Thank you all for participating in this week’s exercises. You all did a fantastic work. There is no doubt that translation is a process of re-creation. A good translation must accurately express the meaning of the original text without being too much constrained by its original text. My answers are given for your reference only. Some of those answers come from the websites, but I made my modifications on them. You are welcome to correct my answers.
【Chinese to English Translation】
1. 生活没有目标, 犹如航海没有罗盘。
Living without an aim is like sailing without a compass. (By John Ruskin)
来源:https://www.quotenova.net/authors/john-ruskin/q3zw52
2. 冬天来了, 春天还会远吗?
If winter comes, can spring be far behind? (By P. B. Shelley , British poet )
来源:https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/percy_bysshe_shelley_378917
3. 幽默被人正确地解释为“以诚挚表达感受,寓深思于嬉笑”。
Humor has been well defined as thinking in fun while feeling in earnest. (By Mark Twain , American novelist)
来源:https://useinasentence.com/use-in-earnest-in-a-sentence/
4.世界犹如一面镜子:朝它皱眉它就朝你皱眉,朝它微笑它也朝你微笑。
The world is like a mirror; frown at it, and it frowns at you. Smile and it smiles, too. (By Herbert Samuels)
来源:https://www.tisserontorthodontics.com/blog-post/the-world-is-like-a-mirror
【English to Chinese Translation】
1. Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.
有时候一个人为不花钱得到的东西付出的代价最高。(美国科学家 爱因斯坦)
来源:https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/albert_einstein_382929
2. The world can be changed by man's endeavor, and that this endeavor can lead to something new and better. No man can sever the bonds that unite him to his society simply by averting his eyes. He must ever be receptive and sensitive to the new; and have sufficient courage and skill to novel facts and to deal with them.
人们经过努力可以改变世界,使人类达到新的、更美好的境界。没有人仅凭避开视线、不看社会现实就能割断自己与社会的联系。人们必须始终对新生事物保持敏感,并随时准备接受它们; 人们必须有足够的勇气与技能去面对并应付新生事物。(美国总统 罗斯福)
来源:https://sentencedict.com/s/193234.html
【English Idioms】
Please create a sentence using the idioms.
1. Once in a blue moon
Meaning: Something happens rarely.
Example: We work on different schedules. I only see him once in a blue moon.
2. Bite off more than you can chew
Meaning: To try to do something that is too difficult for you.
Example: Nancy started to repair her car by herself, but she realized that she had bitten off more than she could chew.
【Reading Comprehension】(Optional)
In a calm sea every man is pilot.
But all sunshine without shade, all pleasure without pain, is not life at all. Take the lot of the happiest – it is a tangled yarn. Bereavements and blessings, one following another, make us sad and blessed by turns. Even death itself makes life more loving. Men come closest to their true selves in the sober moments of life, under the shadows of sorrow and loss.
In the affairs of life or business, it is not intellect that tells so much as character, not brains so much as heart, not genius so much as self-control, patience, and discipline, regulated by judgment.
I have always believed that the man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without. In an age of extravagance and waste, I wish I could show to the world how few the real wants of humanity are.
To regret one’s errors to the point of not repeating them is true repentance. There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.
在风平浪静的大海上,每个人都是领航员。
但是, 只有阳光而无阴影,只有快乐而无痛苦,那根本不是真正的生活。就拿最幸福的人来说,他们的命运也是一团纠缠的乱麻。痛苦与幸福交替出现,使得我们一会儿悲伤一会儿高兴。甚至死亡本身都使得生命更加可爱。在人生清醒的时刻,在悲伤与失落的阴影之下,人们与真实的自我最为接近。
在生活和事业的种种事务之中,性格比才智更能指导我们,心灵比头脑更能引导我们,天资对我们的影响也不如由判断力所约束的自制,耐心与修养。
我一直认为,开始在内心更加严谨地生活的人,也会在外在上开始生活得更为朴素。在一个奢侈浪费的时代,我希望能向世人表明,人类真正的需求是如此之少。
反思自己的过错以至于不重蹈覆辙,才是真正的悔悟。优于别人,并不高贵,真正的高贵是优于过去的自己。
(海明威)