A long time going
长路漫漫
Osama bin Laden long fancied himself something of a poet①. His composition tended to the morbid , and a poem written two years after 9/11 in which he contemplated the circumstances of his death was no exception②. Bin Laden wrote:“Let my grave be an eagle’s belly, its resting place in the sky’s atmosphere amongst perched eagles.③”
奥萨马•本•拉登一向自诩具有诗人气质。他的作品趋于病态，就连9/11事件发生两年后，他在思考自己死亡境况时所写的诗也不例外。本•拉登写道：“让我的坟墓成为鹰腹，置身天空中栖息的鹰群。”
解析：
①此处的fancy取：to like the idea of being sth or to believe, often wrongly, that you are sth之义，表示本•拉登所谓something of a poet只是自己一厢情愿的看法；“something of a poet”表示具有诗人身上的某些品质或特质，此处处理为气质。
②该句子看似平淡无奇，易于理解，但却代表了一类英汉翻译的处理策略。本句主干为a poem was no exception，而poem这个中心词的后置定语却较长，这时若按照中文的习惯，强制将定语前置，则会导致定语过长；这种情况的处理方法一般是，对后置定语的语义做一梳理，提炼主要信息点（即：1. 诗写在911事件发生后 2. 在思考自己死亡情境时写下的诗），然后抛开原语的句子框架，用中文的逻辑习惯自然地表达出这两层信息。
③这句诗中，介词占到承担了主要的表意功能，因此翻译的重点在于打破词性的桎梏，简言之，就是不把介词当介词，不把名词当名词，只看这个词所承载的意思，将这些意思提取出来后，再用中文的表达习惯将这些意思按照原语逻辑拼接重组。
As it turns out,bin Laden’s grave is somewhere at the bottom of the Arabian Sea, to which his body was consigned after his death in Pakistan at the hands of U.S. Navy SEALs. If there is poetry in bin Laden’s end, it is the poetry of justice①, and it calls to mind what President George W. Bush had predicted would happen in a speech he gave to Congress just nine days after 9/11.In an uncharacteristic burst of eloquence, Bush asserted that Bin Laden and al-Qaeda would eventually be considered to “history’s unmarked grave of discarded lies.”②
事实上，本•拉登的坟墓在阿拉伯海底的某处，于巴基斯坦被美国海军战队击毙后葬身于此。如果说本•拉登的最终结局笼罩了诗意的话，那么这层诗意便是正义，这让人想到在9·11事件发生9天后乔治•沃克•布什总统在国会的演讲。这次演讲中，布什一扫常态，言语掷地有声，对本•拉登的结局做出预测，断定本•拉登和基地组织最终将会被视为“由遗弃的谎言所堆砌的历史的无名之墓”。
解析：
①“poetry”为 poems in general 或 a form of literature，而不能理解为某一首具体的诗，因此此处译为诗意。
②这两句话分别理解起来并不难，但两句信息的联系较为紧密，简言之，就是围绕某一个点，有很多想要传递的信息，但一句话说不完，那么就用两句话来说，而英文在传递信息时的断句习惯并不一定适合中文，这时，就需要一个常用的翻译手法：在英语中分属不同的句子单位，译成中文时若逻辑不符合中文习惯，则需打破句子之间的壁垒，拆分出语块信息后，按照中文表达习惯，将句子信息重组。
Though bin Laden’s body may have been buried at sea on May 2, the burial of bin Ladenism has been decade in the making.Indeed, it began on the very day of bin Laden’s greatest triumph.①At first glance, the 9/11 assault looked like a stunning win foral-Qaeda, a ragtag band of jihadists who had bloodied the nose of the world’s only superpower. But on closer look it became something far less significant,because the attacks on Washington and New York City did not achieve bin Laden’s key strategic goal: the withdrawal of the U.S. from the Middle East, which he imagined would lead to the collapse of all the American-backed authoritarian regimes in the region.
虽然本•拉登的尸体或许已于5月2日葬于海底，但本•拉登主义的埋葬却酝酿了十年之久。事实上，本•拉登主义的堙灭肇始于本•拉登最辉煌的时日。乍看之下，911袭击似乎是基地组织的一场惊人大捷，一群由圣战分子构成的乌合之众重创了世界上唯一的超级大国。而进一步深究会发现，这场胜利的意义远没有那么重要，对华盛顿和纽约的袭击并未达到本•拉登的核心战略目标，亦即美国撤出中东，他臆测若美撤军，则会导致中东所有由美支持的专制政权的覆灭。
解析：
①单看这个句子，这是一个普通的简单句，但若直接不假思索地将主语“it”译为“它”，那么中文读者多半是读不懂的，原因在于：英文对代词偏爱有加，而在中文里却不那么受待见。中文更多时候是干脆不说，或是直接重复。拿物主代词来举个极端的例子，中文说：我从口袋里拿出手机，英文会说：I took my phone out of my pocket. 按字面翻译的话就是：我从我的口袋里拿出了我的手机。中文母语者会习惯性的认为谁是谁的是明摆的事实，但英文母语者却认为需要明确表达个体之间的指代关系。这也从侧面反映出了中英文化思维之间的差异。因此，在做英汉翻译时，一定要明确英文的代词究竟指代的是什么，明确意思之后，再决定是将之直译为代词，还是干脆不说，抑或重复甚至解释性重复，具体采用哪种译法取决于哪种译法最能在特定的语境中地道流畅地传递意思。此处的“it”指代的是前面谈到的“the burial of bin Ladenism”，故将句子主语译为：本•拉登主义的堙灭。
Instead, the opposite happened: the U.S. invaded and occupied first Afghanistan and then Iraq. By attacking the American mainland and inviting reprisal,al-Qaeda-which means “the base” in Arabic-lost the best base it had ever had:Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.①In this sense, 9/11 was similar to another surprise attack, that on Pearl Harbor on the morning of Dec.7,1974,a stunning tactical victory that set in motion events that would end in the defeat of imperial Japan.②
而结果却恰恰相反：美国先后攻占了阿富汗和伊拉克。基地组织（其名称在阿拉伯语中意为“基地”）对美国大陆的袭击和随之招致的报复，致使它失掉了有史以来最好的基地：塔利班统治下的阿富汗。从这个层面来说，911事件与1974年12月7日清晨的珍珠港突袭如出一辙，那场惊人的战术胜利引发了一连串战役，最终导致日本帝国的倾覆。
解析：
①词句的主干为By……, al-Qaeda lost……, 若直接按照这一层逻辑框架去译，就是“通过袭击美国大陆和招致报复，基地组织失去了有史以来最好的基地。”用“通过……”来表达显然会造成中文读者的困扰，前半句读完，会以为后半句要将基地组织获得了哪些好处，但是后半句却是失去，因此，不能不分语境，一概将by译为“通过”，在这种情况下，我们不妨转换角度，换一种思路还原相同的逻辑，把“通过……，谁怎么样了”变为“…….,导致谁怎么样了”，由此一来，便消除了中英文表达习惯不同所可能造成的误解。这种逻辑思维的正反转换是翻译思维的重要体现。
②这一部分在整个句子作为同位语从句，修饰another surprise attack，但是同位语a stunning tactical victory的从句信息较多，因此在译成中文时无法仅作为前置定语来处理，这种情况下可以将从句的成分梳理之后，按照中文的表达习惯，用一个个的短句译出。
Shrewder members of bin Laden’s inner circle had warned him before 9/11 that antagonizing the U.S. would be counterproductive, and internal al-Qaeda memos written after the fall of the Taliban and later recovered by the U.S. military show that some of bin Laden’s followed fully understood the folly of the attacks.①In 2002, an al-Qaeda insider wrote to another ,saying “Regrettably, my brother...during just six months ,we lost what we built in years. ”
在9/11事件之前，本•拉登集团内部已有更具眼光的核心成员提醒过，招惹美国将将适得其反，而写于塔利班失陷后的基地组织内部备忘录也显示，本拉登的一些追随者十分清楚这些袭击的愚蠢，这些备忘录后来被美军发现。2002年，基地组织一位内部成员在给另一位成员的信中写道，“很遗憾，我的兄弟，仅仅6个月，我们多年的心血都付诸东流。”
解析：
①此句的难点主要在于“internal al-Qaeda memos written after the fall of the Taliban and later recovered by the U.S. military”作为主语似乎在译成中文时只能加上“written after……”或者“later recovered”其中的一个作为定语，若把两者都放在前面做定语，中文读起来就会不伦不类，因此，需要根据具体语境和逻辑，选择将其中一个置于其他位置。
The responsibility for that act of hubris lies squarely with bin Laden:despite his reputation for shyness and diffidence, he ran al-Qaeda as a dictatorship①. His son Omar recalls that the man who worked for his father had a habit of requesting permission before they spoke with their leader, saying “Dear prince,may I speak ?”Joining al-Qaeda meant taking a personal religious oath of allegiance to bin Laden, just as joining the Nazi Party had required swearing personal fealty to the Fuhrer .So bin Laden’s group became just as much a hostage to its leader’s flawed strategic vision as the Nazis were to Hitler’s.
这种狂妄行为的责任完全在于本拉登：尽管他是出了名的害羞和不自信，但在基地组织的领导上，他却是个专政的独裁者。他的儿子回忆道，为父亲效力的手下都有这样一个习惯，每次在和他们的领袖说话时，都会先征得允许：“尊敬的王，我可以说话吗？”加入基地组织意味着以宗教的名义宣誓个人对本拉登的效忠，这就像加入纳粹党，需要发誓表明个人对元首的忠诚。所以，正如希特勒之于纳粹，本拉登集团沦为了领导者错误战略思维的人质。
解析：
①这个句子理解起来毫无难度，非常典型的简单句。但是译起来就没有这么简单直接了，因为此句虽为简单句，但句式逻辑中文里却没有，并不像I have an apple 我有一个苹果。这一类中英句式逻辑一致的简单句。其实，对翻译而言，句式简单与否并不代表翻译难度，中英文句式逻辑差异的大小才是衡量翻译难度的标准。因此，要想译的地道，就必须有自如脱去和穿上不同语言句式外壳的能力不可。在这里，熟悉的reputation for，显然不能译为……的声誉或名誉，而是需要译者去揣摩中文这种语境下会怎么表达他害羞而不自信的声誉。同样地，ran al-Qaeda as a dictatorship，也不能粗暴地处理为以……来统治基地组织，如此表达虽能勉强看懂，但却是不折不扣的英式中文，要想把意思说清楚说透彻，就必须要有完全脱去句式外壳提取真正语义的能力。
The key to understanding this vision and all of bin Laden’s actions was his utter conviction that he was an instrument of god’s will.①In short,he was a religious zealot. That zealotry first revealed itself when he was a teenager. Khaled Batarfi , a soccer-playing buddy of bin Laden’s on the streets of Jidda, Saudi Arabia , where they both grew up , remembers his solemn friend praying seven times a day(two more than mandated by Islamic convention ) and fasting twice a week in imitation of the Prophet Muhammad. For entertainment,bin Laden would assemble a group of friends at his house to chant songs about the liberation of Palestine.
理解这一思维以及本拉登一切行为的关键，在于理解他认为自己是上帝意志实现之所依的坚定信念。简而言之，他是宗教的狂热分子。这种狂热在青少年时期便初露端倪。哈里德•巴塔菲作为本拉登的足球玩伴，一起在沙特阿拉伯吉达的大街上长大，据他回忆，这位不苟言笑的朋友每天祷告七次（比伊斯兰教约所规定的还多两次），并效仿先知穆罕默德每周禁食两次。而作为娱乐，本拉登会召集一帮朋友在自己家里吟唱巴勒斯坦解放的歌曲。
解析：
①此句的主干为“The key to …… was……”，若直接译为理解这一思维…的关键是他…..的坚定信念。这样做虽然表面上非常“忠实”，但其实并不是中文会使用的表达逻辑，在这里不妨使用中文常说的“理解A的关键在于理解B。”表面上似乎多加了一个理解，但实际上却更加准确地传递出了原意。
Bin Laden’s religious zeal was colored by the fact that his family had made its vast fortune as the principal contractor renovating the holy sites of Mecca and Medina①, which gave him a direct connection to Islam’s holiest places. In his early 20s, Bin Laden worked in the family business; he was a priggish young man who was also studying economics at a university.
本拉登的宗教热情深受家族经历的影响，本拉登家族作为翻修麦加和麦地那圣地的主要承包商赚取了巨额财富，而这一经历给了他和伊斯兰最神圣之地以直接的联系。二十岁出头时，本拉登曾在家族企业工作，与此同时，这位自命不凡的年轻人还在一所大学学习经济学。
解析：
① color在这里作“affect as in thought or feeling”之意，故译为受……的影响。Fact一词也不建议直接译为事实，实际上，中文的事实和英文的fact的词义范畴并不完全重合，fact很多时候只是作为引导that从句的形式主语，并不是强调something is true or correct，因此在翻译时就不能直接译为事实，而应将重点放在fact引导的that从句上。
His destiny would change with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in late 1979.The Afghan war prompted the billionaire’s son to launch an ambitious plan to confront the Soviets with a small group of Arabs under his command. That group eventually provided the nucleus of al-Qaeda, which bin Laden founded in 1988 as the war against the Soviets began to wind down. The purpose of al-Qaeda was to take jihad to other parts of the globe and eventually to the U.S.,the nation he
believed was leading a Western conspiracy to destroy true Islam①.In the 1990s bin Laden would often describe America as “the head of the snake.”
而本拉登的命运将随着1979年末苏维埃入侵阿富汗而发生转变。阿富汗战争促使这位亿万富翁之子决意发动一项野心勃勃的计划，以自己麾下的一小撮阿拉伯部下对抗苏联。这一小撮部下后来成为了基地组织的中坚力量，本拉登在1988年抗苏战争开始平息之际成立了这一组织。基地组织的目的是将圣战带到世界的其他地方，并最终到达美国——这个在他看来正主导一场西方世界的阴谋以摧毁伊斯兰的国度。上世纪九十年代，本拉登常将美国形容为“蛇头”。
解析：
①同位语从句的翻译普遍比较灵活，分析得出该从句的作用主要为解释说明，因此可以用中文里同样具有解释说明作用的破折号表达。
Jamal Khalifa, his best friend at the university in Jidda and later also his brother-in-law, told me bin Laden was driven not only by a desire to implement what he saw as God’swill but also by a fear of divine punishment if he failed to do so.So not defending Islam from what he came to believe was its most important enemy would be disobeying God, something he would never do①.
本•拉登在吉达上大学时最好的朋友贾马尔•哈利法（后来成为了他的妹夫）告诉我，驱使着本拉登的力量不仅来自于一种执行他所认为的上帝意志的渴望，而且来自于对如若无法完成使命将会遭到上帝的惩罚的恐惧。因此，若不去捍卫伊斯兰，抵抗他日渐相信是最重要的敌人的侵犯，那就无异于违背上帝，这是他永远不会去做的。
解析：
①defend from 代表着英文中的一类表达，类似地还有keep from，prevent from，protect from等等，不一而足。这里的from虽然是介词，但其实表达的含义是非常丰富的，和不同的词语搭配其表达的含义是不尽相同的，而这里还体现了一个重要的现象，即介词在英文中的表意作用是远远强于中文的介词的。因此，在英汉翻译时，往往需要将其译为动词。
In 1997, when I was a producer for CNN, I met with bin Laden in eastern Afghanistan to film his first television interview.He struck me as intelligent and well informed,someone who comported himself more like a cleric than like the revolutionary he was quickly becoming①. His followers treated bin Laden with great difference, referring to him as “the sheik,” and hung on his every pronouncement.
1997年，在我还担任有线电视新闻网的制作人时，曾在阿富汗东部与本拉登见面，拍摄他第一次电视采访。他留给我的印象是睿智而博学，行为举止给人的感觉更像是一位宗教领袖，而非他随后所成为的革命者。本拉登的追随者对其抱有极大的敬意，将他称为“酋长”，并把他的每一句话都奉为圭臬。
解析:
① comport himself like……是指将自己表现为…..之意，但有时用正说的方法表达效果不佳，那么就不妨反说，即行为表现让人觉得他……。这就是翻译思维中常用的正话反说和反话正说。但我们需要明确的是，正反只是表现形式，无论是正着说，还是反着说，将意思和逻辑牢牢攥在手里才是关键。
During the course of that interview, bin Laden laid out his rationale for his plan to attack the U.S.,whose support for Israel and the regimes in Saudi Arabia and the Egypt made it , in his mind , the enemy of the Islam①.Bin Laden also explained that the U.S. was as week as Soviet Union had been②, and he cited the American withdrawal from Vietnam in the 1970s as evidence for this view. He poured scorn on the notion that the U.S. thought of itself as a superpower “even after all these successive defeats.”
在那次采访中，本拉登阐述了袭击美国计划的原因，在他看来，美国支持以色列以及沙特阿拉伯和埃及政权便是与伊斯兰为敌。本拉登还解释说，美国和曾经的苏联一样不堪一击，并举了七十年代美国从越南撤军的事例来证明这一点。他对于美国在“即便经历了所有一连串失败”仍自诩为超级大国嗤之以鼻。
解析：
① make这个词在英文中很常用，直译过来为“使……怎么样”，但很多时候这样直译会显得中文比较生硬，因为英文中用make来表达的语境，中文并不一定都是用“使”来表达，因此这就需要译者根据具体语境灵活地表达出这层使动的逻辑关系。
That will turn out to be a dangerous delusion,which would culminate in bin Laden’s death at the hand of the same U.S. soldiers he had long disparaged as weaklings①.Now that he is gone,there will inevitably be some jockeying to succeed him②. AU.S. counterterrorism official told me that there was “no succession plan in place” to replace bin Laden. While the Egyptian Aymanal-Zawahiri had long been his deputy, he is not the natural, charismatic leader that bin Laden was U.S. officials believe that al-Zawahiri is not popular with his colleagues, and they hope there will be disharmony and discord as the militants sort out the succession②.
后来证明，这种观点是一种危险的错觉，并最终以本拉登之死告终，而他正是在这群一直以来被他贬为懦夫的美国士兵手中丧命。而今，本拉登已死，关于继任问题，自是免不了一场争权夺势。一位美国反恐官员告诉我，“目前尚无继任计划”来接替本拉登的位置。虽然埃及裔的艾曼•阿扎瓦希里担任副手已久，但他并不像本拉登那样，是个天生的、颇具魅力的领导者，在美国官员看来，阿扎瓦希里在其同僚中并不受欢迎，他们希望这些武装分子解决继任问题上能够引发内讧。
解析：
① 作为非限制性定语从句，该句的主干为主+谓+状结构，而状语中的death后又跟了表示方式的at the hand of结构，这一结构依附于death这个名词，但承载的信息量却不小，因而在译成中文时若还是黏着在death上不免会导致句式过长，在这种情况下，不妨将这个依附结构和death分开，另起一句描述死亡的方式，这样处理其实是表面上分开了，但实际上并没有，而且反而在逻辑上贴的更紧了。
② 这两句的句子相近，译法一致，因此合并解释。两句都包含了典型的there be句型，这里并不是要解释there be句型的翻译，而是要讲解there be+ 抽象性名词的译法，如果是具象性名词，如apple, bird, book这种看得见摸得着的对象，翻译起来无须太多技巧，简单粗暴。但如果是这两个案例中的jockeying,disharmony, discord这一类的抽象性名词，那么就需要着眼整个句子，系统性地分析这个词在该语境下究竟传达了怎样的逻辑，一般情况下，在译成中文时都不会再保留“那有……”这种字字对照的生硬句式。比如jockeying, 本义指争权夺势，在该句子的语境下结合前面的inevitably就可以分析出，作者想传递的信息是：一场争权夺势是免不了的。
高翻译研君——只分享最正统的翻译学习资料。
译无止境，译海无涯。共勉