为何绝妙的句子大都出自大家之手？

英汉语言间的差异性，使互译过程中会有美中不足的地方。能够互译出好的句子不仅需要语言基础，更需要深入了解两种语言的文化背景，有深厚的文化内涵。

印度 泰戈尔《飞鸟集》Let life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves.

郑振铎译：使生如夏花之绚烂，死如秋叶之静美。

在我们现在看来，具有古风的汉语会更有意境些，许多经典古文也被译成英文传到国外，而国外的许多经典语句的译文不乏看到古风体的影子。

我们一同来欣赏译者笔下的绝妙佳句吧！

 

汉译英

● 古诗文翻译（主要摘录许渊冲的翻译）

By riverside a pair Of turtledoves are cooing；
There’s a good maiden fair Whom a young man is wooing.

这首“关雎”的译文，每行六个音节，一三行和二四行均押韵。当然，cooing和wooing简直妙不可言，意境，形式，音韵三者堪称完美。

李清照《声声慢》

开头的七对叠词“寻寻觅觅,冷冷清清,凄凄惨惨戚戚。”平仄交替，除了音韵的美感还有感情的郁结，翻译难度极大。我们一起来看看大家们是如何翻译的。

美国翻译家Kenneth Rexroth ▼

Search. Search. Seek. Seek.

Cold. Cold. Clear. Clear.

Sorrow. Sorrow. Pain. Pain.

然而英语单词叠加使用并没有起到中文的效果

林语堂 ▼

So dim，so dark，

So dense，so dull，

So damp，so dank，

So dead！

七个形容词都以d开头，具有极佳的形式美，绝对可称为翻译中的上品了。

许渊冲 ▼

I look for what I miss，

I know not what it is，

I feel so sad，so drear，So lonely，without cheer.

押韵完美，意思上有所发挥，不过还是忠实于原文，刻画出了一个愁苦忧郁的人，抑扬间有种独特的悲伤。

 

《大风歌》

许渊冲 ▼

A big wind rises， clouds are driven away. Home am Inow the world is under my sway. Where are brave men to guard the four frontiers today！

《大风歌》三句都押尾韵“ang”，而许译三句，均押尾韵“/ei/”，读起来有种爆裂的感觉。

杜甫《登高》

曾被余光中看做无法翻译的诗句，杜甫的名句

“无边落木萧萧下，不尽长江滚滚来” ▼

”The boundless forest sheds its leaves shower by shower；The endless river rolls its waves hour after hour.“

“草字头”用重复sh(sheds,shower）的译法，“三点水”则用重复r(river,rolls）的译法。音义双绝，闻者称美。

俞文豹《清夜录》

近水楼台先得月，向阳花木易为春。▼

The poolside bower’s the best place to enjoy moon beams，

The flowers basking in sunshine may dream spring dreams.

柳宗元《江雪》

千山鸟飞绝，万径人踪灭。▼

from hill to hill no bird in flight, from path to path no man in sight

杜牧《清明》

清明时节雨纷纷，路上行人欲断魂。借问酒家何处有，牧童遥指杏花村。▼

A drizzling rain falls like tears on the Mourning Day，the mourners’heart is going to break on his way.

Where can a wineshop be found to drown his sad hours？A cowherd points to a cot amid apricot flowers.

王翰《凉州词》 ▼

葡萄美酒夜光杯，欲饮琵琶马上催。醉卧沙场君莫笑，古来征战几人回。

With wine of grapes the cups of jade would glow at night, drinking to pipa songs, we are summoned to fight.

Don’t laugh if we lay drunken on the battleground! How many warriors ever came back safe and sound?

道可道，非常道 ▼

Truth can be known,but it may not be the well-known truth

 

● 俗语谚语

相聚有时，后会无期：

sometimes ever，sometimes never.

一见杨过误终身：

Young Fault lasts for life.

向前一小步，文明一大步。

We aim to please. You aim too, please

闻着臭，吃着香

Smell smelly, taste tasty.

● 名人作品

论读书 培根

On Studies读书足以怡情，足以傅彩，足以长才。其怡情也，最见于独处幽居之时；其傅彩也，最见于高谈阔论之中；其长才也，最见于处世判事之际。练达之士虽能分别处 理细事或一一判别枝节，然纵观统筹、全局策划，则舍好学深思者莫属。读书费时过多易惰，文采藻饰太盛则矫，全凭条文断事乃学究故态。读书补天然之不足，经 验又补读书之不足，盖天生才干犹如自然花草，读书然后知如何修剪移接；而书中所示，如不以经验范之，则又大而无当。

Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment, and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best, from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning, by study; and studies themselves, do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.

英译汉

● 回文翻译

据说，当拿破仑战败，被流放到厄尔巴岛时，他对自己的医生说了这样一句回文(palindrome)：

Able was I ere I saw Elba.

（直译：在我看到厄尔巴岛之前，我曾所向披靡。）

国外对此句话进行了考证,结论为，该回文是由巴尔的摩一位姓名缩写为J.T.R.的人所创造，在逐渐引用的过程中被误认为是由拿破仑所创。

有“water poet”之称的John Taylor写过这样一短回文：

“Lewd did I live & evil I did dwell”。

这句话引起了J.T.R.的深思，并使他产生了「试图写出更完美的回文」的想法（由于lewd与dwell的不对称）。一段时间的思考过后，他写出了这样一句话：

“Snug & raw was I ere I saw war & guns.”

从表面上看，这句回文的结构几乎很完美了，但J.T.R.仍不满意，决定写出真正完美的回文，而非使用符号（&）来完善结构。几经斟酌，J.T.R.终于写出了这句完美的回文：

Able was I ere I saw Elba.

马红军先生提出了两种译法，或许是迄今为止此句翻译的巅峰：

「落败孤岛孤败落」

「若非孤岛孤非若」在遵守原意的同时，马红军先生成功地使用了回文的结构，真正达成了「信」「达」「雅」。

In me the tiger sniffs the rose.

心有猛虎，细嗅蔷薇。（余光中译）

● 电影台词翻译

《忠犬八公的故事》电影的台词

I have said that the soul is not more than the body,

and I said that the body is no more than the soul.

And nothing, not God is greater than one, than one itself is

I hear and see holy God in every object,

yet understand God not at least.

Nor do I understand

who there can be more wonderful than myself.

In the faces of men and women I see God,

and in my own face in the glass.

I find letters from God dropped in the street,

and everyone has signed by God’s mean.

And I leave them where they are.

For I know that wherever I go,others will punctually come,

forever and ever.

我曾说过 躯体与灵魂交融

难以分出孰轻孰重

世上任何事物

即使是上帝 也当众生平等

神迹四处可见

我却不解其故

也不相信

有谁会比自己过得更精彩

在人们的脸上 我看到了上帝的身影

当我看向镜中的自己 亦是如此

我拾到了上帝遗落凡间的信笺

上面列着上帝为众人安排的命运

我任一切顺其自然

因为我知道 无论我去往何方

总有人接替我而来

生生不息（语境：神父的悼词）

《神探夏洛克》第二季

The wheel turns; nothing is ever new.

时过境迁，烂事依然。

《怦然心动》

Some of us get dipped in flat, some in satin, some in gloss. But every once in a while you find someone who’s iridescent, and when you do, nothing will ever compare.

有人住高楼，有人在深沟。有人光万丈，有人一身锈。世人万千种，浮云莫去求。斯人若彩虹，遇上方知有。

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看了这么多精彩的翻译，你是不是也有被这些美妙的文字惊艳到呢？哈哈，世界之大，还有很多细微的美好等待我们去发现与创造。