若水人生

1. 若水人生 • Water-like Life • Water of a life • Life as water • Life seems like water • Water-shaped life • Life like water • The Watery life • A life like water

2. We think the way we think because we talk the way we talk. • The particular structures of a language (syntax and discourse patterns) reflect to a certain degree the way people think and they may be said to form “the ruts or paths for thinking”.

3. The Westerners stress scientific and logic way in thinking and in making sentences; they are always aware that there must be agreement between the subject and the predicate, in the sequence of tenses and others. On the other hand, we Chinese pay more attention to listeners’ tacit understanding and appreciation than to formal construction and logic of the sentences.

4. 传神云云，谈何容易！年岁经验愈增，对原作体会愈增，而传神愈感不足。领悟为一事，用中文表达又为一事。况东方人与西方人之思想方式有基本分歧，我人重综合，重归纳，重暗示，重含蓄；西方人则重分析，细微曲折，挖掘惟恐不尽，描写惟恐不周；此种mentalite（精神面貌）殊难彼此融洽交流。同为metaphore（隐喻），一经翻译，意义即已晦涩，遑论情趣。不若西欧文字彼此同源，比喻典故大半一致。 （傅雷）

5. 中国的文化是向模糊,朦胧及总体的方向走,而西方的文化是向准确而具体的方向走.中文的表达方式不够准确这一点,假如在写法律是一个缺点的话,写诗却是一个优点.（杨振宁）中国的文化是向模糊,朦胧及总体的方向走,而西方的文化是向准确而具体的方向走.中文的表达方式不够准确这一点,假如在写法律是一个缺点的话,写诗却是一个优点.（杨振宁）

6. 汉语表达注重整体感应，是一种意境性语言，讲究意合意会，不求眉须毕现的分析，不讲滴水不漏的逻辑，而英语则呈现别样风景：它讲逻辑，重分析，求形合，注重条分缕析，欣赏客观描述，漠视整体感应。（毛荣贵《翻译美学》）汉语表达注重整体感应，是一种意境性语言，讲究意合意会，不求眉须毕现的分析，不讲滴水不漏的逻辑，而英语则呈现别样风景：它讲逻辑，重分析，求形合，注重条分缕析，欣赏客观描述，漠视整体感应。（毛荣贵《翻译美学》）

7. Tips to reduce the negative effect resulting from the disparity of the thinking mode between the East and the West: • 1.增强形式逻辑观念。英语重形合，对语法形式非常重视，一个合格的英语句子往往要求所有的句子成分都得以体现；而汉语重意合，语法上隐含，置语法于“不言之中”。这就要求我们英译汉时语言要简约化，但意义要相连，脉络清楚；汉译英时注意语言的组织性和逻辑性。 • Always bear in mind that while English is hypotactic Chinese is paratactic.

8. 2.译者不仅要掌握源语的语言系统，还应尽量多地接触与了解该语言所属的整个文化系统，具备一定程度的用原文的语言思维的能力，以避免从译语出发，错译原文。2.译者不仅要掌握源语的语言系统，还应尽量多地接触与了解该语言所属的整个文化系统，具备一定程度的用原文的语言思维的能力，以避免从译语出发，错译原文。 • 思维是翻译的基础。在翻译过程中，我们对于语言中的思维因素要给予充分的重视，了解英汉语言的根本区别与思维的差异对翻译的影响。这对于消除翻译腔 ，提高译文质量具有重大意义。

9. Version 1: A Water-like Life • He was once a stubbornly disobedient boy, clasping the hair of the girl in the front row with a stationary box, putting a frog in the teacher’s chalk box, and filling the whole classroom with the twitters of a nestling from the drawer of the desk． • His father hanged him by the hand and beat him with a thick leather belt, but the severe corporal punishment made him all the more rebellious. • At last, he broke all the glass in the classroom.

10. Version 2: Life is Like Water • He used to be a mischievous boy, often up to tricks like pinching the hair of the girl in front of him with his pencil-box, putting a frog in the teacher’s chalk box and making the whole classroom resound with the twitters of a nestling hid in his desk drawer. • His father had to resort to such severe punishment as hanging him by the hands and flogging him with a strong belt, which only drove him further to defiance. • To reach the limit, he smashed all the window panes of the classroom.

11. He was summoned to the teacher’s office. On the way, he well prepared himself for the teacher’s reproach, believing that he would not be easily sapared this time. The teacher was serenely seated in his seat, his tea cup steaming hot. Quite beyond his expectation, the teacher amiably asked him to sit down, which well caught himn off guard. Agitated and disturbed, he felt a little confused. Then the teacher asked,”What do you think the water in the cup is like?”he felt surprised, and after a second thought, he said,”It is like a cup”. The teacher nodded his consent and asked him about the water in the washbasin. He told the teacher that it was like a basin. And then how about the water in the plastic bucket? He was at a loss, “Why, it’s certainly like a bucket.” He was perplexed as to what water was really like. Version 1: A Water-like Life

12. Version 2: Life is Like Water • He was consequently summoned to the teacher’s office. On the way he was trying to steel himself for the teacher’s impending reproaches; he knew he would not be spared this time. • The teacher kept himself seated in serenity, a steaming teacup in hand. All of a sudden the teacher amiably bade him sit down, which was totally out of his expectation. He was caught off guard, disturbed and somewhat confused. “What do you think the water is like in my cup?” the teacher broke the silence. He felt surprised at the question and after a moment answered, “It’s like the cup.” “That’s right.”The teacher nodded, and asked him what shape the water had in the basin. He said it was shaped after the basin. Again the teacher made him look at the water in a plastic bucket. He was perplexed, “Why, it’s like the bucket.” He couldn’t figure out what shapes water did take.

13. Version 1: A Water-like Life • Then he followed the teacher to a muddy pond not far away from school. On the surface of the water was drifting rubbish of different sorts, terribly stinking. Pointing at the water in the pond, the teacher told him that the pond also contained water, and asked him whether he’d like to be water in here. A person can take on different shapes as water does, and a person in different shapes is just like water in a cup, a basin, a plastic bucket or a muddy pond. That very winter day, on his way back to school, his conscience pricked him for the first time in his life. Affectionately patting him on the head, the teacher pointed at the distance,”Yi Lu, you are a smart boy. I hope you’ll flow into the sea one day.”

14. Version 2: Life is Like Water • Then the teacher took him to a small dirty pond near the school, which was filled woth drifting rubbish and overpowering foul smells. Pointing at the pond, the teacher said, “This is also water; would you allow yourself to identify with it? You see, life can be of various shapes, just like water can take the shape of a cup, a basin, a plastic bucket or a dirty pond.” • On the way back the boy felt the first prick of conscience in his life that winter day. Touching his head affectionately, and pointing to the distance, the teacher remarked, “You are a smart boy, Yilu, I hope you will take the shape of the sea in future.”

15. Version 1: A Water-like Life • Once in the sea, a person’s life will take on the shape of the sea and he will become a sea, acquiring the abundance and vastness of the sea. Several decades having elapsed, I haven’t flown into the boundless sea. However, whenever the teacher’s words recur to me, I wake up with a start. I won’t by any means flow into the muddy pond and forever get lost. If it’s inevitable that life will be in a container just ike water, I’d like mine to be a cup, a washbasin, and a bucket will also do. Even though it does not have the vastness and profundity of the sea, or it will be mediocre, life at least is simple, clean,transparent and practical.

16. Version 2: Life is Like Water • Yes indeed, only when you join the sea and become one with it, can you gain the sea’s richness and broadness. Several decades have elapsed without me, the once mischievous boy, joining the sea or acquiring its greatness; however, the teacher’s remarks often startle me out of my sleep, warning me against getting lost for good in the dirty pond. If life must be shaped by its container, I’d rather mine take the shape of a cup, a basin or even a plastic bucket; lacking the width and depth of the sea, plain and common as it is, my life is at least simple, upright, transparent and useful.