《经济学家》读译参考 Translated & Edited by Chen Jilong
梅特兰力求为威福瑞正名或许是有原因的。他在书中虽然说和威福瑞是多年好友,却对曾与这位探险家合作出版四本书以及后来继承他在伦敦的一处寓所一事只字未提。设若梅特兰自觉难以实事求是地评价他的这位已故至交和恩人,也许他就不应该多此一举。在梅特兰之前也有一篇威福瑞的传记,写得相对就好一些。作者是迈克尔?阿舍,他曾到沙漠中四处寻觅威福瑞以前的旅行同伴,而梅特兰却好象几乎完全是闭门造车。
His book is, however, (7)a useful companion to the explorer's autobiography, “The Life of My Choice”. Hopefully, it will also refer readers back to Sir Wilfred's two great books, and to sentences as lovely as this: “Memories of that first visit to the Marshes have never left me: (8)firelight on a half-turned face, the crying of geese, duck ★flighting[16] in to feed, a boy's voice singing somewhere in the dark, canoes moving in procession down a waterway, the setting sun seen crimson through the smoke of burning reed-beds, narrow waterways that wound still deeper into the Marshes.”
话说回来,梅特兰的这本书还是对威福瑞自传《我所选择的人生》起到了有益的助阵作用。但愿这本传记也能让读者重新想起威福瑞那两本伟大著作,想起这些动人的语句:“沼泽地的第一次旅行始终萦怀:映照在侧头而望的脸上的火光,群鹅的鸣叫,结对飞入觅食的鸭子,黑暗某处男孩的歌声,顺水而行的独木舟,透过芦苇垫燃烧发出的浓烟看到那绯红的落日,狭窄的河道蜿蜒而入沼泽深处。”
★★★NOTES注释★★★
[1]Wilfred Thesiger:威福瑞?塞西格,毕业于牛津大学,既是一名冒险家,也是一名出色的军人。出生于非洲,大学毕业后他回到了家乡。一生中到过世界上许多人们难以想象的,荒凉的地方,特别是非洲东部地区和中东地区。他的自传《四分之一空间》,《阿拉伯沙地》,影响了一代代旅行作家。
[2]slog:v.艰难行进,长途跋涉;拼命苦干 如:slog across the swamp;沉重缓慢地走过沼泽地 slogged through both volumes. 缓慢吃力地读完了那两卷 slogged away at Latin.苦读拉丁文
[3]intrusive:adj.打扰的,插入的
[4]masochistic:adj.性受虐狂的,受虐狂的
[5]terse:adj.简洁的,简明的(brief and to the point)
[6]cusp:n.尖顶,尖端,尖角
[7]oblivion:n.遗忘,忘却;湮没,埋没
如:to be buried in oblivion被人遗忘
The city has long since passed into oblivion.该市早已湮没。
[8]delude:v.欺骗,蒙蔽(into)=deceive
如:fraudulent ads that delude consumers into sending in money.欺骗顾客花钱的虚假广告
附注——近义词比较:
deceive, betray, mislead, beguile, delude,这些动词都有“通过狡诈的手段把他人导入错误、危险
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《经济学家》读译参考 Translated & Edited by Chen Jilong
或不利的位置”的意思。
1) Deceive是有意隐瞒或歪曲真相的意思:
“There is a moment of difficulty and danger at which flattery and falsehood can no longer deceive” (Letters of Junius). “在艰难和危险的时刻,奉承和欺骗不再能蒙蔽人” (朱尼厄斯的信)。 2)Betray含有不忠或背叛的意思:
“When you betray somebody else, you also betray yourself” (Isaac Bashevis Singer). “你背叛别人的时候,你也背叛了你自己” (伊萨艾克?巴谢维丝?辛格)。 3)Mislead意为引入错误的方向或引向错误的思维、行动:
“My manhood, long misled by wandering fires,/Followed false lights” (John Dryden). “游移的火焰长久地误导,我的成年时期跟随着虚妄的光” (约翰?德莱顿)。 4)Beguile含有通过友好的方法引诱、欺骗的意思:
They beguiled unwary investors with tales of overnight fortunes. To 他们以一夜之间可以发大财的承诺,诱骗了掉以轻心的投资者。
5)Delude指欺骗到一个程度,致使受骗人无法分辨真伪,或做出可靠的判断: The government deluded the public about the dangers of low-level radiation. 政府欺骗公众,关于低强度辐射的危险性。
[9]fleece:vt. (常与of连用)骗取,诈取(金钱);(原意是指剪羊毛,薅羊毛) 如:They fleeced us of $100 at that hotel.那家旅馆敲了我们一百美元。
[10]craggy:adj.陡峭的,崎岖不平的
[11]coyly:adj.羞怯地;害羞地
[12]furtive: adj.偷偷的;秘密的
如:The man's furtive manner gave rise to the suspicion of the theft among the policemen.\那个男人鬼鬼祟祟的样子,引起警察怀疑盗窃案是他作的案。\
[13]voyeuristic:adj.喜好窥阴的
[14]distance:n.分歧,不和,不同意:
如:The candidates could not be at a greater distance on this issue.在这个问题上,候选人之间分歧很大。
[15]scour:vt. 搜索;仔细或彻底的查看:
如:The detective scoured the scene of the crime for clues.那个侦探在犯罪现场仔细搜索线索
[16]flight:vi.成群飞行;迁徙
★★★砖已抛,玉何在?★★★ 请您试试文中划线语句的翻译:
(1) FEW modern travel writers excite more hostility and awe than Sir Wilfred Thesiger, who died in 2003. (2) Homosexuality, latent or otherwise, explains him, they conclude, pointing to the photographs he took of beautiful youths.
(3) Moreover, he admits as much himself in his autobiography and elsewhere.
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《经济学家》读译参考 Translated & Edited by Chen Jilong
(4) I don't delude myself that I succeed but I get my interest and pleasure trying.
(5) As for his sexuality, Mr Maitland refers coyly to occasional “furtive embraces and voyeuristic encounters”, presumably with men.
(6) Mr Maitland seems to have interviewed almost nobody black or brown.
(7) a useful companion to the explorer's autobiography, “The Life of My Choice”. (8) firelight on a half-turned face
TEXT 7
Bridge across the Bosporus
Feb 23rd 2006
From The Economist print edition
MORE than 80 years after being ★supplanted[1] by the Turkish republic, the Ottoman empire will not die. Bloodshed in the Balkans; Arab and Kurdish nationalism across the Middle East; ★Turcophobia[2] in Armenia; (1)all are echoes of a dynasty that survived for 600 years▲ and whose dominions e____ ① ____ from the Danube through the Levant to Algiers. Few historians have dared compress the story of this extraordinary enterprise into a single volume. “Osman's Dream” shows why.
Osman led one of several Turcoman tribes, of Central Asian descent, that were competing for control of Anatolia at the beginning of the 14th century. (The dream in question was interpreted to mean that Osman would found an imperial house; (2)“Ottoman” is the European corruption of his name▲). By the mid-16th century, Osman's descendants had killed off the Byzantine Empire and t____ ② ____ its capital, Constantinople (renamed Istanbul), into the world's greatest mosque city. They also had control of the Muslim holy places, Mecca and Medina, in Arabia.
The empire's expansion was driven in part by Islamic notions of a just war against the ★infidel[3], but the Ottomans were also notable for their relative tolerance. Jews fleeing the ★Spanish inquisition[4] were welcomed to Istanbul. Christian converts became key figures in the bureaucracy, armed forces and the ★harem[5]. Even at the empire's peak, however, the tide of history was turning in Europe's f__ ③ .___ Challenged by the Europeans' intellectual and military ★prowess[6], hampered by the fiscal ineptitude of its leaders, and powerless to suppress the petty nationalisms that infected its Balkan possessions, (3)the empire began to unravel—at times abruptly, at others imperceptibly. ▲
With her doctorate in the ★fiendishly[7] complex discipline of Ottoman studies, (4)Ms Finkel is ideally placed to make sense of this. ▲But “Osman's Dream” leaves one with the impression that the author's scholarship—she includes a 30-page bibliography—could have been put to better use. Her apparent desire to record every event of significance sometimes r___ ④ ___ in a dispiriting succession of military campaigns and diplomatic intrigues; (5)one would have preferred a ★pruning[8] of the ★thicket[9] of events and more discussion of what it all means.▲
(6)The author offers glimpses of a more satisfying book. ▲She includes a suggestive aside on the blending of French and Persian inspirations in the Ottoman palace-building of the early 18th century—as good an emblem for the empire's strained multiculturalism as you could wish for. There are ★tantalising[10] allusions to both the
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《经济学家》读译参考 Translated & Edited by Chen Jilong
fascination and the repulsion which animated the later Ottomans' ★ambivalence[11] t___ ⑤ ___ Europe. And one wishes that (7)Ms Finkel had developed her intriguing defence of the empire in the 19th century, “multi-confessional, geographically incoherent and economically backward”▲, in the face of demands, on the part of ★impertinent[12] Europeans, that it reform internally.
The limitations of Ms Finkel's approach are most apparent in her ★perfunctory[13] treatment of the empire's final, ★tumultuous[14] years. She deals no more than cursorily with the Armenian massacres during the first world war, preferring to observe that scholarship has suffered from the highly-charged contemporary d___ ⑥ ___ over whether the killings constitute genocide. This point would have made a worthwhile ★footnote[15].(8) As a substitute for an account of what happened, it is a ★cop-out[16].▲
★★★NOTES★★★ [1]supplant:vt.取代,排挤
如:The word processor has largely supplanted electric typewriters. Word处理程序已很大程度上取代了电动打字机。
It is my view that the new historical disciplines complement rather than supplant traditional history.我认为这些新的历史学科对传统历史学起到了补充而非排挤作用。
▲近义词辨析▲
replace, supplant, supersede
这些动词在用来指把某人或某物辞退或搬走并用他人或他物代替他、她或它时具可比性。
? Replace是指成为或提供代替他人或他物的物或人的相等物或替换物, 尤其是对已经丢失、耗尽、用竭或被辞退:
“A conspiracy was carefully engineered to replace the Directory by three Consuls” (H.G. Wells). “细心策划密谋以三个执政官取代督政府” (H.G,威尔斯)。
“I succeed him [Benjamin Franklin, as envoy to France] ; no one could replace him” (Thomas Jefferson). “我接替他[本杰明?富兰克林,作为派往法国的特使];没有人能够取代他” (托马斯?杰弗逊)。 ? Supplant通常指用阴谋诡计或卑鄙的手段来取代他人的位置:
“The rivaling poor Jones, and supplanting him in her affections, added another spur to his pursuit” (Henry Fielding). “对抗的可怜的琼斯,以及用她的影响取代他的位置的举动进一步刺激了他的追求” (亨利?费尔汀)。 ? Supersede 是指用另一个被认为更优秀、更有价值、更有用或者更年轻的人或物代替某人或某物: “In our island the Latin appears never to have superseded the old Gaelic speech” (Macaulay). “在我们的岛上古老的盖尔语似乎永远被拉丁语所取代” (麦考利)。
“Each of us carries his own life-form—an indeterminable form which cannot be superseded by any other” (Carl Jung).我们每个人都有自己的生活方式-一种无法查明、不能被其它任何一种方式取代的方式” (卡尔?荣格)
[2]turcophobia:n.憎恶土耳其风俗习惯的人, 憎恶土耳其的人
-phobia:后缀;表示“对某一特定事物的强烈的、不正常的或不合逻辑的恐惧”: 如:xenophobia 仇外,惧外;
Americanophobia 对美国(或美洲)文化的憎恶,美国(或美洲)文化仇视心理 Anglophobia反英, 恐英病
technophobia技术恐惧(指对技术对社会及环境造成不良影响的恐惧)
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《经济学家》读译参考 Translated & Edited by Chen Jilong
thanatophobia [心]死亡恐怖(症),死亡恐惧(症)
[3]infidel:adj. & n. 不信教的(人);异端的(人)
[4]Spanish inquisition:西班牙宗教法庭,1480-1834年的天主教法庭,以残酷迫害异端著称。1543年将数以万计再洗礼教派教徒在火刑柱上烧死。西班牙国王伊莎贝拉一世创建。 参考文献:http://www.pep.com.cn/200406/ca416233.htm
[5]harem:n.(伊斯兰教国家中的)闺房,后宫;女眷们
[6]prowess:n. 卓越的技能;杰出的才能;本领
如:He is a football player of great prowess. 他是一名技能卓绝的足球选手。
The young student from the theatrical school showed great prowess at acting in the play.这个戏剧学校的学生在这出戏中显示出了非凡的演技。
[7]fiendishly:adv.恶魔似地, 极坏地;
fiendish:adj.极凶的,极大的;极为讨厌或糟糕的
如:a fiendish blizzard 极大的暴风雪 a fiendish problem 极大的难题
[8]prune:vt.(常与down, off, away连用)修剪(树、花木);(常与of连用)删改;删除 如:prune the slang from a speech删去演说中的俚语
[9]thicket:n.密集生长的灌木或矮树;错综复杂,盘根错节 如: the thicket of unreality which stands between us and the facts of life 在我们和生活的现实之间存在着无法穿越的虚幻
[10]tantalise:(美语tantalize)vt.挑逗,逗弄
如:The very thought that a human being would deliberately starve herself for any reason provoked, intrigued, and tantalized the public.(“Psychobiology and Treatment of Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa” by Katherine A Halmi)有人认为,不管出于何故,一个人会故意忍饥挨饿。这种想法让公众既生气,又好奇,还有点着急。(凯瑟琳?A?哈尔米《神经性食欲缺乏和易饿病的精神生物学研究和治疗方法》)
[11]ambivalence:n.矛盾心理,双重人格;摇摆,举棋不定(towards) ambivalent adj.(对人、事物)有矛盾心理的
如:There is an ambivalent feeling towards rural workers.人们对于民工的心情是复杂的。
[12]impertinent:adj.无关的,不切题的;无礼的,鲁莽的
如:He deemed all such inquiries on the part of a slave improper and impertinent, and evidence of a restless spirit.他认为一个奴隶如此多嘴多舌,是不合礼仪的,很显然这个奴隶还很不安分。(“Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” by Frederick Douglass)
★近义词辨析★
irrelevant, extraneous, immaterial, impertinent
这些形容词共有的核心意思是“与所考虑的问题没有关系的” an irrelevant comment; 一句不相干的评语;
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