少年对《双城记》两段的翻译

椰子

周末，我让儿子翻译他们十年级英文课指定阅读的小说《双城记》里让他印象最深，最能反映人物性格的段落。40分钟后，儿子写出来对以下两段的译文。

A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens （1999, Dover Publications, Inc.）

“We were so robbed by that man who stands there, as all we common dogs are by those superior Beings----taxed by him without mercy, obliged to work for him without pay, obliged to grind our corn at his mill, obliged to feed scores of his tame birds on our wretched crops, and forbidden for our lives to keep a single tame bird of our own, pillaged and plundered to that degree that when we chanced to have a bit of meat, we ate it in fear, with the door barred and the shutters closed, that his people should not see it and take it from us----I say, we were so robbed, and hunted, and were made so poor, that our father told us it was a dreadful thing to bring a child into the world, and that what we should most pray for, was, that our women might be barren and our miserable race die out!” （252页）

译文：
”我们被站在那儿的那个人欺压得不行了，就像我们所有的穷狗们被那些高贵的人欺压的一样。无情地要求我们交税，逼着我们为他免费效劳，逼着我们在他的磨坊里磨谷子，逼着我们用自己仅有的粮食喂他养的鸟，也不允许我们自己养一只鸟。把我们折磨到如果有一小片肉吃时，我们提心吊胆地把它吃下，把门和窗都关上，不让他们看见和夺去----我跟你说，我们被他不断地盗窃，被追赶，被他害得穷苦无比，连我们父亲都说把一个孩子生下来是多么可恨的一件事，说我们应该请求让我们的母女们不生孩子，让我们这可恨的人群死光！”

 “I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. I see her, an old woman, weeping for me on the anniversary of this day. I see her and her husband, their course done, lying side by side in their last earthly bed, and I know that each was not more honoured and held scared in the other’s soul, than I was in the souls of both.

“I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the light of his. I see the blots I threw upon it, faded away. I see him, foremost of just judges and honoured men, bringing a boy of my name, with a forehead that I know and golden hair, to this place—then fair to look upon, with not a trace of this day’s disfigurement----and I hear him tell the child my story, with a tender and faltering voice.

“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.” (292-293页)

译文：
“我看见我在他们心中的地位，也在他们后人的心中的地位，世代传连。我看见她，在她年老时，在这天的周年为我哭泣。我看见她与她丈夫走完他们的路时，在他们这世上最后的归点并肩躺着，也知道在他们互相的心中，对方的地位都没有我的地位重。

“我看见那个躺在她身边，为我而命名的那个孩子，看到他在我那过去的职业道路上成长，成功。我看到他获得无限的胜利，使我的名字在那里被他的名声发扬，光大。我看见我在我的名声上洒上的污点，被时间淡化。我看到他，伟大正义的执法人，将一个也为我而取名的男孩，一个有着我熟悉的额头和金发的男孩，带来这里：那时已经变得美丽，平静，没有一丝今日的混乱，我也听到他以温和的语气给他儿子述说我的故事。

“我现今做的事，比我先前都出色；我现今走向的终点，比我先前都平静。”

 2013年4月13日下午