中國(guó)人最容易犯的英漢翻譯錯(cuò)誤2

  請(qǐng)大家看一看下面這兩句翻譯得對(duì)不對(duì)：

  1）他不顧危險(xiǎn)沖進(jìn)大火去搶救被困在屋子里的人。Ignoring the danger, he rushed into fire to rescue those trapped in the house.

  2）他奮不顧身跳進(jìn)急流去救那個(gè)男孩。He jumped into the torrent to save the boy disregarding his own life.

  從語法上看這兩句都沒錯(cuò)，粗一看用詞好像也沒問題，甚至有的詞典也是這樣譯的。英譯的問題其實(shí)出在ignore和disregard這兩個(gè)詞上。我們來看看最新版（第四版）的Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 對(duì)disregard下的定義：（1）[ v ]to ignore something or treat it as unimportant; (2) [ n ] when someone ignores something they should not ignore. 再看ignore的定義：1. to deliberately pay no attention to something that you have bee told or that you know about, 2. to behave as if you had not heard or seen someone or something. 從中我們可以看出這兩個(gè)詞都強(qiáng)調(diào)故意“忽略”或者“不顧”本來應(yīng)該注意或顧及的事物，是一種疏忽大意或一意孤行的獨(dú)斷行為。而“奮不顧身”是說“顧不上”或“來不及考慮”，所以，這樣譯把好事譯成了壞事，給人以故意拿生命開玩笑的感覺。這里正確的詞應(yīng)該是regardless，當(dāng)然，用at the risk of one’s life（冒著生命危險(xiǎn)）也可以。

  這提醒我們要辨別英語中表示否定的詞綴的確切含義，比如dis-和-less都是表示否定的詞綴，但含義是不一樣的：-less一般加在名詞之后，表示“沒有”，從意思上說和加在動(dòng)詞前的un-類似，表示一般意義上的否定，如a coverless box是“一只沒有蓋子的盒子”，uncover a box（與cover a box相反的動(dòng)作）意為“打開一只盒子”，但是，discover a box則是“發(fā)現(xiàn)了一只盒子”的意思，即dis-所表示的否定意思比un-還要進(jìn)一步。有時(shí)，加上否定詞綴后詞義會(huì)發(fā)生變化，大家都知道uneven并不是even的反義詞；uninterested是interested的反義詞，表示“不感興趣”，可是disinterested的意思卻是“沒有偏見或成見”。

  還有一句有問題的英譯與本文開始討論的兩句有類似之處：

  3）他沒有脫衣服就跳下水去救那個(gè)落水兒童。He jumped into the water to save the drowning child without taking off his clothes.

  這樣翻譯出來的英語讓人覺得脫衣服是救人之前一項(xiàng)必需的程序，如果譯為he didn’t even take off any clothes或he had no time to take off his clothes就會(huì)好得多。有人問能不能說He jumped into the water to save the drowning wholly dressed，我也認(rèn)為不好，因?yàn)閣holly dressed給人一種“全副盛裝”的感覺。如果有人故意出洋相，不脫衣服調(diào)入游泳池，倒可以說He jumped into the swimming pool without taking off his clothes/wholly dressed.