A_Visit_with_the_Folks
欢迎订阅《中国翻译》杂志
《中国翻译》杂志是中国翻译工作者协会的会刊,是广大翻译工作者探讨翻译理论、沟通翻译
信息、学习翻译技巧的园地,也是广大青年自学翻译的良师益友。订阅处:全国各地邮局。本刊国内统一刊号:CN 11—1354/H ,国内代号:2—471,国际标准刊号:ISSN 1000-873X ,国内代号BM 272,邮编100037,每册定价4.50元,逢单月15日出版。?第九届“韩素音青年翻译奖”参赛原文?
A Visit with the Folks
Periodically I go back t o a churchyard ceme-tery on t he side of an A ppalachian hill in northern Virginia t o call on family elders .It slow s t he juices down somet hing marvelous.
T hey are all sit uated right behind an impos-ing brick church with a tall square brick bell-t ow -er best described as honest but not flossy.Some of the family elders did const ruction repair work on t hat church and some of them,t he real old timers ,may even have helped build it ,but I couldn q t swear to t hat because it q s been there a long ,long time .
T he view ,especially in early summer ,is so pleasing that it q s a pit y t hey can q t enjoy it .Wild roses blooming on f ieldst one f ences,f ields whit e with daisies,t hat sof t languorous air t urning t he mount ains pastel blue out t ow ard the West.
T he tombstones are not much to look at.T ombst ones never are in my book,but t hey do help in keeping track of t he f amily and,unlike a family ,they have t he virtue of never chafing at you .
T his is not t o say t hey don q t t alk af ter a fashion .Every time I pass U ncle Lewis q s I can hear it say ,“Come around to the barber shop ,boy,and I q ll cut that hair.”U ncle L ewis was a barber.He left up here f or a while and went t o the city.Balt imore.But he came back af ter t he end.A lmost all of them came back finally,t hose that left ,but most st ayed right here all along.Well,not right here in t he churchyard,but out there over t he fields ,t wo ,t hree ,four miles
away .G randmot her w as born just over t hat rolling field out there near t he w oods the year the Civil War ended ,lived most of her lif e about t hree miles out t he other way there near the mount ain,and has been right here near t his old shade tree f or t he past 50years.
We w eren q t people w ho went very far.U ncle Harry,her second child,is right beside her.A carpent er.He lived 87years in t hese part s w it h-out ever complaining about not seeing Paris .T o g et U ncle Harry to say anything ,you have to ask f or direct ions .
“Which way is t he schoolhouse ?”I ask ,t houg h not aloud of course .
“U p the road that way a right good piece,”he replies,st ill t he master of indef init e navigation w hom I remember from my boyhood.
It q s good t o call on U ncle L ew is,grandmot h-er and U ncle Harry like this.It improves your perspect ive t o commune w it h people who are not alarmed about the condit ion of N A T O or whining about t he flabbiness of t he dollar .
T he elders take t he long view .Of course ,you don q t w ant to indulge t oo ex tensively in t hat long a view ,but it q s useful to absorb it in short doses.It correct s t he blood pressure and put s t hings in a more sensible light.
A ft er a healt hy dose of it ,you realize t hat having your shins kicked in t he subw ay is not the g ravest insult t o dignit y ever suffered by common humanit y.
Somewhere in t he vicinity is my great -g rand-
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father who used t o live back t here against t he mount ain and make g uns,but I could never f ind him.He was born out that w ay in1817—James M onroe w as President then—and I q d like to f ind him to commune a bit with somebody of blood kin who w as around when A ndrew Jackson was in his heyday.
Af ter Jackson and A braham Lincoln and t he Civil War,he w ould probably not be very im-pressed about much that goes on nowadays,and I would like to get a few resonances off his t omb-st one,a cool frisson of contempt maybe for a great-grandchild who had missed all t he really perilous times.
U nfort unat ely,I am never able to f ind him, but t here is U ncle Irvey,grandmother q s oldest boy.A n unabashed Hoover Republican.“Eat all those st ring beans,boy,”I hear as I nod at his tombstone.
And here is a surprise:Uncle Edgar.He has been here for years,but I have never bumped into him bef ore.I don q t dare disturb him,f or he is an import ant man,t he manager of the baseball t eam,and his t wo pitchers,M y U ncle Harold and my Cousin-in-law Howard,have bot h been shelled on the mound and U ncle Edgar has t o de-cide whether t o ask the shortst op if he know s anyt hing about pitching.
M y great-grandf at her who made guns is a-gain not to be f ound,but on the way out I pass t he t ombst one of another great-grandfather w hose distinct ion w as t hat he lef t an estate of ＄3.87.It is t he first t ime I have passed this w ay since I learned of t his,and I smile his way,but something says,“In t he long run,boy,w e all end up as rich as Rockefeller,”and I get int o the car and drive out onto t he main road,gliding through f ields whit e with daisies,past fences perfumed w it h roses,and am rather more content with the w orld.
首都翻译界共庆新春佳节
中国翻译工作者协会,北京市翻译工作者协会,外语教学与研究出版社于1997年2月3日在北京皇苑酒店联合举办首都翻译界新春联谊会。北京翻译界人士200余人参加了联谊会。
中国译协秘书长黄友义主持了联谊会。
中国译协会长叶水夫,北京市译协副会长张道一,北京市译协秘书长、外研社社长李朋义,中国译协名誉理事艾泼斯坦先后讲话。
叶水夫会长回顾了中国译协1996年的工作,并向与会者介绍了中国译协第三次全国秘书长会议情况及中国译协1997年主要工作目标。他说在过去的一年里,翻译界同仁在党的十四届六中全会“关于加强社会主义精神文明建设若干重要问题的决议”鞭策和指引下,翻译工作者在自己的工作岗位上为加强精神文明建设做出了努力,他祝愿在新的一年里取得更大成绩。
北京市译协副会长张道一代表会长李越然向到会的同志表示节日的祝贺。他说这次联谊会是首都翻译界团结、合作的象征,反映了翻译事业蓬勃发展的景象。他说今年是我国新的五年计划第一年,是党的十五大召开的一年,是香港回归的一年,这些都是译界取得进一步发展的时机,翻译界大有用武之地。
北京市译协秘书长、外语教学与研究出版社长李朋义介绍了外研社的发展情况。他借此机会感谢全国的翻译工作者和广大读者的大力支持。
中国译协名誉理事艾泼斯坦在向翻译工作者祝贺新春佳节之际还谈了翻译工作者在翻译工作中应注意的问题。他叮嘱翻译工作者,在翻译中对于没有把握的问题不要猜测,在翻译外国人的名字时,应注明英文,对于少数民族英文名字的翻译要统一,他说目前对于西藏人名地名的翻译方法有很多种,有的翻译失去了原来的意义。艾老的讲话使到会的同志得到启发。
(芮 敏)
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?翻译自学之友?
?英译汉练习原文?
A Royal Scandal
P eter F.S tevens
In M ay1887,Bost on rolled out t he red car-pet for a royal visit or,one T he Boston Globe called “t he dusky Q ueen K apiolani,mist ress of t he Sandw ich Isles.”From the moment t hat t he queen and her large retinue checked int o t he tony Parker House,Bost on q s polit icians and Brahmins fell all over themselves to impress her.She w as given the bridal suite,filled with cost ly floral ar-rang ements including one w it h the Hawaiian words for“I love you”emblazoned in let ters of red immortelles upon a bank of smilax and f erns.
T hroughout t he queen q s st ay,of ficials squired her everyw here t he local dignitaries and celebrities gat hered.T he very day of her arrival she att ended services at T rinit y Church and King q s Chapel,where,according to T he N ew York T imes,“t he most f ashionable set in town”st rained f or a glimpse of t he queen of t he exot ic island monarchy.T he next morning,M ayor O q Brien hosted a breakf ast in t he queen q s honor, replete with music and the familiar excess of flowers.
One of t he queen q s most memorable appear-ances came at the St ate House t he next day.T he Senate doors were flung open and Sergeant-at-Arms A dams,sporting a top hat and his“off icial mace,”marched int o t he chamber.“Her M ajest y, the Q ueen of the Sandw ich Islands!”he pro-claimed.T he senators all rose from their seats. T hen the queen st rode up t he aisle,bowing grave-ly to the legislat ors.
For t he rest of t he week Q ueen Kapiolani at-t ended off icial lunches,dinners,and recept ions each day as w ell as performances at t he Bost on and Globe theaters.By t he time her visit was over,everyone who w as anyone had met the queen.
It was not unt il aft er her depart ure t hat the bills came due t o t he t une of＄18,000.A mong t hem was an invoice for＄4,500wort h of flowers provided by t he G alvin brothers.Anot her,f or an undisclosed amount,came from the Vict oria Ho-t el for a reception at which t he queen and about 100guest s alleg edly consumed more than100 g allons of alcohol—all paid f or by t he city.
Boston q s citizens were out raged at t he price t ag for t he w eeklong junket.“Scandal Over the Bills for Queen K apiolani q s Ent ert ainment,”crowed one headline.Only M ayor O q Brien and his staff knew t hat＄18,000w as just t he beginning. M any of t he largest bills,including the tab for the w eek q s lodging and f ood at t he Parker House,had yet to be report ed.
T hus began t he cover-up.T he Parker House bill clocked in at a suspiciously modest sum of ＄2,800.Ot her bills were buried,relabeled,or paid privately in a frenzy of creat ive accounting.
A lt hough a f ull account ing never occurred,it is believed t hat an addit ional＄10,000in cit y funds w as event ually spent f or Kapiolani q s comings and g oings.T he scandal died slowly,and most Bost o-nians agreed with one Globe report er q s assess-ment that t he royal visit w as“the most disgrace-f ul affair in the hist ory of junket ing in this city.”
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