1705049559
1705049560
我急着开车将11岁的女儿送到学校去，在红灯处右拐了，而那是不允许的（译者注：在一些国家如英国，其交通规则是车辆靠左行，与我国相反）。“啊噢，”意识到犯了错误，我说，“我违章拐弯了！”
1705049561
1705049562
“我想那没关系的，”女儿回答说。“我们后面的警车，同样在拐弯。”
1705049563
1705049564
这个故事的幽默之“眼”在于：“The police car behind us did the same thing.”此言之诙谐，并非一词多义或句子歧义所酿成，而是一种“情景歧义”所酿成的。所谓“情景歧义”，即一件事情的表象和真相混淆，令人们产生不同的认识和理解。本句之妙，即妙在此。The police car behind us did the same thing，年幼的女儿对这个事实，仅见其表象，并做出错误推断：我们拐弯没有拐错，因为警车亦这样拐弯了。而其真相却是：警车尾随而至，是要对我们进行处罚而已。
1705049565
1705049566
短文戛然收尾，让人回味。表象无须点破，惟有保留了这点模糊，让读者咀嚼其中幽默，短文才能有味，才能出彩。模糊去，则幽默去，短文将大煞风景。若是添加如此“蛇足”：“No, my god, the police are coming after us for the fine.” I said. （“不，天哪！警察追上来是要罚我们款了。”我说。）那“蛇足”，让人败兴，因为，此“蛇足”驱散了模糊！上面的“情景歧义”，又可称为“情景幽默”。
1705049567
1705049568
再如：有一则题为“I’ll See to the Rest”《其余的事由我负责》的幽默小品，全文如下：
1705049569
1705049570
A guard was about to signal his train to start when he saw an attractive girl standing on the platform by an open door, talking to another pretty girl inside the carriage.
1705049571
1705049572
“Come on, miss!” he shouted. “Shut the door, please!”
1705049573
1705049574
“Oh, I just want to kiss my sister goodbye,” she called back.
1705049575
1705049576
“You just shut that door, please,” called the guard, “and I’ll see to the rest.”
1705049577
1705049578
一位车上的列车员刚要发信号让火车启动，这时他看见一位很漂亮的姑娘站在站台上一节打开的车厢门旁边，跟车厢里另一位漂亮姑娘在说话。
1705049579
1705049580
“快点，小姐！”他喊道。“请把门关上。”
1705049581
1705049582
“噢，我还没有和妹妹吻别呢，”她回答道。
1705049583
1705049584
“请把门关上好了，”列车员说，“其余的事由我负责。”
1705049585
1705049586
原文中的”You just shut that door, please,” called the guard, “and I’ll see to the rest.” 就蕴涵着模糊。什么叫and I’ll see to the rest呢？故事幽默之“眼”也，或者说，是原文的作者所“卖关子”之处。作者故意设置这点模糊，让读者去思考，去解密！解密的过程，就是读者走出模糊、理解幽默、玩味幽默之过程。读者不妨设想，假若原文写得一点也不模糊，而是一览无遗。如：“You just shut that door, please,” called the guard, “and let me kiss your sister goodbye, instead of you.” 请问：如此，还有什么幽默可言？模糊消失，幽默也随之而去。不仅幽默随之而去，而且多了一点低俗。
1705049587
1705049588
但是，与“情景幽默”相辅相成的，是“非情景幽默”，所谓“非情景幽默”，常常系于作者的纵横的笔力。很多非常规搭配（主要是移就［Transferred Epithet］）让读者走过如此理解历程：初读，朦胧不解；二读，廓清模糊；再读，嫣然一笑。这个“三部曲”，本身就是一个解读幽默、享受幽默的心理过程。
1705049589
1705049590
美国作家克里斯多芬·莫勒曾经写过一篇著名的小品文，题目是“On Doors”（《说门》），写得极富情致。他对日常生活入微的观察，对我们天天见面、时时开关的门有如下一段让人走出模糊、获得幽默的描写：
1705049591
1705049592
There is the cheery push of elbow with which the waiter shoves open the kitchen door when he bears in your tray of supper. There is the suspicious and tentative withdrawal of a door before the unhappy book agent or peddler. There is the genteel and carefully modulated recession with which footmen swing wide the oaken barriers of the great. There is the sympathetic and awful silence of the dentist’s maid who opens the door into the operating room and, without speaking, implies that the doctor is ready for you. There is the brisk cataclysmic opening of a door when the nurse comes in, very early in the morning—“It’s a boy!”
1705049593
1705049594
上段，一气呵成，连用五个Parallelism（平行结构），五句的开头均是There is，紧接着，便出现了“形容词＋名词”的搭配。而这个搭配令人感到模糊之极！
1705049595
1705049596
the cheery push of elbow with which the waiter…
1705049597
1705049598
形容词cheery本来是用来修饰人的，而这里却意想不到地用来形容一个抽象名词push，但是，理解这样的修辞格，仍然要将cheery用来修饰the waiter。
1705049599
1705049600
the suspicious and tentative withdrawal of a door…
1705049601
1705049602
同样，suspicious and tentative这两个形容词竟然用来修饰抽象名词withdrawal of a door，细想之下，方知其修饰对象是人，是book agent or peddler而已。
1705049603
1705049604
the genteel and carefully modulated recession…
1705049605
1705049606
何等精彩！这里的genteel and carefully modulated recession还是运用了Transferred Epithet。翻译时，应该将修饰recession这个抽象名词的形容词去修饰句中出现的人。
1705049607
1705049608
the sympathetic and awful silence of the dentist’s maid…
[
上一页 ]
[ :1.705049559e+09 ]
[
下一页 ]