作者立场与翻译

6.2.5　作者立场与翻译

立场与视角是一对联系十分密切，却又有所不同的两个概念。立场一般指认识和处理问题时所处的地位和所抱的态度，而视角则是指从不同的观察角度叙述事物的现象。

新闻报道作为一种较为特别的体裁，其语言要求准确严谨、简明扼要、鲜明生动、具体真切，并且要具有感染力。鉴于新闻报道的时效性、真实性、目的性，新闻记者站在不同的立场，从不同的视角来对某一事件进行报道。我们常看到不同国家的网站对同一事件的报道不尽一致，这主要是由于大家看问题的立场和视角不一样。同理，不同的人对于同一事件/事物的看法也会因为人物的立场、牵涉到的利益以及其他方面的因素而受到不同程度的影响。有时还会因利益与立场相悖而导致截然相反的结论。

因此，译者在翻译之前应该先了解清楚作者的背景、立场及其写作的目的。这样不仅能帮助译者更好地理解原文，而且能使他们在遣词造句方面受益，有利于提高译文的质量。下面是三名来自不同机构的人士在对一次哈马斯和以色列的军事冲突中数百名加沙平民遇难的事件所发表的评论。限于篇幅，本节只对下述评论做简单的分析，其译文省略。

Yossi Melman:from Tel Aviv，Israel

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/yossi_melman/2009/01/hamas_benefits_from_palestinia.html

Yossi Melman is a senior commentator for the Israeli daily Haaretz.

He specializes in intelligence，security，terrorism and strategic issues.An author of seven books on these topics，his most recent book，The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran:Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the State of Iran was published recently by Carroll＆Graf．

Hamas Benefits from Palestinians'Misery

Israel had no choice but to launch a military strike against Hamas.No nation on earth would have tolerated a constant shelling of its towns for eight years.Only three years ago，Israel completely withdrew from the Gaza Strip while dismantling settlements and relocating their 8，000 Jewish settlers.It was a painful decision which almost brought Israel to the brink of a civil war．

What was the reaction?A Palestinian reciprocation?No.Not at all. Instead，18 months ago，we witnessed an armed and ruthless coup d'etat by Hamas，which toppled the legitimate regime of the Palestinian Authority(led by President Mahmoud Abbas“Abu Mazen”)and took full and cruel control of Gaza.Since then Hamas has constantly fired at Israel more than 5，000 rockets and mortar shells.Hamas targeted especially the border crossings with Israel and Egypt which serve as lifelines to supply food，medicines，and oil for the impoverished 1.5 Palestinian inhabitants.Thus，Hamas deliberately signaled that its true aim was to disrupt normal life，to thrive and benefit from the misery of its people．

Daoud Kuttab

Jerusalem/Amman，Jordan http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/daoud_kuttab/2009/01/to_gazas_victims_politics_mean.html

Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian journalist.He was born in Jerusalem in 1955.He is a former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University in the United States.Mr.Kuttab is the former director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al Quds University in Ramallah，Palestine and the founder of AmmanNet，the Arab world's first Internet radio station．

To Gaza's Victims，Politics Means Little

My colleague and long-time friend Ayman Bardawil got a call from his family in Rafah.The house he was born and raised in was totally destroyed last week.His brother and family，who live in that house，were miraculously saved because one of his daughters had a cold and they went over next door moments before the house was shelled.These are the kind of stories that you hear every day.Ayman's family support Fatah，but that didn't save them from the destructiveness of the Israeli onslaught．

Hamas is a mixture of an ideological movement as well as a political one. They want to resist the Israelis，but they also want to govern.Ever since being elected early in 2006，Hamas has been trying to govern while refusing to totally give up resistance.The closure of Gaza has given Hamas and some of the other radical groups a reason to use military actions to try to pry open the unjust blockade that has been placed on the people of Gaza.When the six-month truce ran out last month，it was hard for them to renew it without the Israelis agreeing to make some compromise as far as the blockade was concerned．

Ironically，Gaza and Sinai were occupied 41 years earlier，when the Israelis were unable to tolerate a partial blockade(one only from the Red Sea)and they declared Egypt's naval blockade an act of war.The Israeli narrative since 1967 is that Israel occupied the Arab territories because a blockade is a declaration of war．

The ideological faction in Hamas wanted very much to draw the Israelis into some type of military confrontation.The calculations of those on Hamas's fundamentalist side are different from those on the governance side.But with the blockade continuing，those within the governance group were not able to properly govern.They therefore had to yield to their radical colleagues，who figured that a military confrontation would undoubtedly shake things up and bring international attention to their blockade．

True，the price of the present confrontation to Palestinians is very high.But Hamas feels exactly like Ehud Olmert:that it had no alternative.The international community has been too busy with Iraq and Afghanistan，and has allowed the situation to reach this helpless stage.Hard-headed Israelis and Palestinians are carrying out their fight on the streets amid their own population，meaning all this bloodshed is borne almost entirely by Palestinians．

When the guns will stop and a ceasefire of sorts is reached，the Hamas military machine will surely be weakened，but its popularity will most likely not be hurt.That's because those Palestinians whose children were killed or homes destroyed are more likely to blame the Israelis-the actual party that caused the destruction-rather than Hamas or any other Palestinian group．

Jimmy Carter

http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/07/AR2009010702645.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Jimmy Carter was president from 1977 to 1981.He founded the Carter Center，a nongovernmental organization advancing peace and health worldwide，in 1982．

An Unnecessary War

I know from personal involvement that the devastating invasion of Gaza by Israel could easily have been avoided．

After visiting Sderot last April and seeing the serious psychological damage caused by the rockets that had fallen in that area，my wife，Rosalynn，and I declared their launching from Gaza to be inexcusable and an act of terrorism. Although casualties were rare(three deaths in seven years)，the town was traumatized by the unpredictable explosions.About 3，000 residents had moved to other communities，and the streets，playgrounds and shopping centers were almost empty.Mayor Eli Moyal assembled a group of citizens in his office to meet us and complained that the government of Israel was not stopping the rockets，either through diplomacy or military action．

Knowing that we would soon be seeing Hamas leaders from Gaza and also in Damascus，we promised to assess prospects for a cease-fire.From Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman，who was negotiating between the Israelis and Hamas，we learned that there was a fundamental difference between the two sides.Hamas wanted a comprehensive cease-fire in both the West Bank and Gaza，and the Israelis refused to discuss anything other than Gaza．

从上面的三篇评论我们可以很明显地看出，由于分别代表了不同机构的利益，三位作者对同一事件所持的观点和态度是不一样的，其所谴责的对象和得出的结论也完全不一样。第一篇的作者来自以色列报社，因此他竭尽全力为以色列发起反攻寻找理由，并且痛斥哈马斯的罪行。而第二篇的作者是来自巴勒斯坦的一名记者，他的立场及其表达的观点很明显倾向于哈马斯。第三篇的作者则从国际社会和相关国际组织应履行的义务和职责的角度出发，对整个事件表达个人的观点，他认为这完全是一场可以避免的冲突。

三名来自不同机构的人士评论各有侧重点。因此，在翻译过程中，译者应该把握好作者的立场和视角，用接近作者写作风格的目的语来忠实地反映原文的写作风格和风貌。