英语翻译学习笔记 Environmental Law (Excerpt 1)

一、解说
1. As recently as the early 1960s, the phrase "environmental law" would probably have produced little more than a puzzled look, even from many lawyers. 就在二十世纪六十年代初，甚至连许多律师接触到“环保法”这个词儿，大半也只会感到纳闷而已。
    “as recently as”不同于“as early as”，前者强调句中描述的事情距离现在很近，后者强调时间的遥远，所以译作“就在…”，而不是“早在…”说明事情变化得很快。当初大家对“环保法”还非常陌生，而现在已成为人们关注的话题。
    “the phrase "environmental law" would probably have produced little more than a puzzled look, even from many lawyers”这句话的字面意思是：“环保法”这个词儿或许只给人们甚至于大多数律师带来迷惑的神色。“某个词给人们带来某种神色”这样的表述不符合汉语的习惯，故把“许多律师”提上来作主语，谓语动词就选用“感到”，这样的主谓搭配比较符合汉语的表达习惯，也符合句意。

2. There were, of course, numerous state and some federal laws intended to protect America's rivers and streams from excessive industrial pollution and to guard wildlife from the de前一单元dations of man.当然，已经有了各市地多州法和一些联邦法，其立法意图是保护美国的江河，使之免受过分的工业污染并保护野生生物不受人类的掠夺。
    “intended to protect America's rivers and streams from excessive industrial pollution and to guard wildlife from the de前一单元dations of man”是过去分词短语，作定语修饰“laws”。遇到这样长的修饰语常常要用断句的方法来翻译，这里译作“其立法意图是…”，把原来的过去分词转换成名词，再找一个动词“是”来搭配，构成主谓结构。
    “protect ...from...”和“guard ...from ...”同义，均为“保护…免遭…”。

3. With enforcement power dispersed among many federal, state and local agencies, most of which were seriously undermanned, and with noncompliance penalties so slight as to have little more than harassment value, there were few incentives to obey the laws. 由于执法的权力分散在许许多多的联邦、州和地方等三级机关（而这些机关大多人手严重不足），也由于因违法而科处的罚款微不足道（从而只有恼人心烦的意义），人们就缺乏服从法律的劲头了。
    句中的两个“with”表示原因，相当于“because of”，故译作“由于”和“也由于”，使两个分句平稳地连接。
    “dispersed”是过去分词，作介词宾语的补语，但在译文中已转换成该分句中的谓语动词。
    “there were few incentives to obey the laws”要保持原有结构也很难，故加了主语“人们”和谓语“缺乏”。

4. Indeed, many environmental statutes were so little publicized and so vaguely worded that their existence was hardly known and their meaning was scarcely understood. 说真的，许多环境法的宣传工作之薄弱与措词之含糊，使人简直不知道有环境法，而环境法的意义也就无人了解了。
     在法律文章中，被动语态用得比较多，在翻译时应根据汉语的表达习惯作适当的调整。此句中的“their existence was hardly known and their meaning was scarcely understood”便是一例。

5. A powerful indictment of America's disregard of ecology, Silent Spring was aimed chiefly at the wholesale use of chemical pesticides, especially DDT. 《沉默的春天》有力地控诉了美国之忽视生态，它主要是针对大规模使用农药——特别是滴滴涕。
    “A powerful indictment of America's disregard of ecology”就是指后面的“Silent Spring”，故“《沉默的春天》”提前译出，做主语，然后把原来的名词“indictment” 处理成动词做谓语，原来修饰名词的形容词在译文中就成了修饰动词的副词了。
    因为“Silent Spring”已拿到前面作主语去了，所以后一分句就用“它”来指代。

6. In 1965 a court action took place that ranks in environmental importance with the publication of Silent Spring. 1965年又发生了一件诉讼，其对环境之重要意义，不亚于《沉默的春天》之出版。
    “that ranks in environmental importance with the publication of Silent Spring”引导一个定语从句，译文采用了断句手法，后一分句用一个“其”字来指代前面提到的“一件诉讼”。

7. That was the reversal by a court of appeals of a Federal Power Commission decision to grant a license for a Consolidated Edison power plant at Storm King Mountain on the Hudson River in New York. 某上诉法院驳回了联邦电力委员会关于向纽约哈得逊河畔施多姆金山爱迪生联合发电厂颁发许可证的决定。
    句首的“that”指前一句是的诉讼。为了连贯和避免重复，前一句末用了冒号引出这一诉讼的内容。
    把原来“by”后面的名词短语处理成主语，整个被动语态就译成了主动语态，之比较符合汉语的表达方式。
    另外，原句中“decision”的修饰语在译文中仍处理成修饰语，而且意思表达得很清楚，这是很不容易的。

8. The court ordered new proceedings that were to "include as a basic concern the 前一单元servation of natural beauty and of national historic shrines." 该法院命重新处理该案并“以保护自然美和历史名胜为基本注意事项”。
    本句中的修饰语“that were to 'include as a basic concern the 前一单元servation of natural beauty and of national historic shrines.'”就难以保持原来的位置，为了通顺，被处理成一个分句。