四十多年前,我初入中学读书,当我知道自己生于一个有五千年悠久历史的国度里时,常觉欢欣莫似。我说五千年,是因为灌输于我那一代年轻人心目中的,恰是这个数字。据说苏美尔人和埃及人的文化起源更早,但是那些文化消逝得也早。印度人也有一段很长的文化传统,但是,印度的学

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问题     四十多年前,我初入中学读书,当我知道自己生于一个有五千年悠久历史的国度里时,常觉欢欣莫似。我说五千年,是因为灌输于我那一代年轻人心目中的,恰是这个数字。据说苏美尔人和埃及人的文化起源更早,但是那些文化消逝得也早。印度人也有一段很长的文化传统,但是,印度的学人似乎从不认为有必要将他们的传统记载下来,这一观点直到最近才有所转变。所以,如果将以上这些因素都考虑在内,中国无疑是依然存在于地球上的最古老的国家。她有着世界上最悠久——这一点很重要——延绵不断的历史记录。这就是辛亥革命前我对中国过去的理解。
    辛亥革命以后,情况开始转变。有一个时期,中国的革新者对过去的记载和关于过去的记载全都发生怀疑,也怀疑历史本身。20世纪初期中国的“文艺复兴”运动,本质上是一场理性运动,其精神多少与17世纪的古典主义相仿。他们的口号“拿证据来”在本质上虽然具有破坏性,但对中国古代研究的确带来了更多批判精神。因此,如果你想颂赞尧舜的盛世,好吧,拿出你的证据来;如果你想谈论公元前两千多年大禹在工程上的伟绩,也得拿出证据来。我们得先记住,在这种怀疑的精神之下,单纯的文字记载已不复被认为是有效的佐证了。
    这种找寻证据的运动给传统的治学方法以重创,但同时却给古典研究的方法带来了革命性的改变。中国的现代考古学就是在这一种环境之下产生的。

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答案 More than 40 years ago, when I was first admitted to the middle school, I used to feel extremely happy to know that I was born in a country whose history had already lasted 5,000 years. I say 5,000 years because it was actually the figure given to the youthful mind of my generation. The Sumerian civilization and the Egyptian civilization, we were told, might have started earlier; but they were also dead long ago. The Hindus, too, enjoy a long tradition, but their men of learning, till recently, never seemed to think it worthwhile to put their tradition on written records. So when all these things have been considered, China is certainly the oldest country still existing on this earth, and possesses the longest—and this is important—continuous written history of all the nations. This was my understanding of China’s past before the time of the Chinese Revolution. After the revolution, things began to change. There was a time when the reformers of China were skeptical about everything recorded in and about the past, including history itself. The Renaissance movement in the early twentieth century was essentially a rationalist movement, more or less akin in spirit to that of the classicists of the seventeenth century. Their slogan, "show your proof", though destructive in nature, did bring about a more critical spirit in the study of ancient China. Thus, if one wants to pay excessive tribute to the Golden Age of Yao and Shun, well, show your proof; if one wishes to talk about the engineering miracles of the Great Yu of the third millennium B. C., proofs must also be given. What must be remembered in this connection is that written records alone were no longer accepted.as valid proofs. This proof-seeking movement created a great deal of havoc with the traditional learning and revolutionized the method of classical studies. Modern archaeology in China was born in this atmosphere.

解析     “四十多年以前”和“我初人中学读书”皆为句子的状语,使用when引导状语从句引出。“有五千年悠久历史的国度”翻译时将修饰成分处理为用whose引导的后置定语从句,表达更自然地道。“常觉欢欣莫似”描述了一种过去的异常开心的情绪状态,这里使用used to表示“过去常常……”之意,用副词extreme])r强调内心那种强烈的愉悦感。“恰是这个数字”中的“恰是”译为actually,表示“实际上”,起到了同样的突出强调的作用。
    “依然存在于地球上的最古老的国家”这部分的修饰成分较长,翻译时将“最古老的”处理为前置修饰语,用动名词existing作后置定语,保持结构平衡。第二句其实是对“中国……最古老的国家”的进一步补充说明,翻译时无需独立成句,直接使用并列连词and引出,前后逻辑更紧密。“历史纪录”着重指“记载下来的历史”,因此译为written history,与前边介绍印度文化提到的“记载”相对应。
    “多少”即“或多或少”,表示程度,对应固定表达more or less。“相仿”即“近似”,可使用固定搭配akin to或similar to。而句中的“精神”可理解为“在精神方面”,因此译为in spirit,置于akin和to之间,这样语言简洁、逻辑清晰、表达多样。
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