无锡市第八届英语翻译比赛决赛试题及参考译文

2015年无锡市翻译竞赛（决赛）试题专科卷

一、英译中

We were different in ways of thinking and behaving. After the class, Robinson rushed out of the classroom to play basketball with the boys. Well, I was too shy to speak to them. Ten years later as a college student majoring in English, perhaps language is not as difficult a problem for me in communicating. And I can easily find a western food restaurant to practice using my fork and knife.

But I can still say we are different. In fact, I’m glad for all these differences which create interests to understand other cultures. If there had been no differences between East and West, Marco Polo would not have made his way from Italy to China in the late 14th century and taken discoveries including gun powder back to the west.

If there had been no differences between East and West, the national Traditional Orchestra of China might not have played Chinese classical music for the first time at the New Year’s Concert of this year in Vienna. Or maybe it would not have won applause. If there had been no differences, I would not have chosen to learn English and I wouldn’t have a chance to give my speech here.

I’m afraid if there had been no differences, we would have lost a rich and colorful existence. In this world we have the reserve of the British, the romance of the French, the bluntness of the Americans and the reticence of the Chinese. Those peoples’ cultural backgrounds are various. All their tears express sadness and their smiling faces beam happiness.

参考译文：

我们的思维方式和举止是不同的。下课后，罗宾逊冲出教室和男孩子一起打篮球，而我太害羞，连和男孩子说话也不敢。十年后的今天，我已经是一名英语系的大学生，语言已不再是交流中的一个问题，要练习使用刀叉我也能轻易地找到一家西餐厅。

但是我说我们还是不同，实际上我很高兴有这些不同。正是这些差异使得了解异国文化变得趣味盎然。倘若东西方之间不存在差异，那么十四世纪后期的马可·波罗就不会从意大利千里迢迢来到中国，就不会把中国的火药带回西方。

倘若东西方没有差异，那么中央民族乐团就不会在今年来到维也纳，在新年音乐会上首次演奏中国的古典音乐，也就不会赢得阵阵掌声。倘若东西方没有差异，我就不会选择学习英语，不会有机会在这里用英语演讲。

倘若没有东西方差异，恐怕我们就会丧失多姿多彩的生活。在这个世界上，有英国人的矜持、法国人的浪漫、美国人的率直和中国人的含蓄。不同的民族拥有不同的文化背景，然而，所有的眼泪都表达哀伤，所有的笑靥都源于欢乐。

二、中译英

一九一一年，在一个小县城里边，我生在一个小地主的家里。那县城差不多就是中国的最东最北部——黑龙江省——所以一年之中，倒有四个月飘着白雪。

父亲常常为着贪婪而失掉了人性。他对待仆人，对待自己的儿女，以及对待我的祖父都是同样的吝啬而疏远，甚至于无情。

有一次，为着房屋租金的事情，父亲把房客的全套的马车赶了过来。房客的家属们哭着诉说着，向我的祖父跪了下来，于是祖父把两匹棕色的马从车上解下来还了回去。

为着这匹马，父亲向祖父起着终夜的争吵。“两匹马，咱们是算不了什么的，穷人，这匹马就是命根。”祖父这样说着，而父亲还是争吵。

所以每每在大雪中的黄昏里，围着暖炉，围着祖父，听着祖父读着诗篇，看着祖父读着诗篇时微红的嘴唇。

参考译文：

In 1911, I was born into a petty landlord family in a remote county town in Heilongjiang Province – a town situated virtually at the northeastern tip of China. We had snow there for as long as one third of a year.

Father, driven by avarice, often became very unfeeling. He would treat his servants, his own children and even my grandpa alike with meanness and indifference, not to say with ruthlessness.

Once, due to a dispute over house rent, he took away by force a tenant’s horse – drawn cart and drove it home. The tenant’s family came to see grandpa and, dropping to their knees, tearfully related their troubles. Grandpa unharnessed the two chestnut horses and returned them to the tenant.

That touched off a night-long quarrel between father and grandpa. “The two horses mean nothing to us, but everything to the poor,” argued grandpa. Father, however, refused to listen.

Often of a snowy evening, we children would hang about grandpa by a heating stove, listening to him reading poems aloud and meanwhile watching his busy ruddy lips.