Joy有话说：这本书很好，大家如果以后有时间了可以看看，现在如果是忙着备考，就没必要看，因为和考试相关的知识点太少了。
一本讲述翻译入门的书
翻译初学者可能经常会感到一头雾水，看到原文下笔，下完笔后一对照译文就颇有种生无可恋的感觉。对照着译文改了，却又发现自己并不知道为什么要这么改，只好死记硬背，到头来发现自己换个词就不知道如何处理了。我想，这是大多数人一开始都会出现的问题，不仅仅是翻译，任何事情入门都极为重要。因此，这里向大家介绍一本讲述翻译入门的书，希望能给大家带来启发。
这本书的作者是陈德彰先生，陈德彰先生任教于北京外国语大学英语系，教授英语专业高年级的英汉、汉英笔译实践课。在讲评学生翻译作业问题时，往往需要相当数量的例子，举一反三，从而说明某种译法，于是作者开始有意识地搜集各种例子。在这个过程中，作者发现，对英汉语言进行语义、结构、习惯用法、语用意义、文化等方面的分析对比，能够找出一些规律性的东西，从而帮助学生不仅知其然，还能知其所以然。经过不断的补充和更新，最终形成十几个问题的讲义，这本书也大致形成于此。
这本书用英语写成，列举的例子也以英译汉为主，但作者认为比较两种语言的异同既可以指导英汉翻译也可以指导汉英翻译，所以，这本书中英汉翻译和汉英翻译是放在一起的。
先来带大家看一下这本书的一个写作框架。
Introduction
Disparity between “corresponding words” in English and Chinese
Different Ways of Expressing Actions
Different Perspective behind the Language
Tenure of the Sentence Structure
Translation as Cross-cultural Communication
Pragmatics and Translation
在开篇的introduction部分，作者就向我们抛出了这样一个问题：Is translation easy?
作者并没有直接给出答案，而是先告诉我们：
“Some people think translation is easy: As long as you know some grammar rules of a foreign language you can translate with the help of a dictionary.”
真的是这样吗？我相信我们很多人都并非这么认为。因为我们在学习翻译的过程中，经常会遇到每个单词都认识，每个句子都理解，但还是理解错误，或是理解正确，写出来的东西却不像中国话的情况。
作者在书中也对此提出了疑问，然后他给出了几个很简单的例子来告诉我们translation is not easy at all。
“Is it really so? Now look at the following seemingly easy sentences and see if you can translate them easily. (Can you see what is wrong with the translations provided in brackets?)”
1) He is easily the best student in the class. (他很容易地成了班上最好的学生）
2) The stranger robbed his wife. (那个陌生人抢了他的妻子）
3）They gave the boy the lie. (他们对男孩说谎）
There doesn’t seem to be any new words for most students and none of the sentences is very complicated in grammar. Now, lets analyse them one by one.
1) The word easily in sentence 1 is not of the usual sense and can’t be translated as容易地. It means“ by far”. So the sentence should be translated as他绝对/无疑是班上最好的学生or他比班上别的学生要好许多。
2）The meaning of抢了他的妻子 in the translation of sentence2 is ambiguous. It may mean the stranger took away the woman and made her his own wife. But what was actually taken was not the woman but her money or personal belongings. So a clear translation should be那个陌生人抢了他妻子的钱(东西)。试想一下，若是真的译成了抢了他的妻子，估计就会闹大笑话了。
3）Sentence 4 is an idiomatic way to express certain ideas. Here “give” does not mean :make somebody possess something”, but rather “scold” or “punish”. So the correct translation of the sentence is 他们指责男孩说谎（他们指责男孩编造的这个谎言）。
Literal translation VS Liberal translation
Either of the languages has different ways to express ideas, so there’s always an argument between literal translation and liberal translation.
在说明直译和意译之分的时候，作者用一个很经典的例子来向我们说明了字对字翻译的不妥之处，当然，文化差异也是其中很重要的一个方面。
The following is a joke often quoted to laugh at word-for-word translation.
F(foreigner): Your wife is very beautiful!
I( interpreter: 你的太太真漂亮!
C( Chinese): 哪里，哪里!
I: Where, where!
F: From head to toe.
I:从头到脚(都美)。
C:不见得,不见得。
I: Not to be seen, not to be seen.
这个例子可能相对特殊，作者也深知这一点，所以接下来他又举了几个例子，来说明我们在翻译时不能过分追求单词确切的字面含义。比如说这句：“You flattered me”, 若完全按字面来，就是“你吹捧我”、“你抬举我”、甚至是“你拍我”，这样的翻译显然不符合我们平时的说话习惯，译成（你）过奖（我）了，或哪里，哪里！岂不是更好！
再比如在Corresponding words这部分，陈德彰先生是这样说明word的：
Words are the basic units of meaning of any language. What we actually translate in any kind of translation is words but nothing.由此可见正确理解词义对翻译来说意义重大。
However, there are many lexical gaps between English and Chinese, which often give rise to difficulties in translation.
For example, it is difficult to translate the simple sentence 他书包里有五只笔。Because there is no word in English corresponding to the word 笔.
如pencil是铅笔
ballpoint pen 是圆珠笔
writing brush是毛笔
ruling pen 是鸭嘴笔
比如，中文里说“他手里拿着一本书”和“他手上抱着一个孩子”。
英文里相对应的则是：He had a book in his hand; He had a baby in his arms.
中文一个是“拿着”，一个是“抱着”，英文里都是“have”，若是要将英文译成中文，你是否还会注意到动词的不同呢？这些都是一些最简单的句子，但翻译起来仍有许多需要注意的地方。
再比如，“送”和“send”，先来看这样两个句子：
The company sent a car to the airport to pick me up. 公司派了一辆车到机场接我。
Please send my breakfast to my room. 请将早饭送到我的房间去！
要弄清为什么，就像作者说的那样：“Dictionaries can provide us with an answer”。
Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary says “when you send sth. to sth, you arrange for it to be taken and delivered to him, for example by the postal service.” The Oxford Advanced Learners dictionary of current English gives this definition for the word send: “cause sb. or sth. to go or be carried without going yourself.” So we can see the subject of the verb send does not do the action himself. However, according to《现代汉语词典》, the verb送 has three meanings:(1)把东西运去或拿去送人; (2)赠送; (3)陪着离去的人一起走。This means the subject of送 does the action himself. By saying the sentence “Please send my breakfast to my room”, the speaker is not asking the listener (the receptionist of a hotel) to take breakfast but to arrange someone else to take the breakfast o the customers room.
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最后，介绍一个different ways of expressing actions
1、He took a glance at the girl. 他看了姑娘一眼。
2、He took a quick glance at the girl. 他很快地看了姑娘一眼。
3、He stole a glance at the girl. 他偷偷地看了姑娘一眼。
Then what’s the difference between the top three sentences?
took a glance VS took a quick glance VS stole a glance
(add a modifier & change the verb to make the sentence more vivid)
从中文来看，这三句话的区别在于看的状态不一样，一个就是单纯的看，一个是很快地看，一个是偷偷地看，“很快地”、“偷偷地”，都是一个副词，但是我们比较这三者的英文时却发现1，3两个句子的区别仅仅在于动词，动词的差异就可以很形象的表达偷偷的含义；而1，2两个句子的差异在于多了一个起修饰作用的形容词。
英汉两种语言的差异当然不仅如此，这里只列举了书里的一小部分，相信看到这里的你们或多或少都会有一些解惑之感。最后，还是希望这本书能带给大家不一样的启发。
