2014年9月高口英譯中解析
SECTION 3:TRANSLATION TEST參考答案及解析
原文:
Charles Dickens observed of revolutionary France that it was the best of times and the worst of times, the spring of hope and the winter of despair. More recently, the US National Intelligence Council borrowed from A Tale of Two Cities for the title page in a report about how the world may look in 2030.
You can see why the authors alighted on Dickens’s observation. The tumultuous upheavals in the international system can stir optimism and pessimism in equal measure. The great prosperity that globalization has brought to the east and south sits alongside the risks and insecurities that accompany the passing of an older order.
The first instinct is to celebrate the way globalization lifts hundreds of millions of people out of poverty; the second to fret whether the rebalancing of global power will usher in a new era of might is right in international relations. Even Europeans, who have come to look at the world through normative lenses, are beginning to think that soft power may sometimes need a hard centre.
The cold war had its drawbacks --- not least the threat of nuclear incineration. The big worries now flow from uncertainty. The uncertainty makes it tempting to turn for advice to the looking glass of history. After all, history, is Alexis de Tocqueville’s metaphor, is a picture gallery stocked with a handful of originals and many more copies.
參考譯文:
在查爾斯.狄更斯的眼中,革命時(shí)期的法國(guó)即是最好的時(shí)代也是最壞的時(shí)代,那是充滿希望的春天也是深陷絕望的冬天。近日,美國(guó)國(guó)家情報(bào)委會(huì)引用了這句來(lái)自《雙城記》的名言作為“2030年世界前景”報(bào)告的開卷語(yǔ)。
你能理解為何作者們同意狄更斯的觀點(diǎn)。國(guó)際局勢(shì)動(dòng)蕩、形勢(shì)劇變,有人看好,有人唱衰,兩種心態(tài)平分秋色。隨著新舊秩序的交替,全球化為東西方世界帶來(lái)巨大經(jīng)濟(jì)繁榮的同時(shí)也隱藏著風(fēng)險(xiǎn)與不安。
值得稱道的一點(diǎn)是,全球化幫助億萬(wàn)人擺脫了貧困。而另一方面,世界強(qiáng)權(quán)格局的重整是否宣告著國(guó)際關(guān)系中新的權(quán)力時(shí)代的來(lái)臨?這種疑問的提出是否符合時(shí)宜?這些都令人們憂心忡忡。即便是在歐洲,雖然人們已經(jīng)用標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化的眼光看待這個(gè)世界,但他們也開始意識(shí)到,軟實(shí)力有時(shí)候也需要得到充分的關(guān)注。
冷戰(zhàn)也有負(fù)面效應(yīng)---不僅僅是核廢料的威脅。更大的擔(dān)憂來(lái)源于未知。對(duì)未來(lái)的迷茫使我們很容易去從歷史的鏡子中尋找建議。但終究,正如阿萊克斯·德·托克維爾說的那樣,歷史是一座畫廊,那里原作寥寥無(wú)幾,復(fù)制品不計(jì)其數(shù)。
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解析:
本題中,原文節(jié)選自一篇名為《Power shift from Atlantic to Pacific Rim》的新聞報(bào)道,來(lái)自 (原文鏈接:///opinions/columnists/power-shift-from-atlantic-to-pacific-rim-1.1309870)。
本篇英翻中難度適中,但還是比較考驗(yàn)考生文化理解以及處理某些詞語(yǔ)的能力。例如,第一段A Tale of Two Cities (雙城記)有其約定俗成的譯名,不可亂翻。第二段中的一些表達(dá):alight on, tumultuous, upheavals, in equal measure等詞和詞組,考查考生對(duì)一些看似簡(jiǎn)單的單詞是否有充分的掌握,需要大家平時(shí)多注意總結(jié)和思考。此外,第三段中的who have come to look at the world through normative lenses為典型的非限制性定語(yǔ)從句,翻譯起來(lái)需要注意。而第四段中的短語(yǔ)make it tempting to do sth.這是英語(yǔ)中很常見的一種結(jié)構(gòu),可譯為:很容易……
注:阿萊克斯·德·托克維爾——法國(guó)歷史學(xué)家,社會(huì)學(xué)家。