第十六章释义性翻译

第十六章　释义性翻译

汉英两种语言中都有很多词句具有浓郁的民族文化特征，如果按照字面意思翻译，不仅不能达意，反而会引起读者误解。对于这种情况，只能采用释义性翻译法(paraphrase)。对于这一点，Eugene Nida说得好:

In fact，all translating involves differing degrees of paraphrasing，since there is no way in which one can translate successfully word for word and structure for structure.□

Since languages do not differ essentially in what they can say，but how they say it，paraphrase is inevitable.What is important is the semantic legitimacy of the paraphrase.

当然，释义并不是随意解释，而是要尽量运用译文读者的习惯用法来代替他们无法理解或理解有困难的词句，以便他们尽量透彻地理解原文。释义法的关键是译文的修辞要合理(semantic legitimacy)，这种方法在英汉翻译中较为突出，例如:

Not long ago I heard myself describe a friend，half-jokingly，as “a much better person than I am，that is，she doesn't gossip so much.”I heard my voice distorted by that same false note that sometimes creeps into it when social strain and some misguided notion of amiability make me assent to opinions I don't really share.

——Francine Prose，Gossip

这段话的粗斜体部分是无法直译的，即便是勉强词对词地翻译出来，也不能达意。因此，必须先把它用英语解释一下再译成中文。释义如下:

I praised my friend saying that she doesn't gossip so much，but I found I did not speak sincerely because of the pressure from society.In fact I don't agree to the opinion that it is wrong to gossip.I made that untruthful statement just to please my friend.

释义性译文:

不久前，我无意中半开玩笑似地称赞一个朋友，说她“比我强多了，因为她不大在背后议论人。”说这话时，我觉得我的语调不正常，因为言不由衷。这种情况时有发生，因为出于礼貌，出于对谦和的误解，所以对别人的看法尽管不同意，我也随声附和。

再看一例:

Some Americans are extremely overweight.The condition is costly.Doctor Koop says $70，000，000，000 are spent each year to treat diseases related to being overweight.The condition can be deadly，too.Each year，300，000 overweight Americans die before reaching old age.

这一段中的两句话:The condition is costly和The condition can be deadly，too.是无法直译的，因此必须根据上下文加以解释:

有些美国人体重过高，因此减肥的费用就特别高。据库珀博士说，每年用在医治与肥胖有关的疾病上的钱就有700亿美元。而且肥胖症还会致命，每年约有30万过于肥胖的美国人早逝。

汉英翻译也是如此，但是作为中国人，我们往往把自己习以为常的表达方式，理所当然地认为对英译文读者说来也很容易理解。殊不知，词对词的翻译会使他们觉得意思很模糊或听起来很别扭。例如: