英译汉中的对称

英语句子除了结构严谨、用词抽象、从句繁多给翻译造成一定的困难之外，使用对称手法也是我们要注意的一个难点。对称有两层含义：一是结构上对称、表现为使用并列连词and/or/but；二是语意上对称，表现为使用同一类型的词、同义词或反义词。正因为英语使用了对称手法，一些词的词义或者表达法会发生微妙的变化，需要我们反映敏锐，明察秋毫。

例一：New forms of thought as well as new subjects for thought must arise in the future as they have in he past ,giving rise to new standards of elegance .(1996年英译汉真题)

分析：new forms of thought 照字面译成"新的思维方式"，显然是很好的翻译，而new subjects for thought如果翻译成"新的思维学科"或"新的思维主题"则明显有问题。作者在此用了对称表达，以英语为母语的人肯定知道subjects与forms在这里是相对的概念，subjects表示"对象"或者"内容"。翻译成中文时如果只是对着subjects这个词苦思冥想而不以forms为参照物，那就难免会走入死胡同。

例二：The target is wrong ,for in attacking the tests , critics divert attention from the fault that lies with ill-informed or incompetent users. (1995年英译汉真题)

分析：ill-informed 与incompetent显然也是对称表达。表面上看，这两个词都是超纲词，但它们都是大纲内的词构成的，其中incompetent更好理解，只要把ill-informed同incompetent 一联系起来，ill-informed也可以同时被拿下。

例三：During this transfer, traditional historical methods were augmented by additional methodologies designed to interpret the new forms of evidence in the historical study. (1999年英译汉真题)

分析：在我们的印象中，traditional和additional并不是一对反义词，由于methods和methodologies在句中同义。 methodology一般作抽象名词用，意为"方法学"，"方法论"，如the methodology of dialectical materialism（辩证唯物主义的方法论）。但如果作可数名词使用，尤其是用复数形式的时候，它的意思是"方法"，如an oral-based methodology(以口语为基础的教学法)。题中methodology用的是复数，所以正确的翻译是"方法"。此外根据英语不喜欢重复的特点，作者前面用了method，后面便变化使用methodologies表达同样的意思。而动词augment又是"增加"的意思，additional在此必须与traditional对照翻译成"新的"，如果译成"附加的"、"额外的"都是错误的。因为additional译为"附加的"虽然符合辞典上的解释，但在句中却出现了逻辑错误，传统的研究方法中增加的决不是"附加的"或"额外的"东西，additional在此实际上相当于new或者other,所以应该翻译成"新的"或"其他的"。

从上面的例子我们可以看出，英译汉句子中常出现对称表达，而这些对称表达往往会使一些词产生的新的词义和新的用法，这给我们的翻译无疑会增加一定的难度。但是只要我们用心观察、善于分析，对称表达同时也可以成为我们理解和表达的突破口，关键是我们要培养这种敏感性和反应能力。

【高高兴兴做作业，轻轻松松收沪元】

以下是1997年的考研英语阅读文章，popo想如果用真题文章来"恋"翻译，难度系数或者上下文背景都能满足，而且绝对有实战的感觉吧~别等了,快开做啦！

　It was 3:45 in the morning when the vote was finally taken. （1）After six months of arguing and final 16 hours of hot parliamentary debates, Australia's Northern Territory became the first legal authority in the world to allow doctors to take the lives of incurably ill patients who wish to die. The measure passed by the convincing vote of 15 to 10. Almost immediately word flashed on the Internet and was picked up, half a world away, by John Hofsess, executive director of the Right to Die Society of Canada. He sent it on via the group's on-line service, Death NET. Says Hofsess: "We posted bulletins all day long, because of course this isn't just something that happened in Australia. It's world history."

　　The full import may take a while to sink in. The NT Rights of the Terminally Ⅲ law has left physicians and citizens alike trying to deal with its moral and practical implications.（2）Some have breathed sighs of relief, others, including churches, right-to-life groups and the Australian Medical Association, bitterly attacked the bill and the haste of its passage. But the tide is unlikely to turn back. （3）In Australia - where an aging population, life-extending technology and changing community attitudes have all played their part - other states are going to consider making a similar law to deal with euthanasia. In the US and Canada, where the right-to-die movement is gathering strength, observers are waiting for the dominoes to start falling.

　　Under the new Northern Territory law, an adult patient can request death - probably by a deadly injection or pill - to put an end to suffering. The patient must be diagnosed as terminally ill by two doctors. （4）After a "cooling off" period of seven days, the patient can sign a certificate of request. After 48 hours the wish for death can be met. For Lloyd Nickson, a 54-year-old Darwin resident suffering from lung cancer, the NT Rights of Terminally Ill law means he can get on with living without the haunting fear of his suffering: a terrifying death from his breathing condition. "I'm not afraid of dying from a spiritual point of view, but what I was afraid of was how I'd go, because I've watched people die in the hospital fighting for oxygen and clawing at their masks," he says.

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