张培基英译散文赏析之《生命》_其他

张培基英译散文赏析之《生命》

综述：类似于shoot up这种生动形象的词我们之前也见过不少，比如put forth, sprout up/out~

不知多少年来，这个女人总是带着一束鲜花默默地置于树根旁，然后仰起头来，对着树身凝视，翕动着她独有的小小嘴唇，既像独语，又像倾诉。她退后一步，打量她这树高了多少，细心地除去树下斑斑驳驳的落叶，向这颗移植多年的树倾身拥抱，亲了一下，轻轻摩挲树皮的皱纹，如同面对一个有生命的躯体。不久，她依依不舍的转身离去，消失在暮色渐浓的秋天最后一抹余晖里。

As she had been doing for we don’t know how many years, the woman stood silently beside the tree with a bunch of fresh flowers in her hand. She raised her head to fix her eyes on the tree and kept moving her unique small lips as if she were soliloquizing or sharing her innermost feelings with someone. She took a step back to assess how much the tree had grown in height and softly removed the mottled fallen leaves under it. She bent forward to hug and kiss the tree that had been transplanted many years before, and gently stroked its wrinkled bark as if it were something alive. Then she reluctantly turned round and left, vanishing into the last rays of an autumn day in the deepening dusk.

要点：

1，“不知多少年来“译为As she had been doing for we don’t know how many years,其中we don’t know how是插入语，用以表达原文的”不知“此从句也可译为”她这样做已经许多年了“即As had always been the case for many years或as she had been doing this for many years~在《我坐了木船》中也有类似表述——“跑了不知多少趟，总算有眉目了”译为After making you don't know how many visits, there eventually appear signs of positive outcome.其中的you don’t know how也是插入语，修饰many。