A Case of Eloquence王蒙Wang Meng🔥提示：本文对文化大革命中一些无理也要搅三分的黑笔杆子做了淋漓尽致的讽刺。文章中共用了 17个“说”，翻译处理得比较灵活，既译出了说话人的语气也避免了重复，使用了不同的动词，如：told, asked, retorted, said, replied, argued, claimed, answered back等。一位医生向我介绍，他们在门诊中接触了一位雄辩症病人。A doctor once told me about one of his outpatients who suffered from the disease of eloquence.🎈outpatients指门诊病人，比patient含义更为具体，相当于“门诊+病人”合并翻译，较为简洁。🎈患…病suffer from…医生说：“请坐。”病人说:“为什么要坐呢?难道你要剥夺我的不坐权吗?”“Please sit down,” the doctor told him.“Why should I?” the patient asked. “Are you going to deprive me of my right not to sit down?”🎈为什么我要这么做？Why should I？。此处Why should I是why should I sit down的省略。🎈“deprive sb of sth.”是固定搭配，表示“剥夺，使不能有”。医生无可奈何，倒了一杯水，说:“请喝水吧。”病人说:“这样谈问题是片面的，因而是荒谬的，并不是所有的水都能喝。例如你如果在水里搀上氰化钾，就绝对不能喝。”The doctor could say nothing but offered him a glass of water. “Have some water then.”The patient retorted, “This is lop-sided talk, so it is absurd. Not all water is drinkable. If you put some potassium cyanide in it, it will be undrinkable.”🎈皮一下，“无可奈何”和我们常用的网络词“无fuck说”类似，表示一种无语、无奈的心情，从这个角度看，could say nothing的译文就比较容易理解了。至于“Have some water then.”中的then可以理解为“那么”，隐藏的含义就是“既然不坐，那你喝点水吧”。🎈再次提示，“说”在具体语境中要选用不同的词，例如ask、retort等。医生说:“我这里并没有放毒药嘛。你放心！”病人说：“谁说你放了毒药了呢？难道我诬告你放了毒药?难道检察院起诉书上说你放了毒药？我没说你放毒药，而你说我说你放了毒药，你这才是放了比毒药还毒的毒药!”The doctor said, “I didn’t put any poison in it. Please rest assured.“Who said you put poison in it? Do you mean to say that I am lodging a false accusation against you? Has it been written on the indictment of the procurator that you have put poison in the water? I didn’t say you had put poison in it, but you claimed that I said you had put poison in it. So you have indeed put in more poisonous poison against me!”🎈投毒put poison (in sth)🎈诬告（某人） lodge a false accusation (against sb)是固定搭配。🎈claim（声称）意思类似say，体现了表达多样性，且更具感情色彩。医生毫无办法，便叹了口气，换一个话题说:“今天天气不错。”病人说:“纯粹胡说八道!你这里天气不错，并不等于全世界在今天都是好天气。例如北极，今天天气就很坏，刮着大风，漫漫长夜，冰山正在撞击……”The doctor could not but heave a sigh and switched to another topic, “It’s fine today.”The patient replied, “Nonsense! The fact that it is fine here doesn’t mean that it is fine everywhere else in the world. At the North Pole, for example, it must be freezing, with strong winds, long nights and icebergs colliding with one another…”🎈叹了口气 heave a sigh🎈北极the North Pole🎈It’s fine today中的fine表示天气好，也可以用nice。当fine和nice都形容天气好的时候， nice 程度要比fine 深些。🎈表示天气的词语：windy刮风的sunny晴朗的rainy下雨的fine/clear/good/nice weather好天气sunny/fine day晴天bad weather坏天气shower阵雨rain下雨snow下雪light rain小雨moderate rain中雨storm暴风雨light air 微风heavy wind大风mist薄雾thick fog浓雾sleet雨夹雪lightning闪电cloudy then rainy阴转雨cloudy then sunny阴转晴sunny then cloudy晴转阴医生忍不住反驳说:“我们这里并不是北极嘛。”病人说：“但你不应该否认北极的存在。你否认北极的存在，就是歪曲事实真相，就是别有用心。”The doctor couldn’t help but retorted, “This is not the North Pole.”The patient argued, “You can’t deny the existence of the North Pole. If you do, you’ll be distorting facts with ulterior motives. ”🎈惯用表达：不得不、不禁cannot but do sth、cannot help doing sth、cannot help but do sth。🎈“别有用心”按“藏有其他动机、有其他意图”之意理解译作with ulterior motives。医生说:“你走吧。”病人说：“你无权命令我走。你是医院，不是公安机关，你不可能逮捕我，你不可能枪毙我。”Finally the doctor begged him, “Please go away.”The patient again answered back. “You have no right to order me to leave. Yours is a hospital, not a public security office. So you can’t arrest me, nor shoot me to death.”🎈begged是增译成分，是上文中医生“无可奈何”情绪的延续和升级（“我求求你了，快走吧，别杠我了”）。🎈answered back理解成“回击”，文中这位“雄辩症患者”的“雄辩方式”非常像小学生的吵架方式——在对方的话语后不断加“反弹”二字。back一词很妙，结合回击的内容，体现出了病人的胡搅蛮缠。🎈“你是医院”译作Yours is a hospital，很明显，“你是医院”在逻辑上并不成立，直接说“你的地方是医院”也不太合适，故而模糊处理成Yours is a hospital。除此之外，还可以说Here is a hospital, not a…🎈you can’t arrest me, nor shoot me to death ：nor不一定非得和neither连用，只要前面有否定意义的词，就可以使用nor。又，…to death表示“……而亡”，例如：饿死starve to death；流血而亡is bleeding to death；被打死be beaten to death。……经过多方调查，才知道病人当年参加过“梁效”的写作班子，估计可能是一种后遗症。An investigation revealed the fact that this patient had joined the so-called “Liang Xiao” (An organization during the Cultural Revolution that wrote the major articles which voiced the opinions of the Gang of Four. Here “Xiao” also implies “Loyalty to the Gang of Four.”) writing group. What he was suffering from may have been the after-effects of that period.🎈积累词汇reveal：reveal作动词指“显示;表明;透露”的用法：reveal+n/that/wh-、be revealed as、it be revealed that。例如：A survey of the British diet has revealed that a growing number of people are overweight.对英国人饮食进行的一项调查显示有越来越多的人超重。🎈“梁效”这个名词有一定的历史背景，为了帮助读者理解，翻译时用注解法作了交待。🎈后遗症、副作用the after-effects/the side-effect。此处选用after-effects更佳，暗含因果关系。🔥必背词汇ulterior adj.动机等隐蔽的，隐秘的，隐藏的英义If you say that someone has an ulterior motive for doing something, you believe that they have a hidden reason for doing it. 例句Sheila had an ulterior motive for trying to help Stan.希拉想帮助斯坦是另有所图的。retort v.反驳，回嘴英义To retort means to reply angrily to someone.例句Others retort that strong central power is a dangerous thing in Russia.其他人反驳说强大的中央集权在俄罗斯是很危险的。lop-sided adj.向一侧倾斜的，不匀称的英义Something that is lopsided is uneven because one side is lower or heavier than the other.例句His suit had shoulders that made him look lopsided.他那套西服的两肩不平，让他整个人看起来一边高一边低。absurd adj.荒谬的，荒唐的，不合理的英义If you say that something is absurd, you are criticizing it because you think that it is ridiculous or that it does not make sense.例句It is absurd to be discussing compulsory redundancy policies for teachers.讨论针对教师的强制裁员政策真是滑稽可笑。potassium un.钾英义Potassium is a soft silvery-white chemical element, which occurs mainly in compounds. These compounds are used in making such things as glass, soap, and fertilizers.例句No potassium did we find in this mineral.在这种矿石中我们没有发现钾。cyanide un.氰化物英义Cyanide is a highly poisonous substance.例句Someone had fed him a lethal dose of cyanide.有人给他下了致命剂量的氰化物。🔥重点表达剥夺我的不坐权deprive me of my right not to sit down请坐Please sit down氰化钾potassium cyanide投毒put poison (in sth)诬告（某人） lodge a false accusation (against sb)叹了口气 heave a sigh北极the North Pole歪曲事实真相distort facts别有用心with ulterior motives公安机关a public security office枪毙我shoot me to death后遗症、副作用the after-effects🔥复盘测试剥夺我的不坐权请坐氰化钾投毒诬告（某人）叹了口气北极歪曲事实真相别有用心公安机关枪毙我后遗症、副作用🔥表达对比「片面的」有几种表达？This is lop-sided talk, so it is absurd.这样谈问题是（片面的），因而是荒谬的。Associated British Foods says the accusations are “incomplete at best and factually wrong in places.”该公司称该指控“至少是（片面的），事实上有的地方不对。Many people have come to think of colleges and universities as places where students waste time learning unnecessary subjects or hearing one-sided beliefs.许多人开始把大学院校看作是学生浪费时间，学习不必要的科目或听取（片面）信仰的地方。I wanted to photograph them as whole women, not the parts that they see of themselves.我希望我的镜头能提供给她们完整的女性视角，而不是她们自己眼中（片面的）模样。
帕布莉卡