难以把握文章的感情基调，在翻译时也就难以准确表达出有些语词的情感内涵。对于迪迪翁这样一位把写作当作“说我”的作家来说，理解其文章的写作背景和隐藏在后面的思想感情对准确理解原文、把握原文的风格、感情基调是何其重要。更何况迪迪翁喜欢在写作中高度省略，她的文章许多地方读起来没有连贯感。正如海明威说的，“如果一个散文作家非常清楚他在写什么，他就可能省略某些事情……冰山在水中移动得如此优雅，原因就是它只有八分之一的部分露出水面。”（转引自Winchell，1980：160）而迪迪翁早期确实受到海明威写作风格的影响。（Helterman & Layman，1978：122）可以说，On Going Home只是一座冰山露出水面的那一小部分，它隐藏在水下的那一大部分构成了这篇文章艰深的背景知识。
  
由于开始没有找到相关的背景知识，对这篇文章的翻译、修改曾经一筹莫展，在好些地方卡了壳。虽然有些词已在各种词典中查了很多遍，并且透彻分析了难译的句子的语法结构，但这些地方仍是感觉译得不对，上下语气、意思连贯不起来，怎样努力研究原文都无济于事，翻译因此一度中断。有次极偶然地获知这篇文章的作者是Joan Didion，然后上网查询，找到了一些资料；然后在几年大学的图书馆找到了一些最重要的资料；迪迪翁的传记；她的散文精选集Slouching Towards Bethlehem（First Touchstone Edition，1979。以下简称Slouching。）；其他文献中对迪迪翁的评论、传记片段；好几种文集中收录的On Going Home，其中的注释和思考问题对理解这篇文章起了不小的作用。
  
下面列出来的这些笔者觉得不怎么好译的地方，或多或少牵涉到一些背景知识。阅读了手头找到的资料后，有些疑难得到了解答，但仍有些地方拿不准，对原文的理解可能还有偏差，在这里不怕贻笑大方，把问题都拿出来，让大家——特别是“韩素音青年翻译奖”的广大参赛者——来共同思考、讨论，以便找到最理想的译文，并借此强调背景知识在语际翻译中的重要作用。
  
1． 对“the Canton dessert plates”的翻译
  
这里的问题是如何翻译“canton”。查英文词典我们可能会取“the former name of Guangzhou”这一释义，然后把这一部分译成“产自广州的甜点盘子”。但The Dolphin Reader (Hunt, 1990)收录的On Going Home中对“canton”的注释为“Fine Chinese porcelain”。据此注释，“canton”在这里应是指这些盘子的质地，而不是产地。另外，《英汉辞海》（王同亿，1987）里有“Canton china”词条，译文第一条为“广东瓷；广东瓷器，尤指青花瓷”；韦伯斯特电子词典（2000 Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. Version 2.5.）有“Canton ware”词条，释义照录于下：“ceramic ware exported from China especially during the 18th and 19th centuries by way of Canton and including blue-and-white and enameled porcelain and various ornamented stonewares”（从中国出口的陶瓷器，特别是18、19世纪期间经由广州出口的，包括青花上釉瓷器和各种有装饰的粗陶器）。综合以上信息，最后把这个地方译成“中国青花瓷甜点盘子”。

geegeeUID: 138117

2． 对“assay scales”的翻译
  
《英汉科技大词库》（黑龙江人民出版社，1987年）中“assay”的译文比较清楚详细，其中第一条为“试金（指分析矿石和合金的成分），化验，（药物等的）分析，鉴定”，下面列举的用例中有“assay balance”，译文为“试金天平，分析天平”。The Dolphin Reader（同上）对“assay scales”的注释为：“Scales used to determine the proportion of metal in ore”（用来测定矿石中金属含量比例的天平）。从迪迪翁的其他文章中能够找到些与“assay”有关的地方。在Notes from a Native Daughter（《谷地女儿札记》）（1965）中有下面一段话：“1847年时萨克拉门托只不过是一处用土砖围起来的堡垒——萨特堡（Sutter’s Fort），孤零零地矗立在草原上……一年后在内华达山脉山麓丘陵地带发现了金矿，萨克拉门托突然变成了一座小镇，一座任何一个常看电影的人今晚在他的梦中能够描绘出的小镇——断断续续灰蒙蒙的画面中，现出试金商行（assay offices），货运马车制造厂，还有小酒馆。把这称作萨克拉门托发展的第二阶段。”（Slouching, P. 172-173）由此可见，这台“assay scales”在迪迪翁的精神世界中占有很重要的地位，它代表了她的家乡萨克拉门托的一段发展史，在文中具有重要的象征意义。综合以上信息，“assay scales”译为“试金天平”比较贴切。
  
3． 对“…and about property, particularly about property, land, price per acre and C-2 zoning and assessments and freeway access”这一部分的翻译
  
这里有两个问题，一是其中两个“property”指涉是不是一样；二是如何翻译“C-2 zoning”。我们先看一段作者在Notes from a Native Daughter中的一段话：“他们的孩子之间仍旧通婚，仍旧玩桥牌，仍旧做房地产生意。（在萨克拉门托没有别的商业，除了地产还是地产——甚至连我在纽约生活工作时，也迫于形势，修了加州大学城市土一经济学的函授课程。）”（Slouching, p. 184）从这一段描述中，我们知道地产或房地产交易在作者当时的家乡司空见惯，成为人们生活中一个不可或缺的部分，经常谈论这些事情是理所当然的事。从语法上说，“particularly about property”可以是起加强语气作用的插入语，下面的“land, price pr acre and C-2 zoning and assessments and freeway access”是列举他们谈论有关“property”的具体内容。因此，这两个“property”指涉应该是一样的。
  
“C-2 zoning”的翻译比较棘手。根据《21世纪城市规划管理》一书中的解释，这里“C”指“公共设施用地，主要指居住区及居住区以上的行政、经济文化、教育、卫生、体育、商贸及科研设计等机构和设施的用地。”（任致远，2000；174）另外，《城市规划概论》（陈友华、赵民，2000）上面专门有一节介绍“用地区划”（Zoning），在244-245页上还附有纽约市用地区划表，其中“C2”的对应汉语是“地区服务区”。有次正在省外文书店查找“C-2 zoning”时碰到一个美国人（后来得知），便问他“C-2 zoning”是什么意思， 他的解释是：“C-2 zoning means that in a neighborhood the government will allow business to operate. Some neighborhoods are ‘zoned’ for residences and other ‘zoned’ commercial. It’s a form of city planning.”（“C-2 zoning”是指在一个地区，政府允许商业经营，有些地区被划定为居住区，其它的为商业区。这是一个城市规划的形式。）
  
综合上面这些知识，最后把这个地方译为“……以及地产，特别喜欢谈地产，诸如土地及每英亩的价格，还有地区服务区规划、房产评估、高速公路入口等”。
  
4． 对“my brother”翻译
  
这里从原文无法判断“brother”是“elder brother”还是“younger brother”，因为在英语中这两者一般是不做区分的，而在汉语里正好相反。如果笼统地译成“兄弟”，觉得很别扭。迪迪翁的文章自传性很强，其中讲的都是真人真事，这里“brother”是“弟弟”还是“哥哥”应确切所指。迪迪翁在另一篇文章John Wayne: A Love Song（《约翰·韦恩：一首爱之歌》1965）中有这样一段描述：“In the summer of 1943 I was eight ,and my father and mother and small brother and I were at Peterson Field in Colorado Springs.”（Slouching, p. 29）（下划线为笔者所加）据此，“my brother”应译为“弟弟”。
  
5． 对“And yet some nameless anxiety colored the emotional charges between me and the place that I came from.”的翻译。
  
这句原文读了让人感觉到一种伤感的诗意，绕梁不绝，令人回味。如何译好“colored the emotional charges”是传达这种意境的关键。最开始把这句话译成“可是一种莫名的焦渴笼罩着我和我的出生地之间的情感蕴藉”，以后还有“可是一种莫名的焦虑扭曲了我和我的家乡之间的情感交流”等等译法，都觉得不太好，原文的诗意全无。后来查了韦伯斯特电子词典（同上）对“charge”的解释，其中有如下释义：“a store or accumulation of impelling force”，并随后附有用法举例“the deeply emotional charge of the drama”。有天晚上突然想起邝美云有一首歌叫《堆积情感》，经过斟酌，最后把这句话译为“可是我和家乡之间堆积的感情染上了一层莫名的焦虑”。
  
6． 对“The question of whether or not you could go home again was a very real part of the sentimental and largely literary baggage with which we left home in the fifies.”的翻译。
  
这里如何处理“the sentimental and largely literary baggage”感到很棘手。我们来看一看作者的生活道路。迪迪翁1956年毕业于加州大学英文系，有很高的文学修养，毕业前夕发表了第一篇小说Sunset，描写一名女孩努力想回到一个已经不存在的家的困苦经历。同年她还获得了由纽约《时尚》杂志举办的征文大赛的一等奖，并因此毕业后来到了纽约，在《时尚》杂志社当上了一名编辑。这句话中说的“we left home in the fifties”很可能就是指她的同学们一起（她那一代人）大学毕业后离开家到各地趱奔前程，开始独立生活。这难免让人伤感，而她们刚出校园，又难免满脑子不切实际的书卷气。“baggage”的英文释义中有一条是“burdensome, superfluous, or outdated ideas, practices”（Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 1996），取其中“superfluous ideas”（过多的想法）这一意思，最后把这句话译成了“五十年代我们满怀着伤感的、很大程度上是书卷气的思绪离开了家，还能不能再回家这个问题萦绕其间，异常真切。”
  
7． 对“a pretty young girl on crystal”的翻译。
  
这里主要问题是译“on crystal”。开始把这里译为“水晶舞台上一个漂亮女孩”。看过迪迪翁的另一篇文章Slouching Towards Bethlehem（《垂头丧气走向伯利恒》）（1967）（Slouching,p. 84-128）后才知道“crystal”在这里应该是指一种毒品。该文以摄像机和录音机的手法记述了20世纪60年代一群涌到旧金山去寻找“和平”和“爱”的“佩花嬉皮士”（flower children）浪荡的吸毒生活。文章中不时冒出“Psychedelic Shop”（迷幻药商店），“he’s been shooting crystal”（他一直在注射迷幻药），“You can get awful damn high shooting crystal”（注射迷幻药你会很兴奋），“When you’re strung out on crystal you don’t need nothing”（你要是处在迷幻药兴奋中，你便什么也不需要了）这样些词句。陆谷孙主编的《英汉大词典》（1993）中“crystal”的译文有一条为“粉末状致幻药”；《高校英语报刊教学论丛》中有一篇题为“英语中关于毒品的词汇”的文章，该文详尽地介绍了英语中的毒品词汇，其中说“crystal表示粉末状致幻药”（端木义万等，2000；287）。因此这个地方最后改译为“一个处在迷幻药兴奋中的漂亮女孩”。
  
8． 对“That I am trapped in this particular irrelevancy is never more apparent to me than when I am home.”的翻译。
当时译这里时感到很难译“this particular irrelevancy”。有两个问题：一是作者这里说的“this irrelevancy”是与什么地方呼应，如何用汉语确切表达，才能与上下文形成呼应？二是为什么这种“irrelevancy”会在回到家里时感觉最明显。带着这两个总是阅读了一些资料，对理解迪迪翁写On Going Home时的思想感情起了很大作用，特别是Slouching Towards Bethlehem这篇文章。该文写于1967年，文中描述的事情发生在“1967年寒冷的晚春”，记录了作者在旧金山一个嬉皮士聚集区的所见所闻。随后几周又写了On Going Home，其中提到了“几周前在旧金山一间酒吧里”发生的事情。这两篇文章在写作时间上相隔仅几周，内容有一定的连贯，作用在On Going Home中表现的感情正是在写Slouching Towards Bethlehem时感情状态的延续。Slouching Towards Bethlehem长达44页，是作者当时思想感情的总结和渲泄，在作者的情感体系中占有凸显的位置，她的第一部散文精选集就是以这篇文章的题目为集名的。在这部散文集的前言中，作者说明了她当时写这篇文章的精神状态以及这篇文章对她的意义，她说，“这本书之所以叫做《垂头丧气走向伯利恒》，是因为几年来以来，叶芝那首诗中有几行一直在我内耳中回响。就像是用手述移植到了那里。……《垂头丧气走向伯利恒》也是这本书中的一篇文章，是根据我在旧金山黑什伯里区（Haight-Ashbury district）呆过的那段日子而写的。这篇文章是这部集子里所有文章中感觉最迫切要写的，也是唯一一篇发表后让我感到沮丧的文章，这是我第一次直截了当地、彻底地把分崩离析这个事实展现出来，来证明一切都在瓦解：我去旧金山，因为好几个月来我都无法写作，我确信写作已是一种无意义的举动，我所熟悉的那个世界已不复存在，我陷入了这样一些想法之中，不能自拔。如果我还想再写作，我得调和调和身心的紊乱，这就是为什么这篇证券交易对我很重要的原因。“从作者的这一段自白来看，她在On Going Home中说的“irrelevancy”是指她与现代社会的“不相干”，因为她“深信”“我以前理解的那个世界已不复存在”。酒吧时吸毒少女脱衣跳舞那一幕引发了她的这种感情。
  
但作者在On Keeping A Notebook（《谈谈记笔记》）（1966）（The Norton Reader, 1992）这篇文章中说，“我想我们很应该和过去的那些自己保持联系，不管我们现在发现他们还是不 是好伙伴。否则他们会突然出现，让我们吃上一惊，会在某个难眠之夜的凌晨4点猛然闯进脑门，质门是谁抛弃了他们，是谁背叛了他们，谁想要改弦更张。那些曾以为永远不会忘记的事情我们忘记得太快了。我们忘记了爱，也忘记了背叛……忘记了我们自己是谁。我已和好几个我自己失去了联系……。”（p.72）On Keeping A Notebook这篇文章与On Going Home都收录在了The Norton Reader(1992)这个集子里，进行对照阅读，所以后面有一个思考问题为“Is the visit Didion describes in ‘On Going Home’ an effort to keep in touch with the people we used to be ?”(p.74)（迪迪翁在《回家》中描述的这次旅行是一种想与我们过去的那些自己取得联系的努力吗？）回答是肯定的。在洛杉矶这样一个现代化大都市中生活，作者深切体会到了“六十年代的混乱以及一个由于社会蜕变而在支离破碎的国家带给人的迷茫”（据因特网资料，网址见参考文献），她急发需要回到家乡——相对封闭的谷地农业城镇萨克拉门托——去体验去的宁静，去“与过去的那些自己建立联系”。但是家乡的急剧变化（下面谈到）使得她这种努力失败了，作者同样陷入了与过去的隔膜之中，下面紧接的几句话正是描述她这种痛苦心情。如果说作者与现代生活的隔膜让她彷徨，她与过去的生活、与萨克拉门托整个历史的隔膜却是让悲哀、绝望。这也是为什么她在上文提到了尤金·奥尼尔的剧本《进入黑夜的漫长旅程》，因为剧中主人公之一玛丽是一个“迷恋过去的幽灵”，一家人经过漫长而痛苦的一天以后，等待他们的仍然是渺茫的前途和不可知的命运。（杨岂深，龙文佩，1987：143）从迪迪翁提到这个剧本的语气来看，她对玛丽多少有些认同感。
  
这句话最后译为“我正是陷入了这种与过去的隔膜之中，不能自拔，回到家里这是再明显不过了。”

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9． 对“There is no final solution for letters of rejection from The Nation and teacups hard-painted in 1990. Nor is there any answer to snapshots of one’s grandfather as y young man on skis, surveying around Donner Pass in the year 1910.”的翻译。
  
这个地方感觉最难翻译，也正是在这里卡壳最久。这两句话可谓微言大义，充分体现了作者“不动声色的陈述”和“间接迂回”这种写作风格以及“若即若离之中令人难以觉察地达到一种感情饱和”的散文节奏。为了翻译这两句话，反复阅读了手头有关琼·迪迪翁的研究资料和她的散文作品，揣摩作者在这两句话及上下文中表达的意思和情感内涵。
  
迪迪翁是第六代加利福尼亚人，她对加州中央谷地有着强烈的身份认同感（sense of identity as a daughter of California’s Central Valley），这种认同感深刻地影响了她的道德价值观和审美观（Winchell，1980：17）。然而“从1950年以后”，她的家乡在“外部世界”的“急剧”（fast and hard）影响下发生了很大的变化，她在Notes from a native Daughter中说，“萨克拉门托是一个靠农业发展起来的城市，它非常惊奇地发现土地居然还有更多有利可图的用处。（……原来绿油油地长着啤酒花藤的地方现在成了拉奇蒙特度假胜地，原来的惠特尼大牧场现在成了桑塞特城，有着33，000栋房子，还有一个乡间俱乐部娱乐中心。）”（Slouching,p.184）在这种变化中，她的家乡丧失了自身谷地城镇的特色和历史，丧失了作者从小依恋的精神家园。作者与过去的精神维系，与“出生于中央谷地城镇”的这种身份认同感被家乡急剧的变化斩断了，作者失去了一种精神依托感——对土地原始的、本能的归属感，因而陷入了莫名的悲哀与失落之中。用她自己的话说就是“…a town which has never had more people or more money, but has lost its raison d’ etre.”（这个小城从来没有这么多人或这么多钱，但却失去了存在的理由。）（Slouching,p.184）作者强烈地想回到家，可“家”却已成了“一个过时而遭淘汰的概念”（an antiquated notion）（Winchell, 1980:23），作者再也无法回到以前那种真正意义上的家。正如Winchell分析On Going Home时说的，“不幸的是，如果我们以为迪迪翁因为发现目前的生活与小时候熟悉的生活不同了，她就轻而易举地找到了一种新的类型的‘家’，那么我们就错了。相反，可以毫不夸张地说，她是在现代社会中漂泊流浪。”（1980：23）这两句话正是表达了作者这种有家回不了家的郁闷心情。
  
事实上，迪迪翁的作品一个中心主题就是现代人的精神处在一处异化、分裂之中，人丧失了家，丧失了过去，也没有将来，人的个人延续感（sense of person-alcontinuity）被高度物化的现代工业文明斩断了，社会由于道德沦丧而土崩瓦解。（Winchell，1980：112，123；Helterman & Layman，1978：122）读者在这两句话中由作者的个人精神危机窥见了美国整个社会一个时代的精神危机。如何解决这种危机，如何“与过去重新建立联系”，与过去再次融为一体，让人在精神上有一种延续感、归属感，这个问题在当时看来，没有“最终的解决办法”，没有“答案”。作者实际在这两句话中隐含了这个问题，并在文章结尾象征性地给出了这个问题的“解决办法”和“答案”——她想要给女儿的那些东西，但马上意识到这些东西不过是脑海中的虚幻蜃景，所以紧接着说，“……但是现在我们的生活方式不同了，那样些东西我一点也给她不了。”
  
经过这些思考，最后定稿时这两句话的译文为：“怎样才能与那些《民族》杂志的退稿信，那些在1900年手绘的茶杯再次融为一体，这没有最终的解决办法。1910年祖父正年轻，在唐纳山口周围考察，如何与他当时穿着滑雪板的那些照片共归属也没有一个答案。”并加了一个注，说明这里“退稿信”、“祖母的茶杯”、“祖父的照片”都象征着失去了的再也找不回的过去。
  
四、       结语
  
翻译完On Going Home后，感触最深的是在语际翻译时，文本的背景知识可以比文本本身重要。翻译学家乔治·斯坦纳（George Steiner）说，“在语际翻译的时候，对原文进行详细的词汇和句法分析仍然不能说解决了主要困难，问题的关键在于重要词语所包含的全部语义价值，伦理价值以及社会历史文化的隐含意义，在于语气口吻所体现的整体效果。……熟悉有关语言的历史文化背景，意识到遣词造句乃是社会存在的反映，这是绝对必要的，要透彻地理解一段话语，就是要尽可能恢复原来说话时它所具有的价值和用意，掌握与其有关的时间和地点，掌握哪怕是最古怪的表达方式和当时一般语言之间的关系。”（转引自廖七一，2000：137-138）背景知识在语际翻译中的重要作用在斯坦纳的这一段话中表达的再清楚不过了。
  
参考文献
[1]    陈友华、赵民，城市规划概论[M]，上海：上海科学技术出版社，2000，243-245。
  
[2]    郝雁南，英语中关于毒品的词汇[A]，端木义万，王传经，薛洲堂，高校英语报刊教学论丛[C]，北京：北京大学出版社，2000。286-287。
  
[3]    黑龙江大学英语辞书研究室，英汉科技大词库[M]，哈尔滨：黑龙江人民出版社，1987，438。
  
[4]    黄源深，于准确中见灵活——第三届戈宝权文学翻译奖一等奖译文点评[J]，译林，1998，（6）：197-198。
  
[5]    廖七一，当代西方翻译理论探索[M]，南京：译林出版社，2000，137-138。
  
[6]    陆谷孙，英汉大词典[M]，上海：上海译文出版社，1993。
  
[7]    任致远，21世纪城市规划管理[M]，南京：东南大学出版社，2000，174。
  
[8]    杨岂深、龙文佩，美国文学选读（第二册）[M]，上海：上海译文出版社，1987，143。
  
[9]    韦荣臣，准确理解审慎表达——第十二届“韩素音青年翻译奖”英译汉参赛译文评析[J]，中国翻译，2000，（6）：57-60。
  
[10]王同亿，英汉辞海[M]，北京：国防工业出版社，1987。
  
[11]Chevalier, Tracy, Eds. Encyclopedia of the Essay[M]. London and Chicago: Fitzroy Dear-born Publishers, 1997.222-224.
  
[12]Didion, joan. Slouching Towards Bethlehem [Z]. New York: Touchstone, 1979.
  
[13]Eastman, Arthur M.. General Editor. The Norton Reader: An Anthology of Expository Prose [Z]. Eighth Edition. New York/ London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1992. 31-34, 68-74.
  
[14]Helterman, Jeffrey and Layman, Richard. Eds. Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume Two: American Novelists Since World War Ⅱ[M]. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1978. 121-127.
  
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[16]Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary [M]. Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 2000. Version 2.5.
  
[17]Neufedt, Victoria. Editor in Chief. Webster’s New World College Dictionary [M]. Third Edition. New York: Macmillan, 1996.
  
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[19]http://shopping.yahoo.com/
  
[作者简介]        王祥兵，解放军国际关系学院研究生一队，讲师，在读硕士研究生。研究方向：翻译理论与实践
　

geegeeUID: 138117

Discovering Joan Didion

Because at times I fancy myself a writer of creative nonfiction, a friend recommends that I read something of the contemporary writers who have contributed largely to that genre. His recommendations include food writer, Calvin Trillin, and personal essayist, Joan Didion. I store these names away in my brain, promising myself to read them once the book stack on my nightstand diminishes. Before that happens, Eryc shows up with the Didion, a ragged orange paperback, "Slouching Towards Bethlehem," copyright 1968.

A little about Joan Didion: Somehow I've managed to reach my late 30's without realizing that Joan Didion set the bar for personal essay writing in the 1960s. Her name is synonymous with the act of writing nonfiction since that time, and though I considered myself well read and well-educated, this somehow escaped me. In the words of Joyce Carol Oates,

"Joan Didion is one of the very few writers of our time who approaches her terrible subject with absolute seriousness, with fear and humility and awe. Her powerful irony is often sorrowful rather than clever. . . . She has been an articulate witness to the most stubborn and intractable truths of our time, a memorable voice, partly eulogistic, partly despairing; always in control."

Born in California in 1934, Joan Didion frequently writes about the area of her birth. She wrote her first novel in the early 1960's and has written four since then. Her most highly esteemed work however is her essays, of which she has two collections in publication - the aforementioned "Slouching Towards Bethlehem," and "The White Album." She has contributed tirelessly to The Saturday Evening Post, The New Yorker, and The New York Review of Books, among other publications.

Upon reading only a couple of the essays collected in "Slouching Towards Bethlehem," I knew two things immediately: her voice is one of an unbiased observer who doesn't judge, but merely collects people, places, events, information and structures them so that they are compellingly readable. Secondly, Joan Didion's prose is some of the most artfully arranged I have ever read. Take this passage from her essay, "On Going Home," a recollection of a visit to the house of her childhood:

"That I am trapped in this particular irrelevancy is never more apparent to me than when I am home. Paralyzed by the neurotic lassitude engendered by meeting one's past at every turn, around every corner, inside every cupboard, I go aimlessly from room to room."

Didion has also written screenplays with her husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, as well as two documentary studies: Salvador (1983) and Miami (1987). Her most recent novel is "The Last Thing He Wanted," (1996) and her latest work, "Where I Was From," is due out in September.

I'm off now to read "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" now, in its entirety. I just thought you should know.

Mark Flanagan