翻译与文体--论说文翻译

　  论说文是书面语体中运用得非常广泛的一种文体，通常分为议论和论述两种，是相对于散文中的记叙（Narration）和描写（Description）而言的。其常见形式包括社科论著、论文、评论、演讲、讲座、报告等。论说文的文体特点主要有以下几条：

　　1） 措词严谨规范。论说文的功用主要在于对某一观点进行解释、说明或阐述，因此，此类文章讲求理性与逻辑性，在措词上表现为正式语体的词、大词、抽象词、外来词用得较多，而绝少使用俚语俗语及过于口语化的词，以体现其庄重、严谨的特点。

　　2） 句法及篇章结构较为复杂。由于论述文旨在解析思想，阐发论点，辨明事理，展开论证，因此文章内容往往比较复杂。为全面、慎密地表述自己的见解，避免片面、疏漏，论说文中往往长句、复杂句使用较多。另外论说文讲究谋篇布局及条理层次，因而在篇章结构上较为复杂，往往段落之间环环相扣，层层递进。除此之外，论说文还十分讲究修辞，辞格上多用排比、递进、设问等，以增强文章的感染力和说服力。

　　下面一例节选自一篇论说文，它较为清晰地显示了论说文体的主要特点：

Science and Ethics

　　Science impinges upon ethics in at least five different ways.

　　In the first place, by its application it creates new ethical situations. Two hundred years ago the news of a famine in China created no duty for Englishmen. They could take no possible action against it. Today the telegraph and the steam engine have made such action possible, and it becomes an ethical problem what action, if any, is right. Two hundred years ago a workman generally owned his own tools. Now his tool may be a crane or steam hammer, and we all have our own views as to whether these should belong to shareholders, the State, or guilds representing the workers.

　　Secondly, it may create new duties by pointing out previously unexpected consequences of our actions. We are all greed that we should not run the risk of spreading typhoid by polluting the public water supply. We are probably divided as to the duty of vaccinating our children, and we may not all be of one mind as to whether a person likely to transmit club foot or cataract to half his or her children should be compelled to abstain from parenthood.

　　Thirdly, science affects our whole ethical outlook by influencing our views as to the nature of the world-in fact, by supplanting mythology. One man may see men and animals as a great brotherhood of common ancestry and thus feel an enlargement of his obligations. Another will regard even the noblest aspects of human nature as products of a ruthless struggle for existence and thus justify a refusal to assist the weak and suffering. A third, impressed with the vanity of human efforts amid the vast indifference of the universe, will take refuge in a modified epicureanism. In all these attitudes and in many others there is at least some element of rightness.

　　Fourthly, in so far as anthropology is becoming scientific, it is bound to have a profound effect on ethics by showing that any given ethical code is only one of a number practiced with equal conviction and almost equal success; in fact, by creating comparative ethics. But, of course, any serious study of the habits of foreigners, whether scientific or not, had this effect, as comes out plainly enough in the history of ancient Greek ethics. Hence science is not wholly responsible for the ethical results of anthropology.

这篇论说文的主题句是Science impinges upon ethics in at least five different ways.作者分别从四个方面来说明这一主题思想，逻辑清晰、层次分明，读后让人一目了然。

　　翻译英语论说文，应注意以下几点

　　1） 理清原文的篇章结构。论说文的篇章结构往往较为复杂，因此在着手翻译前译者应首先分析一下原文的结构与布局，理清段与段之间的关系，以便从整体上把握全文的脉络。

　　2） 谨慎遣词造句。论说文在遣词造句上有其明显的特点，因此翻译中译者必须最大限度的体现原文在字、词、句方面的文体特征。在措词方面，一定要使译文与原文在语域上相适应。在句法方面，译文在避免翻译腔的同时应反映原文的句法特征，以体现论说文严谨、慎密的特点。此外，译文还应尽量再现原文的修辞特征，例如，原文如有排比结构，则译文也应设法以排比结构将之译出，以体现原文的气势与感染力。

　　3） 如果原文作者引经据典，译者在翻译中可采取加注或.释义的方法。如译一般论说文，以上2种方法则可视情况选用。如译演讲或发言，应以后一种方法为主。这主要是考虑到译文的语篇功能应与原文对等。当然，如果我们翻译一篇演讲或发言，只为他人参考或为了研究等别的目的，那么译者在处理典故时，不妨多用加注的方法，以便读者参考或弄清出处。

　　试看下面这篇论说文及其译文：

　　Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

　　Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

　　But in a large sense, we cannot dedicate - we cannot consecrate - we cannot hallow - this ground. The brave men, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here; but it can never forget what did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

　　八十七年前，我们的先辈们在这个大陆上创立了一个新国家，它孕育于自由之中，奉行一切人生来平等的原则。

　　现在我们正从事一场伟大的内战，以考验这个国家，或者任何一个孕育于自由和奉行上述原则的国家是否能够长久存在下去。我们在这场战争中的一个伟大战场上集会。烈士们为使这个国家能够生存下去而献出了自己的生命，我们来到这里，是要把这个战场的一部分奉献给他们作为最后的安息之所。我们这样做是完全应该而且非常恰当的。

　　但是，从更广泛的意义上来说，这块土地我们不能够奉献，不能够圣化，不能够神化。那些曾在这里战斗过的勇士们，活着的和去世的，已经把这块土地圣化了，这远不是我们微薄的力量所能增减的。我们今天在这里所说的话，全世界不大会注意，也不会长久地记住，但勇士们在这里所做过的事，全世界将永志不忘。毋宁说，倒是我们这些还活着的人，应该在这里把自己奉献于仍然留在我们面前的的未竟的事业——我们要从这些光荣的死者身上汲取更多的献身精神，来完成他们已彻底为之献身的事业；我们要在这里下定更大的决心，不让这些死者白白牺牲；我们要使国家在上帝的福佑下得到自由的新生，要使这个民有、民治、民享的政府永世长存。

　　该段落节选自林肯的著名演说Gettysburg Address.原文措词精炼典雅，并较多地使用了书面用语（literary words）；在句法上，文中句子长短交错，并频繁使用了一些复合结构，这使得演说呈现严谨的条理性和逻辑性；在修辞手法上，大量并列关系的词、词组和句子（及排比结构）的运用不仅使演讲气势磅礴，动人心扉，而且由于其整齐的句式和分明的节奏，也增强了演讲的感染力。译文在词法、句法及修辞方面紧跟原文，较好的体现了原文的意义与风格。如在措词上，译者较多地使用了诸如"先辈们"、"孕育"、"永志不忘"，"未竟的事业"，"汲取"，"福佑"，"永世长存"等富有文学色彩和感情色彩的词，这些词语的使用时的演讲显得庄重典雅，极富感染力。另一方面，在措词上译者还注意了选词的精炼，如"民有、民治、民享"三词言简意赅，可谓字字珠玑，堪称难得的佳译。在句子结构上，译文较好地控制了句子的长度与复杂性，使之显豁通达而不失庄重严谨。在修辞上，译者在译文中较好地体现了原文的排比结构，如"不能够……，不能够……，不能够……"，和"我们要……；我们要……；我们要……"等。总之，由于译者准确地理解了原作的思想内容并较好地把握了其语言风格，同时在遣词造句及修辞等方面精雕细琢，紧跟原文，因而译文在内容上忠实达意，在表达上酣畅淋漓，在风格上简练凝重，充分再现了原文的思想与文题风格，堪称上乘之译作。译文在内容上忠实达意，在表达上酣畅淋漓，在风格上简练凝重，充分再现了原文的思想与文题风格，堪称上乘之译作。