庄绎传：英译《鹿鼎记》学习札记

最近看到牛津大学出版社1997年出版的一本书，题目是The Deer and the Cauldron，作者是Louis Cha，译者是John Minford。这位译者，虽不认识，却很熟悉，因为读过他和David Hawkes合译的The Story of the Stone(《红楼梦》)。我还知道他在香港理工大学任教。但我没有想到他又将这本书译成了英文，把书打开一看，我立刻被那流畅的译文吸引住了，句句都是地道的英文。于是我就想去找一本中文原文，对照着学一下，一定会提高自己的翻译能力。
中文本很快就找到了。那不是别的书，正是鼎鼎大名的金庸所著的《鹿鼎记》。
这时我脑子里就产生了一个问题，译者是怎样把这地道的中文变成地道的英文的呢？可能你对这个问题也感兴趣。那我们就一起从头读一读吧。
选段一
北风如刀，满地冰霜。
江南近海滨的一条大路上，一队清兵手执刀枪，押着七辆囚车，冲风冒寒，向北而行。
前面三辆囚车中分别监禁的是三个男子，都作书生打扮，一个是白发老者，两个是中年人。后面四辆中坐的是女子，最后一辆囚车中是个少妇，怀中抱着个女婴。女婴啼哭不休。她母亲温言相呵，女婴只是大哭。囚车旁一名清兵恼了，伸腿在车上踢了一脚，喝道再哭，再哭！老子踢死你！”那女婴一惊，哭得更加响了。
Along a coastal road somewhere south of the Yangtze River, a detachment of soldiers, each of them armed with a halberd, was escorting a line of seven prison carts, trudging northwards in the teeth of a bitter wind.① In each of the first three carts a single male prisoner was caged, identifiable by his dress as a member of the scholar class. One was a white-haired old man. The other two were men of middle years. The four rear carts were occupied by women, the last of them by a young mother holding a baby girl at her breast. The little girl was crying in a continuous wail which her mother’s gentle words of comfort were powerless to console.② One of the soldiers marching alongside, irritated by the baby’s crying, aimed a mighty kick at the cart.③