原文：辛楣道：“大家干一杯，预敬我们大哲学家未来的好太太。方先生，半杯也喝半杯。”——辛楣不知道大哲学家从来没娶过好太太，苏格拉底的太太就是泼妇，褚慎明的好朋友罗素也离了好几次婚。（钱钟书《围城》）

翻译关键词：干一杯，unware的用法，crawl与creep，好几次

译文：Hsin-mei said, "Everyone drink a toast in advance to the good wife of our great philosopher. Mr. Fang, you drink too, even if only half a glass." Hesin-mei was unaware that great philosophers have never had good wives. Socrates' wife was a shrew and poured dirty water on her husband's head. Aristotle's mistress rode on him like a horse, telling him to crawl on the floor naked, and even making him taste the whip. Marcus Aurelius' wife was an adulteress, and even Ch'u Shen-ming's pal Bertrand Russell had been divorced several times. (美 Jeanne Kelly, Nathan K.Mao: Fortress Besieged)

翻译笔记：

干一杯

我们常用的“干一杯”的表达有drink a toast和cheers。赵辛楣说这句“大家干一杯”，我们也可以说：So everyone, cheers! 那么，“为……干杯”我们通常说：To good health!（“为健康干杯！”）A toast to the friendship! （“为友谊干杯！”）

我们需要注意的一点是，toast单独用来指“烤面包片”时，是一个统称。我们不说a toast来表达“一片烤面包”，也不说toasts表示“多片烤面包”，而是说a slice of toast和slices of toast。

unaware的用法

与aware一样，unaware后面接of或以that引导的从句，如：

He is aware of our presence. / He is aware that we are here.

又如：He was unaware of her presence. / He was unaware that she was present.

crawl与creep

中间关于Socrates，Aristotle和Marcus Aurelius的事例是译者为了让读者更好理解而插入的添加成份，用来加强“大哲学家从来没娶过好太太”这句话的例证。我们要做的并非深究其真实性，然而，Aristotle的太太让其光着身子在地上爬这个crawl其实是含有贬义成分的。我们来比较一下crawl与creep就知道了。

crawl多指蛇，虫类等身体沿地面或其它表面的动作，很少用来形容人。如：

There is an insect crawling up your back. 有一条虫子正在你的背上往上爬。

creep多指四肢爬行的哺乳动物或人等偷偷摸摸、无声缓慢的前行动作。如：

They arrived late and crept into the classroom. 他们迟到了，便悄悄地溜进教室。

好几次

“好几次”这个词的感情色彩应该是“多”，试比较下面两句：

I bought several books this morning.

我今天早上买了好几本书（不止一两本）。

I bought some books this morning.

我今天早上买了几本书（不多）。

相关阅读

“知识分子”英语怎么说？

什么是“戴高乐的反应”？

“大材小用”怎么翻译？

何为“站着思考”？

（来源：沪江英语 编辑：崔旭燕）