张明权 |
本期点评专家:张明权
花数百上千元学几首歌和几个小魔术,在社交聚会中秀出来,给自己的职场形象加分。时下,一些白领花重金提升“软实力”,增加职场竞争的砝码。
参考译文:
White Collars jostle to increase soft power at any cost
Vying at social gatherings for a show to add luster to their professional image, white collars now jostle to learn songs and juggles that might cost up to RMB1,000. It costs some an arm and a leg to increase their "soft power" and sharpen their competitive edge at work.
Faced with fierce competition, employees rely on interesting "soft skills" to help relieve pressure, to be more communicative and confident, and to live a better life, analysts say. Though priority is given to such hard power as higher learning certificates and working experiences at an interview, employees with soft power stands out unexpectedly later at work among others, by virtue of their personal charm embodied in singing, lecturing and conjuring.
译题一中包含不少汉语的习惯用语,包括“下血本”、“硬指标”等,特别是标题中的“下血本”一词如何翻译,网友的译文殊难统一,一个重要的问题就是要不要保留原文的形象。对于“下血本”一词,词典中并没有提供现成的翻译,但根据网络上找到的翻译,比较形象的是cost sb. an arm and a leg,Jasmine-I在标题翻译中就用了这个成语。笔者在参考译文中也用了这个成语,但在标题中没有用,主要是觉得这个英语成语太“血腥”了一点。
至于“软实力”这样的说法,大体上中英语是统一的,因为这些新鲜的词汇大多是舶来品,20 世纪 90 年代初,哈佛大学教授约瑟夫•奈首创“软实力”(Soft Power)概念,于此相对的就是“硬实力”(约等于下文的“硬指标”)。根据词汇应用的原则,词汇的用法经常是可以类推的,所以下文的“软技能”就是soft skills,当然类推也要遵循目的语语言习惯,最好是多查资料,以免造成不必要的错误。关于soft skills的解释,网上可以查到:Soft skills is a sociological term relating to a person's "EQ" (Emotional Intelligence Quotient), the cluster of personality traits, social graces, communication, language, personal habits, friendliness, and optimism that characterize relationships with other people.
英语名词的复数本身具有揭示数量意义的功能,所以像“几首歌几个小魔术”中的“几个”可以略去不译,直接翻译成songs and juggles。
在和网友的email交流中,有网友希望能对其译文给与个别的点评,限于个人的时间和精力,未能做到,敬请谅解。就本译题而言,guanyu,emily, clumsy,karen等网友的翻译都很不错,行文比较顺畅,能够贴近英语的风格进行翻译表达。
相对比于70后、60后,80后的婚姻中确实存在着“女爱热暴力,男爱冷暴力”的现象,这主要与独生子女受教育背景有关。
参考译文:
Post-80s paint a new picture of marriage: wives heat up, husbands cool down
In contrast to post-70s and post-60s, post-80s actually paint a new picture of marriage: both males and females fall prey to violence, as is often attributed to the educational environment of a single-child family.
"We're opposed to violence of any kind. We're opposed to both physical violence (hot violence as termed by some) and mental violence (cold violence as termed by some), no matter who would like to resort to which. To husband and wife, communication is of uttermost importance." Qiu Shaobo went on to suggest: In daily life husband and wife should agree on spending 10 minutes each day chatting heart to heart with each other. At this "special moment," husband and wife may let out their sorrows and pressure on condition that they endear themselves to each other by using honeyed words to "season" love and control the flooding of negative emotions. When they are in contradiction, husband and wife should refrain from complaints, violence and apathy, sit calmly to voice their own opinions and try their best to settle problems by means of negotiation.
这里首先纠正网友的一个翻译错误,“相对比于70后、60后”不是compared with those married in the 1970s or the 1960s,那样就是跟70年代或60年代结婚的人比较了,数字问题一定要慎重。“热暴力”、“冷暴力”虽然可以直译为英语的hot violence, cold violence,有点像hot war, cold war,但这样的说法有些生硬,所以我把它们放在括号内。英语不喜欢重复(演讲似乎例外),所以有关暴力的多种说法可以变换着使用。
“我们反对女用热暴力,男用冷暴力,也不支持男用热暴力,女用冷暴力,婚姻生活中,沟通是最重要的方式。”这句话中包含了不少重复的内容,所以可以合并处理,笔者在处理时打乱了原文的结构,重新组织了语言,这也是翻译时需要注意的问题。有的时候我们说某人的翻译有翻译腔,大多是因为照着原文的顺序、结构、用词套下来的,这样的翻译往往显得比较生硬。英汉语言差异很大,套用汉语的语言模式的英语译文往往很难为英语读者所接受。前几天有网友写信问一个句子,If you enjoy your job, you will never work a day in your life是什么意思,这句话是李开复提到的某个老外跟他说孔子在《论语》中说过的一句话,原文可能是:知之者不如好之者,好之者不如乐之者。中国的经典进入英语被改成这个样子,真是不知其可也。要说真正的翻译,还是James Legge翻译的比较忠实:The Master said, "They who know the truth are not equal to those who love it, and they who love it are not equal to those who delight in it."但是上面那句话流行甚广,也许在英语世界中已经深入人心,专业翻译人员辛辛苦苦的、严格按原文译出来的经典文本有时候抵不上一个随口编译的文本,这也是翻译中一个难以解决的悖论。
邱少波的建议包含多个汉语小句,在英译时需要重新整合。笔者在翻译时分成了两个英语句子,后一个使用了on condition that引导的状语从句。在词汇翻译上,要注意一些形象的表达方式,比如“负面情绪暴涨”、“为爱存款”等,在翻译时考虑到了英语隐喻使用的一致性,所以有using honeyed words to "season" love and control the flooding of negative emotions这样的翻译。
据《瞭望》新闻周刊最新了解到的权威信息,高层已就推进事业单位分类改革作了全国性的整体改革部署,改革时间表也已确定。这项涉及包括离退休人员在内的4000万“事业人”的改革,终于正式开闸。
在国家行政学院教授宋世明看来,事业单位的分类改革可谓“甩掉两头、留下中间(中坚)”。所谓分类改革,即按照社会功能将现有事业单位划分为承担行政职能、从事生产经营活动和从事公益服务三个类别。
参考译文:
Reform of public institutions scheduled
According to the authoritative sources secured from Outlook Weekly, a Chinese news magazine, the Chinese Government has set forth a blueprint and detailed timetable for the reform of public institutions nationwide. The reform to be officially launched will involve more than 40,000,000 "public-sector employees", including those who have already retired with or without honors. As noted by Song Shiming, a professor with Chinese Academy of Governance, the reform based on types is aimed at "removing both ends to keep the middle (or skins to keep the core)". According to their social functions, current institutions shall be classified into three categories: institutions with administrative functions, institutions operating commercial businesses and institutions engaging in social services.
这段译文中首先有一个难缠的词汇,那就是“事业单位”,如果看新华社的英文稿件,很容易发现它的英语对应翻译就是public institutions或institutions,《汉英词典》只收了institutions,《新时代汉英大词典》两个翻译都有收入,然而在行文中,这个词的翻译并非如此简单。在网络上,有人提出把“事业单位”翻译成non-profit organizations或non-governmental organizations,但从体制上说,中国的事业单位现在类似于机关(administrative organs of the government)。另外有人建议把事业单位翻译成public-sector organizations,public sector在美国指提供公共基础服务的国有企业或者接受政府外包的私有企业,这些部门的人员当然不是公务员,而我们国家事业单位人员应该属于准公务员,就事业单位介于政府机关和企业之间的性质而言,和美国的public sector也存在一定的对应关系。术语的完全对等很困难,有时候我们被迫赋予一些词汇新的含义以使其对应源语词汇包含的语义。考虑到public institutions长期被使用的情况,所以这里翻译“事业单位”时还是以institutions为主,在行文中兼及public sector等说法。
“离退休人员”中的“离休”是中国特色,但这个翻译不难,就是retire with honors。 “甩掉两头、留下中间(中坚)”包含双关,直译比较困难,有的网友干脆略去不译,笔者的译文removing both ends to keep the middle (or skins to keep the core)也没有能够译出原文的语音双关,这也是翻译的遗憾。
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专家简介:
张明权,安徽省固镇县人,江苏大学外国语学院副教授,英语语言文学硕士,上外博士课程班进修。主要从事英语语言学和翻译学研究,在国内外学术期刊发表论文10余篇,出版译著两部,发表其他文章20余篇,有大量翻译实践经验,翻译总字数接近200万。Email: mqzhang@ujs.edu.cn。
(作者:张明权 中国日报网英语点津 编辑:Julie)