评论
打印
2003年11月，人民教育出版社出版了《李岚清教育访谈录》。2004年金秋时节，不到一年的时间， 便有英译本问世。英译本取名《Education for 1.3 Billion 》（《为了13亿人的教育》），是由我国的外语教学与研究出版社和英国的培生教育出版集团（Pearson Education） 共同出版的。
作者专为英译本写了一篇序言，对出版英译本的背景和意图作了说明，并且提到，鉴于读者的文化背景和教育背景不同，而且中文和英文之间也存在差异，英译本有一些变通的地方，但这不影响读者了解本书的内容。
更多考虑外国读者的不同情况而在译文的文字上有所变通，这无疑代表一种新的翻译思路，必将对我国译界产生深远的影响。这一方面的情况很值得进一步研究。本文只想利用以下几个选段，以注释的形式谈一谈有关汉译英的一些基本问题的体会。
例1：
4.6 “尚方宝剑”和“借东风”
记者：高校宏观结构调整和管理体制改革，几乎涉及到所有高校。有的学校办了几十年被并掉了，有的高校的校名因合并被改掉了，但总体进展比较平稳。推动这样大的改革，您有何感受？
4.6 Applying the 'imperial sword' and seizing the opportunities (1)
Interviewer:
Virtually all China's universities have been involved in the overall restructuring and administrative reform. Some have been merged despite the fact that they were around for decades. Some have been renamed after they were merged. Progress, however, has largely been smooth. How do you feel about orchestrating such massive reform?
注1. 这一节的题目非常生动，用了两个典故。第一个典故，译文保留了原文的形象，第二个典故则没有保留。这是为什么？也许我们看到下面就明白了。
例2：
李岚清：改革之所以能这样平稳，我的体会主要有以下几方面。
一是抓学习，讲形势，统一思想认识。邓小平同志关于教育改革问题有许多科学论述。江泽民同志在接见四所交通大学负责人时指出：“我们的教育工作必须进一步解决好两大重要问题，一是教育要全面适应现代化建设对各级各类人才培养的需要，而是要全面提高办学的质量和效益。这也可以说是当前全国教育工作面临的两个重要转变。”对于处在教育事业龙头地位的高等教育来说，要实现这“两个重要转变”，必须进一步深化高等教育管理体制改革。中共中央和国务院印发的《中国教育改革和发展纲要》和党的十四大、十五大报告，以及两届政府总理在全国人代会上所作的政府工作报告中，都有一系列关于教育改革的方针、政策，还有全国人大及其常委会通过的关于教育的法律，我们都抓住不放，组织大家认真学习，不厌其烦地反复讲，目的就是为了统一各级领导干部的思想。这些重要的方针、政策、法律、文件，我把它们比作“尚方宝剑”。我们要善于运用这些“尚方宝剑”来统一思想。形势发展呼唤着高等教育的改革。随着社会主义现代化建设的不断前进，社会主义市场经济体制的逐步建立，科学技术的迅速发展，高等教育只有改革才能适应经济和社会发展的要求，才能肩负起中华民族伟大复兴的历史使命。形势任务搞清楚了，大家的认识就容易统一了。
Li Lanqing:
The smooth progress of reform can be attributed to the following factors. (2)
First, we have organized studies of government policies to clarify the situation and reach a consensus on what we wanted to accomplish. (3) Deng Xiaoping had put forward many scientific viewpoints on education reform. During a meeting with leaders of the four Jiaotong universities (Beijing, Shanghai, Southwest and Xi'an) (4), Jiang Zemin said, "In our work on education we must tackle two major issues. (5) One is that education must meet the demand of the modernization drive for qualified professionals at all levels and of all types; the other is that managerial quality and efficiency has to be raised across the board in school administration. These two issues may be seen as the two major changes essential to China's work on education." (6)
To effect the "two major changes" in higher education, which is pivotal to education as a whole, reform of the administrative system has to be deepened. (7) A series of principles and policies on education reform are featured in the Program for China's Education Reform and Development issued by the central government, the reports to the 14th and 15th National Congresses of CPC, and the reports on government work delivered by the premiers of the two successive central governments to the National People's Congress. The NPC and its Standing Committee have passed several laws on education. We have organized careful studies of all these principles, policies, documents and laws for the single purpose of reaching a consensus among leaders at all levels. (8) I likened these principles, policies, documents and laws to the "imperial sword" - symbols of supreme authority. (9) We need the "imperial sword" to focus our minds and actions. The situation cries for higher education reform. At a time when the socialist modernization drive is going strong, with the socialist market economy here to stay, and science and technology progressing apace, higher education has to be transformed - both to meet the demands of socioeconomic development and to shoulder the great historical mission of rejuvenating China. (10) Once the situation and tasks come into focus, reaching a consensus becomes simple.
注2. 这句译文值得注意的是attribute一词。英语需要表达“归功于……”之类的意思是，经常用这个词。
注3. 这句原文像个小标题，用分词来译也是可以的。但译文加了东西，比较长，更像一个句子，所以还是用we作主语较好。此外，“抓学习”若只译作organized studies，不够具体，所以译文加了of government policies。 这也不是随便加的，看一看下文就明白了。加在这里，也可以与下文有所呼应。consensus后面加了on what we wanted to accomplish, 也是因为同样的道理。
注4. 这句译文在four Jiaotong universities 后面略作解释，就是照顾外国读者的需要。
注5. 原文以“我们的教育工作”为主语，但在英文里，以we作主语更便于和动词搭配。
注6. 中文的段落比较长，而英文不太喜欢很长的段落。因此，中译英时，常需在适当的地方将一段分为两段，甚至分为更多的段落。
注7. 这句原文无主语，译文没有加we，而是用了被动语态。这也是常见的一种译法。
注8. 这里原文是一句，而译文分成了三句，这样译比较清楚。
注9. 这一句把“尚方宝剑”之所指作了说明，译者更对其含义作了解释。有这句话在这里与本节的题目相呼应，意思就很清楚了，因此题目的译文保留了原文的形象。其实，即使没有这句话，题目这样译，意思也是清楚的。
注10. 原文“随着”后面有三个名词词组，译文若只用with来引导，显得结构过于单调。现在译文先用At a time when引出一个从句，然后再用with，就比较灵活。
例3：
二是向前看，不争论，少宣扬，多实干。改革之初，有些同志曾提出，要改革，首先就要批判过去高等教育体制的弊端。对此我坚决不同意，并说服这些同志要用历史唯物主义的观点看问题，否则我们就永远没有正确的是非标准。中国共产党之所以是个成熟的政党，其中重要的一条就是我们善于用辩证唯物主义和历史唯物主义来正确地处理“继承与发展”的关系问题。不管你的成就多大，都有历史的局限，不能当事后诸葛亮。我们今天的改革，大家认为是正确的，甚至是很有前瞻性的。但过多少年以后，用那时的标准来看今天的改革，也许会被后人认为是难以理解的“古董”。但你能否认今天的改革成果吗？所以，不必要的争论不但对推进改革无益，反而会影响改革进程。我们只有从实际出发，针对现存的问题进行改革，尽量做好在当前时代条件下能做到的事。
Second, we must look forward, waste absolutely no time on unnecessary arguing and hype, and work more in a down-to-earth way. (11) In the beginning, some people had suggested criticizing the drawbacks in higher education prior to reform. (12) I said no and persuaded them to look at things from the perspective of historical materialism, otherwise we could never find the criteria for telling right from wrong. (13) A major reason why the Communist Party of China is a mature party is because we are good at applying dialectical materialism and historical materialism when handling the relationship between inheriting and developing. All achievements, no matter how big, have historical limits, and the "I told you so" attitude gets us nowhere. (14) Today, everyone is saying the reform is correct and rather farsighted. However, many years in the future, if people use their contemporary standards to judge the reform of today, they may see it as some sort of unfathomable "antique". But can you negate the reform and its results today because of that? Therefore, unnecessary arguments can do nothing for the progress of reform but hinder it. (15) We can only proceed from reality, carry out reform to redress existing problems, and do what we can under the circumstances. (16)
