汉译英与汉语阅读

第一节　汉译英与汉语阅读

有人认为汉译英难在英语表达，要理解的是自己的母语，不会太困难，因而对汉语原文的理解阶段不太重视。但据笔者观察，这不大符合目前大学生的情况。一般说来，对本国语的掌握比对外国语的掌握总要好些，但是理解不仅仅是语言的问题，有时字面上似乎明白易懂，但意思不一定一下就能明白；没有真正明白却又不自知，所需的英语尚有一些欠缺，正是汉译英普遍做得不够好的主要原因，也是本书例句大多要比平行的英译汉教材更为简单的考虑。

汉译英看起来十分简单。许多人这么想：那十几、二十个中国字那么一目了然，所需要的英语单词也都认识，照着翻一下就提交上去了。这种观点和做法在本课程的目标学生中相当普遍。这种观念问题不解决，顶多能混一张文凭，并不能学会汉英翻译，尽管它很简单。这就好像繁体字，能看懂几篇繁体字印刷的武打小说是容易的，但是倘若要用繁体字来写100字左右的短文，能够做到的其实没有几位。下面来看四个例子。

例1　员工每年3月统一更新劳动合同内容。

D. Employee’s contract | should be updated in March every year.

C1. The labor contract is updated in Mar. every year.

C2. All staffs update their labor contracts every march.

C3. Staff update their labor contracts in March each year.

C4. The staff updated labor contract in March every year.

这个原文需要梳理，似可改写为“员工的劳动合同内容每年3月统一更新一次。”这种梳理本身便是本节的主题。C1漏译了“员工”，此外对月份采用了叙述文字中应当尽量少用的缩略词。B1是其修改版。劳动合同至少涉及劳资双方，C2至C4的说法会让人感到诧异，根本原因在于译的是词，未能兼顾汉语的“意思”和英语的句型（第十二章）；固然有些读者能够猜到我们的本意，但并不等于说这样的译文是对的。

C5. Employees renew the labor contract content in March every year.

C6. The contents of the Labor Contract update in each March for employee.

C7. The contents of labor contracts are uniformly updated in March each year.

C8. All the employees’ contracts content would be renewed in March every year.

C9. Each March, the company will renew its staff’s labor contracts universally.

译文C5至C8中将“内容”译成了content或contents，这是不对的。理由一是词典义项中的“内容”不用于这个语境，二是英美国家的人在需要表达“合同的内容”之类的意思时，通常并不说the content of the contract或the contents of the agreement。就这么简单。详细解释请见第十七章。此外，“员工”和“合同”两个词采用单数的都不够“形合”；请对比A类译文。

对原文的“统一”二字最好采用减词译法，即不译出来反而较好；理由请见第十四章。此时请对比一下A类译文，个人看法是A1的every和A2的once能够给予补偿。

B1. The labor contract with workers is updated in March every year /annually.

B2. Employees’ labor contract is renewed in March every year.

A1. The labor contract of every employee is renewed in March every year.

A2. The labor contracts of the employees are renewed once every March.

例2　目前，中国用户的手机更新速度是世界最快的。

D1. So far, the speed of changing new mobilephones in China is the fastest in the world.

D2. So far, mobile phone users in China have being replacing their cell phones at the highest speed all around the world.

D3. At present, in China, the renewal rate of mobile phone is the highest in the world.

D4. At present, the renewing speed of Chinese customers’ mobile phones is the fastest in the world.

D5. At present, mobile phone users in China have the world’s fastest update rate.

D6. At the moment, the update rate of cell phones of Chinese people is quickest in the world.

C1. At present, the frequency of cell-phones replacement in China is the fastest in the world.

C2. At the present time, changing cell phones among Chinese users is at highest speed around the world.

很难讲这些译者会看不懂汉语原文，但上述译文并未正确转达原文的意思。比如说D3和D4好像说的是手机制造商，均是因为未能译对“更新”二字。再比如说D5和D6好像说的是更新手机软件，C1好像说的是销售商在理赔。D类译文的主要问题是语意失误，当然也有语法问题，C类则主要是语法失误，当然也会影响到语意表达。A1是九个学生提交的版本之一，实属难能可贵。

B1. Users in China tend to buy new mobile phones earlier than users in other countries.

B2. The frequency at which a Chinese consumer changes his mobile phone for a new one is greatest in the world.

A1. Currently, Chinese mobile phones users are most prone to buy new handsets compared with people in other countries.

A2. It seems that few people in the world would replace their mobile phones more frequently than the Chinese.

A3. A Chinese user would toss off his or her mobile phone for a new one sooner than people in other countries.

回到本节的主题上来讲，两个例句中均有“更新”二字，例1的译文都译对了，说明这些译者均已掌握了这个词在这个上下文里的译法。只是例2下的译文中的对应译法值得关注。就同一个“更新”出现了六个不同的英语词（算上词形变化及其搭配变化就更多了），这本身就是个值得探讨的问题。对此这里不予展开，解释和举证安排在第十三章第一节“一词多译”。对比之下，A类译文没有出现“更新”的对应词，属于“译意不译词”，具体解释请见第十二章。

例3　去一趟机场，要交四次高速路通行费。

D1. We have to pay the high-way toll for four times on a single-voyage to the airport.

D2. If a person wants to go to the airport, he will pay the vehicle expressway toll for four times.

C. From here to the airport, you have to pay tolls four times on the high-speed road.

B. You have to pay four highway tolls on the way to the airport.

汉语原文“通行费”又称“过桥费”；D类译文似乎是为了同一次收费而支付了四次。原文“一趟”是只去不回，还是有去有回，上下各四个译文互不相让。查阅手边的汉语词典也未得个主张。在上下文不够清楚时可能是个问题。笔者倾向于有去有回。现有打分主要是针对黑体标记的部分。不过，就本节主题而言，这个例句还是有效的：阅读汉语原文时不成问题的地方，在需要译成英语时成了问题。

A1. One will be charged highway tolls for four times on a journey to the airport.

A2. You will be charged four times for highway tolls on a round trip to and from the airport.

A3. Taking the road /highway /expressway to the airport and back, a driver has to pay four times for the tolls.

A4. On your way to and from the airport, you’ll have to pay four times for using the toll road /toll highway /express toll route.

例4　目前，中国银行普遍存在综合竞争力低下的现象。

D1. At Present, it is common that the comprehensive competition of Bank of China is low.

D2. Recently, the competence of the Banks of China is generally low.

D3. Currently, the low comprehensive competitiveness of China’s banks is prevailing.

D4. At present, there is a popular phenomenon that the banks of China have low competence.

D5. Currently, the phenomenon of low comparative competation is popular among Chinese banks.

C. At present, the phenomenon of low overall competitiveness exists in most banks in China.

仅凭“普遍存在”可知“中国银行”不是“那一个”中国银行。这便是阅读汉语原文时可以含糊而汉译英的时候不能含糊的地方。此外“现象”应当省略（第十五章）。

B1. Now, most banks of China have low comprehensive competitiveness.

B2. At present, banks in China widely face the lack of comprehensive competitiveness.

B3. Nowadays, the comprehensive competitiveness is low in the banks in China generally.

A1. China’s banks are currently plagued by low competitiveness.

A2. China’s banks are now embarrassedly troubled by a low competitiveness.

A3. Recently, being less competitive is the dilemma that most of the banks in China face.

A4. Low competitiveness is at present considered a confrontation of most of the Chinese banks.

仅仅根据这四个例子的确难以得出令人信服的结论，但需要说明的是：笔者在分析了本书所收大多数例句之后，认识到本节主题构成了目标学生在汉译英方面的主要问题，这才特意增加了本章（删除了有关编译的一章），并且安排在了全书的最前面。

这个初步的结论是：希望先凭这几个例子，试图说服这本教材的目标读者：汉译英不像只看汉语原文那么容易，需要专门地学习汉译英，认真地学习汉译英。考虑到学校给各门课程分配的时间相差不多，读者应当额外抽出更多的时间和精力，真正认真地学习汉译英，而不应当责怪这门课程的教师多事儿。只要你认可这一点，本节便完成了任务。

这本教材的主要内容是如何正确理解汉语原文并使用英语做出正确的表达。从汉译英的方法和技巧来讲，本节只能算是个前言或提要，更为全面的介绍请见后面各章。