《泥土的微笑》英譯講解散文

泥土的微笑Smile of the Earth

“泥土”一詞並不是指“泥”，而是指“土”、“土地”，所以譯爲the earth。smiles表達的是一種歡樂的情緒，而不僅僅是“笑容、微笑”的意思。

我在花園裏種滿了芬芳的玫瑰花，遠遠望去，像一片燃燒的晚霞。我想等朋友來做客的時候，讓他們攜帶些玫瑰回家。我相信朋友捧着火紅的玫瑰漸漸走遠的背影，一定能點燃易感的情懷。

All over my garden I've planted nothing but roses, fragrant and--If looked at from afar--ablaze with colour like sunset clouds. I would be very happy if any one of my visiting friends should desire to pick and take some for their homes. I trust that any friend of mine carrying the roses would vanish into the distance feeling that his emotion had been rekindled.

譯這一句時要注意中文的說話方式：我......玫瑰花，（我或者人們）遠遠望去，（玫瑰）像一片......，我......讓他們......。中文敘事的角度是不停變化的，而且，第一部分“我......玫瑰花”重點是在“種滿了”上。譯文考慮了這些因素，將“種滿了”用all over my garden放到句首加以突出，使這一部分所表達的意思在語氣的分量上與原文相當。然後用"I"作爲主語，把整句串起來，作爲這一段敘述的中心。

“我想”是說我的一種願望，所以譯爲I would be very happy if...; should是表示將來的一種可能性；for their homes看似與原文不符，但原文的“帶......回家”並不是說帶回去就完事了，而是說要用玫瑰花裝點居室，帶花爲的是(for)美化他們的家。

朋友並非特指哪一位，而是任何一位，所以譯爲any friend of mine。“點燃”此處譯爲rekindled，而不是kindled，是因爲原文含義指人們原先有過的，現已淡忘的“情懷”被重新點燃。

有一天，一位非常要好的女友來探望我，我知道她平素最喜歡花花草草了，臨別時我說，採一束玫瑰點綴你的閨房，保證十里飄香。

A close friend came for a visit the other day. I know her to be a lover of flowers and plants, and for that reason I told her at her departure that she should pick a bunch of roses to decorate her boudoir. I promised that the scent of the roses would be wafted far, far away.

“探望我”也可以譯爲came to visit me，但came for a visit更好，既然是come且visit，被訪者當然就是“我”了，這句也體現了英語介詞多的特點。

“女友”只譯作friend，而在後面某處說girl friend，是因爲英語中girl friend也有“戀愛對象”的意思，爲避免誤會，先不譯，而放到後面，譯爲That girl friend of mine。況且作者是男是女我們並不知道。

“平素最喜歡”英語可以說she loves...，但更合乎習慣的說法是she's a lover of...，另如He's a good driver是說他開車開得好。

for that reason是根據原文的句間含義加上的，把中文的意義關聯，改爲英文的形式關聯。

“十里飄香”：中文用數字往往虛指，此處“十里”便並不表示實際的距離，而是說花香濃郁幽遠，所以譯爲would be wafted, far away。

女友輕輕跨進花園，東聞聞，西嗅嗅，神采飛揚，就是不肯採摘。我說沒關係，多的是，我又不是花店的'老闆，不會靠玫瑰賺錢的。說完我就舉起剪刀準備獻美。女友急忙攔住，高聲叫着不可不可。

That girl friend of mine, tiptoeing into the garden in high spirits, sniffed here and smelt there, but in the end she didn't pick a single rose. I said there were so many of them that she could pick as many as she'd like to; I told her that I was not a florist and didn't make a living out of them. While saying so I raised the scissors for the sacrifice of the flowers, but she vehemently stopped me, crying no, no, no!

中文是一連串的動詞，譯成英文則需要分清幾個動詞的主次，這裏“東聞聞，西嗅嗅......不肯採摘”是主要動詞，“進花園”不十分重要，所以用了一個分詞短語處理。

“不肯採摘”譯成英語時必須有賓語，考慮到語句的連貫，再加上語氣方面的緣故，譯成了didn't pick a single rose。

這裏中文的意思是說：你採吧，採多少都沒關係，因爲我這裏玫瑰花多的是，而且我又不是開花店的，不以此謀生。中文的意義關聯十分明顯。根據這一分析，英文便把“沒關係”隱去了。

make a living out of: 從......中謀得生活來源。

while表示的是同時，vehemently表示的是激烈的態度，句末的感嘆號更是表明了阻止剪花的決心，因爲英語裏感嘆號用的很少，表示的感情也較爲激烈。

這麼美麗的玫瑰剪下來，讓人心疼。她抓緊我的袖子叮嚀：千萬不能剪啊，玫瑰是泥土的微笑，誰忍心殺戮美得醉人的微笑？

To cut such beautiful roses would hurt one, she said. With her hands clutching at my sleeves, she told me that by no means should they be cut. Roses are the smiling face of the earth, and who could be so iron-hearted as to destroy a smile so exhilarating?

讓人心疼：hurt one是使某人傷心的意思，也可以說gives one heartache。

這一句的英文分成了兩句，因爲從意思上來看，“千萬不能剪啊”有語氣詞在末尾，語氣較重，單獨處理較好。後面的兩個“微笑”相互呼應，放到一起比較合適。