1.4《朱迪·布卢姆——勇往直前的一生》

Example 1

ST: In Key West and in Brooklyn, beds were stripped, expensive inspections performed: nothing. After a few days, I had no new bites. I was relieved, if further embarrassed. I apologized to Blume for the false alarm, and she responded with a “Whew!” I hoped we had put the matter behind us. (p.22)

TT: 在基韦斯特和布卢克林，我把床铺都掀开，花大价钱请别人来检查，却什么也没发现。几天之后，我没再被虫子咬过了。我松了一口气，可又觉得更加尴尬了。我为此次闹乌龙向布卢姆道歉，她回复了一个“唷”。我希望我俩就此都把这件事抛之脑后。

Example 2

ST: She felt that her mother, in particular, expected perfection. (p.32)

TT: 她认为她母亲是一个十足的完美主义者。

Analysis: As the sentence structure is very simple, the readers of the source language can get the meaning quickly. However, if it is translated word for word, like literal translation, the translation is “尤其渴望完美”, which is bound to be obscure for targeted readers. As the literal translation is a little stiff and short of symmetric beauty, the author changes in the part of speech. In addition, according to Newmark’s communicative translation theory, the phrase can be translated into the counterpart of Chinese, thus making the optimal communicative effect. Consequently, the abstract noun is translated into a concrete noun. When someone is described as having “expected perfection”, people in Chinese always say “完美主义者”. In this way, the goal of the communicative translation theory is achieved, and then the targeted readers can obtain the same reading effect as readers of the original.

Example 3

ST: Such parental anxiety is all too familiar to Blume. In the ’80s, her frank descriptions of puberty and teenage sexuality made her a favorite target of would-be censors. (p.25)

TT: 布卢姆太了解这些父母的焦虑了。在二十世纪八十年代，布卢姆直白地写出了青春期的特点以及青少年的性行为，这使得她被图书审查员盯上了。

Analysis: The two sentences are very simple without complex structures. The first sentence shows that English prefers inanimate nouns rather than animate nouns as subjects, which are called inanimate subjects. This reflects that Westerners express things objectively and calmly. On the contrary, Chinese is used to have animated verbs as subjects, aiming to stress the doer of the action instead of the recipient of that. Hence, if it was translated into “这种父母的焦虑对布卢姆来说再熟悉不过了。” under the guidance of the Semantic Translation theory, the translated text will be very awkward with strong translationese and fail to achieve the communicative effect. Therefore, the author converts it into “布卢姆太了解这些父母的焦虑了。”, making the biographee the subject and aligning the customs of Chinese expression. Additionally, the second sentence indicates that English is a static language while Chinese is a dynamic language. Hence, nouns are more frequently seen in English, while verbs are in Chinese. If it is translated into “在80年代，她对青春期和青少年性行为的坦率描述使她成为审查者最喜欢的潜在目标。”, which violates verb-preference principle in Chinese. Hence, the author changed the structure of “the adjective plus noun ”into “verb plus adverb”, then the result is “在二十世纪八十年代，布卢姆直白地写出了青春期的特点以及青少年的性行为，这使得她被图书审查员盯上了。” In this way, the translation is more acceptable and readable.