让人叹服的中外翻译（英汉传神翻译欣赏与训练）

（本讲座每周分享英语学习和英汉翻译的独有经验，欢迎关注。）

什么是传神翻译？

文学翻译贵在“传神”。所谓“传神”，就是把原文的意思表达得非常准确，意境展现得非常逼真、鲜活，让人读后产生一种拍案叫绝的冲动。要实现这一目标，除了具备深厚的语言功底，学习和掌握一定的翻译技巧也是非常有益的。

01 英汉传神翻译欣赏

怎样翻译下面的英语句子？怎样翻译才比较传神？

"He'll be okay. Coming along nicely." The doctor's neutral expression gave no clue.

相关段落和背景信息：

宇航员作者打垒球时摔伤了腿，为了不影响他即将到来的登月飞行，医生帮他隐瞒了他的伤情。

"Geno doesn't look so good." Deke, who had pulled my fat from the fire after the helicopter crash, would accept only so much bullshit. "He'll be okay. Coming along nicely." The doctor's neutral expression gave no clue. I felt a huge debt of gratitude to Chuck and became stonily determined to get well and prove he was right.

让人叹服的中外翻译（英汉传神翻译欣赏与训练）(1)

（登月宇航员尤金·塞尔南；NASA图片）

难点分析和翻译技巧：

这个句子并不复杂，理解上也没有什么困难。这里考验的是读者的汉语功底——能不能把neutral expression和gave no clue的意境传神地展现出来。

Neutral 是个常用词，在这里是“中性的，不带强烈感情色彩的”的意思。用于个人面部表情时，表示不喜不怒、不温不火的意思。

Clue也是常用词，在这里是“线索”的意思；如果直译，原文的意境就很难展现出来。

此外，背景信息中的pulled my fat from the fire也需要解释一下。The Free Dictionary（https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com）给出了如下的释义：

Pull someone’s fat from the fire = pull someone’s bacon out of the fire: to save someone from imminent or impending trouble, difficulty or danger（把某人从即将出现的麻烦、困难或危险中解救出来）

试译：

“吉恩看上去状态不是太好。”那次直升机事故之后迪克曾经帮我渡过难关，他能够听进去的胡说八道也是有限度的。

“他不会有问题。他最近恢复得不错。”这位医生不动声色的表情让迪克也看不出任何破绽。我对查克充满感激之情，于是下定决心全力康复，用事实证明他说的没错。

这里的“不动声色”和“让…看不出任何破绽”就非常传神。

所以，要想做好英汉翻译，仅仅学好英语是不够的，扎实的汉语功底非常重要！另外，翻译时一定要沉浸在作者的语言环境中。

02 英汉传神翻译训练

怎样翻译下面的英语句子才比较传神？

Weariness threatened to overcome me and my body screamed for a rest period.

相关段落和背景信息：

以下段落是宇航员在太空行走中艰难工作的情景：

When I tried to turn one of the valves, Mr. Newton's laws of motion would go into effect, the valve would turn me equally as hard in the opposite direction, and there I would go again, drifting off into space. Without leverage, just turning a small knob was nearly impossible: Agghhhh, my body went the other way until I could snag a new handhold. Then my feet would flip free again. Weariness threatened to overcome me and my body screamed for a rest period, but I could not oblige, for I was in a race with the Sun.

让人叹服的中外翻译（英汉传神翻译欣赏与训练）(2)