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21. 这个教授教得很烂。
[误] The professor teaches badly.
[正] The professor is so terrible.
注:有人认为第二句的意思是“这个教授很可怕”,其实不然。英语中 terible 意思很灵活,例如:feel terrible 指身体“不舒服”; The food is terrible 则是说食物“难吃极了”。而第一句纯属中文式的表达。
22. 我希望你不要拖我的后腿。
[误] I hope that you won't pull my leg.
[正] I hope that you won't hold me back.
注:pull one's leg 是“愚弄某人,开某人的玩笑”的意思,相当于 make fun of sb.。英语中与“拖后腿”相对应的表达是 hold sb. back 或 be a drag on sb. 等。
23. 学校里,那些长得人高马大的家伙常来找我的麻烦。
[误] At school, those big and strong guys always come to find my trouble.
[正] At school, those big and strong guys always come to pick on me.
注:find my trouble 是“发现我的难处”的意思,而英语中“找某人的麻烦”用短语 pick on sb. 它不仅表示“挑剔某人、找某人的碴”,而且还包含 tease(取笑、戏弄)或 bully(威胁、欺侮)的意思。
24. 原来如此。一经你解释我就明白了。
[误] So it is. I understand soon after your explanation.
[正] So that's how it is. I understand soon after your explanation.
注:So it is 的意思是“的确如此”,它是用来表示对对方观点的赞同的。例如:
A: It is a fine day today!
B: So it is.
而在表达恍然大悟时,英文要用 So that's how it is 或 So that explains it, 或更简单地道的说法 Oh, I see.
25. 先生,您是不是迷路了?
[误] Hello, monsieur, get lost?
[正] Hello, monsieur, got lost?
注:这两句译文表面上看只是时态上存在差异,其实它们的含义也截然不同。get lost 是俚语:“走开,别捣乱”的意思,got lost才是“迷路”。难怪当你友好地问外宾 "Get lost?"时,他并不领情呢!
Please see:
http://www.rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp...64&star=1#65796
(1) get lost!: go away
"I wish he'd get lost and stop bothering me. I don't want to talk to him!"
---Dennis Oliver's Idioms:
http://www.eslcafe.com/idioms/id-g.html
(2) Get lost! INFORMAL
used to tell someone forcefully and quite rudely to go away:
Tell him to get lost!
(from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/def...=CALD&key=47316
(3)《英汉大词典》p.1055:
We got lost in the woods. 我们在森林中迷路了。
(4) 张道真《现代英语用法词典》p.820-821:
He lost his bearing(迷失方向)in the strange city.
(5) 在...中迷路,迷失在...
We were lost in the forest.
We are lost in the woods.
* lost one'e way 迷路
She had lost her way.
Don't lost your way in the storm.
(6)《汉英大词典》上海交大版;金山词霸2005:
均收录了 get lost 为“迷路”;而“金山词霸2005”把“get lost”和“got lost”均列为“迷路”。但都没有例句。
有关迷路的常见说法:
1) to get lost(常用)
I wouldn't have gotten lost, if I had asked for directions.
要是我问过路,就不至于迷路了。
2) to lost one's way(正式)
The child had lost his way.
那个小孩迷路了。
3) to take the wrong road(不常用)
Finally we found ourselves having taken the wrong road.
最后,我们发觉我们迷路了。
4) to go the wrong way(常用)
I am we are going the wrong way.
恐怕我们走错路了。
5) so lose one's bearings(正式)
One might lose his bearings in an unfamiliar place.
一个人在不熟悉的地方最容易迷路。
6) can't find one's way(常用)
They went on in the desert until at last they couldn't find their way.
他们在沙漠里继续走,直到他们最后迷了路。
7) to stray(正式)
They strayed in the woods.
他们在森林中迷路了。
(to go astray:走入迷途,走上歧途)
Today I came across get lost in The Invisible Man ---H. G. Wells:
"I'm not trying to run away, I swear," protested Marvel tearfully. "I don't know these roads and I don't want to get lost."
=================================================================
26. 我没料到这个无耻的女人居然同她好友的丈夫调情。
[误] I had not expected that this shameful woman should flirt with her best friend's husband.
[正] I had not expected that this shameless woman should flirt with her best friend's husband.
注:shameful 通常指某事物是“可耻的,丢脸的”,而 shameless 表示 having or showing no feeling of shame; immodest or impudent,它一般用来指人“不知羞耻的,不要脸的”或“伤风败俗的”。原文也可译为:It's shameful that the woman should flirt with her best friend's husband.
27. 东施效颦。
[误] Doingshi imitates Xishi.
[正] The ugly imitates the beautiful in such a distorted way that the ugliness of the ugly becomes worse.
注:把原文按照字面意思直译过来,恐怕只有中国人能够理解。要想让外国人明白这个中国成语,就要对译文进行解释性加工了。同样,“情人眼里出西施”不是 Xishi is in the eye of the beholder,而是 Beauty is in the eye of the beholder。
28. 你不好好学习,还想去牛津上大学。这可真是个不切实际的幻想哟!
[误] You don't study hard, yet you want to go to Oxford. What an impractical illusion!
[正] You don't study hard, yet you want to go to Oxford. What an illusion!
注:汉语中的修饰语往往用的很多,目的在于加强语气,但这种表达习惯在翻译时必须进行处理。illusion 本身就有 impractical 的含义,而英语中在表意已经很明确的情况下是无需重复的。
29. 想让他答应这样的要求恐怕不大可能。
[误] I'm it is impossible for him to agree to such a request.
[正] I'm afreaid it is unlikely for him to agree to such a request.
注:impossible 表示“完全不可能”,所以与原文有出入。在英语中,probable 表示的可能性最大,其次是 possible,再次是 likely。而常用的句式为 it is probable/possible/likely for sb. to do sth.,或 sb. be likely to do sth.。
30. 一群蚂蚁
[误] a group of ants
[正] a colony of ants
注:表示群体时,group 通常指人或物,而 colony 才指生物群体。
The Chinglish Files have been featured in the U.K. newspaper "The Telegraph" and on the BBC radio program "The World Today."
Chinglish: The humorous version of English that appears (often in instructions for assembling or using products) after a translation from the original Chinese (or any other language) fails to come across in "normal" English.
The term Chinglish is a fusion of the "Chin" from Chinese and the "glish" from English. Chinglish is not a racist or bigoted term and should not be taken as such. If anything, The Chinglish Files are a way of poking fun at how difficult our flawed English language can be to translate at times. It is not intended as a dig at the intelligence or linguistic capabilities of other nations. Anyway, that's enough "serious" discussion already... time for some fun:
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