翻译中的文化冲击:你知道tooth fairy吗?

翻译中的文化冲击:你知道tooth fairy吗?

还记得小时侯吗?牙齿掉了之后爸爸妈妈怎么帮我们处理的? 是不是下面的牙齿往房顶上扔,而上面掉的牙齿要往床底下扔呢? 他们还说这样的话新牙齿就会长出来…… 那么外国人是怎样对待掉下来的牙齿的呢？
且看下面的这一小段文字：

One summer day, when Bush invited some of the press corps to his vacation home for a barbecue, the young daughter of TV director Jack Gallivan went swimming in the Bushes' pool and lost her tooth. Noticing Katie Gallivan crying, Bush asked her what had happened. When he heard, he knew from his own children what that meant: no proof under the pillow for the Tooty Fairy! He called and aid to bring him a Presidential note card bearing an etching of his Kennebunkport house. Bush made a small X on the card and wrote:

"Dear Tooth Fairy, Katie's tooth came out where the X is. It really did -------- I promise. George Bush"

It fulfilled the best prerequisites for inspirational note writing: it was short on verbiage and long on empathy. And most important, it dried Katie's tears.

what is tooth fairy? 想知道什么是牙仙女吗？ 看看下面的：

tooth fairy：
Children in America save each one of their first set teeth as they fall out because of a folk belief that a tooth fairy will come in the night to collect the tooth from under the child's pillow and leave money in its place(25cents). Katie thinks she is deprived of this opportunity because she can't find her tooth. Former President George Bush has marked the place on the picture of his property where the tooth was lost. Then he vouches for the truth of the statement that the tooth was lost there so the little girl can put the card under her pillow and still receive the money from the Fairy. The money is as important as evidence of a magical visit as for its finacial worth.

译文：
某个夏日，布什邀请一些新闻界人士到他的度假地参加野外烧烤宴会。电视台的总监 Jack Gallivan 的小女儿去布什的游泳池游泳，她的一颗牙齿掉入了游泳池。发现katie在哭泣，布什便问她发生了什么事情。他听说后 从自己的孩子身上明白了此事意味着什么。她没有放在枕头下的证明了！ 他叫助手给他取来了一张印有他的Kennebunkport屋蚀刻的总统便笺。布什在上面打了个小差，还写道：
“亲爱的牙仙女： katie的牙齿掉落在打叉的地方。确实如此，我保证。 ------- 乔治 布什”
这张堪称灵感之作的便条具备最成功的前提：言简意赅。最重要的是它抹干了katie的眼泪。