中译英翻译练习03 - 各色"膀爷"赤膊登场

反译题目：
在炎热难耐的夏天，当清爽的凉风不再光顾北京，胡连群（音）心不在焉地就找到了解决办法：卷起T恤衫，晾出大肚皮。

他们被称为“膀爷”，即“光膀子的男子”（不管年龄多大）。在炎热的季节，“膀爷” 似乎无处不在：在商业区内昂首阔步、在公园里下棋、在动物园里带小孩、穿过熙熙攘攘的街巷。

 “膀爷”们的形象已经深入人心……要凉快还是要形象，属于个人抉择，但是也请考虑下大众的感受吧……

类似“膀爷”这种中式词汇，如果英语中没有对应的说法，一般是采取拼音+注释的形式进行翻译，或者就直接意译。

以下参考翻译以及节选句子翻译来自【口译笔译学习·备考·兴趣小组】的学习沪友：

conniezc：In the summer of brutal heat and without cool wind in Beijing, Hu Lianjun figured out a solution with out any difficulty, or, consideration-- he rolled the shirt up and showed his big belly.

They are called "Bang Ye" in Putonghua regardless of ages, meaning "the men without their shirts on". They seemed to be everywhere in the hot days: marching into the CBDs（center business district）, playing chess in the parks, walking with the children in the zoo and pacing through the crowded streets.

点评：全篇流畅准确，整体语言非常好。brutal heat很夸张也很搞笑。figure out a solution，这里的figure out词组用得相当不错，很地道的语气；类似的说法还有come up with an idea等；

“膀爷”的翻译处理地很好，先给出拼音，然后说明是"the men without their shirts on"，这个解释对“膀爷”的实质也说明得很清楚，不就是不穿上衣的男人么~

joe036：In this unbearable hot summer, when cool breeze no long visits Beijing, Lianqun Hu carelessly finds a way to solve the problem -- rolling up his T shirt and pegging out his big belly.

They are called "Arm Man" -- man with bare arms, no matter how old he is. In boiling season, arm men can be spot every where -- strutting in commercial zone, playing chess in the park, looking after children in a zoo or threading the bustling streets.

点评：boiling season 和 “cool breeze no long visits Beijing”两处都用到了比喻，很灵活的感觉；threading the bustling streets，thread这里是动词，意为“穿过、蜿蜒前行”，也非常形象。

只是，arm man的说法，虽然可以就字面而言，如此直译，后面的解释尚有偏差，因为膀爷并非真的只是露两个膀子，而是露出整个肚皮或者上半身。

总评：大家这里对“膀爷”的翻译多种多样，出现最多的说法是man stripped down to the waist，这是很好的描述，strip意为“剥除、脱衣服”，strip show也就是脱衣表演的意思；be stripped down to the waist意即“半裸”；有翻译成naked man，这里要注意naked 可不分是全裸还是半裸啊，全裸的话那就不是膀爷，是streaker，裸奔者。

“炎热难耐”这个形容词，大家给出了很多很不错的翻译，诸如scorching、irresistibly hot、sizzling summer、in the suffocating heat等，还有同学用到了dog-day，大家知道是什么意思么？其实dog-day就表示三伏天、非常炎热的天气。

下面，我们来看原文：

In the sweltering heat of summer, when the refreshing breezes desert the city, Hu Lianqun absent-mindedly reaches for a solution: He rolls up his shirt to expose his belly.

They're known as bang ye, or "exposing grandfathers"(despite their age range). In the hottest weather, bang ye seem to be everywhere, striding among the tall buildings in Beijing's business district, playing chess in parks, holding children's hands at the zoo and negotiating crowded alleyways.
（英文出自Los Angeles Times）

这里的sweltering一词不是很常见，大家或许想不到，但是，认真读过Matin Luther King那篇I Have A Dream演讲稿的同学也许记得，其中有一句：a state sweltering with the heat of injustice - swelter这里是比喻用法，非常形象，这个句子有没有记住呢？

“轻风、凉风”不是cold wind，而是refreshing breeze，refresh有“使轻松、使凉快”的意思；refreshing drinks也就可以表示我们夏天喝的冷饮。

“膀爷”这里的翻译虽然是"exposing grandfathers"，但是小编偏向于沪友们man stripped down to the waist的说法；外媒对膀爷的解释也未必就那么精准哦。

“肚子”要小小注意一下，很多同学用stomach来翻译，其实stomach表达的是“胃”，指的是器官，而不是我们平时所说的“啤酒肚”的那个“肚子”，所以这里要用belly一词；那么“啤酒肚”其实就是pot belly。

最后一个词，negotiate，再次强调一下，这个词除了表示“谈判”，还可以表示“经过，穿过”：to successfully travel along or over。negotiate a river，意为“涉水而过”