In his classic novel, The Pioneers, James Fenimore Cooper has his hero, a la

游客2023-12-08  42

问题     In his classic novel, The Pioneers, James Fenimore Cooper has his hero, a land developer, take his cousin on a tour of the city he is building. He describes the broad streets, rows of houses, a teeming metropolis. But his cousin looks around bewildered. All she sees is a forest. "Where are the beauties and improvements which you were to show me?" she asks. He’s astonished she can’t see them. "Where! Why everywhere." he replies. For though they are not yet built on earth, he has built them in his mind, and they are as concrete to him as if they were already constructed and finished.
    Cooper was illustrating a distinctive American trait, future-mindedness: the ability to see the present from the vantage point of the future; the freedom to feel unencumbered by the past and more emotionally attached to things to come. As Albert Einstein once said, "Life for the American is always becoming, never being."

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答案     詹姆斯?菲尼摩尔?库珀在其经典小说《开拓者》中,叙述主人公——一个土地开发商,带着自己的表妹参观正在由他承建的城市。他描述了宽阔的街道、林立的房屋和热闹的都市。可是他的表妹疑惑不解,四处张望,因为她所见到的只有一片森林。“你打算让我看的那些美景和改造了的地方在哪里呢?”她问道。开发商对她竟然看不见这些东西感到很惊讶,“哪里?到处都是呀,”他回答说。因为纵然还未把这些东西建在地上,他却早已在心里把它们建好了。对他来说,它们就好比是已经竣工了的建筑那样具体、那样真实。
    库珀是在阐明美国人一种显著的性格,即着眼于未来:能够从未来的角度看待现在;自由自在,不为过去所羁绊,而对未来寄托了更多的感情。正如阿尔伯特?爱因斯坦曾经说过的:“对美国人来说,生活总是不断变化,而并非一成不变的。”

解析 1、选段通过库珀所著的《开拓者》中的故事片断,阐明美国人面向未来的性格特征。语言朴实,阐述有力,考生翻译时首先应注重理解,在此基础上锤炼用词。
2、第1段第2句的teeming metropolis可译为“拥挤的闹市”或“人山人海的都市”,其中,teeming意为“充满(人和动物)的,拥挤的”。也可根据broad streets,rows of houses猜出词义。
3、第1段第3句的looks around bewildered也可译为两个四字格,即“疑惑不解,四处张望”。
4、第1段第4句可看做是主人公表妹感到疑惑的原因,可与前一句合译,增加“因为”一词使得译文衔接更加自然。
5、第1段第5句的抽象名词the beauties and improvements的翻译应补充解释性词语,译作“美景和改造的地方”。
6、第2段第1句的future-mindedness即“关注未来的思想”,也可以译作“超前思维”或“远见”。vantage point相当于point of view,意为“观点,立场”。feel attached to…意为“喜欢、依恋…”,此处译作“寄托感情”或“倾注感情”。
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