走近契诃夫——我译《作弄》之〈爱情〉（1-2）（上）

[1] This was more or less how I began my love-letter to Sasha, a girl of nineteen with whom I had fallen in love. [2] I began it five times, and as often tore up the sheets, scratched out whole pages, and copied it all over again. I spent as long over the letter as if it had been a novel I had to write [3] to order. And it was not because I tried to make it longer, more elaborate, and more fervent, but because I wanted endlessly to prolong the process of this writing, when [4] one sits in the stillness of one’s study and communes with one’s own day-dreams while the spring night looks in at one’s window. Between the lines I saw a [5] beloved image, and it seemed to me that there were, sitting at the same table writing with me, spirits as naïvely happy, as foolish, and as blissfully smiling as I.

我爱上了萨莎，一个十九岁的姑娘。写给她的情书大概就是这样开头的。开头我写了五遍，每次写完又撕了，一张信纸全部划掉，然后重新抄一遍。写这封信，差不多可以写一篇小说了，而且还要赶着交稿。这倒不是因为我要把这封信写得更细腻、更热烈、更长一些，而是因为当我坐在安静的书房里，凝视窗外时，我的思绪不禁信马由缰，希望一直写下去，没有尽头。字里行间有她的倩影。似乎很多精灵和我同桌，也在写信，也像我那样天真快乐，傻里傻气，面带微笑。

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一、词汇

1. scratch out: 划掉

2. fervent: 热烈

3. commune with: 和……交流

4. bliss: 极乐

二、点评

[1] This was more or less how I began my love-letter to Sasha, a girl of nineteen with whom I had fallen in love.

译文：我爱上了萨莎，一个十九岁的姑娘。写给她的情书大概就是这样开头的。

时间和地点已经在第一自然段交代了。这里首先要交代女主人公，所以译文将定语从句放在句首翻译。

[2] I began it five times, and as often tore up the sheets, scratched out whole pages, and copied it all over again.

译文：开头我写了五遍，每次写完又撕了，一张信纸全部划掉，然后重新抄一遍。

写信、撕纸、划掉和誊写都有五遍。译文中用“每次”来体现这层含义。“一张信纸”修改为“整张信纸”应该更准确。

[3] to order: 可以理解为应约写稿。

[4] one: 虽然原文中的one泛指任何人，但是这里最好翻译成“我”。

[5] beloved image: 翻译成“倩影”，beloved的意义不言自明。