MTI备考之M君讲翻译㉞
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M君讲翻译系列，每周一练，本周带来一篇英译汉练习材料。本周的文章让我们一起关注到上世纪影响深远的大萧条时期。文章介绍了大萧条时期人们经历的各种苦难，生动描绘了经济大萧条对于人们生活的巨大影响。练翻译的同时还可以涨见识，赶快跟着M君一起来翻译新材料吧！
Day Day Up
原文：
It is difficult to measure the human cost of the Great Depression. The material hardships were bad enough. Men and women lived in lean-tos made of scrap wood and metal, and families went without meat and fresh vegetables for months, existing on a diet of soup and beans. The psychological burden was even greater: Americans suffered through year after year of grinding poverty with no letup in sight. The unemployed stood in line for hours waiting for relief checks, veterans sold apples or pencils on street corners, their manhood once prized so highly by the nation--now in question. People left the city for the countryside but found no salvation on the farm. Crops rotted in the fields because prices were too low to make harvesting worthwhile; sheriffs fended off angry crowds as banks foreclosed long overdue mortgages on once prosperous farms.
Few escaped the suffering. African Americans who had left the poverty of the rural South for factory jobs in the North were among the first to be laid off. Mexican Americans, who had flowed in to replace European immigrants, met with competition from angry citizens, now willing to do stoop labor in the fields and work as track layers on the railroads. Immigration officials used technicalities to halt the flow across the Rio Grande and even to reverse it; nearly a half million Mexicans were deported in the 1930s, including families with children born in the United States.
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翻译要点：
lean-to 单坡屋顶，披屋，披棚
grinding poverty 难于忍受的贫困，极度贫困
letup （口语）停止，放松，减弱
foreclose 预先处理，预先了结；取消赎取抵押品之权利
overdue 过期未付
stoop labor （收割蔬菜或采摘矮果实等时的）弯腰劳动；弯腰作业
the Rio Grande 格兰德河
deport 驱逐出境
1. It is difficult to measure the human cost of the Great Depression.
本句中human cost不是“人力成本”，而是“对人们造成的影响”，翻译时切不可不顾语境，生搬硬套字典解释。
2. Men and women lived in lean-tos made of scrap wood and metal, and families went without meat and fresh vegetables for months, existing on a diet of soup and beans.
本句例举了大萧条时期人们的吃住情况，具体说明物质上苦难的深重，汉译时可选用一些具体的动词来翻译原文中相对抽象的make、go without和exist on等词，同时men and women和families译做叠词，增强感染力。故整句译为：男男女女都住在破木板废铁皮搭起的披棚里，家家户户数月吃不上肉和新鲜蔬菜，只能用清汤和豆子填肚子。另外英语中区分谓语动词和非谓语动词，翻译成汉语时，不必突出这种句法关系，直接译成动词，按汉语语序排列即可。
3. The psychological burden was even greater...
这里The psychological burden was even greater呼应前文The material hardships were bad enough，结构相似，通过形容词原型与比较级的对比形成递进，从而突出心理负担的沉重。翻译时，我们固可以按原文语序译做“（大萧条给人们带来的）心理负担更为沉重”，但若颠倒语序，以“更为沉重”起句，更能起到强调作用；从汉语语篇衔接讲，这样译既顺接前句的“深重”，又使“心理负担”和后文的具体事例连贯，很好地起到了承上启下作用，故译为：更为沉重的是心理上的负担。
4. Americans suffered through year after year of grinding poverty with no letup in sight.
本句中with no letup in sight指看不到丝毫停止、减弱或好转的迹象，汉译时，我们不必拘泥原文，字对字翻译，不妨译为“前景渺茫”更为顺畅贴切。
5. The unemployed stood in line for hours waiting for relief checks, veterans sold apples or pencils on street corners, their manhood once prized so highly by the nation--now in question.
这里的manhood并不是指“男性的成年期”或“男子总称”，而是指“男子所具有的大丈夫气概，勇敢、刚毅、果断等”，因此我们翻译为“雄姿英发，气概非凡”。此后破折号间的话语是插入语，补充了过去的情形，破折号后的内容说明大萧条时的情况。原文中nation和question押韵，后句now in question短促有力，形成高潮，并与前文相对，翻译时应仔细体会其间的句法和修辞效果，努力实现原文作者的意图。我们不妨将once prized so highly by the nation译为“全国上下，无不赞叹”，铿锵有力，顺应前面的四字结构。now in question则可用调侃的语气翻译成“现在，这种气概不知到哪里去了”与前文形成鲜明对比。
6. Crops rotted in the fields because prices were too low to make harvesting worthwhile...
本句意思是，由于农作物卖不出好价钱，农民们干脆不采摘，让其烂在地里。翻译时要注意英汉语序差别，汉语以意合为主，连词、关联词使用不多，一般按时间先后和先因后果的顺序串联意群，故本句需调整语序，翻译为：农产品价格过低，采摘得不偿失，农作物全都白白烂在地里。
7. ...sheriffs fended off angry crowds as banks foreclosed long overdue mortgages on once prosperous farms.
翻译本句时需要理清原文意思，调整语序，可译为：许多曾经繁荣富足的农场，因长期拖欠抵押贷款，而被银行没收，愤怒的农民欲夺回财产，但却遭到了警方的阻拦。注意原文并没有直接说农场“被银行没收”，而意为被取消了回赎权，但我们翻译时将这层推断出的意思译明。另外，原文中的sheriffs fended off angry crowds翻译时需要补充逻辑上的缺层，说明来龙去脉，不可简单地翻译成“愤怒的农民遭到警方的阻拦”。
8. Mexican Americans, who had flowed in to replace European immigrants, met with competition from angry citizens, now willing to do stoop labor in the fields and work as track layers on the railroads.
本句中stoop labor指收割蔬菜或采摘矮果实等时的弯腰劳动，这里可引申译为“干卑微的农活”。后句中work as track layers on the railroads不必字对字翻译成“在铁路上当铺轨工”，而可以参照前句结构，译为“铺设铁轨”。
9. Immigration officials used technicalities to halt the flow across the Rio Grande and even to reverse it...
翻译本句时需注意technicalities为复数，应译为“各种手段”，体现复数的语法意义。
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