【漢譯英】
Don't Blame DNA
The really critical implication of the discovery still lies with the door that geneticists have opened on the environmental influences of our behavior, our personalities and our health, l and with the critical blow it strikes on the idea of biological determinism. 2
For the past decade, the public has witnessed a rising epidemic of tales of discoveries of genes that dispose humanity to homosexuality, to alcoholism, to political persuasion, to running ability, and to artistic taste. 3
But even before yesterday's revelations by Venter 4, scientists had stopped believing in the gay gene. Yet belief in its existence still persists among the public. The assault on biological determinism that geneticists have now triggered will be timely, and will prove that human nature is a lot more complex and intriguing than determinists have given it credit for. 5 Even more importantly, the discovery has critical implications for our understanding of idea of free will. 6
It has become increasingly fashionable for individuals particularly in the United States to blame actions and crimes on the influence of their genes. Consider the following story. 7 A young American woman, Glenda Sue Caldwell, was convicted of killing her child and was jailed for life. Only later did she begin to display the symptoms of Huntington's Disease, 8 an inherited brain disorder that produces horrific delusions and uncontrolled movements. Claiming she was a victim of her genes, the woman was cleared on appeal. 9
Since then, several other U. S. defendants accused of violent crimes have argued that they too were innocent victims of their genes. They were not responsible for their actions. Their genes were. None of these people have yet succeeded in persuading courts of their innocence and their genes' guilt. Most lawyers felt such an outcome was nevertheless inevitable. In other words, genetic predestination could soon have been used to excuse murder or robbery - if it had not been for this discovery that we lack the genes to thus dispose us! 10
Kevin Davies is the author of The Sequence, a story of the human genome race 11. He said, "There has been a recent study on perfect pitch, 12 the ability to know the absolute pitch of a musical note, that strongly suggests that is acquired through the inheritance of a single gene.
"That may sound like a clear-cut piece of biological determinism. However, there is a crucial corollary: you have to be exposed to early musical training for the ability to materialize. 13 In other words, even in seemingly simple inherited abilities, nurture has a role to play. "
And then there is the case quoted by Venter. "Everyone talks about a gene for this and that. But it is not like that. Take the example of colon cancer. People say there is a gene that predisposes us to the disease. And certainly it runs in families. It is caused by an inherited weakness in one gene that controls DNA repair in other genes. 14 But that gene is found in cells in every part of the body. However, it is only the colon where we find all sorts of toxins and bacteria that provide the harsh circumstances that cause that gene to finally break down and for cancer to spread."
In short, it is not a colon cancer gene but a gene that affects our ability to respond to the environment. And that, is what human nature is all about. 15
注釋
1.lie with：與……有關(guān)。
the door that geneticists have opened on…：基因科學家首先向人們展示的……。這里可直譯為“開啟的一扇門”。
the environmental influences of our behavior，our personalities and our health:環(huán)境對人類的行為、品格和健康的影響。
2.biological determinism:生物決定論。這一理論認為，許多社會現(xiàn)象都是由生物因素所決定的。
3.dispose humanity to…：使人類有某種傾向。
4.Venter，J.Craig:人類基因組研究的知名專家、美國塞萊拉公司(Celera Genomics)首席科學家范特教授。
5.give sb. /sth. credit for:承認某人/某物有(某種性質(zhì)等)。
6.這里idea of free will指認為人的行為是由他們的自由意志所控制的觀點。
7.本句直譯為：“請考慮下面的例子”，可根據(jù)上下文，譯為：“有例為證”。
8.注意句首的Only later did she begin to...意為：她在殺害自己的孩子時并沒有這些癥狀。這些癥狀是在后來才出現(xiàn)的。
9.cleared on appeal:經(jīng)上訴，被判無罪釋放。
10.本句中名詞性從句that we lack the genes to thus dispose us是discovery的同位語從句，意為：“我們身上并沒有導致我們?nèi)ブ\殺和搶劫別人的基因”。其中dispose somebody to something意為：“使某人具有某種傾向”。
11.the human genome race:人類基因組研究競爭。
12.perfect pitch:音高辨別能力，又稱absolute pitch。
13.這里corollary指邏輯上的必然結(jié)果，而materialise -詞則相當于to become real。
本句不可按漢語定語前置的一般規(guī)則譯為：“它是由控制其他基因的修補的某個基因的缺弱引起的”。這樣的漢語句子是不堪卒讀的。在這種情況下，通�？梢园磿r間和邏輯順序翻譯。
14.這里what... is all about是英語中一種非常常用的表達方式，譯成漢語時通常要化虛為實，說明具體指什么。這里可譯為“人體天性的全部奧秘所在”。
【參考譯文】
不要責怪DNA
此項新發(fā)現(xiàn)的重要意義仍與遺傳學家開啟的那扇大門有關(guān)。遺傳學家們認為環(huán)境對人類的行為、性格和健康有影響。這一論斷對“生物決定論”不啻是致命的打擊。
近十年來，有關(guān)基因發(fā)現(xiàn)的各種謠言泛濫成災，根據(jù)這些發(fā)現(xiàn)，同性戀也好、酗酒成性也好、政治信仰也好、奔跑能力也好、藝術(shù)品味也好，都是由人們的基因決定的。
但是早在范特公開他的發(fā)現(xiàn)之前，科學家們就已經(jīng)不再相信同性戀基因之說了，可公眾仍然深信不疑，因此遺傳學家們現(xiàn)在對“生物決定論”展開的批判正合其時，它將證明，人的天性遠比基因決定論者所認為的更為復雜、更為迷人。更重要的是，此項發(fā)現(xiàn)對于我們理解“自由意志”有著決定性的意義。
把自己的行為甚至于犯罪歸咎于自己的基因，這種做法正變得日趨流行，在美國尤為突出。有例為證：一位名叫格倫達·蘇·考德威爾的美國婦女，因被證明殺害了自己的親生孩子而被判處終身監(jiān)禁。在此之后，地才開始顯示出亨延頓病的癥狀，這是一種會導致恐怖錯覺和行動失控的遺傳性腦疾。于是格倫達聲稱自己是基因的受害者，并獲得無罪釋放。
從那以后，美國又有一些被控犯下暴力罪行的被告都辯稱自己是無辜的基因受害者，應(yīng)該為這些暴力行為負責的不是他們，而是他們的基因。雖然迄今還沒有人能說服法庭相信他們的無辜，不過，大多數(shù)律師都覺得這種結(jié)果是不可避免的。換句話說，若不是范特發(fā)現(xiàn)人類身上并不存在會導致犯罪的基因，基因先決論也許很快就會被用來為謀殺或搶劫進行開脫。
凱文·戴維斯是《基因序列》一書的作者，該書講述了在人類基因組研究中的競爭。
他寫道：“最近有人在研究音調(diào)辨別力，即判斷音符的絕對音高的能力，該項實驗明顯顯示這種能力是通過繼承某一個基因獲得的。
“乍一聽，這似乎是‘生物決定論’的典型例子。然而，該研究還有一個關(guān)鍵的結(jié)論，即：要實現(xiàn)這種能力，你必須接受早期的音樂訓練。也就是說，即使對那些看似簡單、通過遺傳獲得的能力而言，后天的培養(yǎng)也是不可或缺的。”
此外，范特也援引了一例：“人人都在談?wù)撃硞�基因會決定這個，或者影響那個，但事實并非如此。就拿結(jié)腸癌來說，據(jù)說某種基因會讓人容易患上這種病。當然，結(jié)腸癌的確會在家族內(nèi)部蔓延，它是由某種基因的遺傳性缺陷引起的，這種基因能夠控制其他基因的DNA修補情況。但這種基因存在于人體所有部位的細胞中，而只有在結(jié)腸部位，才能找到構(gòu)成病變環(huán)境的各種毒素和細菌，它們會導致該基因最終損壞，致使癌細胞擴散�！�
簡言之，那并不是什么“結(jié)腸癌基因”，而是一種影響我們對環(huán)境的反應(yīng)能力的基因。
而這，就是人類天性的全部奧秘所在。
