少量多餐学英语 VSI Kafka 27

1. several Kafka protagonists

好几位卡夫卡笔下的主人公

注意：①Kafka作名词定语。②由protagonist想到antagonist。

2. distil an ideal type of the modern professional man

终于呈现出现代职场人士的一种典范

注意：①distil的比喻义。美语作distill。②an ideal type与the ideal type的差别。

3. the one whose facial rictus freezes his features in an involuntary grin

那个人，其狞笑在不由自主一咧嘴时，令表情瞬间凝固

注意：rictus的本义。
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英文中常被用错的22个词

22 Everyday Words You Might Not Realize You’ve Been Using Incorrectly
AUG. 21, 2013

By NICO LANG

Did you know that the word “terrific” originally meant something completely different? A lot of the words we use have changed meaning over time, differing from their common or intended use. Other words sound so much like the other words that they are often used interchangeably, like bemused and amused. These are the things that make English fun, watching the ways in which words shift with time and colloquialisms, and these entries delighted the grammar nerd in me.

Below you’ll find some of the most commonly misused words — and some that just diverged from the way they were meant be used. In the comments, sound off with some misused words that really bug you. What are words that no one seems to get right?

Here’s 22 to start:

1. Ironic
Does not mean: Something cosmically shitty or funny that happened to you.
Does mean: An occurrence that is the opposite of what you’d expect.

Easily the most abused word in the English language, we partially have Alanis Morrisette (God love her) to blame for this one. The most “ironic” thing about the song “Ironic” is that its singer can’t define irony. (Or perhaps she’s so clever that such is the point?) A no smoking sign on your cigarette break? Unfortunate, not ironic. The good advice that you just didn’t take? Poor judgment, not irony.

2. Peruse
Does not mean: To skim a text or browse over the key parts.
Does mean: To read something attentively.

If you’re a grad student, you’ve likely “perused” your reading at some point — by reading the first line of every paragraph or using one of the other infinite tricks grad students use to not have a meltdown. But if you look at the parts of the word, you can see how we’re all using it wrong. “Peruse” originally comes from “per use,” which traditionally indicates that you plan to “use up” the text with your passionate reading of it. Thus, the text is meant to be “per use” — or to be specifically used once. The other meaning came later.

3. Consent
Does not mean: To give one’s enthusiastic permission or agreement
Does mean: To passively agree, even if you have a negative opinion of what you’re agreeing to

As a feminist, I’m all into “consent” in the bedroom, but the word doesn’t quite mean what we all think it does. Consent, as an acquiescence, is far more neutral in value. If you consent to something, you’re not cheering it on. You’re allowing it to happen — with your permission. It’s more of a shrug. But assent indicates you really, really want it — just as much as Robin Thicke thinks you do. So, ladies, if you want to tell him that Yes Means Yes, make sure to give assent. It sounds more fun that way.
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少量多餐学英语 VSI Kafka 26

1. have some rudiments of docility

略显温驯

注意：①rudiment此处不可用单数。②docility与其形容词docile的读音。

2. He spends his nights in debauchery.

他夜夜沉湎酒色。

注意：由debauchery联想到orgy。debauch的同义动词辨析见《韦氏大学》11版debase条。

3. The law of his trial takes to a caricatural extreme the tendency of the Austrian legal system to concentrate on the criminal rather than the crime.

审讯他所用的法律，将奥地利法律体系的这一倾向推向了滑稽的极致：审判的重点是罪犯而非罪行。

注意：①caricatural与caricature的读音。②take的宾语是the tendency [. . .] system。③the tendency [. . .] system的内容是to concentrate [. . . ] crime，因其太长，故将to a caricatural extreme提前。

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少量多餐学英语 VSI Kafka 25

1. In 1913, his father [. . .] had Otto committed to a psychiatric clinic, on the grounds that his belief in free love proved his insanity.
1913年，奥托的父亲把奥托送进了精神病诊疗所，理由是奥托主张自由恋爱，足见是真疯。
注意：①his如果译作“他的”，在整句译文里指代关系不明的话，干脆多写“奥托的”。愚见是英语的代词用得比汉语频繁，何况his与her读音、写法都不同，而“他的”、“她的”（还有“它的”）汉语读起来一样，容易混淆。②on the grounds that与because的区别。

2. Kafka took a close interest in education.
卡夫卡对教育兴趣很浓。
注意：interest表示“兴趣”，到底可数不可数？

3. emphasize and elucidate the view that parents were the last people to be entrusted with bringing up their children
强调并阐释这一观点，即绝不该让父母抚养亲生子女
注意：①elucidate、expound与explain的区别。②last的用法。③entrust后接with。
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少量多餐学英语 VSI Kafka 24

1. such an egoistic individual as Josephine
像约瑟芬这样以自我为中心的人
注意：①记得拉丁文里的“我”就是ego。再补充两个：egocentric、egomaniac。喜欢心理学的，还可以区分id、ego与super-ego。②Josephine的读音。

2. be delivered from earthly afflictions
从尘世疾苦中解脱
注意：①说到“解放”，要区别free、deliver（第4条有其名词形式）、liberate与emancipate。②区别pain与affliction（着重看《朗文当代》4版affliction的释义）。

3. the countless throng of the heroes of her people
她那个民族的无数英雄
注意：摘录这条，是因为想到了太祖诗句：“引无数英雄竞折腰”。表示“群”的throng与group有何不同呢？
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少量多餐学英语 VSI Kafka 23

1. something more intimately himself than a book would have been
和书比起来，当初更贴近他本人的某样东西
注意：①如何理解这里的himself？②翻译要体现would have been的虚拟。

2. the 40-day limit imposed by his impresario
他所在戏班的班主规定的40天期限
注意：①impose与limit的搭配。②impresario的读音；该词与impress同源否？

3. the citizen body, the body politic
全体公民，即同一政府治下的所有人民
注意：body politic是政法术语，我查不到满意的翻译，就擅自意译了，香港一本英汉法律词典说是“政治团体”……
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从诗到诗：古诗词英译

[1.1] Robert Frost said, “Poetry is what gets lost in translation.” Not necessarily: that thousands upon thousands of poems get translated back and forth in the world is evidence enough to the contrary.
羅伯特·弗羅斯特氏嘗言：“所謂詩意，失於移譯者也已。”余恐未必盡然。極目宇內，詩詞譯作何啻千萬，足證斯言之確非。

[1.2] And if you, dear Reader, take a look at the poems translated below in this book, you’ll find the meaning conveyed faithfully, cultural milieu kept in tact, and the poetic ethos enriched. Little, if anything, is lost.
讀者諸君凡經眼此卷譯詩者，可知其勝處有三：詞義忠信，風神完固，文采富鬱。即有所失，不亦微夫。

[2.1] Nevertheless, nobody has dwelt with greater cogency upon the enormous difficulty involved in poetry translation than Frost in the above-quoted remark. As I see it, translation of poetry requires that the translator have the makings of a poet in him or her. He/She absorbs the source poems with innate poetic sensibilities until they become part of his/her aesthetic being.
然論譯詩之艱，弗氏此語可謂知言之極。竊以爲，譯詩之人當具作詩之才，得以腹笥錦繡，饕餮原詩，而融諸性靈也。
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少量多餐学英语 VSI Kafka 22

1. a Gnostic outlook
灵知派的观点
注意：①Gnostic的读音；建议读读英文百科全书的Gnosticism条目，学英语而对基督宗教一无所知，那就流于肤浅了。②outlook on sth.和outlook for sth.语义不同。

2. the late Kafka
晚期的卡夫卡
注意：在其他语境中，这个短语可能表示“已故的卡夫卡”。在死去者的姓名、身份前加the late，存有敬意，多表示新近亡故。

3. transform their bodies by privation into a semblance of the spiritual body of the Ressurection
通过承受物质匮乏，将他们的肉体加以转化，现身为基督复活的精神之体
注意：①由privation的词源，可联系到private与deprive。②比较semblance与resemblance。③比较resurrection与resurgence的词源。
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少量多餐学英语 VSI Kafka 21

1. He remains secure from the sexual temptations of the physical world.
面对物质世界种种性爱诱惑，他始终不为所动。
注意：①secure与from的搭配。②physical这里不是“物理的”。参见第4条。

2. the extravagant display of erotic desire
性欲的过度展现
注意：①erotic源于古希腊爱神之名Eros，多指文艺作品的“色情”，或伴有性兴奋的想法、感觉；春宫画、色情书、三级片等，统称为erotica。②这种display，令我想起唐人李义山咏史名句：“小怜玉体横陈夜，已报周师入晋阳”（我儿时背的版本是“闻报边师入晋阳”啊）。

3. its overpowering affection which the speaker can hardly bear to resist
它那令说话者无法抵挡的浓情蜜意
注意：①区别affection与love、affection与affectation。②bear在否定式中的应用。
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