长妈妈,已经说过,是一个一向带领着我的女工,说得阔气一点,就是我的保姆。我的母亲和许多别的人都这样称呼她,似乎略带些客气的意思。 她教给我的道理还很多,例如说人死了,不该说死掉,必须说“老掉了”;死了人,生了孩子的屋子里,不应该走进去;饭粒落在地上

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问题     长妈妈,已经说过,是一个一向带领着我的女工,说得阔气一点,就是我的保姆。我的母亲和许多别的人都这样称呼她,似乎略带些客气的意思。
    她教给我的道理还很多,例如说人死了,不该说死掉,必须说“老掉了”;死了人,生了孩子的屋子里,不应该走进去;饭粒落在地上,必须拣起来,最好是吃下去;晒裤子用的竹竿底下,是万不可钻过去的……
    这种敬意,虽然也逐渐淡薄起来,但完全消失,大概是在知道她谋害了我的隐鼠之后。那时就极严重地诘问,而且当面叫她阿长。
    过了十多天,或者一个月罢,我还记得,是她告假回家以后的四五天,她穿着新的蓝布衫回来了,一见面,就将一包书递给我,高兴地说道:“哥儿,有画儿的‘山海经’,我给你买来了!”我似乎遇着了一个霹雳,全体都震悚起来;赶紧去接过来,打开纸包,是四本小小的书,略略一翻,人面的兽,九头的蛇……果然都在内。又使我发生新的敬意了,别人不肯做,或不能做的事,她却能够做成功。
    她确有伟大的神力。谋害隐鼠的怨恨,从此完全消灭了。这四本书,乃是我最初得到. 最为心爱的宝书。

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答案 Mamma Chang, as I have said elsewhere, was the maid who brought me up or—to give her a grander title— my nanny. That is what my mother and many others called her, for this sounded a little more polite. She taught me much other lore as well. For instance, if someone died, you should not say he was dead but "he has passed away". You should not enter a room where someone had died or a child had been born. If a grain of rice fell to the ground, you should pick it up, and the best thing was to eat it. On no account must you walk under the bamboo pole on which trousers or pants were hanging out to dry… Although this kind of respect for her wore off by degrees, I believe it did not disappear completely till I discovered it was she who had killed my mouse. I cross-examined her sternly on that occasion, and called her "Ah Chang" to her face. About a fortnight or a month later, as I remember, four or five days after she had gone home on leave, she came back wearing a new blue cloth jacket. The moment she saw me she handed me a package. "Here, son!" she said cheerfully. "I’ve bought you that Book of Holy Seas with pictures. " This was like a thunderbolt. I was struck all of a heap. I hastened to take the package and unwrap the paper. There were four small volumes and, sure enough, when I flipped through the pages, the man-faced beast, the nine-headed snake… all of them were there. This inspired me with a new respect. What others would not or could not do, she had been able to accomplish. She really did have tremendous spiritual power. My resentment against her for killing my mouse vanished for good and all. These four volumes were the first I ever possessed, and my most treasured book.

解析     结合语境,“带领”一词在这里表示我们通常所说的“带大”之意,也就是抚养大,因此使用短语bring up。“女工”在这里指家中的女佣,因此使用maid一词。“阔气”在这里并非形容人奢侈或者建筑物豪华,而是表示“有气派,有声势”,“阔气一点”体现出了前后的比较关系,因此使用grand的比较级形式grander。
    “例如”后的部分为一个完整的句子,因此翻译时将原句拆为两句。汉语中,“老掉了”是“死掉”的一种委婉说法,人们常常用委婉语来避免说出忌讳的词。同样,表达“死亡”的英文die、dead在西方文化中同样是最忌讳的词,存在诸多对应的委婉语,比如pass away、be called to God、sleep the final sleep、one’s number is up等,这里选取最常见也最常用的pass away。
    这句话主要描述了阿长从家中归来将《山海经》送给作者的经过,根据动作的先后顺序,中文形成多个小短句,读来一气呵成。但翻译为英文时,若是按照原文结构处理为复合句,会造成内容冗杂、主次不分。因此根据意群,从“一见面”之前和“高兴地说道”之前进行拆分,将英文处理为类似小说中描述事件经过的多个短句的形式,读来层次分明,更有画面感。“十多天”在这里译为fortnight(两星期),虽然从含义上来说并不相符,前者为概数,后者则为较为明确的数字,但是在fortnight前加上表示约数的about后,两者对应,比使用more than ten days更加简洁地道。“告假回家”中“告假”原为动词,在这里指出阿长回家的原因,其中“回家”是这里重点强调的内容,因此将动词转换为介词短语on leave修饰动词go home,主次分明。
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