原文
《蓝花》选篇
曹文轩
你银娇奶奶这一辈子就做一件事：给人家帮哭1。这几年，帮哭的事淡了。放在十年前，谁家办丧事，总要请人帮哭的。
办丧事的人家，总想把丧事办好。这丧事要办得让前村后舍的人都说体面，一是要有排场，二是要让人觉得苦、伤心。
办丧事那天，从早到晚的，都有很多人来看。奶奶就喜欢看，还喜欢跟着人家掉眼泪。掉了眼泪，心里就好过些。
谁家的丧事办得不好，谁家就要遭人议论：“他家里的人都伤心不起来，一群没良心的。”其实呀，也不一定是不伤心，只是那一家子没有一个会哭的。要让人觉得伤心，就得一边数落2。有人就不会数落，只知道光哭。还有一些不知事理的人，平素就不太会说话，一哭起来，就瞎哭了，哭了不该哭的事情。
好几年前，西王庄周家姑娘死了，是瞒住人打胎死的，是件丑事，是不好张扬的。嫂子是半痴人，却当了那么多人的面，一把眼泪一把鼻涕地数落：“我的亲妹妹哎，人家打胎怎么一个个都不死呢，怎么你一打胎就死呢？我的苦妹子……”被小叔子一巴掌打出一丈远：“死开去吧，你！”有人倒不至于把事情哭糟了，但哭的样子不好看，怪，丑，声音也不对头，让人发笑，把丧事的丧给破了。
这哭丧怎么那样要紧，还有一点，你晓得吗？你小孩子家是不晓得的。奶奶告诉你：说是哭死人呀，实是为了活人的。人死了，可不能就让他这么白白的死呀！得会哭，会数落死人一生的功德3。许多好人死了，就缺个会数落的，他一生的功德，别人也记不起来了。就这么不声不响地死了，活人没得到一点好处，多可惜！如果能有个会哭的，会数落的，把他一辈子的好事一一地摆出来，这个好人就让人敬重了，他家里的人也就跟着让人敬重了。碰到死去的是个坏人、恶人，就更要会哭会数落了。谁也不会一辈子都做缺德事的，总会有些善行的。把他的好事都说出来，人心一软，再一想人都死了，就不再计较了，还会有点伤心他死呢！觉得他也不是个多么坏的人，他家里的人也就从此抬起头来了。
就这么着，一些会哭的人，就常被人家请去帮哭。你银娇奶奶哭得最好，谁家办丧事，总得请她。
村里人知道她会哭，是在她十六岁的时候。她十三岁那年秋天，到处是瘟疫。
那天，早上刚抬走她老子，晚上她妈就去了。苦兮兮地长到十六岁。
这年春末，村西五奶奶死了。下葬这一天，儿女一趟，都跪在地上哭。人就里三层外三层地围着望哭，指指点点地说谁谁哭得最伤心，谁谁肚里苦水多。你银娇奶奶就打老远处站着。这五奶奶心慈，把你没依靠的银娇奶奶当自己的孙女待。在你银娇奶奶心中，五奶奶是个大恩人。这里，五奶奶家的人哭得没力气了，你银娇奶奶过来了。她“扑通”一声，在五奶奶棺材前跪下了，先是不出声地流泪，接着就小声哭，到了后来，声越哭越大。她一件一件地数落着五奶奶的善行，哭得比五奶奶的儿子、几个儿媳妇、孙子、孙媳妇都伤心。她趴在五奶奶的棺材上哭成个泪人，谁都劝不起她来。哭到后来，她哭不出声来了，可还是哭。在场的人也都跟着她哭起来。
打那以后，谁都知道你银娇奶奶哭得好；谁家再有丧事，必请你银娇奶奶帮哭。
不过，没有几个人能知道你银娇奶奶怎么哭得那么好。她心里有苦，是个苦人……
（文章选自http://sl.iciba.com/viewthread-19-10852-1.shtml）
原文注释
1. 哭丧是中国丧葬礼俗的一大特色。是一种以哭的形式表达哀思的礼俗。哭丧仪式贯穿在丧仪的始终，大的场面多达数次。而出殡时的哭丧仪式是最受重视的。
2. 数落，一为列举过失加以指责，泛指责备，和批评的意思相近。二为不停嘴地列举着说。在原文中，显然是第二个意思。
3. 功德 ① 功业与德行。② 佛教语。《大乘义章·十功德义三门分别》：“功谓功能，能破生死，能得涅槃，能度众生，名之为功。此功是其善行家德，故云功德。”③ 指做好事、有益的事。
译文
Blue Flowers
Excerpt
Translated by Qin Xuelan
Your Granny Yinjiao has done only one job in her life: a hired keener at funerals1. Nowadays we have less and less keeners2. If it had been 10 years ago, every family would hire some keeners when they held a funeral.
A household conducting3 the funeral would try its best. To conduct a graceful funeral praised by the neighborhood, you need ostentation and extravagance4 on the one hand, on the other, you should try to appear suffering a lot and grief-stricken.
A funeral would have a lot of onlookers from morning to night. Your Granny Yinjiao5 was such an onlooker. What’s more, she tended to join the wailing party. She would feel much better after she shed her tears.
Those who failed to manage a graceful funeral would be subjected to reproaches. “They even don’t feel sad. Ungrateful things!” As a matter of fact6, it does not necessarily mean that they are not grief-stricken but none of them knew how to wail. In order to make people feel the sadness, you have to enumerate something to accompany your wailing. Some of us just wailed without enumerating anything. And still we also have some senseless persons, from whose clumsy tongue you can expect nothing but some awkward comments. Such a person will mention something which should be avoided every time when he or she wails at a funeral.
Several years ago, in Xiwangzhuang, a girl from the Zhou family died of an illegal abortion, an ignominious thing7 which was better to be covered. However, her sister-in-law, who was kind of foolish, with tears and snivels streaming down her cheeks, wailed at the funeral in front of so large a public, “My dear little sister, so many people have had abortions and none of them died, why? Why you died of abortion? My poor sister8...” As a result, she received a heavy slap from her brother-in-law: “Beat it, you damned idiot!” Some other people may not have the funeral ruined by such a kind of wailing and enumerating. Yet he or she usually cuts a sorry figure when he or she wails, for his or her manner is uncanny and ugly. What’s more, his or her voice was also odd enough to give rise to laughing, which in turn will destroy the mourning atmosphere of the funeral9.
Why keening matters so much? There’s another point here. You little children of course won’t have any idea about it. Let me tell you. It seems that the wailing is carried out for the dead. However, it is not. As a matter of fact, it is for the sake of the living10. No one will let a person die for nothing11! One must be good at wailing and enumerating the good deeds the dead one has done in his lifetime. Lots of good persons died and forgotten, only because of their family members failed to find someone good at telling off their good deeds12. A quiet death like this will bring the living no benefit at all. What a pity! If someone good at wailing and enumerating can be hired to tell off one after another the good things the dead person has done in his life time, the good person will receive respect and so do his family members. If the dead one happened to be a wicked or evil person, it would be far more important for the family to find a person good at wailing and enumerating. Nobody has done nothing but evil during his or her lifetime. More or less, he or she might have done some good deeds. Having these good deeds told off one after another will melt people’s heart. And the thought that he or she has already died13 might lead the moved people to forgive the dead person or even feel sorry for his or her death, thinking that he or she was not so wicked a person. As a result, the family members will be able to hold their heads high14 in the future.
Just for this reason, some capable wailers were often hired to weep at the funeral. Your Granny Yinjiao was the No. 1 wailer and would be hired whenever there was a funeral.
It was when she was 16 that villagers came to know that she was good at wailing. The autumn, when she was 13 years old, saw a prevalence of plague.
Within one day her father was carried away in the morning and her mother at night15. She suffered a lot until she grew up to 16.
At the end of that spring, my fifth grandma in the west of the village died. On the day she was to be buried, all her sons and daughters knelt on the ground, wailing. All the people attending the burial joined in the wailing and argued about who was the saddest mourner and who suffered most. Your Granny Yinjiao was standing far away from the crowd. My fifth grandma was a very kind-hearted woman who had treated your Granny Yinjiao as her own granddaughter. So Your Granny Yingjiao looked my fifth grandma as her benefactor. And when my fifth grandma’s family members became exhausted, your Granny Yinjiao walked over. She knelt down with a flop before the coffin and began to cry. At first, she just shed tears in silence. Then, in undertones. Later she burst into loud weeping and wailed more and more loudly16. She told off one after another the good deeds my fifth grandma had done and wailed more mournfully even than my fifth grandma’s own son, daughters-in-law, grandsons and granddaughters-in-law. She bent over the coffin and wept herself into all tears. Nobody could stop her. In the end, she cried her voice out but she just kept wailing on and on. All the people present were moved to tears and joined her.
After that, everybody knew that your Granny Yinjiao was an excellent wailer. And she would be hired to wail at every funeral.
But few people knew why your Granny Yinjiao could be such an excellent wailer. She was a poor woman who had suffered so much.
译文赏析
1. 原文节选自曹文轩的短篇小说《蓝花》。该部分讲述的是银娇奶奶给人帮哭的往事，涉及哭丧这一传统的中国丧葬文化。在西方历史上，也曾短暂地有过专业哭丧人（professional mourner）这一职业。专业哭丧人通常为女性，在丧礼上哀号，以此带动死者的亲友哭泣。结合文章内容来看，谁家有丧事，都要请银娇奶奶来帮哭，这与西方的专业哭丧人极其相似，因此建议将译文中出现的keener和wailer统一为professional mourner。原文首句是想要强调帮哭是银娇奶奶一辈子做过的唯一一份职业。因此建议改译为：The only job your Granny Yinjiao has done in her life is being a professional mourner at funerals. 这样就更加能够强调帮哭对于银娇奶奶的意义。
2. “帮哭的事淡了”一句的翻译重点在于一个“淡”字，意思是说“不怎么普遍，不怎么流行了”。译文中的less and less keeners并不能传递原文的信息，应改译为Nowadays professional mourners are becoming less popular。
3. “办丧事”应译为hold a funeral。译文中的conduct不准确，conduct的意思是“主持，领导”。
4. 原文在此处体现了中国丧葬文化的一个重要传统，即丧事要办得体面，就要有排场。“排场”译为ostentation and extravagance不当，因为ostentation是“夸耀，卖弄”，extravagance是“奢侈，挥霍”，两个词均为贬义。而原文中的“排场”用来形容盛大的规模，是褒义。可以改译为a grand style，其中的grand是“盛大，隆重”的意思，含有褒义。
5. 原文是一个老奶奶在给孙辈讲故事，这里的“奶奶”是指讲故事人自己，而不是银娇奶奶，应改译为I, for one, was such an onlooker.后面的代词也应作相应的改动。
6. “其实呀”译为as a matter of fact不妥。原文是通过老人的口吻所讲的故事，无论从人物的身份还是从故事的内容来看，措辞和语气都应当尽量的随意。因此建议采用较为口语化的in fact或者actually来代替as a matter of fact。该段类似的情况还有很多。例如可以用sad代替grief-stricken，to代替in order to，say代替enumerate，words代替comments。
7. 译文将“瞒住人打胎”和“丑事”分别译为an illegal abortion和an ignominious thing不当。“瞒住人”是指不为外人所知，而illegal是“非法的”，显然不正确，可改译为a secret abortion。“丑事”则可以简单译为a shame，译文的ignominious虽然也有shameful的意思，但用词过于正式，不符合讲故事人的身份与口吻。
8. 原文有两个称呼，“亲妹妹”和“苦妹子”。“亲”即“亲爱的”，表明嫂子对周家姑娘的爱怜。“苦”是“苦命的，可怜的”，表达了嫂子对痛失亲人的惋惜和哀痛。译文将“亲”和“苦”分别译为dear和poor，既忠实地表达了原文的感情，又符合英语的搭配习惯，特别是口语表达的习惯。
9. “哭的样子不好看”译为cut a sorry figure比较形象。因为cut a sorry figure一词是指“出洋相”，而原文的“不好看”在后面给出了解释，即“怪”、“丑”、“不对头”和“让人发笑”。但译文同时又使用了manner一词来形容哭的样子，不但过于正式，而且显得冗余。此外，本句多次使用he or she未免使句子拖沓。因此建议对本句做如下调整：Yet they usually cut a sorry figure when they wail, strange and ugly, with an odd voice which may give rise to laughing and destroy the mourning atmosphere of the funeral.
10.“说是哭死人呀，实是为了活人的”一句中“实”的意思是“实际上”，构成转折。译文分别用however和as a matter of fact，显得重复且过于正式。可以改译为It seems that the mourning is for the dead. It is actually for the sake of the living.
11.“不能就让他这么白白的死呀”译为No one will let a person die for nothing不当。译文die for nothing是说死的原因，即平白无故地死了。而原文“白白的死”不是说死的原因，而是死后没有人会哭，会数落，结果一辈子的好事就被别人淡忘了，即后文的“不声不响地死了”。后文的翻译a quiet death也显然不当，应改译为a quiet funeral。因此“白白的死”一句就可以相应地改译为A quiet funeral will do no good.
12. 在“许多好人死了，……”一句，译文采用了意译的方法调整了句子的结构，重组了意义，更加符合英语的逻辑，但有几处语法错误，应改为Lots of good persons died and were forgotten, only because their family failed to find someone good at telling of their good deeds.
13. “把他的好事都说出来，……”一句中，几个主谓结构和动词结构连续地铺陈，这是汉语惯用的手法。汉语惯用动词，讲究意义和逻辑的铺陈，呈松散的线性结构。而英语惯用名词，且结构严谨，呈现树形。译文在该句中就体现了由动词或主谓结构向名词结构的转化，变松散的线性结构为紧密的树形结构。具体体现在将“把他的好事都说出来”转化为having these good deeds told of one after another的分词结构做主语，将“再一想人都死了”转化为the thought that he or she has already died的名词结构做主语。
14. “抬起头来”译为hold their heads high（无愧于人）很贴切。不仅准确传达了原文文字的意思，还很形象。好的译文不仅要忠实地传递内容，也要传神，内容和修辞的对等同等重要。
15. “抬走她老子”是非常口语化的表达，是说银娇奶奶的父亲去世了。“抬走”直译为was carried away不妥，体现不出“去世”这层意思，容易引起误解。应改译为Within one day her father’s body was carried away in the morning and her mother died at night.
16. 译文在翻译银娇奶奶哭五奶奶的几个阶段时，用了不同层次的表示哭泣的词语，如shed tears in silence（无声落泪），in undertones（低声哭泣），burst into loud weeping（放声大哭）。这些词形象地表达了银娇奶奶情绪的变化，相当传神。
跨文化小贴士
英美丧葬文化
丧葬仪式体现一个国家或民族的信仰和习俗。不同国家或民族在丧葬文化上存在很大的差异，同一国家或民族的丧葬文化也可能由于受到地域、气候、宗教等因素的影响而不尽相同。
在英美等国，当家中有人去世，死者的家属除了打电话通知亲朋外，还通常在全国性或地方性的报纸上刊登一则简短的讣告，告知死者的姓名、死亡日期、死者家属的姓名、何时何地可以拜访死者的家属、丧礼的时间和地点等。英美等国的丧葬仪式主要分为三个部分，即吊唁、丧礼和葬礼。
吊唁（visitation/viewing）通常安排在丧礼前的一两夜，在家里、殡仪馆或教堂举行。死者被安置在棺材内（coffin/casket），棺材可以是盖着的（closed casket）或打开的（open casket）。按照传统习俗，死者应该身着生前最好的服饰。而如今，死者所穿的通常是生前的日常衣物。吊唁的一项主要内容是死者的家属通过物品、照片或者视频向来吊唁的亲友展示死者的生平。吊唁仪式以祷告结束。
丧礼（funeral）通常在家里、殡仪馆或教堂举行。丧礼通常包括祷告、唱赞美诗、牧师致辞、家属或亲友致辞。如果棺材是打开的，人们可以按照同死者关系的亲疏为序瞻仰死者的遗容。先是死者的家属，然后是亲友和其他吊唁者。最后死者的家属还可以再上前最后一次瞻仰逝去的亲人。
葬礼（burial service）。丧礼仪式结束后，棺材会被放入灵车，运往墓地（cemetery）进行土葬或者是火葬场（crematory）进行火葬。通常会有一个简单的入葬仪式，由牧师做下葬祷告。死者的亲友会按照同死者关系的亲疏为序象征性地为墓穴掩土。
丧葬仪式过后，亲友会应邀同死者的家属用餐（luncheon/repast），以此共同纪念和缅怀死者。参加吊唁、丧礼、葬礼的人数依次递减。远亲和一般的朋友通常都会接到讣告参加吊唁。近亲和相熟的朋友也通常会参加丧礼。而葬礼则通常只有死者的家属、最近的亲属和最亲密的朋友参加。丧葬仪式的着装有严格的要求。一般要求穿正装，颜色为纯黑色（solid black）。这同中国传统的白色丧葬服饰有很大差异。
如果由于某种原因而导致死者没有尸体可入葬，如遗体捐赠、死于遥远的异国他乡、失踪但已确认死亡等，死者的家属通常会举办一个追悼会（memorial service）。追悼会的消息也可以通过报纸的讣告登出。仪式通常包括祷告、唱赞美诗、牧师致辞、家属或亲友致辞。死者的照片会同鲜花一起摆放在圣坛前。
鲜花在丧葬仪式中的作用不容忽视。鲜花代表对死者的尊敬和缅怀，同时也象征着新生。除了在追悼会上会同照片一起摆放在圣坛前，在吊唁仪式上，亲友通常都会送去鲜花，即使有事不能参加，也会派人送去鲜花。正因为送鲜花已经成为惯例，死者的家属有时会在讣告中告知是否要送鲜花，如“Family flowers only”或“No flowers”。而在丧礼或葬礼仪式中，棺材上更是铺满了鲜花（casket spray）。
西方历史上（大约1600-1914）有两个和丧葬相关的职业。第一个是专业送葬人（mute）。在丧葬期间，专业送葬人面带悲伤和同情，起着象征性地保护死者的作用。另一个职业是专业哭丧人（professional mourner），通常为女性。专业哭丧人会在丧礼上哀号，以此带动死者的亲友哭泣。这种哭丧的习俗在西方已经成为历史。如今，英美等国的丧葬仪式自始至终保持庄严、肃穆的气氛。而哭丧的习俗在亚洲和非洲的一些国家和民族仍保留至今。
胡文仲. 跨文化交际学概论. 北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1999.
胡文仲. 英美文化辞典. 北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1995.
贾玉新. 跨文化交际学. 上海：上海外语教育出版社，1997.
王催春，朱冬碧，吕政. 跨文化交际. 北京：北京理工大学出版社，2008.
翻译练习
When I am in a serious humour, I very often walk by myself in Westminster Abbey, where the gloominess of the place, and the use to which it is applied, with the solemnity of the building, and the condition of the people who lie in it, are apt to fill the mind with a kind of melancholy, or rather thoughtfulness, that is not disagreeable. I yesterday passed a whole afternoon in the churchyard, the cloisters, and the church, amusing myself with the tombstones and inscriptions that I met with in those several regions of the dead. Most of them recorded nothing else of the buried person, but that he was born upon one day, and died upon another: the whole history of his life being comprehended in those two circumstances, which are common to all mankind. I could not but look upon these registers of existence, whether of brass or marble, as a kind of satire upon the departed persons; who had left no other memorial of them, but that they were born and that they died. They put me in mind of several persons mentioned in the battles of heroic poems, who have sounding names given them, for no other reason but that they may be killed, and are celebrated for nothing but being knocked on the head. The life of these men is finely described in Holy Writ by “the path of an arrow,” which is immediately closed up and lost.
Upon my going into the church, I entertained myself with the digging of a grave; and saw in every shovelful of it that was thrown up, the fragment of a bone or skull intermixed with a kind of fresh mouldering earth, that some time or other had a place in the composition of a human body. Upon this, I began to consider with myself what innumerable multitudes of people lay confused together under the pavement of that ancient cathedral; how men and women, friends and enemies, priests and soldiers, monks and prebendaries, were crumbled amongst one another, and blended together in the same common mass; how beauty, strength, and youth, with old age, weakness and deformity, lay undistinguished in the same promiscuous heap of matter.
from Joseph Addison’s Thoughts in
Westminster Abbey
（文章选自《英语专业考研基础英语高分突破》吴中东、宫玉波主编，世界图书出版公司，2008，307-308页）
参考译文
每当心情沉重的时候，我总是独自一人去西敏寺教堂；那里肃穆的气氛，教堂特有的神职，庄重的建筑，在那里安息的人们的身份地位，无不给人的心里注满一种忧郁，或不妨说令人沉思，令人欣然。昨天我在教堂草地、回廊和教堂里度过了整整一个下午，在好几个墓区里，打量墓碑和碑文，聊以自娱。大部分的墓碑上只刻着死者姓名和生卒年月：人们对其一生的了解也只在于人类所共有的生死两字。对于那些逝去的人们的生死记录，不管是刻在铜牌上还是刻在大理石碑上，我都不由自主地将它们看作是对死者的一种讽刺；他们没有留下任何别的记录，只是生与死。他们使我想起了英雄诗歌中描写战争时提到的几个人物，他们有响亮的名字，不为别的原因，只是因为他们可能战死，只是因为他们的死亡而为人纪念。圣经中的句子“如箭飞过”恰如其分地描写了这些人的一生：一闪而过，不见踪影。
我走进教堂，观看别人挖一座坟墓；只见挖出来的每一铲新的腐土中，都混杂着骨头或头颅的碎块，曾几何时，这些碎块还是人身体的一部分呢。看见这个情景，我暗自思忖，在这座古老的大教堂的路底下，混埋着何等众多的人啊；男人和女人，朋友和敌人，牧师和士兵，修士和受俸牧师，全都变成了碎块，混在一起；美丽、强壮、年轻的人，和年老力衰、畸形的人，毫无区别地杂处在一堆之中。
（译文选自《英语专业考研基础英语高分突破》吴中东、宫玉波主编，世界图书出版公司，2008，307-308页）
免责声明：以上内容源自网络，版权归原作者所有，如有侵犯您的原创版权请告知，我们将尽快删除相关内容。
