几段闹出笑话的英译中文稿

 

 

    笔者日前写了一篇题为“说说《参考消息》读者译文大赛”的文章。随后又在自己的博客中贴上了笔者在2009年9月23日寄出的参赛译文，标题是“《参考消息》读者译文大赛之拙译”，并指出：这样做“为的是求教于大家；文中错误不少，请网友不吝指正；试译过程中约在4个地方请教了扬美楣教授，特此致谢。”

 

稍微出乎我意外的是，“说说”与“拙译”两篇文章还真地引来了好几位热心网友的指正，他们相当地严谨认真，有的挑出毛病后还给予逐条解释，说的都很中肯，让我挺感动的，也使我这个不求甚解的“万金油”对自己“作品”中的问题，颇感汗颜。本文先来谈一下我的博文中两个令人发笑的错误。

 

一个错误，是在“说说”中，将Rene Dubos 译成“雷尼 杜伯士，美国纽约爱乐乐团指挥”，而实际应译为 “勒内 杜博斯，美国著名微生物学家和实验病理学家”。以致有的网友将笔者联想为近来颇有点名气的“常凯申教授”。﹡

  

再一个错误是另一位网友指出的：“on day three”是第三天，而非三天前。与这个短语相关的是“拙译”中如下面的一段英汉对照文本：

“How many times have you looked forward for months to a holiday, only to find that on day three you’re already dreaming of your own bed? But when you return, the process starts all over again.”→“您有多少次几个月前就响往着一个假日，只是为了找到这样的感觉：假日前三天，你已经梦想在自己床上大睡是如何美妙。但一旦你假后回来，上述全部过程又重新开始。”

 

电话请教杨美楣教授，把上面的句子和“拙译”读了一遍，她一听乐了，说此处on day three you’re already dreaming of your own bed具有“第三天你已因厌倦而想睡觉”的含意。故而感到上述句子似乎应该译为：“您有多少次几个月前就响往着一个假日，但最终找到的感觉却是，假日的第三天，您已经觉得没意思要上床睡大觉了。但一旦您假后回来，上述全部过程又重新开始。”这与参赛文本的翻译可谓南辕北辙。笔者对自己原来的牵强附会觉得好笑，电话那一端也传过来杨老师的笑声。

 

尽管咱年纪大，无拘无束，干什么事随意，但翻译这件事却马虎不得。从整个参赛过程可以看出，自己的英语基础还不扎实；对西方现代政治、经济、文化、传媒缺乏深入理解；具体“工作”中还缺乏细致入微的研究精神，…。这些算是参加译文大赛的一点体会，一点收获，一些教训吧。

 

注﹡    故事出自：王奇著《中俄国界东段学术史研究：中国、俄国、西方学者视野中的中俄国界东段问题》一书，中央编译出版社，2008年10月版。该书中，将蒋介石 (英文Chiang Kai-shek)翻译成“常凯申”。与当年有人将孟子翻译成“门修斯”如出一辙。王奇毕业于北京大学，留学于俄罗斯，现任清华大学历史系副主任。

 

 

 

《参考消息》读者译文大赛之拙译

 

下面照原样贴上了笔者在2009年9月23日寄出的参赛译文，错误不少，请网友不吝指正为感。试译过程中在约4个地方请教了扬美楣教授，特此致谢。

 

 

 

One small step back to where we started

The Apollo missions were supposed to reveal the truth about the Moon. In fact, they taught us

about the Earth – and ourselves

Mark Mason

 

In July 1969, soon after their return from the moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were shown footage of the world’s reaction to the lunar landing. They saw the US newscaster Walter Cronkite wiping away his tears; people gathered around televisions from China to Brazil; pavements outside TV shops crammed as people watched in awe. Aldrin turned to Armstrong. “Neil,” he said, “we missed the whole thing”.

 

  退一小步 回起始点

阿波罗登月行动曾被认为是揭示有关月球的真相，事实上，这些行动告诉我们关于地球及我们自己的事情。

                     马克.梅森

 

1969年7月，尼尔.阿姆斯特朗和巴兹.阿尔德林刚从月球返回，就通过录象看到了全世界对登月过程的反应。美国电实视新闻主持沃尔特克劳可特正在擦拭眼泪；从中国到巴西，人们围聚在电视机旁；电视机商店外人行道上挤满了心怀敬畏之情驻足观看的人们。阿尔德林转身对阿姆斯特朗说道：“尼尔，我们错过了亲眼目睹自己所做一切的机会。”

That comment (reminiscent of George Harrison’s complaint that the Beatles felt left out because “We were the only people who never got to see the Beatles”) reveals the surprising truth about the Apollo missions: they weren’t about the Moon. They were about the Earth.

最后一句评论（让人想起乔治 哈里森曾抱怨说甲壳虫乐队被遗忘了，因为“我们是唯一没有看到过甲壳虫乐队的人”）揭示一个令人吃惊的真理：阿波落登月行动不是针对月球的，它是关于地球的。

The clues had been there from the start, when the crew of Apollo 8 became the first humans to leave their home planet’s orbit. Orbiting the Moon on Christmas Eve 1968, fulfilling dreams as old as mankind itself, their real wonder was not at the dead grey planet beneath them, but at the vibrant blue globe in the distance. The first three men to see the Moon up close soon realised — with a much deeper sense of reverence — that they were the first three men to see the Earth from a distance. Witnessing an earthrise made them feel humble. They read the opening chapters of Genesis to a worldwide audience of millions, signing off with, “Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.”

   当阿波罗8号的宇航员成为离开他们居住的行星轨道的首批人类时，从一开始就存在着这样说法的迹象。在1968 年圣诞节前夜绕月飞行，实现着和人类本身一样古老的梦想，宇航员们真正惊叹的不是他们脚下的死灰色的月球，而是那远处望去生机勃勃的兰色地球。最先近距离地看到月亮的三个男子汉马上意识到—带着更深意味的崇敬—他们是最早从遥远的苍穹看到地球的三个人。见证了地球的升起，使他们感到卑微。他们阅读《新约》开头几章，那是面向世界千百万读者的，结束语为“圣诞节愉快，上帝祝福你们大家，大地上所有的人们。”

Over the next four years, Apollo taught us what it means to be human: in a word, restless. Curiosity is never satisfied, it merely finds new targets. Quite how quickly the shift can occur was learnt by Pete Conrad, the third man to walk on the Moon (and the first to fall over on it). Once Armstrong and Aldrin had claimed the prize, no one was interested in Apollo 12. Conrad later appeared in an American Express advert of famous Americans nobody recognised. (Others included Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny.) Yet in many ways Conrad’s was the most interesting Apollo mission of all. His fellow moonwalker, Al Bean, never the most naturally gifted astronaut, compensated with sheer hard work. Finally standing on the lunar surface, he threw his silver Nasa badge into the distance, knowing that the moonwalk had earned him a gold one. But as they flew back to Earth, he turned to Conrad and admitted disappointment in the Moon itself: “It’s kind of like the song Is That All There Is?” Another timeless truth: achievements themselves aren’t what count, it’s the fact that you worked for them.

   在下一个四年时间内，阿波罗使我们懂得，作为人类意味着什么。一言以蔽之，永无休止。好奇心永远不会得到满足，它只不过是在寻找新的目标。目标转换究竟能以多快的速度发生，皮特 康拉德体验到了这一点，后者是第三位在月球上行走的人（也是第一位在月球上跌倒者）。阿波罗11号的阿姆斯特朗，奥尔德林已一度获得奖赏，再没有人对阿波罗12号感兴趣。以致后来康拉德出现在“美国直运广告”中的著名美国人榜时，竟无人认识他（其他遭到类似命运的有梅尔布兰克，动漫中兔八哥的配音者）。然而，在许多方面，康拉德一行人的行动却是所有阿波罗登月行动中最有趣的一次。他的月面行走朋友，艾伦宾，从来不是一位最天生有才的宇航员，但后者却勤奋工作加以补偿。最后，当艾伦宾得知月面漫步为其赢得金质奖牌时，他站在月球表面上，把自己的NASA银质奖牌丢到很远的地方。但当他们飞回地球时，艾伦宾转身向康拉德，表达对月球本身的失望，他说：“是否象一首歌曲所说的‘那就是所有的一切吗？’”阿波罗使我们懂得的另一个永恒的真理：成就本身是无法计量的，然而你为之工作的事实是可以计量的。

When Bean returned to Earth he would sit in shopping malls, simply to marvel at the variety of human life. And he has never again complained about the weather: “I’m just glad there is weather.” As so often, a journey into the unknown had revealed more about the traveller’s home than about the destination.

   爱伦宾回到地球后，他愿意坐在购物中心，仅仅为了赞叹人类生活的丰富多彩。而且他不再抱怨天气：“我真高兴存在着天气。”通常的情况是，到一个不了解的地方旅行，展示更多的是旅游者的家乡，而不是目的地。

Virtually every Apollo astronaut came back with a deep sense of the Earth’s fragility. Ed Mitchell, Moonwalker No 6: “When we see ourselves in this bigger perspective — call it the ET point of view, the God point of view — a shift takes place in your perception and you start to think quite differently.” Apollo 16’s Charlie Duke describes Earth as “hanging in space like a jewel”. “People are always asking what we discovered when we went to the Moon,” says Dick Gordon, of Apollo 12. “What we discovered was the Earth.”

几乎每位宇航员都带回来关于地球脆弱性的深刻理解。埃德 米切尔，第6位月球行走者：“当我们在这个更广大的远景下审视自己时—暂且称之为ET观点，上帝的观点—那你的认知会发生变化，而且你会开始以完全不同的方式思考。”阿波罗16号的查理 杜克将地球描述为“象一棵宝石悬挂在天际。”阿波罗列12号指令舱驾驶员的迪克 戈登说：“人们总在问，当我们登上月球都发现了什么”，“我们发现的就是地球。”

The discovery gave a big boost to the nascent Green movement. Sir Jonathon Porritt cites the “deep and lasting effect” that Apollo had on “many environmentalists — including me”. Friends of the Earth was founded in the same year that man first walked on the Moon. The inaugural Earth Day happened a year later. Everyone seemed to agree with Michael Collins’s thought as he splashed back down into the Pacific with Armstrong and Aldrin: “Nice ocean you got here, planet Earth.”

这一发现给了新生的绿色运动以巨大的推动。乔那森 博力特爵士，英国可持续发展委员会主席指出：阿波罗行动对“很多环境学家，包括我本人”产生了“深刻而持久的影响。”环保组织地球之友即是在人类实现第一次月球行走那一年成立的。正式的地球日创始于第二年。看来大家都同意迈克尔柯林斯在与阿姆斯特朗及奥尔德林一起乘飞船返回溅入太平洋时的想法：“行星地球啊，您将海洋搞到这儿，太美妙了。”

 

Politically, too, there was a shift. The Earth from space looks just like a map — except without the national borders. Collins remembers people of every nation saying to him, “‘We did it’ — it was a wonderful thing.” Ed Mitchell, on his way back from the Moon, realised that “the molecules of my body and of the spacecraft and of my partners were manufactured in some ancient generation of stars — and that was an overwhelming sense of oneness and connectedness”. Inspired by the landings, René Dubos coined the phrase “Think globally, act locally”. T minus zero for Apollo was T plus one for globalisation.

 政治思想上也有了一种变化。从太空看地球，它象一张没有国界的地图。柯林斯记得不同国家的人民对他说的一句话：“我们做到了—那是一件非常了不起的事情。”埃德 米切尔在从月球返回的途中意识到：“我和我的同伴身体内以及飞船体内的分子是在某些远古年代的恒星之中生成的—这是一种令人印象极其深刻的单一性与相关性的感受。”勒内 杜博斯受降落的启发而创造了一个短语：“思考全球化，行动局部化。”阿波罗飞船的升空的那一刻，也即是世界走向全球化的第一步。

Yet despite the astronauts’ protestations that the Moon itself was a letdown, which of us, given the chance, wouldn’t want to go there? The Chinese are planning missions of their own, and the commercial investment being ploughed into space tourism proves just how much we yearn for new experiences. So much so that we resent anyone who dampens our excitement.

   尽管宇航员们持有月球本身令人失望的异议，可是一旦有机会，我们之中的哪一位不愿意到月亮上去呢。中国人正在规划他们自己的登月行动，正在被投入太空旅游的商业投资证明，我们多么期望新鲜的经历。因此我们同样憎恶那些泼我们冷水的人。

 

Pete Conrad used to say he was prouder of his work on the Skylab missions than his walk on the Moon. “Some people even get mad,” he said. “‘What do you mean, the Moon isn’t the biggest thing in your life?’ I say: ‘Well, it isn’t’. They think, ‘Well, it should be’. I say: ‘Why? I’m the guy that did this’.” Maybe life is one long “wet paint” sign: you don’t believe it until you reach out and touch.

皮特 康拉德经常说，相比于其月球行走，他对太空实验室的工作更感到骄傲。“某些人甚至于痴迷了，”他说道。“‘你什么意思，难道月球不是你一生中最大的事情吗？’我说：‘并非如此’。他们想，‘好吧，就算是你说的那样’。我说：‘为什么？我才是亲自做这件事的人。’”可能生活是一长长的‘油漆未干’指示牌：直到你伸手触到了，才相信指示牌上的话是真的。”

Certainly, Dave Scott, of Apollo 15, thought so. Standing on the Moon, he voiced his thoughts to Houston: “I realise there’s a fundamental truth to our nature: man must explore.” Home is never far from our thoughts, though. How many times have you looked forward for months to a holiday, only to find that on day three you’re already dreaming of your own bed? But when you return, the process starts all over again. This idea of life as a perpetual cycle seems particularly comforting in a recession. Even though we’ve overreached (and overborrowed), and been reminded of some home truths, we know that one day we’ll reach out once more.

阿波罗15号上的大卫 斯科特肯定是这末想的。他站在月亮上，向着休斯顿高声喊出他的想法：“我发现，我们的自然界存在着一条基本的真理：男儿必得探索。”纵然家离我们的思想从来不远。您有多少次几个月前就响往着一个假日，只是为了找到这样的感觉：假日前三天，你已经梦想在自己床上大睡是如何美妙。但一旦你假后回来，上述全部过程又重新开始。这种将生活看作无尽无休的循环的信念，在经济衰退时期看来是特别令人慰藉的。尽管我们不自量力，借贷过头，而且被某些逆耳忠言所提醒，但我们知道，有朝一日，我们将再一次冲刺。

When Bean retired from Nasa he became an artist. His paintings of the lunar landscape, which fetch tens of thousands of dollars, bear the lessons of his time as an astronaut. Just as he worked hard to reach the Moon, now he works hard to perfect his painting. “That’s what I tell myself when the colours don’t come out right or it hasn’t worked like I thought it would: ‘That’s why they call it art’.”

艾伦 宾从NASA（美国航天局）退休后成为了一位艺术家。他的月球风景画,承载着他作为一名宇航员时所学的知识，为他赚取数万美元的收入。正象他为登月而努力工作一样，目前他为完善他的油画而努力工作。“当各种颜色搭配不好，或者作品没有达到我象中应该做到的那样时，我就对自己说：‘这就是为什么人们称之为艺术’。”

 

Another of Bean’s thoughts sums up the very essence of the Apollo missions, of all human travel: that it isn’t about where you’re going, it’s about who you are. “Everybody came back just more like I knew them. I think maybe success doesn’t change you as much as reveal you.”

艾伦 宾的另一个想法归总了阿波罗登月行动以及所有人类旅行的本质：重要的不是你到哪儿去，重要的是你是谁。“每一位旅行归来的人，都与我所了解的他更相像。我想可能成功改变你并没有象揭示你那末多。”

Which is why the greatest reason to celebrate this 40th anniversary isn’t scientific or environmental or political; it’s personal. The next time you go down a footpath just to see where it leads, or when the only thing that will stop your baby crying is taking it for a drive, remember the 12 men who stood on the Moon and looked at Earth. As T. S. Eliot put it:

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

 

这就是为何庆祝此40周年的最大理由不是来自科学、环境或者政治等方面，而是来自个人方面。下次您走上一个人行小道，只是要看看它通往哪里，或者停止您小孩哭泣的唯一办法是带他出去兜兜风时，请记住那12个男人，他们曾站在月球上，并且遥望着地球。正如美国诗人艾略特写的：

我们不会停止探索，

我们所有探索的结尾是要达到我们开始之处，

并且首先知道这个开始之处的位置在哪里。