.. Kenneth Lee 版权所有 2021
:Authors: Kenneth Lee :Version: 1.0
一段引言的翻译
这两天我们家一家人在讨论哈利波特7前面的一引言的翻译，里面有不少有趣的主题，我把 讨论在这里记录一下。
引言的内容是这样的：
| Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas;
| they live in one another still.
| For they must needs be present, that love and live
| in that which is omnipresent.
| In this divine glass,they see face to face;
| and their converse is free, as well as pure.
| This is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die,
| yet their friendship and society are, in the best sense,
| ever present, because immortal.
|
| --William Penn, More Fruits of Solitude.
这段文字在豆瓣上有一个翻译，内容是这样的：
| 死亡只是穿越世界，如同朋友远渡重洋。
| 他们仍活在彼此的心中。因为他们必须存在，那份爱与生活无处不在。
| 在这面神圣的镜子里，他们面对面对视，自由地交谈，坦诚而纯真。
| 这就是朋友的安慰，尽管据说他们都要走向死亡，
| 但他们的友谊和陪伴将因为不朽而存在。
我完全不能接受这个翻译，因为它根本不……怎么说呢？用英文说就是不Make Sense。用中 文说，我就只能直接给指出问题：这里第一句把死亡比作朋友，然后就谈朋友友谊？如果 这是作者原来的意思，那我只能认为这个作者的东西完全不值得看——根本就没有逻辑嘛。
但我认为这是不可能的，罗琳故事中三兄弟的故事和这首诗是强烈对应的，我们可以看看 这个故事：
| Three brothers, travelling along a lonely, winding road at twilight
| reached a deep treacherous river where anyone who attempted to swim
| or wade would drown. Learned in the magical arts, the brothers
| conjured a bridge with their wands and proceed to cross.
|
| Halfway through the bridge, a hooded figure stood before them. The
| figure was the enraged spirit of Death, cheated of his due. Death
| cunningly pretended to congratulate them and proceeds to award them
| with gifts of their own choosing.
|
| The eldest brother, a combative man, asked for a wand more powerful
| than any in existence. Death granted his wish by fashioning the Elder
| Wand from a branch of a nearby elder tree standing on the banks of
| the river.
|
| The second brother, an arrogant man, chose to further humiliate death,
| and asked for the power to recall the deceased from the grave. Death
| granted his wish by crafting the Resurrection Stone from a stone
| picked from the riverbank.
|
| The third and youngest brother, who was the most humble and wise, did
| not trust Death and asked for something to enable him to go forth
| without Death being able to follow. A reluctant Death, most unwillingly,
| handed over a part his own Invisibility cloak.
|
| The three brothers took their prizes and soon went on their separate
| ways.
|
| The eldest brother travelled to a village where a wizard whom he had
| quarrelled lived. He sought out a duel and fought the wizard using the
| wand, instantly killing the latter.
|
| Leaving his enemy dead upon the floor, the eldest brother walked to an
| inn not far from the duelling site and spent the night there. Taken by
| his conscience and lust of the Elder Wand's power, the eldest brother
| boasted of this wand gifted by Death and his own invincibility.
|
| That very night, a murderous wizard killed the eldest brother. The
| unknown murderous wizard crept to the inn as the eldest brother slept,
| drunk from wine. The wizard slit the oldest brother’s throat for good
| measure and stole the wand. That was when Death took the first brother.
|
| The second brother returned to his home where he lived alone. Turning
| the stone thrice in his hand the figure of the girl he had once hoped
| to marry, before her untimely death, appeared at once before him, much
| to his delight. Yet she was sad and cold, separated from him as by a
| veil. Though she had returned to the mortal world, she did not truly
| belong there and suffered. Finally, the second brother, driven mad
| with hopeless longing, committed suicide by hanging from his house'
| balcony so as truly to join her. That was when Death took the second
| brother for his own.
|
| Death searched for the youngest brother as years passed but never
| succeeded. It was only when the third brother reached a great age,
| he took off the Cloak of Invisibility and gave it to his son. Greeting
| Death as an old friend, they departed this life as equals.
看见了吧，The third brother greets Death as an old friend, they departed this life as equals. 死亡伴随你的一生，并在必须的时候和你像老朋友一样重逢。
所以，我也认为William Penn的描述中，同样是用Friend形容死亡的，这个Friend是死亡 和你，而不是你和你的朋友。
原文前两句的结构是这样的：
死亡 （插入：只是穿过这个世界），就好像不同的朋友穿过不同的海洋（注意复
数）。
他们静静地互相依存。
因为有你（的生存），所以有死亡。因为只因为有了死亡，所以我们的爱，生存才有了意 义（omnipresent）。我们逃避死亡，是因为爱，而不是为了不死，而放弃爱。
在三兄弟的故事中，大哥只想着对抗死亡，最终用完了一生，没有拿到任何生的成果。二 哥一心想着拥有死亡，最后是死亡拥有了他。只有三弟，才是用一生是享受死亡的友谊， 而这个友谊的本身，就是生命和生命中的爱。
我不知道William的文化背景，但至少可以认为罗琳和他的文化背景是接近的。所以，后面 一句的表达是：
它们必须都存在，所以，爱和活在它们中间的生命才能无处不在。
这样就构成了一间镜子，死亡和生存面面相视。
而converse的意思是 [1]_ ：
| to exchange thoughts and opinions in speech
生存和死亡对话，自由而纯粹。这个对话，是朋友的comfort（也许可以理解为“慰藉”）。 这种comfort，别人说这是die，但这种友谊和关系，从最好的角度来说，曾经存在过，因 为（这种友谊和关系本身）是Immortal的。
其中Die的意思是：
| to pass from physical life
| 或者：
| to pass out of existence
Immortal呢，很多人很多人译作“不朽的，不死的”，但这个词语应该包含了更多的意思， Mortal这个词语字典解释是：
| Causing or having caused death
| 或者：
| Subject to death
所以Mortal是一种属性，表示这是可以死亡的。所以，这里的Immortal应该强调的是： Death和Mortal是双生子，是朋友，是镜子的两面，而镜子本身，友谊本身，爱本身，是 Immortal的，因为它不是Mortal的一部分。
这个翻译过程，让我们（一家）学习到一组新的语法。但从我个人写这个总结的角度来说 ，这个例子，也让我们看到，如果我们不去考虑逻辑链，总从恍惚的感觉上理解别人的意 思，很容易，就把别人一两个词，直接用自己的价值体系去解释，而导致整个交流失效了 。
补充1：我把本文的观点请一位做翻译的博士看，她和教文学的教授讨论后不认可我的总结。 理由如下：
这段文字来自Willain Penn的\ More Fruits of Solitude\ ，之前他还写过\ Some Fruits of Solitude\ ，都是《菜根谭》式的单句或者少数几句的总结。先\ Some\ 的 时候他因为叛国罪在逃亡，后来恢复以后又陷入财政方面的问题，最终入狱，身无分文地 死去。（我查了一下百度百科，似乎和这个表述不太对得上，但可能两方看问题的重点不 同），\ More\ 是在后一次麻烦中写的。这段引文的标题是：Union of Friends。所以， 作者应该更强调的是朋友，和对死亡的不惧怕。
其他还有一些文化方面的讨论我暂时没有建出逻辑链，这里不描述了。
反正她们总体上认为，罗琳只是借了这段文字来表达自己的意思，原来的问题并没有这个 意思。
供参考。
.. [1] 本文中的所有字典含义，都来自https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/