Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the

游客2023-12-11  23

问题     Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the verge of despair.
    I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy — ecstasy so great that I would have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness — that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what — at last — I have found.

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答案     我一生有三个愿望,简单却极其强烈:一是对爱的渴望,二是对知识的探索,三是对人类痛苦的无限悲悯。这三个愿望如同疾风般,把我吹得东飘西荡,在苦痛的深海上随波逐流,直至绝望的彼岸。
    我追求爱情,因为它使人心醉神迷——这种沉醉是如此的美妙,让我宁愿舍弃余生,为的是享有这片刻的欢乐;去追求爱,因为它能驱走寂寞之感——这种可怕的孤独感令人不寒而栗,使人俯视天地之边缘,望向绝望的无底深渊;终于,我找到了爱。因为在爱的和谐中,我看到了圣贤和诗人幻想中神秘天堂的缩影。这就是我所寻求的,虽然对于凡人而言,它似乎过于美好而遥不可及,但这就是我最终找到的。

解析     本篇节选自英国著名哲学家伯特兰?罗素(Bertrand Russell)的经典名篇What I Have Lived For。此文既是作者心灵的抒发,也是生命体验的总结,是一篇优秀散文。文章行文流畅,用词优美,故而在翻译时,要注意体现出原文的文体风格。
1.  第一段第一句,three passions为主语,是典型的英语无人称句型,译为汉语时需添加人称,这样更符合汉语习惯。
2.  overwhelmingly:incapable of being resisted(压倒性地;不可抵抗地)。这里强调 passion的强烈程度,引申为程度副词“极其地”。
3.  unbearable:incapable of being put up with(难以忍受的;承受不住的)。“unbearable pity”在文中译作“无限悲悯”。
4.hither and thither:from one place or situation to another,作“到处”解。
5.  wayward:resistant to guidance or discipline(任性的;不规则的;刚愎的),在这里作“随意的”解。
6.  verge:本义为“边缘”,这里“verge of despair”引申为“绝望的彼岸”。
7.  第二段前三句,分别使用了first,next,finally三个连接词,表逻辑上的衔接,而汉语侧重在隐性逻辑的衔接,故此处三个词可译,也可省。
8.ecstasy:a state of elated bliss(狂喜,欣喜若狂)。
9.  第二段第二句relieve本义为“解除,减轻;使……免于……”,这里relieve loneliness引申为“驱走寂寞之感”。而“that terrible loneliness in which...”,则采用断句法,将定语从句单独译成一句,即“这种可怕的孤独感令人不寒而栗.使人俯视天地之边缘,望向绝望的无底深渊”。
10.  “shivering consciousness”中“consciousness”本义为”意识”、“知觉”,在此处无须直译出来。
11.  “the rim of the world”中“rim”的意思是“边缘”。
12.  “cold unfathomable lifeless abyss”若一字不漏的直译。则失了汉语的味道,读来别扭,倒不如意译为“绝望的无底深渊”。其中unfathomable的意思是“深不可测的”。
13.第二段第三句中“in the union of love”中“union”本义为“联盟,协会;工会;联合”等,此处引申为“在爱的和谐中”。
14.miniature:可译为“缩影”。
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