關(guān)于漢譯英，我想談三個要點(diǎn)：1.替代（substitution）；2.主謂（subject-predicate）；3.主從(subordination)。這三個要點(diǎn)用英語表述，第一個字母都是S，因此可以簡稱“三S要點(diǎn)”。譯文質(zhì)量不高，往往是因?yàn)檫@三個問題沒有處理好。換言之，若這三個問題處理得較好，可以為譯文增色不少。這一講，就集中談“替代”。
英語不喜歡重復(fù)，如果在一句話里或相連的幾句話里需要重復(fù)某個詞語，則用代詞來代替，或以其他手段來避免重復(fù)。漢語不怕重復(fù)，連續(xù)使用某個詞語是常見的事。所以漢譯英時要千方百計避免重復(fù)，多用代稱；英譯漢時則要少用代稱，多用實(shí)詞。
說起“替代”，我們當(dāng)然首先想到代詞。
代詞的使用，在英語和漢語里有很大的不同。總的說來，英語代詞用得多，漢語代詞用得少。因此，英譯漢時，有些代詞可以不譯。漢譯英時則要在適當(dāng)?shù)牡胤皆黾哟~，特別是物主代詞。用代詞以避免重復(fù)的例子，更是比比皆是。
例1．一切都要從這個實(shí)際出發(fā)，根據(jù)這個實(shí)際來制訂規(guī)劃。
In everything we do we must proceed from this reality, and all planning must be consistent with it.
例2．走社會主義道路,就是要逐步實(shí)現(xiàn)共同富裕。共同富裕的構(gòu)想是這樣提出的：一部分地區(qū)有條件先發(fā)展起來，一部分地區(qū)發(fā)展慢點(diǎn)，先發(fā)展起來的地區(qū)帶動后發(fā)展的地區(qū)，最終達(dá)到共同富裕。……解決的辦法之一，就是先富起來的地區(qū)多交點(diǎn)利稅，支持貧困地區(qū)的發(fā)展。
To take the road to socialism is to realize common prosperity step by step. Our plan is as follows: where conditions permit, some areas may develop faster than others; those that develop faster can help promote the progress of those that lag behind, until all become prosperous…. One way is for the areas that become prosperous first to support the poor ones by paying more taxes or turning in more profits to the state.
例3．要提倡科學(xué)，靠科學(xué)才有希望。
We must promote science, for that is where our hope lies.
例4．目前我們國內(nèi)正在進(jìn)行改革。我是主張改革的，不改革就沒有出路。
China is now carrying out a reform. I am all in favor of that. There is no other solution for us.
例5．最近，有的外國人議論，馬克思主義是打不倒的。打不倒，并不是因?yàn)榇蟊咀佣啵且驗(yàn)轳R克思主義的真理顛撲不破。
Recently, some foreigners said that Marxism cannot be defeated. That is so not because there are so many big books, but because Marxism is the irrefutable truth.
以上五例都用了代詞以避免重復(fù)。例1用it代替this reality，例2用others，those和ones代替areas，例3至例5都用that概括了前面的話。
說起代詞，還有兩點(diǎn)值得注意。一是英語常用she（her）代替某個國家或某一條船。
例6．The delta and the narrow Nile Valley to the south make up only 3 percent of Egypt’s land but are home to 96 percent of her population. (National Geographic)
例7．Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? (Helen Keller, The Story of My Life)
例8．現(xiàn)階段中國已經(jīng)實(shí)現(xiàn)了糧食基本自給，在未來的發(fā)展過程中，中國依靠自己的力量實(shí)現(xiàn)糧食基本自給，客觀上具備諸多有利因素。
China has basically achieved self-sufficiency in grain at the present stage, and there are many favorable objective factors for her to maintain such achievement by her own efforts in the course of future development.
例9．社會主義中國應(yīng)該用實(shí)踐向世界表明，中國反對霸權(quán)主義、強(qiáng)權(quán)政治，永不稱霸。
Socialist China should show the world through its actions that it is opposed to hegemonism and power politics and will never seek hegemony.
這種用she（her）指國家和船只的用法由來已久，現(xiàn)在指國家，倒是用it（its）的較為多見。Michael Swan所著Practical English Usage 《英語用法指南》第227條對這一問題作了詳細(xì)的說明。
還有一種現(xiàn)象值得注意，那就是用they指單數(shù)。2004年出版的《牛津高階英漢雙解詞典》（第6版）有這樣的例句：
例10．Everyone must accept their share of the blame. (見share條)
例11．Should anyone call (= if anyone calls), please tell them I’m busy. (見should條)
例12．Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. (見entitle條)
用they指單數(shù)就可避免he or she之類的累贅說法。上述《英語用法指南》第505條也對這一問題作了詳細(xì)的說明。
以上談了代詞的用法。其實(shí)，避免重復(fù)的辦法很多，也不限于使用代詞。
英國語言學(xué)家Randolph Quirk等四位學(xué)者合編的A Grammar of Contemporary English 在關(guān)于Substitution一節(jié)中指出：不僅名詞短語可以有代稱，狀語、謂語乃至賓語從句，都可以有代稱。該書把用作代稱的替代詞統(tǒng)稱為pro-forms。書中舉了許多例子，如：
We saw John at eight on Monday evening. We told him then that we would be coming to the party.
Look in the top drawer. You’ll probably find it there.
A: John drives a car. B: I think Bob does too.
A: John drives a car. B: So does Bob.
Oxford is likely to win the next boat race. All my friends say so. (= that Oxford is likely to win the next boat race)
以上例子中的then，there，does，so does，so都可以說是pro-forms。
例13．Egypt, wrote the Greek historian Hecataeus, is the gift of the Nile. No other country is so dependent on a single lifeline. Egypt’s very soil was born in the Nile’s annual flood; with the flood came the life-giving mud that made Egypt the granary of the ancient world. And as rain fell in the Ethiopian highlands and the snows melted in the Mountains of the Moon, the river was everlastingly renewed. (National Geographic)
在第一句和第三句里，the Nile出現(xiàn)兩次。在第四句里再次出現(xiàn)時，使用了代稱the river。要想避免重復(fù)，譯者就不能把視線局限在一個句子之內(nèi)，而要照顧到上下文。
例14．要選人民公認(rèn)是堅持改革開放路線并有政績的人，大膽地放進(jìn)新的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)機(jī)構(gòu)里，使人民感到我們真心誠意搞改革開放。
We should boldly choose for the new leadership persons who were generally recognized as adhering to the line of reform and opening up and who had some achievements in that respect to their credit. This would convince the people that we were wholeheartedly committed to that line.
以上二例都是以名詞替代名詞，也不見得比實(shí)稱簡短多少，只是換一種說法而已。
動詞和形容詞如何避免重復(fù)呢？如果可能，可以合并。
例15．所以，要把我們的軍隊(duì)教育好，把我們的專政機(jī)構(gòu)教育好，把共產(chǎn)黨員教育好，把人民和青年教育好。
So we must educate the army, persons working in the organs of dictatorship, the Communist Party members and the people, including the youth.
例16．會議多，文章太長，講話也太長。
We hold countless meetings, and our articles and speeches are too long.
如不可能合并，則可利用so，as，to do that等詞語來避免重復(fù)。
例17．He disliked her and had never been shy of saying so.
例18．The government could change the law if they were so minded.
例19．老科學(xué)家、中年科學(xué)家很重要，青年科學(xué)家也很重要。
Veteran and middle-aged scientists are important, and so are young ones.
例20．革命是解放生產(chǎn)力，改革也是解放生產(chǎn)力。
Revolution means the emancipation of the productive forces, and so does reform.
以上二例，前半句和后半句之間用了and一詞，請注意，不要丟掉。
例21．Almost at once the number of egg masses deposited on experimental goats began to decrease, as did their fertility. (Rachel Carson, Silent Spring)
（在試驗(yàn)用的山羊身上產(chǎn)的卵塊幾乎立刻減少，其受精率亦下降。）
例22．這五年，首先是農(nóng)村改革帶來許多新的變化，農(nóng)作物大幅度增產(chǎn)，農(nóng)民收入大幅度增加，鄉(xiāng)鎮(zhèn)企業(yè)異軍突起。
During those five years rural reform brought about many changes: grain output increased substantially, as did the peasants’ income, and rural enterprises emerged as a new force.
例23．開始搞并不踴躍呀，好多人在看。我們的政策就是允許看。允許看，比強(qiáng)制好得多。
At first, people were not enthusiastic about rural reform, and many waited to see how it would work. It was our policy to permit people to do that, which was much better than coercing them.
例24．你們到農(nóng)村去看了一下嗎？我們真正的變化還是在農(nóng)村，有些變化出乎我們的預(yù)料。
Have you been to our countryside? The real changes have taken place there, and some of them have exceeded our expectations.
譯文用了there和them，以避免重復(fù)countryside和changes。
有時英語為了避免重復(fù)，需要用一種完全新的表達(dá)方式。
例25．Lift and lower the right leg 20 times. Repeat with the left leg.
（將右腿提放20次。再將左腿提放20次。）
例26．現(xiàn)在國際上有一種議論，說中國改革的步子放慢了，政策要變。說放慢步子還有些根據(jù)，說政策要變就沒有根據(jù)了。
Lately some people abroad have been commenting that the pace of reform in China has slowed and predicting that the government is going to change its policies. There is some basis for the first assertion but none at all for the second.
例27．多搞點(diǎn)“三資”企業(yè)，不要怕。只要我們頭腦清醒，就不怕。
We should have more of the three kinds of foreign-invested ventures [joint, cooperative and foreign-owned]. There is no reason to be afraid of them. So long as we keep level-headed, there is no cause for alarm.
有時一句話后半句表示的動作和前半句是一樣的，只是把施事和受事顛倒一下。這在漢語里，后半句和前半句一般用同樣的結(jié)構(gòu)，略顯重復(fù)。英語里則有一簡單的說法：vice versa。
例28．為了推動中美關(guān)系的發(fā)展，中國需要進(jìn)一步了解美國，美國也需要進(jìn)一步了解中國。
To promote the development of China-U.S. relations, China needs to know the United States better and vice versa.
有時為了加強(qiáng)語氣，取得一定的修辭效果，故意重復(fù)句中的某些詞語。這無論是在英語里還是在漢語里都是常見的。遇到這種情況，即便是英語也照樣重復(fù)，而不用代稱。
例29．The world watches. The world listens. The world waits to see what we will do. (Speech by President Nixon)
例30．中國愿與東盟各國永做好鄰居、好伙伴、好朋友。
China will forever be a good neighbor, a good partner and a good friend with ASEAN countries.
由此看來，英語也不是一概反對重復(fù)。漢譯英時，恐怕要該避免時避免，該重復(fù)時重復(fù)，你說是不是？
莊繹傳
全國翻譯專業(yè)資格（水平）考試英語專家委員會顧問
北京外國語大學(xué)教授
2005年8月8日于北京
