One day in the dead of winter, I looked out my back window and saw a chicken.

游客2023-12-08  14

问题    One day in the dead of winter, I looked out my back window and saw a chicken. It was jet-black with a crimson wattle, and it seemed unaware that it was in New York City. In classic barnyard fashion, it was scratching, pecking and clucking.
   I shrugged off the apparition. Birds come and go. Usually they’re pigeons, not chickens, but like other birds, this one had wings and it would probably use them. Or so I thought.
   The protagonist of this story is known simply as the chicken. How it came to a small backyard here, remains a matter of conjecture. The chicken made its first appearance next door, at the home of a multitude of cabdrivers from Bangladesh. My wife, Nancy, and I figured they bad bought the chicken and were fattening it for a feast. That hypothesis fell into doubt when the chicken hopped the fence and began pacing the perimeter of our yard with a proprietary air.
   Eating it was out of the question. As a restaurant critic and an animal lover, I subscribe to a policy of complete hypocrisy. Serve fish or fowl to me, but don’t ask me to watch the killing. Once I meet it, I don’t want to eat it.
   Nancy and I next theorized that the chicken had escaped from a live-poultry market about four blocks away and was on the run. Our hearts went out to the brave little refugee. We had to save it.

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答案     故事的主人公就叫小鸡。至于它怎么会来到这里一直让人捉摸不透。小鸡第一次出场是在隔壁邻居家,那儿住着许多从孟加拉来的出租车司机。我和我太太南希猜想一定是他们买了鸡,打算养肥了好饱餐一顿。可是后来小鸡跳过篱笆,在我家的后院大摇大摆地巡视,俨然一副主人的架势,我们俩的这种假设也就大有疑问了。
   吃掉它?绝不会。我既爱美食,又爱动物,只能采取十足的伪君子政策——鸡鸭鱼肉我都吃,但别让我看见屠宰过程,看了就不想吃了。
   于是,我和南希推测,小鸡可能是从四个街区以外的生禽市场跑出来的,属于在逃之列。我们俩从心里同情这个勇敢的逃难者。我们得救救它。

解析 本文翻译涉及到语态的转化,词性转换,词义的选择、引申,断句处理等翻译技巧。首句中的“就叫”转化为被动语态“is known as”,符合汉语多主动、英文多被动的表达习惯。首段第三句是较长的简单句,将句子断开,译成符合汉语表达习惯的两个短句。该段末句为主从复合句,句子较长,需要断开处理,其中涉及到词义的选择和引申,a proprietary air从“一副所有者的神情”引申为“一副主人的架势”。第二段第二句的critic和animal lover转换成动宾结构译出。
   这段材料选自The New York Times中的一篇文章Chicken Delight,由于是记叙文体,语言生动、自然,一幅田园画面跃然纸上,因此翻译时语言也无需特别中规中矩,准确把握原意,通顺译出即可。
   1.protagonist是指戏剧、故事、小说中的主角,这里翻译成“主人公”更为生动。
   2.第二句中的conjecture意为“推测,猜想”,这里remains a matter of conjecture译为“让人捉摸不透”既忠实于原文,又符合汉语表达习惯。
   3.第三句中的a multitude of是“许多”之意。
   4.第四句中的figure有不同含义,这里是动词词性,由前面的conjecture和下一句中的hypothesis可以推断这里figure也是“猜测、推断”之意。
   5.首段末句为主从复合句,when引导时间状语从句,其中hopped和began为并列谓语。proprietary是proprietor(所有者)的形容词,这里的air意为“神情、神色”,因此a proprietary air可译为“一副主人的架势”。
   6.第二段首句中的out of the question是“不可能”之意,注意区分它和out of question(毫无疑问),两者意思截然不同。
   7.第二段第二句中的subscribe的常见含义是“订阅”,这里subscribe to意为“同意”。
   8.第二段第三句中的Serve fish or fowl to me根据上下文意译为“鸡鸭鱼肉我都吃”。
   9.末段中的on the run意为“在逃、逃跑”。
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