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向?qū)W習(xí)英語(yǔ)者講話29-An Aid to Composition

2020-10-14 23:24:3202:02 602

聲音簡(jiǎn)介

Do you often meet with a word or phrase or construction that you understand fully without being able to translate it into readable Han? I believe you do1; I believe you have read enough English to have this experience. I myself often meet with such2.
You have perhaps seen such a sentence as “They will not return for many days to come”. You know that it means that they will return many days from now, or that they will return only after the passage3 of many days. But can you translate it into readable Han? In the very common expression “simply cannot”, I find the word “simply” very hard to translate into Han. I also find it very hard to translate into Han the very common word “probable” as contrasted with4 “possible”. As to such a sentence as “You cannot be too careful”5, I think it is even untranslatable.
All these and many other words and phrases and constructions do not seem to have what we call Han equivalents. You understand them, but you cannot translate them into readable Han; that is, you cannot translate them both exactly and clearly.
I do not mean to advise you to try and translate such hard things. Do not try to translate them, I say6. Just commit them to memory.7 They will often come in useful8 when you write. They will help you to write more idiomatic English. By the way, “society” is a much used word among Chinese learners of English. But I have seldom seen it used by any of them in the sense of companionship, as in “The old man enjoys the society of young people”. This is because Chinese learners do not usually use an English word in a sense that cannot be easily translated into Han. I hope you will now profit by9 my hint.

NOTES
1.do=often meet a word or phrase or construction that you understand fully without being able to translate it into readable Han
2.such=a word or phrase or construction that I understand fully without being able to translate it into readable Han
3.passage 過(guò)去
4.contrasted with … 與……相比；與……區(qū)別
5.You cannot be too careful 即“愈謹(jǐn)慎愈好”的意思
6.I say 注意我的話
7.commit them to memory 把它們牢記
8.come in useful 變成有用
9.profit by 得益于

你時(shí)常碰到完全理解但不能把它譯成易讀漢語(yǔ)的詞、短語(yǔ)或結(jié)構(gòu)嗎？我相信你是時(shí)常碰到的；我相信你讀過(guò)足夠多的英語(yǔ)所以會(huì)有這種經(jīng)歷。我自己時(shí)常碰到這種情況。
你大概見(jiàn)過(guò)像“They will not return for many days to come”這樣的句子。你懂它的意思是：他們將在許多天以后回來(lái)，或者他們將只在許多天過(guò)去以后才回來(lái)。可是你能夠把它譯成易讀的漢語(yǔ)嗎？很普通的表達(dá)方式“simply cannot”中的“simply”這個(gè)詞我看很難譯成漢語(yǔ)。我覺(jué)得有別于“possible”的“probable”這個(gè)很普通的詞也很難譯成漢語(yǔ)。至于像“you cannot be too careful”這一句，我甚至認(rèn)為是無(wú)法翻譯的。
這一切和許多別的詞、短語(yǔ)和結(jié)構(gòu)似乎沒(méi)有我們所說(shuō)的漢語(yǔ)對(duì)應(yīng)語(yǔ)。你理解它們，可是你不能把它們譯成漢語(yǔ)。就是說(shuō)，你不能把它們譯得既準(zhǔn)確又明白。
我并不是建議你試譯這些難弄的東西。請(qǐng)注意我的話：不要試譯它們。只要把它們記牢。當(dāng)你寫(xiě)作的時(shí)候，它們會(huì)對(duì)你有用。它們將幫助你寫(xiě)出更合于習(xí)語(yǔ)的英語(yǔ)。
順便說(shuō)一點(diǎn)，“society”是中國(guó)的英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)者用得較多的一個(gè)詞。但是我很少見(jiàn)有人把它用于“companionship”一義，例如在“The old man enjoys the society of young people”中。這是因?yàn)橹袊?guó)的學(xué)習(xí)者通常不把一個(gè)英語(yǔ)單詞用在不容易譯成漢語(yǔ)的一個(gè)詞義中。我希望你現(xiàn)在將得益于我的暗示。