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The first fall of snow is not only an event but is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of world and make up to find yourself in another quite deferent, and if this is not enchantment, then where is it to be found? The very stealth, the eerie quietness of the thing makes it more magical. If all the snow fell at once in one shattering crash, awakening us in the middle of the night, the event would be robbed of its wonder. But it flutters down, soundless, hour after hour while we are asleep. Outside the closed curtains of the bedroom a vast transformation scene is taking place, just as if a myriad of elves and brownies were at work, and we turn and yawn and stretch and know nothing about it. And then what an extraordinary change it is! It is as if the house you are in had been dropped down in another continent. Even the inside, which has not been touched, seems different, every room appearing smaller and cozier, just as if some power were trying to turn it into a woodcutter’s hut or a snug log cabin. Outside, where the garden was yesterday, there is now a white and glistening level, and the village beyond is no longer your own familiar cluster of roofs but a village in an old German fair-tale…
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这场初雪并非一场寻常变化，而是魔幻般的变化。你上床睡觉时是一个世界，醒来时却发现自己已置身于另一个迥然不同的世界。假如这不是魔法，那么魔法又到哪儿去寻觅呢？而这一切都在静谧中神秘地发生，使得这场初雪愈发迷人。如果所有的雪在瞬间轰然落下，在午夜将我们惊醒，那么，这场雪就无奇妙可言。雪花落下，纷纷扬扬，无声无息，不停不息，而此刻的我们正在梦乡。窗帘拉拢的卧室外，苍茫大地正在发生一场巨变，就像无数调皮的小精灵和小仙童在干活；此刻，一无所知的我们却在辗转反侧、打着哈欠、舒展四肢。于是，我们见到了一场巨变！你的寓所，似乎落到了一个新大陆，甚至屋内，虽然没有被人动过手脚，似乎也发生了变化。每一间屋子都显得更加小巧、更加温馨，好似某种神奇的力量把它变成了伐木工的工棚或是温暖的小木屋。室外，昨天的花园，今天却变成了洁白闪亮的一片。远处的村庄也不再是你所熟悉的鳞次栉比的屋顶，而成了一个古老的德国神话中的村落……
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英语原文系英国近代著名小说家普里斯特莱的一篇散文之节选。该节选多年来被英语国家的读者认为是写雪景的model paragraph（范文段落）。文笔清新老练，想像飘逸独到，描写细致动人。此段文采灼灼，文笔华美，在相当程度上，成功的文笔归功于若干大词（如enchantment, stealth, eerie, transformation, myriad等等）的使用。
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若作者撇开这些大词，而是选用“小词”，如charm, secret, strange, change, many等等，句意将无变化，但是，那梦幻般的下雪过程，那童话般的雪景描摹，将痛失几分典雅和诡魅。
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译文已属上乘，但是，若是对号入座般地寻找enchantment, stealth, eerie, transformation, myriad等大词的相应汉译，却生丝丝憾意，因为汉语缺乏对应的大词。
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3.1.4 传递含蓄
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20世纪初的美国小说家Theodore Dreiser（西奥多·德莱塞）在100年之前创作的长篇小说Sister Carrie（《嘉丽妹妹》）有以下一句：
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When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse.
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初读上句，如坐云间。难点在于the cosmopolitan standard of virtue。cosmopolitan，一大词也。
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cosmopolitan的意思是：n. 四海为家的人，世界主义者；adj. 世界性的，全球（各地）的。cosmopolitan standard of virtue总不能硬译为“四海为家者的道德标准”吧！进一步观察，句前的becomes better和句后的becomes worse构成紧密呼应，此呼应已为cosmopolitan standard of virtue之贬褒定性。既然cosmopolitan standard of virtue可以如此明确定性，那么，原句为什么偏偏使用cosmopolitan呢？cosmopolitan不仅是一个大词，且是一个中性词。观察与思考告诉读者：此乃英语遣词的一个亮点！英语，常用大词掩其内涵之贬义。如此行文，表达趋于含蓄，行文趋于雅丽。
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一个18岁的姑娘离家出门，她无非有两种遭遇。要么落到好人手里，而过上好日子，要么马上接受了三教九流的道德标准，由好变坏。
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译文作为审美客体，也同样值得观察，辨析出细腻语感。“三教”者，儒教、道教、佛教也；“九流”者，儒家者流、阴阳家者流、道家者流、法家者流、名家者流、墨家者流、纵横家者流、杂家者流、农家者流也。但是，“三教九流”，在现代汉语中，又可泛指“各行各业的人”（people in various trades）。查考《高级汉语大词典》，对“三教九流”特别注明：常含贬义。以此来译cosmopolitan可谓铢两悉称！
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文贵含蓄。试想，若是以小词，诸如baddie, baddy, malefactor, villain，来取代大词cosmopolitan，还能保留含蓄美吗？
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3.1.5 传递心理
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Ambrose Bierce的著名短篇“A Horseman in the Sky”讲的是美国南北战争时期弗吉尼亚州的一对父子因政治观点的迥异而分道扬镳的故事。故事感人至深，父子在临别之夜，有这样一段催人泪下的对话：
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Son: Father, a Union regiment has arrived at Grafton. I am going to join it.
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Father: Well, go sir, and whatever may occur, do what you conceive to be your duty. Virginia, to which you are a traitor, must go on without you. Should we both live to the end of the war, we will speak further of the matter. Your mother, as the physician has informed you, is in a most critical condition; at the best she cannot be with us longer than a few weeks, but that time is precious. It would be better not to disturb her.
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父子关系是人间最亲密的人际关系之一。故事中的父子，朝夕相伴，其交谈理应是最随意融洽的，然而，以上对话恰似两个陌路人在做最后的“摊牌”，父亲的一番话，叠用大词，庄重中透出了冷峻，典雅中饱含悲怅。父亲心理，不置一词，读者已能心领。
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试想，对原句做以下更易：
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Should we both live to the end of the war（多用于书面语的虚拟语气倒装句型）改为If both of us lived to the end of the war（多用于口语的虚拟语气句型）。
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It would be better not to disturb her（较少含有个人感情色彩的It引导的句子）改为You’d better not disturb her（较多含有个人感情色彩的句型）。
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如此改动，父子的交谈的氛围将更趋和谐轻松，然而，父子各自的心理揭示将有悖于当时残酷的战争现实，父子生离死别的悲壮气氛将为之削弱，同时，儿子大义灭亲的故事结局也将失去一个令读者回肠荡气的铺垫及伏笔。
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儿子：父亲，联邦军队的一个团到了格拉夫顿，我想去参军。
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