Journey Up the Nile
沿尼羅河而上
(Excerpt 1)
(摘錄1)
by Robert Caputo
羅伯特・卡普托
第一段：Egypt, wrote the Greek historian Hecataeus, is the gift of the Nile. No other country is so dependent on a single lifeline. Egypt's very soil was born in the Nile's annual flood: with the flood came the life-giving mud that made Egypt the granary of the ancient world. And as rain fell in the Ethiopian highlands and the snows melted in the Mountains of the Moon, the river was everlastingly renewed.
參考譯文：希臘歷史學(xué)家赫卡泰奧斯寫道：埃及是尼羅河送來的禮物。任何別的國家都不像埃及這樣依賴著唯一的一條生命線。就連埃及的土地也是尼羅河每年泛濫而帶來的。河水泛濫帶來了泥沙，萬物得以生長，埃及就這樣成了古代世界的糧倉。埃塞俄比亞高原上的雨水，和月亮山上融化的積雪，為尼羅河提供了無窮無盡的水源。
解說：
1. 譯文在這里不便使用插入語，所以把“希臘歷史學(xué)家赫卡泰奧斯”作為全句的主語。
★ 2. was born是一個形象性的說法，譯文無法保存原文里的形象，所以譯作“帶來”。
3. Life-giving mud等于mud that gives life，所以譯作“萬物得以生長”。
4. 字面上的意思是“尼羅河不斷得到更新”，這樣說有些別扭。所以根據(jù)上下文，譯作“為尼羅河提供了無窮無盡的水源”。
第二段：“This is the best place on earth, ” said Ahmed, an Egyptian fellah, or farmer, I encountered in the Nile Delta, that incredibly fertile 8,500-square-mile triangle between Cairo and the Mediterranean coast. The delta and the narrow Nile Valley to the south make up only 3 percent of Egypt's land but are home to 96 percent of her population. Here nearly 48 million people live in an area only slightly larger than Maryland. The rest of Egypt is desert.
參考譯文：“這是世界上最好的地方，”阿赫邁德對我說。他是我在尼羅河三角洲遇見的一位農(nóng)民(當(dāng)?shù)厝斯苻r(nóng)民叫“夫埃拉”)。從開羅到地中海之間這塊八千五百平方英里的三角地帶，土地異常肥沃。三角洲和南邊狹窄的尼羅河河谷只占埃及土地的百分之三，卻有百分之九十六的人口住在這里。將近四千八百萬人生活的這塊地方只比美國馬里蘭州略大ー點。埃及其余的地方全是沙漠。
解說：
★ 5. 原文that incredibly fertile 8,500-square-mile triangle between Cairo and the Mediterranean coast是 the Nile Delta的同位語。在譯文里“三角洲”一詞不是出現(xiàn)在句子末尾，而是在句子中間。同位語不好安排，所以獨立成句。
★ 6. are home to … 若譯作“是……的家”則不順。所以把名詞改為動詞，譯作“……住在這里”。
★ 7. 本文發(fā)表在美國雜志上，所以用美國的一個州來作比較。中國讀者不見得知道馬里蘭州在哪里，所以前面加了“美國”二字。
“Truly Allah has blessed us, ” Ahmed exclaimed piously. “Soil, water, sun-we can grow anything!”
參考譯文：“真主可真是保佑我們哪，”阿赫邁德虔誠地說道。“我們有土地，有水，有陽光——種什么都行啊!”
解說：
8. 這是埃及農(nóng)民說的話，所以譯文比較口語化。
第三段：In the gathering dusk Ahmed and his five companions had invited me to join them. Their galabias and turbans stained by the sweat and dirt of a long day's work, they sat in front of a wayside shop, enjoying three of the best things in life along the Nile-tea, conversation, and the water pipe. At the edge of a nearby canal, donkeys laden with freshly harvested alfalfa waited for their masters to lead them home, braying a fretful counterpoint to the steady thud of an irrigation pump.
參考譯文：天色漸漸暗了下來，阿赫邁德和五個一起干活的人早就約我去和他們玩兒。他們干了一天活兒，袍子和頭巾上又是汗，又是土。這時候，他們坐在路旁一家商店門口，享受尼羅河沿岸人們生活里的三件最大的樂事——喝茶、聊天、抽水煙10。在附近一條水渠旁，驢子背上馱著剛割的苜蓿，等著主人牽它們回家去，一面發(fā)出一陣陣急促的叫聲，和澆地的水泵不斷發(fā)出的突突聲交織在一起。
解說：
9. 原文用的是獨立結(jié)構(gòu)，譯文單獨成句。第二句用“這時候”開始，照顧前后的聯(lián)系。
10. 原文用了三個名詞，表示兩件東西，一件事情，非常筒潔。漢語如保持這種結(jié)構(gòu)則不順，所以都改成了動詞。
第四段：All this suggested ancient harmonies. Yet the Nile has been changed by modern man in ways not yet fully understood. In 1971 engineers and workers completed the Aswan High Dam, nearly 600 miles upriver from Cairo toward the Sudanese frontier. It is the greatest public work to be undertaken in Egypt since the Pyramids. The devastating floods and droughts that imposed a recurrent tax of suffering on the fellahin no longer occur. Egyptian agriculture has been transformed, and industry is benefiting from power generated by the dam.
參考譯文：這一切使人感到古代的和諧氣氛。然而現(xiàn)代的人卻使尼羅河發(fā)生了變化，不過就連他們自己也不完全了解尼羅河究竟發(fā)生了什么變化。1971年，技術(shù)人員和工人建成了阿斯旺高壩。這座水壩在從開羅沿尼羅河向蘇丹邊境走去將近六百英里遠(yuǎn)的地方。這是埃及自從修建金字塔以來進(jìn)行的一項最大的公共工程。過去給農(nóng)民帶來災(zāi)難的水旱災(zāi)害，現(xiàn)在不再發(fā)生了。埃及的農(nóng)業(yè)得到了改造13，工業(yè)也用上了水壩發(fā)出的電力。
解說：
11. suggest在這里的意思相當(dāng)于to imply，to show indirectly，所以譯作“使人感到”。
12. in ways not yet fully understood原是一個狀語，但若澤作“使尼羅河以尚不完全了解的方式發(fā)生了變化”，則很別扭，意思也不清楚。所以譯作一個分句，仍放在后面。
13. 原文是被動語態(tài)，譯文不一定用“被”字，所以譯作“得到了改造”。
14. 照字面譯就是“工業(yè)正從水壩發(fā)出的電力得到好處”。這里所謂“得到好處”，指的就是能夠用上電力。直接譯作“工業(yè)也用上了水壩發(fā)出的電力”，意思更清楚。
第五段：But there have been negative effects also. Standing on a sandy beach at the mouth of the Rosetta branch of the Nile, I was puzzled by what seemed a ghost town--a sad vista of crumbling buildings smashed windows, and broken wires dangling from utility poles. One house teetered drunkenly, half in, half out of the sea.
參考譯文：但是也有不良的后果。洛塞塔河是尼羅河入海處的一個支流，我站在河口的沙灘上看到一個小鎮(zhèn)，感到迷惑不解。這仿佛是一個被人遺棄了的小鎮(zhèn)，一片蕭索景象，房子瀕于倒塌，窗戶破碎，斷了的電線掛在電線桿子上。有一所房子好像喝醉了的人一樣搖搖晃晃，一半泡在海里，一半在陸地上。
解說：
★ 15. 原文 standing后面有一個很長的狀語，譯文用了一個分句，放在前面，先處理，句子比較好安排。
第六段：Last summer, people stayed in those rooms-this was a summer resort. said a voice behind me. The speaker was a young Egyptian named Muhammad, member of a team from Alexandria that had come to this abandoned village to study coastal erosion. “Now the sea is moving in, ” Muhammad said. He pointed to a lighthouse perched on a tiny island a couple of miles offshore: “That lighthouse used to be on land. About six years ago it became an island. Day by day the sea is eating the land-the dam has stopped the sediment of the Nile from replenishing the shoreline.”
參考譯文：“去年夏天，那所房子還有人住過。這是一個避暑勝地。”在我身后有人這樣說道。說話的是一位埃及青年，名叫穆罕默德，他是一個考察隊的隊員，是專門從亞歷山大港到這個荒蕪的村莊來考察沿海地區(qū)水土流失的情況的�！昂Ｋ絹碓酵镞厑恚蹦潞蹦抡f道。他指著座落在離海岸二三英里的小島上的一座燈塔說:“那座燈塔本來是在陸地上的。大約六年前，那地方變成了一個小島。海水一天天沖刷陸地一一水壩已經(jīng)使得尼羅河的泥沙無法沉積下來加固海岸了。
解說：
16. 原文 member of a team …是一個同位語，譯文也用了個分句。
As we chatted, a brightly painted sardine boat dropped anchor. The captain came ashore and joined our conversation. “Before they started the High Dam 25 years ago, ” he said, “the Nile mud had a lot of food in it, and so the sardines gathered mouth of the river to feed. Now there is no mud, and no food for the fish-they've left us.”
參考譯文：我們正在聊著，只見一條顏色鮮艷的捕撈沙丁魚的船拋了錨。船長上了岸，湊過來和我們說話。他說:“二十五年前修建高壩之前，尼羅河的泥沙里面有很多可吃的東西，所以沙丁魚就聚集在河口找食吃�，F(xiàn)在泥沙沒有了，魚沒有可吃的了，也就不來了�！�
“ If all this can happen in 25 years, what will happen after 50 years, or 100 or 200? ” asked Muhammad.
參考譯文：“如果說二十五年就發(fā)生這么多變化，五十年、一百年、二百年之后又會怎么樣呢?”穆軍默德問道。
(from National Geographic)
(摘譯自《全國地理雜志》)
資料來源考試網(wǎng)校老師主講教材精講班課程，完整講義下載進(jìn)入個人中心>>
下載焚題庫APP——翻譯資格考試——題庫——做題，包括章節(jié)練習(xí)、每日一練、模擬試卷、歷年真題、易錯題等，可隨時隨地刷題�！�在線做題】>>】【下載APP掌上刷題】
