小說翻譯者的職責——譯therealthing有感

1、 1 The Real Thing 原文及譯文 原文及譯文 譯文標題 （原文） 譯文標題 （原文）The Real Thing （譯文）不可臨摹的真物 （譯文）不可臨摹的真物 原文 譯文 原文 譯文 Chapter I When the porter’s wife (she used to answer the house-bell), announced “A gentleman — with a lady, sir,” I

2、had, as I often had in those days, for the wish was father to the thought, an immediate vision of sitters. Sitters my visitors in this case proved to be; but not in the sense I should have preferred. However, there was n

3、othing at first to indicate that they might not have come for a portrait. The gentleman, a man of fifty, very high and very straight, with a moustache slightly grizzled and a dark grey walking-coat admirably fitted⑤, bot

4、h of which I noted professionally — I don’t mean as a barber or yet as a tailor — would have struck me as a celebrity if celebrities often were striking. It was a truth of which I had for some time been conscious that a

5、figure with a good deal of frontage was, as one might say, almost never a public institution. A glance at the lady helped to remind me of this paradoxical law: she also looked too distinguished to be a “personality.” Mor

6、eover one would scarcely come across two variations together. Neither of the pair spoke immediately — they only prolonged the preliminary gaze which suggested that each wished to give the other a chance. They were visibl

7、y shy; they stood there letting me take them in — which, as I afterwards perceived, was the most practical 第一章 門房的妻子 （通常都是她去應門） （開門后）大聲說： “一位先生和一位女士。 ”這時我已經(jīng)在腦海中勾畫了下，料想來客是來畫像的，那時我經(jīng)常這么做，但總是和想的不太一樣。這次來客的確是來畫像的，但并不是我所希望的那樣。然

8、而單是第一眼并未看出這點。男的五十多歲，非常高大挺拔，留著一撮灰白色的小胡子，穿著件深灰色風衣，非常合身，對于胡子和衣服我非常專業(yè)的注意到了——不是指理發(fā)師或裁縫的那種專業(yè)——他們象社會名流那樣令我大吃一驚，如果名流們經(jīng)常令人大吃一驚的話。我意識到一條真理，一位外表特別光鮮的人絕不會是什么社會名流。望了一眼那位女士便使我意識到那條似是而非的規(guī)律。她看起來由于過度驚訝而不那么象位名流。而且，要在同一時間遇到兩位這樣的名流幾乎不可能。 兩人

9、都沒有急于開口。持續(xù)著初次見面時的凝視，都等著對方先開口。他們看起來很害羞，他們站在那里，讓我引領他們進來，據(jù)我后來觀察，這是他們最駕輕就熟的事。他們的尷尬3 The lady looked very hard at the gentleman, and the gentleman looked round the room. Then staring at the floor a moment and stroking his mou

10、stache, he rested his pleasant eyes on me with the remark: “He said you were the right one.” “I try to be, when people want to sit.” “Yes, we should like to,” said the lady anxiously. “Do you mean together?” My visitors

11、exchanged a glance. “If you could do anything with ME, I suppose it would be double,” the gentleman stammered. “Oh yes, there’s naturally a higher charge for two figures than for one.” “We should like to make it pay,” th

12、e husband confessed. “That’s very good of you,” I returned, appreciating so unwonted a sympathy — for I supposed he meant pay the artist. A sense of strangeness seemed to dawn on the lady. “We mean for the illustrations

13、— Mr Rivet said you might put one in.” “Put one in — an illustration?” I was equally confused. “Sketch her off, you know,” said the gentleman, colouring. It was only then that I understood the service Claude Rivet had re

14、ndered me; he had told them that I worked in black and white, for magazines, for story-books, for sketches of contemporary life, and consequently had frequent employment for models. These things were true, but it was not

15、 less true (I may confess it now — whether because the aspiration was to lead to everything or to nothing I leave the reader to guess), that I couldn’t get the honours, to say nothing of the emoluments, of a 女人面露難色地看著男人，

16、男人則四下打量著房間，盯著地板看了會兒，男人按了按他的小胡子，把視線轉(zhuǎn)向我停在我身上說道： “他說我們找你就對了。 ” “人們想要畫像的時候，我會盡我所能去滿足。 ” “是的，我們希望是這樣。 ”女人緊張地說。 “你是說你們一起嗎？” 我的客人們互換了下眼神，隨后男人結(jié)結(jié)巴巴地說： “如果你能為我做什么的話，我建議是兩個人。 ” “哦，是的，兩個人的費用自然比一個人的高些。 ” “希望如此。 ”丈夫肯定的回答。 “你們真太好了。 ”我很

17、欣賞這種少有的同情心，我以為他指的是為他的畫像付錢。 女人似乎覺得有些許蹊蹺： “我們說的是插畫，里維特先生說也許您正需要一幅。 ” “插畫？”我同樣很迷惑。 “就是給她畫素描”男人補充解釋道。 直到這會兒，我才知道里維特先生給我介紹了什么美差。他一定已經(jīng)告訴他們我在為雜志、故事書畫鉛筆畫，為當代生活畫素描，因此常常需要模特的事。這些都確有其事，卻又不盡然（我現(xiàn)在可以坦承——不論抱有很大希望或是絲毫不抱希望，我留給讀者去猜） 。我無法拋