纪国君：总结中英思维的神与形

　　文/纪国君

　　多年以前，当英文学到的水准，因年时轻狂的缘故，便立志去翻译李白的诗，旨在于让的外国友人也能体验到中诗之美。 于是，初中时较为熟悉的一首便跃于心间 - “窗前明月光，疑是地上霜，举头望明月，低头思故乡。”

　　“There is moonlight before my bed;

　　It might be frost I suspect;

　　Looking up to behold the moon;

　　Only downwards again I look, missing my home.”

　　然而，那时的我，鉴于英文还处于入门水平，也还未曾熟喑英文背后的文化，更不能谈及这语言所要传达的的英文思维了。多年过去，自身对英国文化的阐释也有了巨大的改变。在回顾往日学生时代所翻之诗作时，难免不开怀一笑，笑自身那青年时日的青涩于狂妄。笑过之余，心头难免有自身的疑虑。为何时至今日，当我再重新审视过往的译作，欲做完善之时，却无从下笔。译入英文以后的诗句，让我疑惑甚深。为何译作没有了中诗诗句所传达的那种意境?那种朦胧，缥缈的幻象之美荡然无存?

　　时隔多年之后，因为有机会去攻读英国文学的学位，才有了赏读西方诸大家的名作。苦读几年以后，加深了自己对英文思维的认识。一个很偶然的机会，在拜读完科姆.托宾的那部关于美国小说大师亨利.詹姆斯的名著 - 《大师》，才深刻认识到多年以来一直让我迷惑不解的缘由：在于细节，在于达芬奇似的对于事物那细微结构的认识以及重现 - 这个恰好和我们中诗里的朦胧有着强烈的对比。

　　从少时开始便熟悉的朦胧之美的思考方式，让参加雅思，托福，GRE等等考试吃尽苦头。考生参加过各大补习班后，对英文句法规律有着自己系统的总结，也有丰富的词汇量; 按着固定的思维套路，下笔练习：

　　首先，形就是英文中固定的句子成分组成：

　　1+2+3+4+5+6

　　时间+主语+谓语+宾语+方式状语+地点状语

　　时间+主语+系东西+表语+方式状语+地点状语

　　再结合英文的五大句型结构。

　　1：She is a beautiful girl.

　　2：The room is good.

　　3：It is said that a magnificent building was destroyed yesterday.

　　4：The reader felt horrified when he knew that the heroine had killed her 5 husbands.

　　5：Television tells us the recent development of some researches.

　　6：However, scientists have created many problems.

　　然而，不难看出这些句子有形无神，可读性不强，给人一种苍白感。对此，许多学生难免疑虑颇多，甚至怀疑这辈子是否真和考试无缘，没得救了。大概这样的困惑和我当年翻译李白诗句时所有的疑问同属一类-对于细节的疏忽，而细节正是给句子注入神韵的关键，犹如《创世界》里神捏造了泥人以后所吹的那口气息。

　　1：She is a beautiful girl with moist eyes always talking, cherry-like lips clinging and rosy cheeks so inviting.

　　2：The room is clean, spacious and well-lit.

　　3：The local news says that the university Inn was burnt down last night.

　　4：The reader's hair stands on end when he reads in the final pages of the novel that the heroine, a dear old lady who had always been so kind to everybody, had, in her youth, every one of her five husbands.

　　5：Television tells us the recent development of some researches, such as clone technology, Genetic breakthroughs, the new computing technology.

　　6： However, scientists have created many problems, which are not easy to be resolved, such as air pollution, the deterioration of environment and the scarcity of natural resources.

　　对于上面所提到的这几个句子做一个规律的总结，我们可以总结出，句意的丰富性可以从三个方面完善：

　　：出现名词的地方，要做到描述准确。方法可以用前置定语的形式，通过添加形容词，或者名词;其次，可以通过后置定语短语(过去分词短语，现在分词短语，介词短语，不定式短语，以及名词短语);再次，如若短语的形式不能满足句意的要求，可以通过定语从句，同位语从句进行从句的拓展修饰。

　　“I had never known the pleasure of reading, of exploring the recesses of the soul, of letting myself be carried away by imagination, beauty, and the mystery of fiction and language.”

　　《风之影》;卡洛斯·鲁依斯·萨丰

　　三个of 结构的并列写出了pleasure 的属性。

　　再看罗素在”What Do I Live For”一文里面一句：“Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be.”

　　句子的结构很简单，但是表达的内容却很丰富，使得这个句子的可读性很强;这就应验了前面所引用到的萨丰的句子。

　　“ Sometimes in the night he dreamed about the dead – familiar faces and the others, half-forgotten ones, fleetingly summoned up. Now as he woke, it was, he imagined, an hour or more before the dawn; there would be no sound or movement for several hours. He touched the muscles on his neck which had become stiff; to his finger they seemed unyielding and solid but not painful.” ( 科姆.托宾《大师》)

　　第二，一个英文句子除了要关注名词的延伸，拓展，还要关注句子当中的谓语部分，结合情态，语态，时态。试比较。

　　1： I loved you.

　　2: I had loved you.

　　3: I shall love you always.

　　4: I shall have loved you better.

　　第三，还要关注要用什么副词去修饰动词;试想，如若当年徐志摩先生的诗句改成：“我走了;正如我来了。”相比没有人会认同他在中国的诗坛的地位。

　　第四，还要明白是否需要交代时间(1) 和地点(6)。

　　我相信，通过这四个步骤，多加练习，写出来的句子应该具备有相当的可读性，神韵也就慢慢形成了。

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