北京外国语大学高级翻译学院 李长栓

原文：

明代哲学家王阳明早年被贬到贵州龙场做地方官时，捕获了当地一个强盗头目。该头目在受审时说：“我犯的是死罪，要杀要剐，任你怎么处置，只请你不要和我谈道德良知。像我这种人是从来不谈这个的，甚至连想都没有想过。”王阳明说：“好的。今天我不和你谈道德良知。不过，天气这么热，你看在审案前我们还是把外衣脱了吧。”强盗头目说：“好！”脱去外衣后，王阳明又说：“还是热，再把内衣也脱了吧。”强盗头目当然不会在乎赤膊，于是就脱去内衣。庭上庭下两人身上只剩下一件裤头。而此时王阳明更进一步，说道： “干脆我们把裤头也脱了吧，全身赤裸更自在……”一听说连裤头也要脱，强盗头目赶紧说：“这可使不得！这可使不得！”面对此情此景，王阳明当即来了一番水到渠成的因势利导：“为什么‘使不得’，这是因为在你心中还剩有那么一点羞耻感。可见就是像你这样十恶不赦的家伙，我照样可以和你谈‘道德良知’……”强盗头目心服口服，随即讲自己的种种罪行一一如实供出。

参考译文：

The ancient philosopher Wang Yangming offended some powerful officials of the imperial court and was demoted to the position of a local official in the remote province of Guizhou. During his term, he arrested the head of a burglary gang. In the trial, the suspect said, "I have committed a death penalty crime. You can kill me or torture me all you want but spare me the moral talk. A guy like me never talks morals. I don't even think about them."
Wang replied, "OK, I won't talk morals with you today but since it's hot, I suggest we take off our coats before the trial."
"OK," said the suspect, and took his coat off.
 "It's still too hot, perhaps we should take off our shirts too," said Wang.
The gangster naturally didn’t mind being bare-chested, so he took off his shirt. Now both of them had nothing left but their pants. Wang then said, "What about the pants? We’ll be more comfortable if we’re naked."
"No way! No way!" protested the suspect.
At this point, Wang cut to his point and said, "The reason why you wouldn't take off your pants is that you still know shame. This proves that even a notorious and ruthless man like yourself is concerned with morality. "The suspect was so impressed by Wang's argument that he confessed all his crimes.

北京外国语大学2008年硕士研究生入学考试

（复语班）

一、将下列段落译为汉语（25分）

Nevertheless, instead of expanding north, the Japanese moved south. By 1937, the conflict had spread to all of eastern China and the war had begun in earnest. Anti-Japanese feeling was exacerbated by the attack by the Japanese on Chinese soldiers and civilians at the Marco Polo Bridge, next to which was a vital railway line, in July 1937. Because of its strategic importance (it was only ten miles west of Beijing), Japanese troops in northern China had been conducting manoeuvres in the area. However, on 7 July 1937, after a Japanese night manoeuvre during which the Chinese had fired some shells, a Japanese soldier went missing. In retaliation, the Japanese attacked and war commenced. This may rightly be designated the first battle of the Second World War.

By the end of July, Japanese soldiers had not only seized the bridge but taken control of the entire Tientsin–Peking region. The speed with which Japanese troops conquered parts of China was astounding. By 1938, Canton had ‘fallen’ and, despite notable military victories, including one in the town of Taierzhuang in southern Shantung, where 30,000 Japanese soldiers were killed by Nationalist Chinese troops, the Chinese were at a distinct disadvantage. The Japanese military was vastly superior. As late as 1940, China had only 150 military aircraft compared with the Japanese total of over 1,000. By the end of 1939, the whole of the north-eastern quarter of China was under Japanese occupation. Still, the Chinese did not surrender, forcing Japan to move still further inland, lengthening supply routes and stretching manpower to absolute limits. What followed was a war of attrition. (268 words)

尽管如此，日本人没有选择在中国北方扩张，而是转而南下。到1937年，冲突已经扩大到整个华东地区，战争开始升级。1937年7月，日军在卢沟桥（紧靠一条重要铁路线）袭击了中国士兵和平民，进一步加剧了中国的反日情绪。由于卢沟桥战略意义重大（位于北京西面，距北京仅有十英里），驻防中国北部的日军此前一直在这一地带进行军事演习。1937年7月7日，日军举行晚间演习。在演习中，中国军队发射了炮弹。之后，一名日本士兵失踪。为了报复，日军袭击中国驻军，中日战争爆发。这次战斗应该认定为二次世界大战的第一次战役。

到了七月底，日军不仅占领了卢沟桥，还控制了整个京津地区。日军侵华的推进速度令人震惊。1938年，广州沦陷。其间，中国军队取得了一些重大军事胜利，包括中国国民党军队在山东南部的台儿庄击毙了三万名日军，但中国军队还是处于明显劣势。日军的装备也比中国军队精良许多。即使到了1940年，中国的军用飞机也只有150架，远远低于日本的1,000余架。到1939年底，中国整个东北地区都被日军占领。尽管如此，中国人并没有屈服，日本人不得不继续深入中国内地，延长补给线，兵力部署也达到极限。接下来的中日战争变成了一场消耗战。

二、将下列短文译为汉语（50分）

Thailand: An Exceptional Case?

A few years ago a graduate student named Kanchana came to my office to see if I would be willing to supervise a paper she wanted to write on legal protections for cultural artifacts taken from Thailand, her native country. After an interesting discussion about possible approaches to her paper, I asked Kanchana a question that, in retrospect, would probably be grounds for a lawsuit under today’s standards of political correctness—I asked whether she was an ethnic Chinese.

Kanchana’s reply: “But the Thai are Chinese.” She then instantly retreated: “Well—part Chinese. I have Chinese blood. Everyone in Thailand does. Well … almost everyone does.”

Thailand is a fascinating case. On the one hand, it shares with the other Southeast Asian countries the phenomenon of a wildly disproportionately wealthy, market-dominant Chinese minority. The Chinese in Thailand today, although just i o percent of the population, control virtually all of the country’s largest banks and conglomerates. All of Thailand’s billionaires are ethnic Chinese. On the other hand, as Kanchana’s comments suggest, unlike elsewhere in Southeast Asia, the Chinese have assimilated quite successfully into Thailand, and there is relatively little anti-Chinese animus. In Thailand today, many Thai Chinese speak only Thai and consider themselves as Thai as their indigenous counterparts. Intermarriage rates between the Chinese and the indigenous majority (many of whom, at least in Bangkok, have some Chinese ancestry already) are much higher than elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Perhaps most strikingly, the country’s top political leaders, including a recent prime minister, are often of Chinese descent, although they usually have Thai- sounding surnames and speak little or no Chinese.

Although interethnic socializing and intermarriage may seem perfectly normal to Westerners, it bears emphasizing how markedly Thailand differs in this regard from her Southeast Asian neighbors. In Indonesia and Malaysia, for example, rates of intermarriage between the Chinese and the indigenous majority are close to zero. The Chinese in these countries remain a conspicuously insular minority, living, working, and socializing entirely separately from the indigenous majorities.

Many have speculated about the reasons for the starkly different rates of intermarriage and assimilation. According to one professor of law from Singapore, the main reason is the “pork factor.” “Indonesians and Malaysians are mostly Muslims,” he explains, “and they don’t eat pork. The Chinese love pork; they eat it all the time. And for Chinese, eating is a huge part of their lives. Thus, social interactions are impossible.” This professor was being facetious, but he is clearly right that religion has played an important role: Thailand is not Muslim but largely Buddhist, a cultural affinity that has made assimilation much easier for the Thai Chinese, many of whom adhere to a syncretic combination of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism.（455字）

泰国是个特例吗?

几年前, 一位名叫Kanchana的研究生到我办公室找我指导论文。她是泰国人，想写如何通过法律保护从泰国盗取的文物。我们讨论了这篇文章可以怎么写，探讨很有意思。接着，我问了一个按照今天的政治标准判断可能引发诉讼的问题——她是不是华人。

Kanchana的回答是：“可是，泰国人都是华人呀。”不过，她马上纠正了一下：“嗯，算半个华人吧。我有华人血统。所有的泰国人都有。嗯……几乎所有泰国人都有。”

泰国是个很有趣的例子。一方面，泰国同其他东南亚国家一样，国内的华人是少数民族，人口不多，但富得惊人，主导了泰国市场。今天在泰国，华人只占总人口的10%，却几乎控制了泰国所有的大银行和大财团。泰国所有的亿万富翁都是华人。而另一方面，就像Kanchana的所说，泰国和东南亚其他国家不同。在泰国，华人已经相当成功地融入了泰国，而且泰国国内的排华情绪相对较轻。今天在泰国，许多泰籍华人只会说泰语, 他们也自认为和其他土生土长的泰国人没什么两样。相比其他东南亚国家，在泰国，华人和当地多数民族间的通婚率也高得多（至少在曼谷, 许多土生泰国人祖上都有华人血统）。也许最引人瞩目的是，泰国很多领导人，包括最近一任总理，都是华人后裔，虽然他们的姓听上去像泰国人，而且也不会说汉语或者只会说一点。

虽然对于西方人而言, 不同民族间的社会交往和通婚很正常, 但是还是有必要强调一下泰国在这方面同其他东南亚邻国的明显区别。比如，在印度尼西亚和马来西亚，华人和当地多数民族间的通婚率几乎是零。这些国家的华人依旧是一个明显封闭的少数群体，他们的生活、工作、社交完全脱离当地的多数民族。

许多人都在猜测为什么在泰国，华人的跨族通婚率和民族融合程度远高于其他东南亚国家。根据新加坡一位法学教授的观点，主要由于是“猪肉因素”。他说：“印度尼西亚和马来西亚人绝大部分是穆斯林，他们不吃猪肉。但是华人爱吃猪肉，也天天吃猪肉。对华人来说，吃是他们生活中相当重要的内容。所以，在这些国家，华人同当地民族的社会交往几乎难以进行。”这位教授是在开玩笑，但他有一点是对的，即宗教的影响的确很大：泰国不是穆斯林国家，绝大部分民众信仰佛教，而泰国很多华人的信仰则融合了佛教、道教和儒家思想，这种文化相似性使民族融合更容易。

三、将下列段落译为英语（25分）

胡锦涛在主持学习时发表了讲话。他指出，金融是现代经济的核心。随着经济全球化深入发展，随着我国经济持续快速发展和工业化、城镇化、市场化、国际化进程加快，金融日益广泛地影响着我国经济社会生活的各个方面，金融也与人民群众切身利益息息相关。在金融对经济社会发展的作用越来越重要、国内外金融市场联系和相互影响越来越密切的形势下，做好金融工作，保障金融安全，是推动经济社会又好又快发展的基本条件，是维护经济安全、促进社会和谐的重要保障，越来越成为关系全局的重大问题。 (227字)

President Hu Jintao delivered a speech when he chaired the study session. He pointed out that finance represents the nucleus of modern economy. Along with economic globalization, the sustained and rapid growth of China’s economy, and the acceleration of China’s industrialization, urbanization, market transformation and international integration, finance increasingly impacts on all aspects of our economy, society and life, and is closely connected with people’s vital interests. In other words, the domestic and international financial markets are increasingly tied together. Against this backdrop, guaranteeing financial security is a prerequisite for the healthy and rapid development of the economy and society and an important condition for economic security and social harmony. It has become an issue of general importance.

四、将下列短文译为英语（50分）

在近日新华社的另一篇报道中，记者在黄河流域一些省区采访时就发现一个奇怪的现象：污染企业“扎堆”的地方，环保部门衣食无忧；而在污染企业被大量关停的地方，环保人员却连工资都发不出来，以至于“治污越好环保部门越穷”。究其原因在于，这些地方的环保部门，或是财政预算“黑户”，或是财政拨款严重不足，主要靠“自收自支”维持生存。那么，为何会出现“财政不养环保”呢？报道引用有关专业人士的说法认为：“关键是在一些领导眼中，环保和发展是对立的，花钱搞环保不如投资上项目，有的领导甚至提出‘宁可呛死，不能饿死’的观点。”

因而，某些环保部门为污染企业说话，某些环保局长更像是污染企业的代言人，这绝不能简单看成是“个别部门职能错位”的结果，更不能以“个别执法人员素质低下”为由搪塞了事，相反，应当引起我们的高度警惕和深刻反思———其背后所揭示出的是一些地方环保执法的尴尬困局。

无疑，只有正视这样的执法困局，只有努力想办法化解这样的执法困局，我们的环保工作才有可能获得良好的执法环境，我们才有可能真正走出“先污染、后治理”或者“边治理、边污染”的怪圈。（461字）

In another recent report of the Xinhua News Agency, the reporter, while visiting some provinces and autonomous regions along the Yellow River, came across a strange phenomenon. In areas where polluting enterprises cluster, departments for environmental protection do not need to worry about their “food and shelter;” in areas where such enterprises are massively shut down, the environmental agencies can hardly afford to pay salaries to their staff. This has thus led to a situation where the better pollution is controlled, the poorer the local environmental protection department is. The cause of all this is that, in these areas the environmental protection departments are either not listed in the local government’s budget or the financial allocation from the government is far from being adequate. They therefore mainly rely on themselves to generate income for their survival. Then why is environmental protection not covered by fiscal budget? “The key is that from the viewpoint of certain leaders, environmental protection and development are incompatible.” The report says, quoting relevant professionals. “Local leaders prefer investment in development projects to environment protection. Some leaders even suggested that ‘it is better to chock to death (as a result from pollution) than to die of hunger (due to poverty)’.”

Thus, certain environmental protection departments speak in favor of polluting enterprises and certain heads of departments behave more like the spokesperson of the polluters than an environment champion. This issue can not be simply dismissed as an isolated phenomenon where a few departments have “misunderstood their functions”, and even less be excused on the pretext that a number of law enforcement officials are not qualified. On the contrary, this should trigger our vigilance and reflection -- what it reveals is the embarrassing situation of environmental law enforcement in certain areas.

Undoubtedly, only by recognizing this dilemma can we find a solution and mitigate the situation. Only then will we be able to avoid the pattern of “develop first, clean up later” or the situation of “stop one source of pollution, only to find there is another.”（李长栓）

2010年联合国委托人事部选拔译员开卷考试参考译文1

(2010-05-25 17:28:38)

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按：2010年，联合国委托中国人事部选拔译员，通过者可参加联合国的译员招聘考试。以下为选拔试题及笔者提供的参考译文和评论。注意：本人没有参加与考试相关的任何工作，也不了解阅卷情况。以下译文，纯粹出于翻译教学目的。

Passage 1

Pulling a sickie is not something I'm prone to do. And, while I'd like to say I feel sick, I don't. Not unless prewedding nerves, last-minute jitters, and horrific amounts of stress count.

我这个人不喜欢装病请假。也想装，可从来没装过——除非到了结婚的前夕，紧张、焦虑、压力搅得人坐卧不安。

But nevertheless this morning, I decided I deserved a day off -- hell, possibly even two -- so I phoned in first thing, knowing that as bad a liar as I am, it would be far easier to lie to Penny, the receptionist, than to my boss.

不管怎么说吧，今天早上，我决定该给自己放一天假啦——管他呢！也许是两天。所以，早起第一件事就是打电话请假。由于自知不善撒谎，还是打给前台接待员佩尼比较容易；没敢给老板打。

I did think vaguely about doing something delicious for myself today, something I'd never normally do. Manicures, pedicures, facials, things like that. But of course guilt has managed to prevail, and even though I live nowhere near my office in trendy Soho, I still know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that should I venture outside on the one day I'm pretending to be sick, someone from work will just happen to be at the end of my street.

我隐隐约约有种想法，就是趁着今天为自己做件爽事。美甲啦、修脚啦、面部护理啦，诸如此类。可是，负罪的念头挥之不去。尽管住的地方离那时尚的Soho办公楼十万八千里，但我敢肯定，这一天只要我胆敢出门，肯定会在街头撞见哪位同事。

So here I am. Watching dreadful daytime television on a cold January morning (although I did just manage to catch an item on "updos for weddings", which may turn out to be incredibly useful), eating my way through a packet of custard creams (my last chance before the wedding diet goes into full acceleration), and wondering whether there would be any chance of finding a masseuse -- a proper one -- to come to the house at the last minute to soothe the knots of tension away.