近了,近了,CATTI的脚步越来越近了。
本月,我们邀请了知新共学翻译群中译英笔记担当、CATTI二级翻译小胖童鞋与大家分享CATTI考场上的小心机。小胖胖有着近十年的翻译实战经验,曾就职于国内某知名翻译公司,后辞职做自由译员,主要服务国外大型翻译公司。
PS. 过几日,我们会邀请小胖针对即将到来的CATTI考试,系统梳理几招考场上超级好用的应试技巧,帮助考友考前热身。欢迎大家关注本公众号的通知哦~
以下是小胖童鞋今晚在知新共学翻译群里的分享实录。感谢热心译友整理编辑。
群里很多学友都在准备CATTI 笔译考试。
让大部分人败北的是实务部分。综合能力与之前的英语考试一脉相承,大家都是驾轻就熟。经过高考的洗礼,只需买来官方考试用书,认真刷题,几乎无忧。
二级笔译和三级笔译的难度相差无几,关键在于题量。三笔英汉汉英各一篇,二笔每种两篇,总量差不多多50%。
面对大题量很容易慌神紧张。
英译汉各种查词手忙脚乱,各式长句摸不到头脑。
汉译英行文犹如天马行空,艰难晦涩(尤其是各式外宣文章),根本无从下手。
浑身本领施展不出一二,60 分几乎无望,前功尽弃,只待下次卷土再来。
今天的讲座我们分享几个翻译小技巧,为大家的考试加码。
首先是查词的问题。
这里插一嘴,尽量带上大字典,虽然搬运很困难,但如果你没背,考试后又发现一个词没查到,如果恰巧万一没过(这里祝愿大家顺利通过三笔、二笔、一笔),而且只差几分,没带词典这件事情,你可能会懊悔很久。所以尽可能做到自己最好的,不后悔。
我们知道考试时间紧张,查词又是一件比较费时的事情(纸质字典估计可能只在笔译考试中会用到吧)。
因此,尽量少查词。
这里给大家的诀窍之一是借助逻辑语境来判断生词的意思。
我们举个例子:
Are they as good as they sound? These days it is hard to find a big city that doesn’t make grandiose claims to encourage cycling, and harder still to find one that fulfills them. Redesigning congested traffic systems to add bike lanes to overcrowded roads is fiendishly difficult, especially in historic cities with narrow cobbled streets like Copenhagen. But as its cycling program sounds so ambitious, I went there to try it.
——2014 年 11 月三笔
本段中的生词有 grandiose/fiendishly。
首先我们理解一下 it is hard to find a big city that doesn’t,属于双重否定,意思是 every big city does sth,即每一个大城市都会……;
harder still to find one that fulfills them,意思是 few cities can fulfil their claims,即很少城市能践行承诺
如果大家中文联想能力好,该句意思自然显现:大声高呼者众多,言行一致者稀少;更简洁的理解是:吹牛B的人很多,但是把吹过的牛B实现的人少。
我们可以借助结合上下文理解make grandiose claim 的意思。
前一句在说 the Cycle Super Highways, which are under construction here as part of the Danish capital’s efforts to become carbon-neutral by 2025.
哥本哈根要建设自行车超级高速,要实现碳中和。这些都是过于宏大的目标,这里grandiose即表达浮夸/装摸做样的意思。
再来说fiendishly,修饰difficult。副词通常表达的是一种程度。那这里fiendishly到底是什么程度?
这要借助逻辑来判断该词的褒贬义。
上一句说的是鼓励骑行很难。本句说的是在本已经拥挤不堪的交通网络中增设自行车道困难。两者的逻辑是一致的,即并不是转折关系。
Fiendishly肯定是要服务于这一逻辑,即不能否定difficult,而是只能增强difficult,这里等同于very/fairly,直接翻译成非常/相当即可。
再看一个例子:
For generations, coal has been the lifeblood of this mineral-rich stretch of eastern Utah. Mining families proudly recall all the years that they toiled underground.
这里的toil是一个生词。但是,完全不用查词典。其实英语中很多动词都不需要查,主语和谓语出现后,大抵的可能性只有几种,再配合语境,很容易推测出动词的意思。
本句首先说煤炭是犹他州东部几代人的命脉。接下来说的是矿工家庭骄傲地回想起以前他们在地下***的时光。
这里其实就是小学语文课的填词练习。
矿工在地下干什么?答案很显然,挖矿。本文语境下,即是挖煤。
技巧就在于借助上下文语境、逻辑以及常识避免查一些不必要的词。
比如如果去查 toil:hard and tiring work:
按照词典意思表达的话,矿工自豪的是以前在地下辛勤工作?
这反而增加了我们翻译的难度。
我们接下来说一下英文的长句。
That distaste on the part of modern-day French speakers crystallized in resistance to a British proposal that, as part of the restoration of Hougoumont, a memorial be raised to the British soldiers who died defending its narrow North Gate at a critical moment on June 18, 1815, when Wellington carried the day.
—— 2014 年 11 月二笔
整个句子很长,插入成分众多,比如同位语/从句,介词短语等等。
遇到长句,我们要做的是找到主干,最简便的方法是删除非核心成分。这些成分包括从句、动词的不定时、现在分词、过去分词、介词短语、括号、破折号,以及单独的副词形容词等。
我们来找一找,首先找从句。指示词很明显,that /who/when。在删掉that 从句之后,本句的主干已经出现了。
即 That distaste on the part of modern-day French speakers crystallized in resistance to a British proposal.
可以看到,定语从句占本句几乎三分之二的长句。这是因为英语红定语从句都放在修饰词的右边,称作 Right Branching Direction (RDB),几乎可以无限写下去。
Knowing that millions of people around the world would be watching in person and on television and expecting great things from him — at least one more gold medal for America, if not another world record — during this, his fourth and surely his last appearance in the World Olympics, and realizing that his legs could no longer carry him down the runway with the same blazing speed and confidence in making a huge, eye-popping leap that they were capable of a few years ago when he set world records in the 100-meter dash and in the 400-meter relay and won a silver medal in the long jump, the renowned sprinter and track-and-field personality Carl Lewis, who had known pressure from fans and media before but never, even as a professional runner, this kind of pressure, made only a few appearances in races during the few months before the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, partly because he was afraid of raising expectations even higher and he did not want to be distracted by interviews and adoring fans who would follow him into stores and restaurants demanding autographs and photo-opportunities, but mostly because he wanted to conserve his energies and concentrate, like a martial arts expert, on the job at hand: winning his favorite competition, the long jump, and bringing home another Gold Medal for the United States, the most fitting conclusion to his brilliant career in track and field.
这是我上网找的一个长句。
主干仅仅是
Carl Lewis made only a few appearances in races during the few months before the Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
大家可以找一找上面的非核心成分有哪些。
再说汉译英。
汉语是一种意合的语言,句子很散,翻译到英文时需要将句子整合起来,串句技巧至关重要。
串句的核心在于找到句子的主干核心,其他作为附加成分,即符合英文的行文习惯。
中国是一个发展中国家。多年来,中国在致力于自身发展的同时,始终坚持向经济困难的其他发展中国家提供力所能及的援助,承担相应的国际义务。
——2012 年 11 月二笔
本句看似逻辑非常直接平顺,其实隐含这一层些许的转折。众所周知,提供援助一般是发达国家做的事情。但中国作为一个发展中国家,在发展自身的同时,也在援助其他国家,承担自己的义务。
这里着重表现的仍然是后半句,即中国做了什么。
主干确立之后,我们将附加成分填进去。
“中国是一个发展中国家”很显然,直接用as引出。
“中国在致力于自身发展的同时”,while表同时,并带有轻微的转折,绝配。
译文很自然就出来了。
As a developing country, China has devoted itself in aiding troubled developing economies within its power and shouldering up its due international obligations while growing its own economy.
再来看一个例子
中医药在历史发展进程中,兼容并蓄、创新开放,形成了独特的生命观、健康观、疾病观、防治观,实现了自然科学与人文科学的融合和统一,蕴含了中华民族深邃的哲学思想。
——2017 年 11 月二笔
本句由几个短句组成,看似毫无逻辑,其实仍然可以找出逻辑层次。
“中医药在历史发展进程中”指明主语和时间。
“兼容并蓄、创新开放”是做了什么,或者方式手段
“中医药形成了生命、健康等观,实现了融合与统一”,是有什么样的成果,成就。
“而这其中蕴含了中华哲学”,这是说明解释为什么能做到。
简单的逻辑层次即:中医药在某某时间段,通过做……,实现了……,而这说明了……。
英文的行文一般是先果后因,开门见山,先说重要的事情。
本句的重心在于实现了/做到了……。
由于中文太长,我们在实现了自然科学处断开,分两句翻译。
其中历史发展进程中与兼容并蓄、创新开放直接融合翻译为long history of absorption and innovation
兼容并蓄与创新开放属于中文的四字格,这里兼容与并蓄是重复,只需翻译其一,而开放与兼容并蓄也是重复,只需翻译创新 innovation。
TCM has created unique views on life, on fitness, on diseases and on the prevention and treatment of diseases during its long history of absorption and innovation. It represents a combination of natural sciences and humanities, embracing profound philosophical ideas of the Chinese nation.
总而言之,CATTI 考试中,理解都是第一要素。用中文的眼光去理解英文,译文才不会西化生硬。用英文的思维去解析中文,译文自然而来。