译题一:With the NBA’s last two MVPs facing each other on Christmas Day, The Race wonders where exactly that honor fits into the pantheon of accomplishments for Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant, particularly since he is playing at a level that regularly prompts the Staples Center faithful to chant in unison for him. Apparently, winning the award means more to the fans than it does to Bryant.采集者退散
看过几位网友的翻译,觉得总体上看不错,有的译文甚至相当精彩。比如第一段里,把facing each other翻译成“对决”,把The Race wonders翻译成“比赛的悬念”,在此类文章中都十分恰当。但有的理解太流于字面上的意思。比较典型的例子是把Pantheon of accomplishments翻译成“众神之厅”、“最高成就的众神庙”等,显然不妥。我们大家都知道,Pantheon特指“万神殿”——罗马圆形神庙,供奉所有的神。它和NBA显然没有任何联系。而Pantheon还有一个意思,那就是“(集团、个人、运动、党派等推崇的)英雄人物”。紧随其后的accomplishments则是“成就, 完成, 技艺”的意思。如果我们的思路朝这个方向发展,这句话是否可以翻译成:“比赛的悬念在于,‘这个奖项对于球技已达到登峰造极水平的洛杉矶湖人队球星科比•布莱恩特来说究竟意味着什么。”表面上看似乎与原文略有游离,但实际上,放在整个上下文中看,既合乎逻辑,语气也十分连贯。这个例子也告诉我们,翻译要像傅雷先生说的那样,要重“神似”。www.Examda.CoM考试就到考试大
译题二:WeCU Technologies is building a mind-reading scanner that can tell if a given traveler is a potential danger - without the subject’s knowledge. WeCU Technologies (pronounced "we see you") is creating a system that would essentially turn the public spaces in airports into vast screening grounds: "The system ... projects images onto airport screens, such as symbols associated with a certain terrorist group or some other image only a would-be terrorist would recognize, company CEO Ehud Givon said.
第二段,我以为feilongmengjiang 的翻译就相当不错。他的翻译是:
心智扫描仪
WeCU技术公司正在研制一种“心智扫描仪”,它能在不被旅客察觉的情况下,判断某 个人是不是潜在的危险分子。WeCU(读作"we see you"意思是 “我看见你”)技术公司正在创建的这种系统能将机场的公共场所变成巨大的扫描背景。公司首席执行官 Ehud Givon称,“该系统把图像投影到机场的屏幕上,比如与某恐怖团伙相关的符号,或只有潜在的恐怖分子才能识别的其它符号。”
如果说有什么不足的话,或许是译者没有把essentially翻译出来。Essentially的主要意思是:“本质上, 本来, 根本”,但还有一个次要的意思是“完美”。我觉得,如果我们把它译成“完美”就比较准确地传达了原文的意思。我自己的体会是,决定一个人翻译水平的高下,不在于你认识多少单词,而是在于你有没有能力从一个单词众多意思中选取最恰当的意思。即所谓判断力。判断力强就能既忠实于原文又通顺流畅,判断力弱,就翻不出好文章。
译题三:It sucks being an adult. You have to do things like wake up before noon, go to the grocery store on your own, and try to hold down a steady job. Often times said job will require you to give a presentation to more than two people. And some jobs will even require you speak before a full auditorium of rapt listeners. Since you are likely not a member of the NSA, the sweats, shakes, and hives might step up during the speech to be a major hindrance. Fear not. We’ve done the research to make you a better public speaker, now all you have to do is apply the gold we have compiled.来源:考试大的美女编辑们
第三段中的It sucks being a adult,大多数人翻译成“真没劲”、“真郁闷”,都不错本文转载自www.yzbxz.com 一支笔写作网。因为suck在美国俚语中的意思是“使人极度不快”。有的朋友译为“人到中年愁事多”就不准确了。还有的网友将more than two people直译为“两个人以上”,也不恰当。就像“a couple of……”不一定非得译成“两个”,而是经常要译成“几个”一样,more than two people也要根据上下文确定其准确的含义。在我们这个句子里,作者的着眼点显然不是“两个人”,而是“以上”。虽然三个人也是“以上”,四个人也是“以上”,但作者强调的则是较多的人。因此我以为翻译成“众人”为好。由此可见,我们翻译东西的时候一定不能把目光只放在一个词,甚至一个句上,而应该“纵观全局”。林语堂先生说过:“字是死的,有了上下文就活了。”就是这个意思。
Since you are likely not a member of the NSA, the sweats, shakes, and hives might step up during the speech to be a major hindrance. 有网友直接译为“……成为演讲中的一个主要障碍”,有人处理为“难免会紧张、发抖……”。如果对这两种处理方式做一个评判,我觉得后者更好。因为第一种译法译得太死。余光中先生说,我们搞翻译,不但要译其体貌,更重要的是要译其精神。第一种译法显然只注意了“体貌”,忽略了精神。第二种译法就好多了。