词语的重复

8.2　词语的重复

有意重复使用同一词或短语强调作者的意思，加强语气和情感，以取得更好的表达效果，这种修辞学上的反复（repetition/reiteration），汉英大体是相似的：

例15.沉默呵，沉默呵！不在沉默中爆发，就在沉默中灭亡。（鲁迅《纪念刘和珍君》 ）

Silence, silence! Unless we burst out, we shall perish in this silence.

例16.是的，我又看见月牙儿了，带着点寒气的一钩儿浅金。多少次了，我看见跟现在这个月牙儿一样的月牙儿；多少次了。（老舍《月牙儿》 ）

Yes, I’ve seen the crescent moon again—a chill sickle of pale gold. How many times have I seen crescent moons just like this one, how many times... .

但只要仔细比较一下，就不难发现，汉语的重复现象远比英语普遍。英语的重复一般是修辞性的（rhetorical），如福勒（Fowler）兄弟（Fowler 1951）在The King’s English一书中指出：

Even when the repetition is a part of the writer’s original plan, consideration is necessary before it can be allowed to pass: it is implied in the terms“rhetorical”or significant repetition that the words repeated would ordinarily be either varied or left out; the repetition, that is to say, is more or less abnormal, and whatever is abnormal may be objectionable in a single instance, and is likely to become so if it occurs frequently.

而汉语的重复除了为了表示强调或加强语气外，往往还出于语法的要求和修辞的需要。为了达到篇章的连贯性和整体性，汉语倾向于重复词语和句式，而英语常常采用替代、省略、变换等方法。如例15中的第三个“沉默”英译时就省略了，例16中的第二个“月牙儿”英译是就采用“one”替代之。

8.2.1　替代法

用替代的形式(pro-form）来代替上文或句中已出现过的词语或内容（shared wordsand content），以避免重复并连接上下文，这是英语说话或写作的一项重要原则。例如：

例17.我记得爸，记得爸的木匣。那个木匣结束了爸的一切；每逢我想起爸来，我就想到非打开那个木匣不能见着他。但是，那个木匣是深深的埋在地里，我明知在城外哪个地方埋着它，可又像落在地上的一个雨点，似乎永难找到。（老舍《月牙儿》 ）

I remember Papa; I remember his wooden box. That boxmeant the end of him. I knew unless I could break itopen I’d never see him again. But they buried itdeep in the ground in a cemetery outside the city wall. Although I knew exactly where itwas, I was afraid it would be hard to find that boxagain. The earth seemed to swallow itlike a drop of rain.

“木匣”既是这段文字的中心概念，又起着贯穿整段文字的作用。我们发现汉语主要采用重复“木匣”一词（3次）、省略（2次）和用“它”替代（1次）的方式来表现这一概念，而英文则采用“it”替代（4次）和变换为“that box”（2次）的方式。由此，充分可见替代在英文表达中的重要性。当然替代除了最常见的代词外，还有多种表现形式：

例18.一定的文化（当作观念形态的文化）是一定社会的政治和经济的反映，又给予一定社会的政治和经济以巨大的作用和影响。

Any given culture (as an ideological form) is a reflection of the politics and economics of a given society, and the former in turn has a tremendous effect and influence on the latter.

例19.一个人的工作，究竟是三分成绩七分错误，还是七分成绩三分错误，必须有个根本的估价。

We must have a fundamental evaluation of a person’s work and establish whether his achievements amount to 30 percent and his mistakes to 70 percent, or vice versa.

例20.只有四婶，因为后来雇用的女工，大抵非懒即馋，或者馋而且懒，左右不如意，所以也还提起祥林嫂。（鲁迅《祝福》 ）

My aunt was the only one who still spoke of Xianglin’s Wife. This was because most of the maids taken on afterwards turned out to be lazy or greedy, or both, none of them giving satisfaction.（杨宪益、戴乃迭译）

8.2.2　省略法

省略和替代一样，也是避免重复的一种常用手段。两者经常互相交替使用。尤其在并列结构中，汉语往往重复已出现的词语，而英语常常省略。

例21.一个人夹在苏州上海杭州，或厦门香港广州的市民中间，混混沌沌地过去，只能感到一点点清凉，秋的味，秋的色，秋的意境与姿态，总看不饱，尝不透，赏玩不到十足。（郁达夫《故都的秋》 ）

While muddling along all by myself among the urban dwellers of Suzhou, Shanghai, Xianmen, Hong Kong or Guangzhou, I feel nothing but a little chill in the air, without ever relishing to my heart’s content the flavour, colour, mood and style of the season.（张培基译）

原文“秋的味，秋的色，秋的意境与姿态”中“秋”的重复在译文中省略，但仍保留了并列结构，而“总看不饱，尝不透，赏玩不到”中的平行结构由于意义仅仅是重复而已，所以也采用了省略法。再如：

例22.我们一些旧衣服和旧家具，当的当了，卖的卖了。（吴敬梓《儒林外史》 ）

Our old clothes and few sticks of furniture have been pawned or sold.

例23.还有秋雨哩，北方的秋雨，也似乎比南方的下得奇，下得有味，下得更像样。（郁达夫《故都的秋》 ）

As for autumn rains in the North, they also seem to differ from those in the South, being more appealing, more temperate.（张培基译）

例24.五四运动是反帝国主义的运动，又是反封建的运动。五四运动的杰出的历史意义，在于它带着为辛亥革命还不曾有的姿态，这就是彻底地不妥协地反帝国主义和彻底地不妥协地反封建主义。

The May 4th Movement was an anti-imperialist as well an anti-feudal movement. Its outstanding historical significance is to be seen in a feature which was absent from the Revolution of 1911, namely, its thorough and uncompromising opposition to imperialism as well as to feudalism.

8.2.3　变换法

此外，英语还常用同义词、近义词替换或上义词替代下义词等方法来寻求变换以避免同词重复，而汉语习惯于同词重复。如：

例25.非洲人民正在为争取非洲的彻底解放进行着艰巨的斗争。

The people of Africaare waging a hard struggle to win the complete emancipation of the continent.

例26.封建社会代替奴隶社会，资本主义社会代替封建主义社会，社会主义经历一个过程发展后必然代替资本主义。

Feudal society replacedslave society, capitalism supplantedfeudalism; and after a long time, socialism will necessarily supersedecapitalism.

例27.“好哇，大风，你就使劲地刮吧。你现在刮得越大，秋后的雨水就越充足。刮吧，使劲得刮吧，刮来个丰收的好年景，刮来个富强的好日子”。

All right, wind! Roaras hard as you like. The stronger you blownow, the more rain we will get in autumn. Come on! You’ll givea good harvest and bringus a good life.

如果从文本的通篇来看，变换法的运用就更重要且常见。 《荷塘月色》中“荷塘”这一中心词在原文中出现了8次，“塘”出现1次。而对应的译文则有“the Lotus Pond”，stretch of water”，“the forest of lotuses”和“the pond”四种：

A.今晚在院子里坐着乘凉，忽然想起日日走过的荷塘，在这满月的光里，总该另有一番样子吧。

B.曲曲折折的荷塘上面，弥望的是田田的叶子。叶子出水很高，像亭亭的舞女的裙。

C.这时候叶子与花也有一丝的颤动，像闪电般，霎时传过荷塘的那边去了。

D.月光如流水一般，静静地泻在这一片叶子和花上。薄薄的青雾浮起在荷塘里。叶子和花仿佛在牛乳中洗过一样；又像笼着轻纱的梦。

A.Tonight, when I was sitting in the yard enjoying the cool, it occurred to me that the Lotus Pond, which I pass by everyday, must assume quite a different look in such moonlit night.

B. All over this winding stretch of water, what meets the eye is a silken field of leaves, reaching rather high above the surface, like the skirts of dancing girls in all their grace.

C. At this moment, a tiny thrill shoots through the leaves and flowers, like a streak of lightning, straight across the forest of lotuses.

D. The moon sheds her liquid light silently over the leaves and flowers, which, in the floating transparency of a bluish haze from the pond, look as if they had just been bathed in milk, or like a dream wrapped in a gauzy hood.（朱纯深译）

相比之下，杨译和王译的处理要单调些：只出现了“the lotus pond”，“ the pond”，“ the lotus pool”，“the pool”。所以，就对原文词语重复的处理方法来看，朱译优于杨译和王译。

最后举一例，综合使用了重复、省略和变换法，请注意其中“君子”、“义”和“利”的译法：

例28.曾经有过一个人皆君子言必称义的时代，当时或许有过大义灭利的真君子，但更常见的是借义逐利的伪君子和假义真信的迂君子。（周国平《在义与利之外》 ）

There was once a time when almost everyone claimed to be a gentleman and every word uttered was about righteousness. At that time, there might have been some truly virtuous men who were so righteous as to give up whatever was profitable. But, more likely, one might meet hypocrites who use righteousness as a fig leaf for their cupidity, or pedants believed in whatever passed for righteousness.