高晓松的英文怎么样?
2.16日微博账号“盖茨基金会”发布了高晓松采访比尔盖茨的视频:
我们一起来看看这个视频,看看大紧老师的英文怎么样:
https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=n0375byqpm6&width=500&height=375&auto=0
我认为高晓松的英语非常不错,表达清楚易懂、自然大方,谈笑风生毫无问题。例如刚开始他是这样说的:
I've got goosebumps, you know, time and time again reading your annual letter. Your foundation got a lot of phenomenal success and incredible progress. But, among all those achievements, what would you consider to be the most invisible achievement that is unknown to people?
(红色部分是大家可以学习的表达)
先套近乎表示自己是盖茨的迷弟,然后夸一夸他再提问题,这是基本的聊天套路。不过他可能是有点紧张,头部有些乱晃...
语法上,整体没有大问题,而且还是很得体的,例如What would you consider... If you were to write a letter...这两处就用到了虚拟语气表示委婉和假设。发音上,他的偏美式口音(发音和语调)要比大多数的国人都要准确自然,例如"letter"中的flap t,"lot"中的ɑ音,很美国。但是他的idea这个词还是加了卷舌,这是一个常见的错误(并不影响理解)。
另外要谈一下他的翻译。
2011年高晓松因酒驾入狱,在狱中他翻译了马尔克斯的晚年小说Memories of My Melancholy Whores(从英译本转译),取名为《昔年种柳》。风格是用北京话翻译的,截取一段大家感受一下:
The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin. I thought of Rosa Cabarcas, the owner of an illicit house who would inform her good clients when she had a new girl available. I never succumbed to that or to any of her many other lewd temptations, but she did not believe in the purity of my principles. Morality, too, is a question of time, she would say with a malevolent smile, you’ll see.
日子翻回我九张儿那年,那时我打算送给自己一份生日好礼 -- 找个雏儿,过个夜,撒点儿野。我想起了罗莎.卡巴卡斯同志,一个有了好果儿就立马发给熟客的地下老鸨。我之前从没中过伊的淫招儿,但伊也从没相信我是个脱离了低级趣味的清教徒。我拨电话时猜想伊肯定会一脸坏笑地对我说:清教徒也会被如梭岁月打败嘿嘿。
2014年诺兰拍了《星际穿越》(Interstellar),其中提到了威尔士诗人Dylan Thomas的名篇Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night,高晓松贴出了他的译文(在此只提三句):
Do not go gentle into that good night,
绝不向黑夜请安
Old age should burn and rave at the close of day;
老朽请于白日尽头涅槃
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
咆哮于光之消散
先不说翻译的怎么样,敢翻译并且贴出来和大家分享,说明他对自己的英文还是很自信的。听说读写译整体看,我认为高晓松的英文水平比绝大数人都要高一些。
最后的问题是,听懂盖茨说的话了吗?“肺结核” “疫苗” “疟疾” “麻疹” “小儿麻痹症” 的英文怎么说?没听懂的话边听边拿个小本记一记。另外想一想,如果让你采访他,你会问他什么问题,到时会不会紧张的说不出话来?勤学苦练,要装也得有资本啊!