红楼梦中英文译文对比分析

原文：话说宝玉在林黛玉房中说“耗子精”，宝钗撞来，讽刺宝玉元宵不知“绿蜡”之典，三人正在房中互相讥刺取笑。

杨：Baoyu, as we saw, was in Daiyu‟s room telling her the story about the rat spirits when Baochai burst in and teased him for forgetting the “green wax” allusion on the night of the Feast of Lanterns. Baoyu felt relieved as they laughed and made fun of each other,

大卫：We have shown how Bao-yu was in Dai-yu‟s room telling herthe story of the magic mice; how Bao-chai burst in on them and twitted Bao-yu with his failure to remember the „green wax‟ allusion on the night of the Lantern Festival; and how the three of them sat teasing each other with good-humored banter.

分析：两段译文中我尤其感兴趣的是对“耗子精”的翻译，耗子精的含义是成精的耗子，杨的译文中用的是“the rat spirits”不免有些造成译文读者的误解，强调的是spirits 而非我们原文中多讲的非常灵性的耗子，而大卫的“the magic mice”恰好表达此意。

原文：“忘了本的小娼妇！我抬举起你来，这会子我来了，你大模大样的躺在炕上，见我来也不理一理。一心只想妆狐媚子哄宝玉，哄的宝玉不理我，听你们的话。你不过是几两臭银子买来的毛丫头，这屋里你就作耗，如何使得！不好拉出去配一个小子，看你还妖精似的哄宝玉不哄！”

杨：“Ungrateful slut!” she scolded. “You owe your position to me, yet there you lie giving yourself such airs on the kang, and won‟t even look at me when I come in. All you think about is making up to Baoyu, so that he pays no attention to me but does everything you say. A slave girl bought for a few taels of stinking silver, you‟ve turned everything here top syturvy. If you don‟t behave, you‟ll be dragged out and married off. We‟ll see whether you can still bewitch Baoyu then.”

大卫：„Ungrateful little baggage! After all I‟ve done for you—and now when I come to call on you, you lie back there on the kang like a young madam and haven‟t even the grace to look up and take notice of me! You and your airs and graces! All you ever think about is how to win Bao-yu over to you. Thanks to you he won‟t listen to me any more. He only does what you say. To think that a cheap bit of goods like you that they only paid a few taels of silver for should come along here and turn the whole place upside down! The best thing they could do with you would be to marry you off to one of the boys and send you packing. Then we‟d see how you managed to play the siren and lead young gentlemen astray!‟

分析：两段译文读起来，大卫的更能够反映出李嬷嬷的泼妇性格，那种辛辣的讽刺。更容易去理解。对“哄得宝玉不理我”的翻译，这里边其实表达的是李嬷嬷对袭人的一种责骂，怨气，杨的译文使用的是“so that”而大卫的译文用的则是“thanks to”，简单的两个连接词的使用，但是“thanks to ”表达出来的情感更为浓烈一些。其次就是对“你不过是几两臭银子买回来的毛丫头”言语中充满了对袭人的不满，贬低，人格的侮辱。杨的译文为“A slave girl bought for a few taels of stinking

silver ,”而大卫的译文，用的则是“To think that a cheap bit of goods like you that they only paid a few taels of silver.”我觉得slave girl 不如 a cheap bit of goods like you 表现的淋漓，在李嬷嬷的这段话里表现出，她没有把袭人当过人看待，从来都是不值钱的东西罢了，仅仅一个“slave girl”没有把其中的韵味表达出来。

原文：后面宝钗黛玉随着。见凤姐儿这般，都拍手笑道：“亏这一阵风来，把个

老婆子撮了去了。”

杨：Baochai and Daiyu in the background had been watching how Xifeng handled the situation. Now they laughed and clapped their hands.” How lucky that this hurricane sprang up and carried the old creature off!”

大卫：Watching this sudden exit, Bao-chai and Dai-yu laughed

and clapped their hands:„ How splendid! Just the sort of wind we needed to blow the old woman away!‟

分析：杨的译文中为了翻译出‟后面宝钗黛玉随着使用了“in the background ”本人觉得不可取，”in the background”的含义是“在。。背景下”会给译文读者造成理解上的偏差。 原文中，宝钗和黛玉把凤姐的出现看成了是一场及时雨，而杨的译文单纯的解释了字面的意思，用‟the hurricane sprang up”带有贬义，而 大卫的译文中先前用了‟this sudden exit”借代熙凤突然出现处理当前状况，体现出了王熙凤来去如风，风风火火的作风，之后又用了“this sort of wind we need to blow this old woman away”将他们对王熙凤能够及时出现“救火”的感激。而杨的译文把老婆子译为“the old creature”不免有些怪异，有些过。