二、从修辞角度看

(一)英语句子中有些短语重复出现,或者具有相同意义的词重复出现,英译汉时可按情况作适当省略。

University applicants who had worked at a job would receive preference over those who had not.
报考大学的人,有工作经验的优先录取。
分析:如果不作省略,译成“报考大学的人,有工作经验的,比没有工作经验的,优先录取”,就显得累赘。
 
Neither party shall cancel the contract without sufficient cause or reason.
双方均不得无故解除合同。
分析:如果译成“...没有原因和理由”的话,就不够精炼。
 
The late Mr. James had passed to her Maker somewhere about 1930.
詹姆士先生升天大约是在1930年。
比较:已故的詹姆士先生升天大约是在1930年。
 
(二)根据汉语习惯,译文中可以省略一些可有可无的词。

There was still the faith that ordinary men are greater than the powers of nature or the mechanisms of man’s hands and will master them all in the end.
人们仍然相信,普通的人要比自然的力量或人类造出来的机器更伟大,而且最终会控制它们。
分析:这里,The mechanisms of man’s hands不必译为“人类的手造出来的机器”。

As it happens, we did not meet there.
我们并未在那里碰头。

China is also a country of people with a passionate love of flowers and trees and intense dedication to the welfare of children and to the work ethic.
中国人还热爱鲜花和树木,专心致志献身于造福儿童的事业,并恪守工作道德。
比较:中国也是这个一个国家,它的人民……
 
For our part, we fully realized that, to avoid the possibility of any further cease-fire violations, the troops must be withdrawn.
我们充分认识到,要避免继续违反停火的可能,必须实现撤军。
 
She curtseyed again, and would have blushed deeper, if she could have blushed deeper than she has blushed all the time.
她又行了个屈膝礼,由于她的脸一直涨得通红,所以现在不可能涨得更红了。
 
There was no snow, the leaves were gone from the trees, the grass was dead.
天未下雪,但叶落草枯。
分析:试比较:……树叶从树上落下来,草也枯死了。前者简明洗炼。

小结
1. 省译法不是任意省略、删减。从以上各例句中不难看出,某些词语如果不删减,译文必定不够简洁,或累赘不堪,甚至影响整体意思的表达。采用省略法不仅使译文读起来流畅、自然,而且突出了原文的整体意思。
2. 应该特别注意的是,省略绝不能影响原文的中心思想和整体意思,否则就是违背“忠实”这一基本原则。从原则上讲,翻译不能对原文内容作任何删减,所以,采用省略法必须以不损害原文的内容为前提。
3. 与增译法(amplification)相比,减省的情况要少得多,所以,省略法要慎用,绝不可想删就删,随心所欲。

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