Scrapping My Paintings吴冠中Wu Guanzhong🔥背景知识：散文《毁画》是著名画家兼散文家吴冠中(1919—2010)的佳作，选自1955年5月出版的《吴冠中散文选》(由国际文化出版公司发行)。二十年前我住在前海北沿时，附近邻居生了一个瞎子婴儿，我看着这双目失明的孩子一天天成长，为他感到悲哀，他将度过怎样的一生！Twenty years ago, when I was living on the northern side of the Qianhai Lake, Beijing, one of my neighbors gave birth to a blind baby. That made me sad. What would become of it for life?🎈「前海北沿」意即「前海北岸」，可译为on the northern side of the Qianhai Lake或on the north of the Qianhai Lake。🎈生孩子give birth to babies/children🎈「他将度过怎样的一生」可译为What would become of it for life?或 How was it to drag out this existence?其中 it 均指「婴儿」我想，如果这孩子是我自己，我决不愿来到人间，Personally, I would have refused to come into this world disabled. 🎈此句并未完全按照原文翻译，但整体看是「达意」的，无需纠结。但父母总是珍惜自己的小生命，千方百计养育残疾的后代。Nevertheless, all parents love their own babies and will do whatever they can to rear them even though they are born disabled. 🎈rear有多重含义，此处取「抚养，养育，养大」之意。例句I was reared in east Texas.我在得克萨斯州东部长大。作者对自己的作品，当会体会到父母对孩子的心情。A work of art is to the creator what a baby is to its parents.🎈「作者对自己的作品，当会体会到父母对孩子的心情」可按「作品对于作者，犹孩子对于父母一般」译为A work of art is to the creator what a baby is to its parents。又，A is to B what C is to D 表示「A之于B就好像C之于D一样」。其中的连词what可以用来表示比较两种事物相同或相似的关系。学生时代撕毁过大量习作，那是寻常情况，未必总触动心弦。When I was a schoolboy, I used to tear up a lot of the exercises I did. That was a common practice, and I never regretted it.🎈「那是寻常情况，未必总触动心弦」译作That was a common practice, and I never regretted it.。「未比总触动心弦」理解成了「从不后悔」，当然这是译者的理解。如果是自己翻译的话，处理成「不伤心、不后悔」等都可以，不要直译字面意思「触动心弦」创作中也经常撕毁作品，用调色刀戳向画布，气愤，痛苦，发泄。Now I am doing the same thing with my paintings. I will often use a palette knife to cut into a canvas so as to let off my pent-up anger or anguish.🎈doing the same thing即指「撕毁」🎈pent-up指「情感、力量等被压抑的，被抑制的」，是增译成分，但也更好地说明了「我」的「（积压已久的负面）情绪」有时毁掉了不满意的画反而感到舒畅些，因那无可救药的“成品”不断在啮咬作者的心魂。Sometimes, it will bring me ease of mind to scrap my own substandard works.🎈「反而感到舒畅些」当然可以译作make sb adj结构，也可灵活变通，处理为此处的bring sb n结构。🎈那无可救药的「成品」不断在啮咬作者的心魂→「对画作不满意」的paraphase，故译文没有全单译出。又，「成品」加了引号，说明并不是真正的成品，实际上指「残次品」，现译作substandard works。当我在深山老林或边远地处十分艰难的条件下画出了次、废品，真是颓丧之极，Sometimes, I will feel extremely dejected when a painting I have done under hard conditions in remote mountains and dense forests turns out to be inferior.🎈I have done under hard conditions in remote mountains and dense forests是省略that的定语从句。🎈事实证明是…… turn out to be但仍用油布小心翼翼保护着丑陋的画面背回宿处，是病儿啊，即使是瞎子婴儿也不肯遗弃。But I will nevertheless carry it home on my shoulder after wrapping it up carefully in a tarpaulin. It’s my sick baby, my blind baby. I shouldn’t abandon it.🎈「病儿」不是儿化音，而是病+儿，现译作sick baby。数十年风风雨雨中作了大批画，有心爱的、有带缺陷的、有很不满意但浸透苦劳的……I produced a great many paintings during the scores of difficult years. Some of them were my favorites; some were defective; some, though unsatisfactory, were fruits of my painstaking labor…🎈许多，大量，几十个 scores of🎈苦劳→辛苦劳作、大量心血，现译作painstaking labor任何一个探索者都走过弯路和歧途，都会留下许多失败之作，All art explorers are liable to take roundabout courses or lead themselves astray, thus ending up in fiascoes. 🎈「任何一不探索者都走过弯路和歧途，都会留下许多失败之作」译为 All art explorers are liable to take roundabout courses or lead themselves astray, thus ending up in fiascoes。「探索者」应指「艺术探索」，因此译为art explorers。又，「走过歧途」用lead themselves astray，如果是表示「误入歧途」，可以用go astray。🎈liable与likely相近，表示「很可能如何」。但是likely可以指很可能发生的正面和负面的事。liable则偏向于负面。A boy is liable to get run over if he darts out from between parked cars. 男孩子如果从停着的车子之间冲出去，就很可能被汽车压了蹩脚货，暴露真实吧，何必遮丑，Defective works should be exposed rather than covered up.🎈「蹩脚货」也是指「残次品」，上一处译作substandard works，此处译作defective works。然而，换了人间，金钱控制了人，进而摧毁了良知和人性。But things on earth have changed and men are so much under the sway of money that they have become conscienceless and unfeeling. 🎈「换了人间」实际上是「人间换了（世风变了）」，现译作things on earth have changed。🎈在……控制下；受……支配under the sway of🎈「摧毁了良知和人性」并未译作动宾结构，而是译作了形容词conscienceless and unfeeling。作品于今有了市价，我以往送朋友、同学、学生、甚至报刊等等的画不少进入了市场，出现于拍卖行。Paintings, nowadays, have market prices. Many of my paintings given as presents to friends, schoolmates, students and newspapers and periodicals have found their way to the market or auction house. 🎈市场价格、市场定价、市价market prices🎈given as presents to friends, schoolmates, students and newspapers and periodicals作paintings的后置定语。🎈find one’s way to 是一个十分地道的表达，表示「…..到哪儿去」，《新概念英语3》第15课有句话是：very few of the fifty pence pieces and pound coins I have gained him found their way there.原文的their指的是「存钱罐」，整句话的意思就是：我给了他不少50便士的硬币，但他很少存到存钱罐里。五十年代我作了一组井冈山风景画，当时应井冈山管理处的要求复制了一套赠送作为藏品陈列，In the 1950s, after I finished a set of Jinggang Mountain landscape paintings, I donated a replica of it to the Jinggang Mountain Administrative Office at its request for permanent museum display.🎈一组、一系列、一套a set of🎈应其…要求at its request for…后来我翻看手头原作，感到不满意，便连续烧毁，那都属于探索油画民族化的幼稚阶段，Later, when I looked over the original set of the paintings, which represented the immature stage of my attempts at nationalizing oil painting, I felt dissatisfied and had it all destroyed by fire.🎈查看，检查，浏览look over例句We looked over the house again before we decided we would rent it.那房子我们再看了一次才决定租下来。🎈油画an oil painting水墨画an inkwash/ink-and-wash painting水彩画a watercolor但赠管理处的那套复制品近来却一件接一件在佳士得拍卖行出现。Unexpectedly, however, the replicated paintings recently showed up one after another in an auction house. 🎈复制品 the replicated paintings🎈关于「复制」copy: 普通用词，含义广泛，指精确的或不精确的复制品。duplicate: 常指完全一模一样，可代替原件的复制品。model: 可指按某物式样制造、按比例缩小的模型，也可指某物未制成之前做出的模型。reproduction: 批按原物复制的产品，着重复制品与原物相似。facsimile: 含义与copy大体相同，但较文雅。🎈auction house拍卖行书画赠友人，这本是我国传统人际关系的美德，往往不看金钱重友情。Making a gift of painting or calligraphy to friends has been a traditional virtue of ours related to interpersonal relationship, which values affection above material gains.🎈Making a gift of painting：使B成为A make A of B🎈related作virtue的后置定语，可理解为……which is related to…🎈人际关系interpersonal relationship 🎈value A above B 与B相比，更看重A艺术作品最终成为商品，这是客观规律，无可非议。It is natural and beyond reproach for works of art to end up becoming commodities.🎈beyond reproachbeyond可以是介词，也可以是副词。它的含义可以是正面的，也可以是反面的。1. 正面的意义，指的是「超出某一范围但并不脱离或否定这个范围」，也就是「既保持原有的，还外加」例句The plan was beyond ingenious. 此计妙极。Beyond flooding, villagers worry that more tree cutting could put an end to the mushroom bonanza. 除了水涝，村民们还担心，树木再继续砍伐下去，蘑菇盛长的局面就会告终。在这个意义上，beyond后面可以接名词，也可以接形容词。例句This has gone beyond ridiculous. 这已经不光是可笑了。He was beyond exhausted. 他已经过度筋疲力尽了。2. 反面的意义，指的是「超出某一范围，不再属于这个范围」。例句beyond repair坏到无法修理 beyond his wildest dreams他无论如何也梦想不到的 beyond his means他力所不及的 a prize beyond value无价的奖赏 The social situation has changed beyond recognition. 社会状况已经变得面目全非了。 Phenomena like this are beyond human understanding. 这样的现象是人类无法理解的。注意：在这个带有反面意义的用法上，above与beyond常常可以互用（但以beyond更为多用），见above条。但在一时盛名之下，往往不够艺术价值的劣画也都招摇过市，欺蒙喜爱的收藏者，被市场上来回倒卖，互相欺骗。The problem is that inferior paintings of low artistic value, often, under cover of high reputation, openly beguile avid art collectors and people rush for speculative buying and reselling of them, cheating each other.🎈「劣画（残次品）」译作inferior paintings🎈在……的掩护下 under （the）cover of叶紫《长江轮上》在夜色的掩护下under cover of night黄秋耘《丁香花下》靠着蓝布大褂和呢帽的掩护under cover of the blue long gown and the felt hat我早下决心要毁掉所有不满意的作品，不愿谬种流传。I made up my mind long ago to scrap all of my unsatisfactory paintings so as to prevent the circulation of low-grade products.🎈下定决心 Determined; make up one’s mind; be determined to; bite the bullet例句I’m going to bite the bullet and quit my job.我要咬牙辞职。🎈「谬种」（残次品）译作low-grade products。开始屠杀生灵了，屠杀自己的孩子。So I began to butcher my own babies.🎈原文中「屠杀生灵」和「屠杀自己的孩子」一个意思，都是对「屠杀对象」的说明，译出最具体的含义即可。将有遗憾的次品一批批，一次次张挂起来审查，一次次淘汰，一次次刀下留人，一次次重新定案。I would hang up on the wall my problematic paintings batch by batch and time and time again for rigorous screening.🎈「有遗憾的次品」可按「成问题的画作」译为problematic paintings。Q：「不好的画」文中有多少种表达？🎈substandard works/ unsatisfactory paintings/ low-grade products/ problematic paintings /scrapped paintings英语不喜重复，汉译英遇到相同的字眼，最好用近义词替换，做到「千变万化」汉译英则要将近义词的表达找出来，因为他们指代同一事物，做到「九九归一」这是翻译中一个十分重要的技巧。翻译理论都懂，却还是翻译不好的原因在于汉译英没有积累足够的近义词，而英译汉又看不出来这是一个事物。这就不是翻译不好，而是基础不扎实，需要勤加练习，复盘总结，记忆背诵，才能灵活运用。一次次，一批批毁，画在纸上的，无论墨彩、水彩、水粉，可撕得粉碎。Substandard paintings were eliminated and demolished. Poor paintings on paper, be they ink-and-wash, watercolor or gouache, were torn to pieces. Q：译文中的be they怎么理解？🎈这是一种因省略而倒装的句式：省略了Whether 之后的让步状语从句。Whether让步状语从句的这种倒装，原则上是系表结构，无论原来何种时态，一旦省略形成倒装，系动词用原形be。还原完整为：whether they are…作在布上的油画只能用剪刀剪，剪成片片。Poor oil paintings on canvas had to be cut to shreds with a pair of scissors. 🎈poor是增译成分，因为上句和此句说的都是「毁掉不满意的画作」，故增添poor使表意更明确。🎈一把剪刀 a pair of scissors一条裤子a pair of pants作在三合板上的最不好办，需用油画颜料涂盖。Poor paintings on three-ply boards were a hard nut to crack, and had to be blotted out with oils.🎈三合板three-ply boards：是最常见的一种胶合板,是将三层薄木板按不同纹理方向粘在一起制成的。三合板的发明是1810年，英国科学家用三合板制作轻型飞机，接着 工业广泛应用。三合板在中国1910年就开始使用，主要做钟表盒和工艺品，多为三层。🎈a hard nut指「棘手的事、难对付的人或事」，是英语习语。儿媳和小孙孙陪我整理，他们帮我展开六尺以上的巨幅一同撕裂时也满怀惋惜之情，但惋惜不得啊！My daughter-in-law and grandchild would lend me a helping hand. But they sighed regretfully while joining me in unrolling and tearing up gigantic painting scrolls of over six feet in length.🎈儿媳妇 daughter-in-law冰心《祖父和灯火管制》各自有自己的亲戚朋友，比如说，我们就各自有自己的「外婆家」！They each had their own relatives and friends, for example, their own in-laws.这句话中，「外婆家」指由婚姻而结成的亲戚，类似「妈妈这边的亲戚」，如岳父母、妻子的兄弟姐妹等等，所以这里以in-laws一词概括。我往往教儿媳替我撕，自己确乎也有不忍下手的隐痛。I too could not help feeling soft-hearted and silently endured anguish in my heart.🎈「不忍下手」四字成语不好翻译，按「自己确实也忍不住感觉到痛苦」译为I too could not help feeling anguish in my heart.能翻译到这个程度已经正确。在张培基老师添加的soft-hearted、silently endured是大师级别翻译，可以鉴赏，模仿有困难，先学到最基础的忠实原文的表达，水平到了一定境界再考虑自由发挥。画室里废纸成堆了，于是儿媳和阿姨抱下楼去用火烧，As my studio was piled high with the scrapped paintings, my daughters-in-law, together with our housemaid, would take the scrapheap downstairs to make a bonfire of it in the yard.🎈As引导原因状语从句🎈……堆的老高be piled high with…🎈「阿姨」指家中的佣人，译作housemaid。我在画室窗口俯视院里熊熊之火中飞起的作品的纸灰，也看到许多围观的孩子和邻居们在交谈，不知他们说些什么。I looked out of my studio window and saw paper ashes flying up from the raging flames. And I also saw children and neighbors crowd around watching and chatting. I didn’t know what they were chatting about.🎈crowd around表示「聚集在一起」例句Photographers were crowding around outside.摄影师聚集在外面。画室里尚有一批覆盖了五颜六色的三合板，只能暂时堆到阳台上去，还不知能派什么用场，Left in the studio were some three-ply boards covered with multicolored oil paints. I had all of them temporarily stored in the balcony without knowing what I could ever do with them in the future.🎈Left in the studio were some three-ply boards covered with multicolored oil paints：英语中，有些倒装是出于语法上的需要，非用倒装语序不可，具有强制性；有些则是为了达到某种修辞效果，如强调、平衡、衔接等。🎈 had all of them temporarily stored in the balcony是have…done的结构。记得困难时期我的次品油画是用来盖鸡窝的。I remember that back in the famine years I even used my unsatisfactory oil paintings for building chicken coops. 🎈「困难时期」根据时代背景，具体译出，译作in the famine years（饥荒年代）生命末日之前，还将大量创作，大量毁灭，愿创作多于毁灭！I’ll, before the end of my life journey, continue to do a lot of creating as well as destroying, but, hopefully, more creating than destroying！🎈生命末日之前、有生之年before the end of my life journey🎈集中记忆一类词语：liking和living、thinking、creating可以作名词。🔥必背词汇scrap v.除掉，取消，废弃英义If you scrap something, you get rid of it or cancel it.例句President Hussein called on all countries in the Middle East to scrap nuclear or chemical weapons.侯赛因总统号召中东所有国家放弃核武器和化学武器。rear v.抚养，养育，养大英义If you rear children, you look after them until they are old enough to look after themselves.例句She reared sixteen children, six her own and ten her husband’s.她养大了16个孩子，其中6个是她亲生的，10个是她丈夫带来的。palette n.调色板英义A palette is a flat piece of wood or plastic on which an artist mixes paints.例句color palette 调色板palette knife 调色刀dejected adj.沮丧的，失意的，泄气的英义If you are dejected, you feel miserable or unhappy, especially because you have just been disappointed by something.例句Everyone has days when they feel dejected or down.每个人都有沮丧失意或情绪低落的时候。tarpaulin un.防水帆布，油布英义Tarpaulin is a fabric made of canvas or similar material coated with tar, wax, paint, or some other waterproof substance.例句a piece of tarpaulin一块油布🔥重点表达生孩子 give birth to a baby来到人间 come into this world撕毁 tear up寻常情况 common practice发泄气愤和痛苦 let off my pent-up anger or anguish让我感到心情舒畅 bring me ease of mind 不满意的画/不合格的作品 substandard works十分艰难的条件下under hard conditions深山老林或边远地处 in remote mountains and dense forests证明是/原来是 turn out to be数十年 the scores of years走过弯路和歧途 take roundabout courses or lead themselves astray掩盖，掩饰 cover up受到影响under the sway of 市价 market prices拍卖行 auction house出现show up一件接一件 one after another人际关系 interpersonal relationship客观规律，无可非议 It is natural and beyond reproach 下定决心 make up my mind挂起来 hang up on the wall 一批批 batch by batch一次次 time and time again撕得粉碎 tear to pieces不好办/棘手的问题 a hard nut to crack伸出援助之手 lend sb a helping hand满怀惋惜之情 sigh regretfully 用火烧 make a bonfire熊熊之火中飞起的作品的纸灰paper ashes flying up from the raging flames三合板three-ply boards鸡窝chicken coops.生命末日之前before the end of my life journey🔥复盘测试生孩子来到人间撕毁寻常情况发泄气愤和痛苦让我感到心情舒畅不满意的画/不合格的作品 十分艰难的条件下深山老林或边远地处证明是/原来是 数十年走过弯路和歧途掩盖，掩饰受到影响市价拍卖行出现一件接一件人际关系客观规律，无可非议下定决心挂起来一批批一次次撕得粉碎不好办/棘手的问题伸出援助之手满怀惋惜之情用火烧熊熊之火中飞起的作品的纸灰三合板鸡窝生命末日之前🔥表达对比「千方百计」有几种表达？但父母总是珍惜自己的小生命，（千方百计）养育残疾的后代。Nevertheless, all parents love their own babies and will do whatever they can to rear them even though they are born disabled.他（竭尽所能）寻找他的生母。He left no stone unturned in his search for his natural mother.奇怪的是，其他男孩竟然从未觉察到他是如何拿我开玩笑，如何(千方百计)地模仿我。Strangely, the other boys never noticed how he made fun of me, and copied me in every way.每逢一个船长用到一名名声特别高的掌舵者，他必须(千方百计)把他留住。When a captain got hold of a pilot of particularly high reputation, he took pains to keep him.狐狸，用了他的种种计策（千方百计），结果还是没有机会逃脱，成了这群猎狗的食物。The fox, with all his thousand tricks, had not been able to get out of sight, and fell a prey to the dogs.
帕布莉卡