2012年11月全国翻译资格水平考试在不久前结束,天津翻译专修学院的翻译专家团队立即对试题进行了全面的分析和点评。
首先让我们看一下英译汉的试题。英译汉的选材略带文学色彩,这可能将是今后笔译实务英译汉素材选择的一个方向。该篇文章通过一位女性回顾当年其丈夫送给她的一套二手的狄更斯的小说,介绍了狄更斯的一些作品及其人物,同时通过该套小说扉页上的签名,该篇文章的作者与其儿子以书信的方式进行了交流并了解到有关该套小说的最初所有者的一些情况。从文章中的语句表达而言基本没有什么难度,但从文章中所涉及的狄更斯作品名称而言,对于非英语专业的考生来说可能会有些难度。
汉译英部分此次试题的素材从以往的时政主题转变成商业主题,这是三级笔译实务命题的一大变化。文风变了,这也许是笔译实务命题的江南style。此次试题是一篇关于美国一家知名的水龙头制造商及其产品的介绍。这样的文章对于将来从事笔译专业的人士来说确实比较常见,但专家认为,既然是考察汉译英的能力,最好还是以中国的某个企业的介绍作为命题素材更为合适。因为文章中所涉猎的企业名称等内容并不容易翻译得非常准确。就翻译的技巧和语言点以及语汇而言,在翻译培训课中大多都讲到过,难度也并不很大。但如果把英译汉的这篇文章与汉译英的文章相比较,汉译英的语段稍有难度。
英译汉部分的原文与译文:
FOR MORE than 30 years, I have been wondering about L.R. Generson.
三十多年来,我一直在思考着L. R. 杰内森究竟是何许人。
On one of our first Christmases together, my husband gave me a complete set of Dickens. There were 20 volumes, bound in gray cloth with black corners, old but in good condition. Stamped on the flyleafof each volume, in faded block letters, was the name of the previous owner: “L.R. Generson, M.D., Bronx, NY.’’
在我和丈夫一起度过的最初的几次圣诞节中,有一次他送给我了一整套狄更斯的作品。这些书有二十卷,用一块黑色边角的灰布包裹着,这些书尽管有些旧了但保存完好。每一卷的扉页上,都有模糊的大写字母,显示着它们之前的主人的信息:“L. R. 杰内森, 医学博士,布朗克斯,纽约。”
That Dickens set is one of the best presents anyone has ever given me. A couple of the books are still pristine, but others - “Bleak House,’’ “David Copperfield,’’ and especially “Great Expectations’’ - have been read and re-read almost to pieces. Over the years, Pip and Estella and Magwitch have kept me company. So have Lady Dedlock, Steerforth and Peggotty, the Cratchits and the Pecksniffs and the Veneerings. And so, in his silent enigmatic way, has L.R. Generson.
这套狄更斯的作品是我收到的最好的礼物之一。有些书现在还很新,但是一些书像《荒凉山庄》《大卫-科波菲尔》,尤其是《远大前程》,由于多次的反复阅读书已几乎变成散页了。多年来书中的人物一直萦绕在我身边,L. R. 杰内森也以沉默而神秘的方式陪伴着我。
Did he love the books as much as I do? Who was he? On a whim, I Googled him. There wasn’t much - a single mention on a veterans’ website of a World War II captain named Leonard Generson. But I did find a Dr. Richard Generson, an oral surgeon living in New Jersey. Since Generson is not a common name, I decided to write to him.
是否他也像我一样喜爱这些书籍?他是谁呢?有一次心血来潮,我上谷歌搜索关于他的信息。没有搜到多少结果,只在一个老兵网站上搜到了一个叫莱昂纳多-杰内森的二战时期的一个上尉。但是我找到了莱昂纳多-杰内森博士,他是一位新泽西周的口腔医生。由于杰内森不是一个常用的名字,于是我决定写信给他。
Dr. Generson was kind enough to write back. He told me that his father, Leonard Richard Generson, was born in 1909. He lived in New York City but went to medical school in Basel, Switzerland. He spoke 10 languages fluently. As an obstetricianand gynecologist, he opened a practice in the Bronx shortly before World War II. His son described him as “an extremely patriotic individual’’; right after Pearl Harbor he closed his practice and enlisted. He served throughout the war as a general surgeon with an airborne special forces unit in Europe, where he became one of the war’s most highly decorated physicians.
杰内森博士很热心的给我回信。他告诉我他的父亲莱昂纳多-理查德-杰内森1909年生于纽约。后来在瑞士巴塞尔的一家医学院学习,他能熟练的讲十种语言。作为一名产科医生和妇科医生,他二战前不久在布朗克斯曾开了一家诊所。他儿子把他描述为一个极端的爱国主义者;日本偷袭珍珠港后,他随即关闭了诊所参了军。战争期间他以一个医生的身份和一个空军特别飞行队一起在欧洲服役,在当地他成了一名被赋予极高荣誉的医生。
The list of his decorations reflects his ordeals and his courage: multiple Purple Hearts, the Bronze Star with “V’’ for valor, the Silver Star, and also the Cross of War, an extremely high honor from the government of France. After the war, he remained in the Army Reserve and attained the rank of full colonel, while also continuing his medical practice in New York. “He was a very dedicated physician who had a large patient following,’’ his son wrote. Leonard Generson’s son didn’t remember the Dickens set, though he told me that there were always a lot of novels in the house. His mother probably “cleaned house’’ after his father’s death in 1977 - the same year my husband bought the set in a used book store.