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  3. A spectre haunts this book—the spectre of Europe. Just as the 700 pages of Tony Blair’s autobiography could not escape the shado

A spectre haunts this book—the spectre of Europe. Just as the 700 pages of Tony Blair’s autobiography could not escape the shado

admin2022-01-17  57
问题     A spectre haunts this book—the spectre of Europe. Just as the 700 pages of Tony Blair’s autobiography could not escape the shadow of Iraq, so the 700 pages of David Cameron’s memoir are destined to be read through a single lens: Brexit.
    For all its detailed accounts of coalition talks with the leader of the liberal Democrats or Syria debates with Barack Obama, Brexit is the story. Cameron acknowledges as much, writing several times that he goes over the events that led to the leave vote of 2016 every day, "over and over again. Reliving and rethinking the decisions, rerunning alternatives and what-might-have-beens." Later he writes: "My regrets about what had happened went deep. I knew then that they would never leave me. And they never have."
    It’s this which gives the book its narrative arc, one it shares with Blair’s. Both tell the story of a man whose previously charmed path to success is suddenly interrupted, running into a catastrophe that will haunt him to his last breath. The development is the same in both cases, a series of consecutive victories-winning his party’s leadership, rebranding and modernising that party to appeal to the centre ground, reaching Downing Street, winning re-election-only to make a decision that will wreak lasting havoc.
    Cameron offers the same defence for Brexit that Blair gave for Iraq: yes, things might have turned out disastrously, but my mistake was honest, I acted in good faith, I only did what I truly believed was right.
    Which is not to say that the memoir is not self-critical. On the contrary, Cameron scolds himself throughout and not only on Brexit. He writes that he often misses the wood for the trees, getting lost in policy detail and failing "to see the bigger, emotional picture".
    Nevertheless, his memoir reminds you why Cameron dominated British politics for so long. The prose is, like him, smooth and efficient. The chapter describing the short life and death of the Camerons’ severely disabled son, Ivan, is almost unbearably moving. With admirable honesty, Cameron admits that the period of mourning did not only follow his son’s death but his birth, "trying to come to terms with the difference between the child you expected and longed for and the reality that you now face". What had, until then, been a charmed life was interrupted by the deep heartbreak.
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答案 这本书有个幽灵时常出没一个叫做“欧洲”的幽灵。正如托尼.布莱尔(Tony Blair)700页的自传摆脱不了伊拉克的阴影一样，大卫.卡梅伦(David Cameron)700页的自传也注定要从“脱欧”这个单一的视角进行解读。书中详细叙述了他和自由民主党领导的联盟谈判以及和与巴拉克.奥巴马(Barack Obama)就叙利亚问题所展开的辩论，而这些叙述都离不开脱欧这件事。卡梅伦也承认了这一点，他多次写到自己每天都会回顾引发2016年脱欧公投的一系列事件：“我回顾了一遍又一遍，在脑海中重现并且反思那些决定，重新推演了替代性决定以及它们可能产生的结果。”接着他还写道，“我对已经发生的事感到越来越后悔。我也知道后悔将伴随我一生。迄今为止，后悔从未离开过我。”这一点正是这本书的叙事弧。也是这本书和布莱尔自传的一个共同点。两本自传都讲述了一个男人的故事：主人公原先顺风顺水的成功之路突然被打断，转而遭遇了一场惨败，一场直到最后一口气也挥之不去的惨败。这两本书还有着一样的情节发展：主人公当选一党之首后，对政党进行了重新包装和革新，从而吸引中立派，成功入主了唐宁街，并获得再选的胜利；一番连胜之后，却做了一个后患无穷的决定。 卡梅伦就脱欧事件所做的辩解和布莱尔在伊拉克问题上的辩解如出一辙：是的，事情可能出现糟糕的结果，但我的错误没有丝毫隐瞒，我做事诚恳，我只是做了我真正认为正确的事情。这番自辩并不是说卡梅伦的自传里就没有自我批评。相反，卡梅伦全程都在责备自己，而且不仅仅是脱欧这件事。卡梅伦在书中批评自己经常因树失林，迷失于政策细节而没能“看见更宏大的感人画面”。虽然如此，卡梅伦的自传却让人们想起他能够主导英国政治这么多年的原因。他的为人如同自传的行文，圆润而且高效。卡梅伦的儿子埃文(Ivan)患有严重残疾，自传中有一章描绘了埃文短暂的人生和去世，几乎让人感动到不能自已。带着令人敬佩的坦诚，卡梅伦承认哀悼期不仅仅是从埃文去世时开始的；他自己“努力接受所期待、所渴望的孩子所面临的现实的差距。”此前受到眷顾的人生便被这深切的悲痛打断了。
解析 1.lens原意是“镜片，透镜”。根据上下文可知，lens在此强调解读的角度，因此可引申翻译为“视角”，
2.as much“一样，同等”，这里可以根据前后文的连贯需要，翻译成“也”。
3.the centre ground “the+名词”结构，用于表示某类人，在这里指“持中间奇扬的人”，即“中立派”。
4. its detailed accounts of后面由于接了两个较长的名词性结构，直译则显得不流畅，故可以先转换词性，将偏正结构的its detailed accounts理解为主谓结构的its detailed accounts，从而连贯地接续后面的两个名词性结构。翻译完这两个名词性结构后，再将detail这一部分意思译出，放到后面作为评价性总结。
5. what-might-have-beens原本是一个从句，单词之间用连字符连接则整体变成了一个名词。结合前面的rerunning alternatives可知，what-might-have-beens是指卡梅伦当初若是选择了那些替代性的决定，现在又会是什么样的结果，因此可以根据前文，翻译为“它们可能产生的结果”。
6. “And they never have”是一个省略句，原文为了避免重复，省略了谓语和宾语，补充完整后应为“And they never have”。根据汉语倾向于原词复现的衔接特点，这一句译成中文时可对省略的部分进行显性化，处理为“迄今为止，后悔从未离开过我。”
7.第5段前两句的核心词是self-critical和scolds，writes后的宾语从句则是具体的自我批评内容。因此，writes既可以译为“写道”，也可结合上下文意译为“批评”，使得上下文的连接更加顺畅。
7.politics直译为“政治”即可，dominated可对应地意译为“主导”，因此dominated British politics可译为“主导英国政治”，这样更符合中文的表达习惯。
8.prose作名词意为“散文”，在这里指的是卡梅伦的自传，根据后面的修饰词smooth and efficient，可将其译为“自传的行文”。
9. come to terms with原指“与……达成条款协议”“妥协”，这里根据后面的宾语the difference，可译为“接受”。
10. Cameron offers the same defence for Brexit that Blair gave for Iraq中，that引导的定语从句修饰defence，表示卡梅伦和布莱尔的辩解(defence)如出一辙考虑到defence的定语从句难以直接译为前置定语，且陵定语从句后面跟随defence的具体内容，因此可在翻译时列原文结构进行调整，将先行词defence一分为二，译为“卡梅伦就脱欧事件所做的辩解和布莱尔在伊扣克问题上的辩解如出一辙”。如此一来，既做到了译文的结构对称，又顺畅地衔接了后文。句中的things might have turned out disastrously是主谓状结构，没有宾语。翻译时，如果遇到这种结构的句子，可以通过转换部分词的词性，转变结构。本句可以转换为things might have turned out to be a disaster，这样一来，翻译难度自然而然地降低了句中的简单句I acted in good faith没有宾语，可以根据语境在译文中增补acted隐含的宾语“事”，译成“我做事诚恳”。
11.Which is not to say that the memoir is not self-critical直译为“但这并不是说卡梅伦的自传不是自我批评的”，不符合中文的表达习惯，可将is not self-critical部分灵活译为“没有自我批评”，让行文更为通顺自然。另外，此处的which指代前面defence的具体内容，进行翻译时需要指明其具体指代的内容，译为“这番自辩”，以免造成译文不连贯。
12.misses the wood for the trees的表面意思为“为了几棵树错过了整片森林”，可以采用归化的翻译策略，译为“因小失大”。另外，wood在逻辑上包含了trees，大于trees对于译文的读者而言，是能够理解的，因此也可以采用异化的翻译策略，译为“因树失林”。
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