《論包裝》

季羨林

On Packaging

Ji Xianlin

我先提一個問題：人類是變得越來越精呢？還是越來越蠢？

Let me begin with this question. Are human beings getting increasingly intelligent or stupid?

答案好像是明擺著的：越來越精。

The following answer seems beyond dispute: They are getting more and more intelligent.

要點：

1，“答案好像是明擺著的”即“答案毋庸置疑”譯為beyond dispute或past all dispute, beyond 經(jīng)常用于表示“無…可”的詞中，之前就見到過beyond reproach

2,兩句話，出現(xiàn)了兩個“變得越來越…”當然要爭取讓他們不一樣了~因此譯者分別譯為get more and more/get increasingly

綜述：注意beyond 和“越來越”這兩點~

在幾千年有文化的歷史上，人類對宇宙，對人世，對生命，對社會，總之對人世間所有的一切，越來越了解得透徹、細致，如犀燭隱，無所不明。例子伸手可得。當年中國人對月亮覺得可愛而又神秘，于是就說有一個美女嫦娥奔入月宮。連蘇東坡這個宋朝偉大的詩人，也不禁要問出：“明月幾時有？把酒問青天。不知天 上宮闕，今夕是何年？”可是到了今天，人類已經(jīng)登上了月球，連月球上的土塊也被帶到了地上來。哪里有什么嫦娥，有什么廣寒宮？

In the course of several thousand years of his cultural history, man has acquired a more and more thorough and detailed understanding of the universe, the human world, life and society—in short, everything under heaven. Examples are legion. Our ancestors, out of their fondness for the moon and curiosity about it, created the legend of beautiful Chang’e flying to the moon. And Su Dongpo, a great poet of the Song Dynasty, wrote the following lines as a matter of course:

The Bright Moon, when will she appear?

Wine cup in hand, I ask the azure sky.

I don’t know inside the heavenly palace

What time of year it is tonight.

Today, man has managed to land on the moon and even come back bringing with him some of its clods. Chang’e and her heavenly palace simply don’t exist.

要點：

1，“人類對宇宙，對人世，對生命，對社會，總之對人世間所有的一切，越來越了解得透徹、細致，如犀燭隱，無所不明”譯為man has acquired a more and more thorough and detailed understanding of the universe, the human world, life and society—in short, everything under heaven.其中“如犀燭隱，無所不明”并未譯出，因其意思已包含在上下文中

2，“例子伸手可得”譯為Examples are legion，其中l(wèi)egion意為“比比皆是的；不勝枚舉的；多如牛毛的”，如：The number of women who become pregnant after adopting children is legion.? (領養(yǎng)小孩后懷孕的婦女比比皆是。)這個詞可用numerousmyriadcountlessmany numberless代替~

3，“于是就說有一個美女嫦娥奔入月宮”即“杜撰了嫦娥奔月的神話”譯為created the legend of beautiful Chang’e flying to the moon.其中the legend 是增譯的，表解釋說明。

4，“連蘇東坡這個宋朝偉大的詩人，也不禁要問出”譯為And Su Dongpo, a great poet of the Song Dynasty, wrote the following lines as a matter of course.其中as a matter of course作狀語譯為“自然而然地”比can’t help doing更貼合文意

5，“明月幾時有？把酒問青天。不知天 上宮闕，今夕是何年？”意思是“明月什么時候出現(xiàn)的?（我）端著酒杯問青天.不知道天上的神仙宮闕里,現(xiàn)在是什么年代了.”譯為The Bright Moon, when will she appear?

Wine cup in hand, I ask the azure sky.

I don’t know inside the heavenly palace

What time of year it is tonight.

這幾句詩其實并不難理解，但是我們翻譯出來就和大師翻出來的不一樣…總之詩歌翻譯是個大塊，這首《水調(diào)歌頭》許淵沖和林語堂先生都有翻譯，各有千秋，有興趣可以對比來看，張培基先生的翻譯較前兩位簡潔一些。

綜述：注意以上幾點即可~

人類倘不越變越精，能做到這一步嗎？

Could man have achieved that without becoming more and more intelligent?

可是我又提出了問題，說明適得其反。例子也是伸手即得。我先舉一個包裝。

Nevertheless, I also would like to bring forward some factsto show just the opposite. Examples are only too numerous. Packaging is the first thing I want to deal with.

要點：

1，“可是我又提出了問題”譯為Nevertheless, I also would like to bring forward some facts，根據(jù)后文可知，此處的“問題”即“事實”，因此譯為facts

2,又出現(xiàn)了“伸手可得”譯為numerous，其同義詞參見上段分析~

人類活動在社會上，有時候是需要包裝的。特別是女士們。在家中穿得樸樸素素，但是一出門，特別是參加什么“派對”（party，借用香港話），則必 須打扮得珠光寶氣，花枝招展，渾身灑上法國香水，走在大街上，高跟鞋跟敲地作金石聲，香氣直射十步之外，路人為之“側目”。這就是包裝，而這種包裝，我認為是必要的。

People, especially women, sometimes need packaging in their social activities. Women dress casually at home, but when they go out, especially when they attend parties, they have to be gorgeously dressed and sprayed all over the French perfume. On the streets, the loud clip-clop of their high-heeled shoes and the strong aroma of their perfume will attract public attention far and wide. That’s what we mean by packaging and I call it a kind of necessary packaging.

要點：

1，“在家中穿得樸樸素素”譯為Women dress casually at home.其中dress casually意為“穿得隨隨便便”，“穿便服”，也可譯為dress simply /plainly at home

2,“珠光寶氣，花枝招展”說的是一個意思譯為“盛裝打扮”be gorgeously dressed，這個表達在《雜感集》中也見到過，學習時一定要注意前后聯(lián)系記憶~

3，“高跟鞋跟敲地作金石聲，香氣直射十步之外，路人為之’側目’”譯為On the streets, the loud clip-clop of their high-heeled shoes and the strong aroma of their perfume will attract public attention far and wide.其中“作金石聲”直譯起來略困難，因此我們可采用擬聲詞the loud clip-clop表達，clip-clop表示一種類似于馬蹄的“呱嗒聲”~

4,“十步之外，路人為之’側目’”，采用意譯法，譯為attract public attention far and wide.

5，“這就是…”譯為that’s what I/we mean by…這個表達也很常見，在《容忍》中也有出鏡

綜述：我們要在學習名家譯作的時候注意積累和總結，形成知識的前后聯(lián)系~才能有所進步

可是還有另外一種包裝，就是商品的包裝。這種包裝有時也是必要的，不能一概而論。我從前到香港，買國產(chǎn)的商品，比大陸要便宜得多。一問才知道，原因 是中國商品有的質(zhì)量并不次于洋貨，正是由于包裝不講究，因而價錢賣不上去。我當時就滿懷疑惑：究竟是使用商品呢？還是使用包裝？

But there is another kind of packaging—the packaging of commodities. Such packaging is sometimes also necessary and therefore, should not be mentioned in the same breath. Some time ago, as a visitor to Hong Kong, I found Chinese-made goods there selling at a much lower price than in the mainland and I also learned on inquiry that it was due to plain packaging that they were selling cheap though of equal quality as imported goods. I was quite puzzled about what the customers actually need. The goods or the package?

要點：

1，“一概而論”或“同日而語”譯為should not be mentioned in the same breath，其中in the same breath意為“同時”，如：He hailed this week's arms agreement but in the same breath expressed suspicion about the motivations of the United States.? (他為本周達成的武器協(xié)議而歡呼，但同時又對美國的動機表示懷疑。)

2，“一問才知道”譯為I also learned on inquiry，on inquiry意為“經(jīng)詢問，經(jīng)調(diào)查”

我因而想到一件事：我們樓上一位老太太到菜市場上去買雞，說是一定要黃毛的。賣雞的小販問老太太：“你是吃雞？還是吃雞毛？”

That reminds me of a little story. An old lady who lived in the upstairs of my building one day went to the food market insisting on buying a chicken with yellowish feathers. The chicken vendor asked, “What do you eat? Chicken or the feathers?”

要點：

這段總體來說比較簡單，注意選擇疑問句的譯法~

到了今天，有一些商品的包裹更達到了匪夷所思的地步。外面盒子，或木，或紙，或金屬，往往極大。裝扮得五彩繽紛、璀璨耀目。擺在貨架上時，是龐然大物；提在手中或放在車中，更是運轉(zhuǎn)不靈，左提，右提，橫擺，都煞費周折。及至拿到或運到家中，打開時也是煞費周折。在龐然大物中，左找，右找，找不到商品 究在何處。很希望發(fā)現(xiàn)一張紙條上面寫著：此處距商品尚有10公里！庶不致使我失去尋找的信心。

Nowadays, the packaging of some commodities is fantastically overdone. The boxes, made of wood, paper or metal, are usually very large and very colorful and dazzling. They take up a lot of space on the goods shelves and are very cumbersome whether carried by car or by hand. Very unwieldy whether carried by left hand or right hand, placed vertically or horizontally. And it is also a big headache to have it opened at home. Search left and right, and you still cannot locate the commodity in the huge box. You will probably wish for a slip of paper therein bearing the written note, “10 more kilometers to the commodity!” so as to retain your confidence in the search.

要點：

1，“達到了匪夷所思的地步”如果直譯，即have reached an unimaginable degree,然而譯者卻采用了更為靈活的意譯，即is fantastically overdone，更加形象生動~

2,“或木，或紙，或金屬”講的是木盒的材質(zhì)，因此譯為made of wood, paper or metal,

3，“五彩繽紛、璀璨耀目”譯為colorful and dazzling

4，“煞費周折”譯為it is also a big headache to

5,“很希望發(fā)現(xiàn)一張紙條上面寫著：此處距商品尚有10公里！庶不致使我失去尋找的信心。”譯為You will probably wish for a slip of paper therein bearing the written note, “10 more kilometers to the commodity!” so as to retain your confidence in the search.其中wish for作“盼望”解，往往針對不可能實現(xiàn)的事物；therein是增益的，譯為“從中”。

6，“庶不致使我失去尋找的信心”即“以便保持尋找的信心”譯為so as to retain your confidence in the search.

綜述：對待本段層出不窮的狀語一定要耐心~

據(jù)我粗略的統(tǒng)計，有的商品在大包裝中僅占空間十分之一，二十分之一，甚至五十分之一。想到那個雞和雞毛的故事，我不禁要問：我們使用的是商品，還是包裝？而負擔那些龐大的包裝費用，羊毛出在羊身上，還是我們這些顧客，而華美絕倫的包裝，商品取出后，不過是一堆垃圾。

According to my rough statistics, some commodities take up only one tenth, one twentieth or even one fiftieth of the space in the huge package. Thinking back to the above-mentioned story of chickens and chicken feathers, I cannot but ask, “The commodity or the package, which do you need?” after all, the wool still comes from the sheep’s back as the saying goes. It is customers like us that will have to bear all the heavy expenses for packaging. And the flashy package, when emptied of its contents, will be nothing but a garbage heap.

如果我回答我在開頭時提出的問題：人類越變越蠢。你怎么反駁？！

Here is my answer to the question I raised at the beginning: Man is becoming more and more stupid. What could you say in retort?

要點：

1，“據(jù)我粗略的統(tǒng)計”譯為According to my rough statistics

2，“羊毛出在羊身上”現(xiàn)在一般形容商家所謂的打折優(yōu)惠,其實還是攤在消費者身上，因為上下文有對這句話確切含義的解釋，因此直譯為the wool still comes from the sheep’s back

3，“華美絕倫的包裝”譯為the flash package,其中flashy有“華而不實”之意，比beautiful，gorgeous，exquisite更加確切

4，“反駁”=say in retort

綜述：其實直譯和意譯本無固定原則，一切都要以有助于讀者準確理解為目的。

聲明:本雙語文章的中文評析系滬江英語原創(chuàng)內(nèi)容,轉(zhuǎn)載請注明出處。中文評析僅代表作者個人觀點，如有不妥之處，歡迎指正。