3月7日,十四届全国人大一次会议在北京梅地亚中心多功能厅举行记者会,外交部长秦刚就“中国外交政策和对外关系”相关问题回答中外记者提问。在谈到中美关系时他用了好几个隐喻,引起海内外媒体和国际社会的广泛关注:
“如果美方不踩刹车,继续沿着错误道路狂飙下去,再多的护栏也挡不住脱轨翻车,必然陷入冲突对抗。谁来承担其灾难性的后果?这样的竞争,就是以两国人民根本利益乃至人类前途命运为赌注的豪赌,中方当然坚决反对。”
新华社(the Xinhua News Agency)同步推送的英语译文为:
If the United States does not hit the brakes but continue to speed down the wrong path,no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing. And there will surely be conflict and confrontation. Who will bear the catastrophic consequences? Such competition is a reckless gamble with the stakes being the fundamental interests of the two peoples and even the future of humanity. Naturally,China is firmly opposed to all this.
秦外长用“踩刹车”“狂飙”“脱轨翻车”一连串隐喻把美国政客“豪赌”的危险之举描绘得惟妙惟肖,而“狂飙”一词更是引人注目,因为眼下正在热播电视剧《狂飙》。
中文片名“狂飙”令人震撼,《现代汉语规范词典》释义为“暴风”“急骤猛烈的社会变革”。记得毛主席在《蝶恋花·从汀州向长沙》中使用过该词——“国际悲歌歌一曲,狂飙为我从天落”,此处的“狂飙”比喻势不可挡、急骤猛烈的工农革命大风暴。外文出版社出版的《毛泽东诗词(英语版)》将这两句诗词译成:
To the Internationale's stirring strains,
A wild whirlwind swoops from the sky.
“狂飙”译成a wild whirlwind,义为“一场狂暴的旋风”,措辞劲爆而有力。
电视剧《狂飙》创作团队转译设定的官方英语片名有两个——“The Knockout”和“Punch out”,它们直观且巧妙地体现了导演的用意。
knockout是个拳击术语,《剑桥词典》释义“in boxing,the act of hitting the other fighter so that they fall to the ground and are unable to get up again within ten seconds”,意为“制胜一击”。我们在拳击运动中常见的“倒地10秒不起”的“K.O.”便是由此缩写而来。
punch out与knockout含义相近。punch是重拳击打的意思,punch out就是一拳把人打蒙(knock someone unconscious by punching)。
由上可知,不管是The Knockout还是Punch Out,都是在强调“博弈中的制胜一击”,突出了在这场扫黑除恶的斗争中,正义和法律铁拳的绝对威力。中文剧名《狂飙》与英文译名巧妙组合,勾勒出该剧的核心思想。
“狂飙”还可表示“疯狂飙车”,仅仅以speed down the wrong path描述“在错误的道路上狂飙”,显然还不够形象生动,speed是个中性词,与“狂飙”相差甚远。
一般来说,在英语中“飙车”常用 drag racing (driving at a very fast speed)。例如:
Drink driving and drag racing have been written into the draft amendment as crimes,as part of the country's efforts to make its road safer.(作为国家努力提高道路安全的一部分,酒后驾驶和飙车已被写入修正案草案,定为犯罪。)
Drag racing is illegal and dangerous.(飙车是非法和危险的。)
美国有线电视新闻网(Cable News Network,CNN)3月7日的报道基本借用了新华社的英语译文。然而,英国金融时报(Financial Times)在处理“狂飙”一词时,不同凡响,该报在3月7日的报道中是这么说的:
If the US doesn’t hit the brakes and continues to barrel down the wrong track,no amount of guardrails can prevent the carriage from derailing and crashing,and there will surely be conflict and confrontation.
barrel一词异常出挑,作名词时,释义“桶;一桶(的量);枪管,炮管;(马等四足动物的)躯干”;barrel作动词时义为“飞奔,高速行驶;把……装入桶内”,此词常与speed,rush,run,dash等替换使用。
金融时报用barrel表达狂飙,使人一下子联想起枪管、炮筒、子弹、炮弹、火药、野马等东西,顿时产生一种蛮横鲁莽、危险逼近的体验。此外,除了用derailing(脱轨)一词,译者还加了crashing(碰撞、猛撞、坠毁)一词,用意显而易见。中英文喻意准确且精妙地切换,往往在细微之处彰显译者情感的细腻和思维的缜密。