《论包装》

季羡林

On Packaging

Ji Xianlin

我先提一个问题：人类是变得越来越精呢？还是越来越蠢？

Let me begin with this question. Are human beings getting increasingly intelligent or stupid?

答案好像是明摆着的：越来越精。

The following answer seems beyond dispute: They are getting more and more intelligent.

要点：

1，“答案好像是明摆着的”即“答案毋庸置疑”译为beyond dispute或past all dispute, beyond 经常用于表示“无…可”的词中，之前就见到过beyond reproach

2,两句话，出现了两个“变得越来越…”当然要争取让他们不一样了~因此译者分别译为get more and more/get increasingly

综述：注意beyond 和“越来越”这两点~

在几千年有文化的历史上，人类对宇宙，对人世，对生命，对社会，总之对人世间所有的一切，越来越了解得透彻、细致，如犀烛隐，无所不明。例子伸手可得。当年中国人对月亮觉得可爱而又神秘，于是就说有一个美女嫦娥奔入月宫。连苏东坡这个宋朝伟大的诗人，也不禁要问出：“明月几时有？把酒问青天。不知天 上宫阙，今夕是何年？”可是到了今天，人类已经登上了月球，连月球上的土块也被带到了地上来。哪里有什么嫦娥，有什么广寒宫？

In the course of several thousand years of his cultural history, man has acquired a more and more thorough and detailed understanding of the universe, the human world, life and society—in short, everything under heaven. Examples are legion. Our ancestors, out of their fondness for the moon and curiosity about it, created the legend of beautiful Chang’e flying to the moon. And Su Dongpo, a great poet of the Song Dynasty, wrote the following lines as a matter of course:

The Bright Moon, when will she appear?

Wine cup in hand, I ask the azure sky.

I don’t know inside the heavenly palace

What time of year it is tonight.

Today, man has managed to land on the moon and even come back bringing with him some of its clods. Chang’e and her heavenly palace simply don’t exist.

要点：

1，“人类对宇宙，对人世，对生命，对社会，总之对人世间所有的一切，越来越了解得透彻、细致，如犀烛隐，无所不明”译为man has acquired a more and more thorough and detailed understanding of the universe, the human world, life and society—in short, everything under heaven.其中“如犀烛隐，无所不明”并未译出，因其意思已包含在上下文中

2，“例子伸手可得”译为Examples are legion，其中legion意为“比比皆是的；不胜枚举的；多如牛毛的”，如：The number of women who become pregnant after adopting children is legion.  (领养小孩后怀孕的妇女比比皆是。)这个词可用numerousmyriadcountlessmany numberless代替~

3，“于是就说有一个美女嫦娥奔入月宫”即“杜撰了嫦娥奔月的神话”译为created the legend of beautiful Chang’e flying to the moon.其中the legend 是增译的，表解释说明。

4，“连苏东坡这个宋朝伟大的诗人，也不禁要问出”译为And Su Dongpo, a great poet of the Song Dynasty, wrote the following lines as a matter of course.其中as a matter of course作状语译为“自然而然地”比can’t help doing更贴合文意

5，“明月几时有？把酒问青天。不知天 上宫阙，今夕是何年？”意思是“明月什么时候出现的?（我）端着酒杯问青天.不知道天上的神仙宫阙里,现在是什么年代了.”译为The Bright Moon, when will she appear?

Wine cup in hand, I ask the azure sky.

I don’t know inside the heavenly palace

What time of year it is tonight.

这几句诗其实并不难理解，但是我们翻译出来就和大师翻出来的不一样…总之诗歌翻译是个大块，这首《水调歌头》许渊冲和林语堂先生都有翻译，各有千秋，有兴趣可以对比来看，张培基先生的翻译较前两位简洁一些。

综述：注意以上几点即可~

人类倘不越变越精，能做到这一步吗？

Could man have achieved that without becoming more and more intelligent?

可是我又提出了问题，说明适得其反。例子也是伸手即得。我先举一个包装。

Nevertheless, I also would like to bring forward some factsto show just the opposite. Examples are only too numerous. Packaging is the first thing I want to deal with.

要点：

1，“可是我又提出了问题”译为Nevertheless, I also would like to bring forward some facts，根据后文可知，此处的“问题”即“事实”，因此译为facts

2,又出现了“伸手可得”译为numerous，其同义词参见上段分析~

人类活动在社会上，有时候是需要包装的。特别是女士们。在家中穿得朴朴素素，但是一出门，特别是参加什么“派对”（party，借用香港话），则必 须打扮得珠光宝气，花枝招展，浑身洒上法国香水，走在大街上，高跟鞋跟敲地作金石声，香气直射十步之外，路人为之“侧目”。这就是包装，而这种包装，我认为是必要的。

People, especially women, sometimes need packaging in their social activities. Women dress casually at home, but when they go out, especially when they attend parties, they have to be gorgeously dressed and sprayed all over the French perfume. On the streets, the loud clip-clop of their high-heeled shoes and the strong aroma of their perfume will attract public attention far and wide. That’s what we mean by packaging and I call it a kind of necessary packaging.

要点：

1，“在家中穿得朴朴素素”译为Women dress casually at home.其中dress casually意为“穿得随随便便”，“穿便服”，也可译为dress simply /plainly at home

2,“珠光宝气，花枝招展”说的是一个意思译为“盛装打扮”be gorgeously dressed，这个表达在《杂感集》中也见到过，学习时一定要注意前后联系记忆~

3，“高跟鞋跟敲地作金石声，香气直射十步之外，路人为之’侧目’”译为On the streets, the loud clip-clop of their high-heeled shoes and the strong aroma of their perfume will attract public attention far and wide.其中“作金石声”直译起来略困难，因此我们可采用拟声词the loud clip-clop表达，clip-clop表示一种类似于马蹄的“呱嗒声”~

4,“十步之外，路人为之’侧目’”，采用意译法，译为attract public attention far and wide.

5，“这就是…”译为that’s what I/we mean by…这个表达也很常见，在《容忍》中也有出镜

综述：我们要在学习名家译作的时候注意积累和总结，形成知识的前后联系~才能有所进步

可是还有另外一种包装，就是商品的包装。这种包装有时也是必要的，不能一概而论。我从前到香港，买国产的商品，比大陆要便宜得多。一问才知道，原因 是中国商品有的质量并不次于洋货，正是由于包装不讲究，因而价钱卖不上去。我当时就满怀疑惑：究竟是使用商品呢？还是使用包装？

But there is another kind of packaging—the packaging of commodities. Such packaging is sometimes also necessary and therefore, should not be mentioned in the same breath. Some time ago, as a visitor to Hong Kong, I found Chinese-made goods there selling at a much lower price than in the mainland and I also learned on inquiry that it was due to plain packaging that they were selling cheap though of equal quality as imported goods. I was quite puzzled about what the customers actually need. The goods or the package?

要点：

1，“一概而论”或“同日而语”译为should not be mentioned in the same breath，其中in the same breath意为“同时”，如：He hailed this week's arms agreement but in the same breath expressed suspicion about the motivations of the United States.  (他为本周达成的武器协议而欢呼，但同时又对美国的动机表示怀疑。)

2，“一问才知道”译为I also learned on inquiry，on inquiry意为“经询问，经调查”

我因而想到一件事：我们楼上一位老太太到菜市场上去买鸡，说是一定要黄毛的。卖鸡的小贩问老太太：“你是吃鸡？还是吃鸡毛？”

That reminds me of a little story. An old lady who lived in the upstairs of my building one day went to the food market insisting on buying a chicken with yellowish feathers. The chicken vendor asked, “What do you eat? Chicken or the feathers?”

要点：

这段总体来说比较简单，注意选择疑问句的译法~

到了今天，有一些商品的包裹更达到了匪夷所思的地步。外面盒子，或木，或纸，或金属，往往极大。装扮得五彩缤纷、璀璨耀目。摆在货架上时，是庞然大物；提在手中或放在车中，更是运转不灵，左提，右提，横摆，都煞费周折。及至拿到或运到家中，打开时也是煞费周折。在庞然大物中，左找，右找，找不到商品 究在何处。很希望发现一张纸条上面写着：此处距商品尚有10公里！庶不致使我失去寻找的信心。

Nowadays, the packaging of some commodities is fantastically overdone. The boxes, made of wood, paper or metal, are usually very large and very colorful and dazzling. They take up a lot of space on the goods shelves and are very cumbersome whether carried by car or by hand. Very unwieldy whether carried by left hand or right hand, placed vertically or horizontally. And it is also a big headache to have it opened at home. Search left and right, and you still cannot locate the commodity in the huge box. You will probably wish for a slip of paper therein bearing the written note, “10 more kilometers to the commodity!” so as to retain your confidence in the search.

要点：

1，“达到了匪夷所思的地步”如果直译，即have reached an unimaginable degree,然而译者却采用了更为灵活的意译，即is fantastically overdone，更加形象生动~

2,“或木，或纸，或金属”讲的是木盒的材质，因此译为made of wood, paper or metal,

3，“五彩缤纷、璀璨耀目”译为colorful and dazzling

4，“煞费周折”译为it is also a big headache to

5,“很希望发现一张纸条上面写着：此处距商品尚有10公里！庶不致使我失去寻找的信心。”译为You will probably wish for a slip of paper therein bearing the written note, “10 more kilometers to the commodity!” so as to retain your confidence in the search.其中wish for作“盼望”解，往往针对不可能实现的事物；therein是增益的，译为“从中”。

6，“庶不致使我失去寻找的信心”即“以便保持寻找的信心”译为so as to retain your confidence in the search.

综述：对待本段层出不穷的状语一定要耐心~

据我粗略的统计，有的商品在大包装中仅占空间十分之一，二十分之一，甚至五十分之一。想到那个鸡和鸡毛的故事，我不禁要问：我们使用的是商品，还是包装？而负担那些庞大的包装费用，羊毛出在羊身上，还是我们这些顾客，而华美绝伦的包装，商品取出后，不过是一堆垃圾。

According to my rough statistics, some commodities take up only one tenth, one twentieth or even one fiftieth of the space in the huge package. Thinking back to the above-mentioned story of chickens and chicken feathers, I cannot but ask, “The commodity or the package, which do you need?” after all, the wool still comes from the sheep’s back as the saying goes. It is customers like us that will have to bear all the heavy expenses for packaging. And the flashy package, when emptied of its contents, will be nothing but a garbage heap.

如果我回答我在开头时提出的问题：人类越变越蠢。你怎么反驳？！

Here is my answer to the question I raised at the beginning: Man is becoming more and more stupid. What could you say in retort?

要点：

1，“据我粗略的统计”译为According to my rough statistics

2，“羊毛出在羊身上”现在一般形容商家所谓的打折优惠,其实还是摊在消费者身上，因为上下文有对这句话确切含义的解释，因此直译为the wool still comes from the sheep’s back

3，“华美绝伦的包装”译为the flash package,其中flashy有“华而不实”之意，比beautiful，gorgeous，exquisite更加确切

4，“反驳”=say in retort

综述：其实直译和意译本无固定原则，一切都要以有助于读者准确理解为目的。

声明:本双语文章的中文评析系沪江英语原创内容,转载请注明出处。中文评析仅代表作者个人观点，如有不妥之处，欢迎指正。