2012年11月翻译资格英语三级笔译实务真题及答案
【Section 1】 English-Chinese Translation
FOR MORE than 30 years, I have been wondering about L.R. Generson. On one of our first Christmases together, my husband gave me a complete set of Dickens. There were 20 volumes, bound in gray cloth with black corners, old but in good condition. Stamped on the flyleaf of each volume, in faded block letters, was the name of the previous owner: “L.R. Generson, M.D., Bronx, NY.”
That Dickens set is one of the best presents anyone has ever given me. A couple of the books are still pristine, but others - “Bleak House,’’ “David Copperfield,’’ and especially “Great Expectations’’ - have been read and re-read almost to pieces. Over the years, Pip and Estella and Magwitch have kept me company. So have Lady Dedlock, Steerforth and Peggotty, the Cratchits and the Pecksniffs and the Veneerings. And so, in his silent enigmatic way, has L.R. Generson.
Did he love the books as much as I do? Who was he? On a whim, I Googled him. There wasn’t much - a single mention on a veterans’ website of a World War II captain named Leonard Generson. But I did find a Dr. Richard Generson, an oral surgeon living in New Jersey. Since Generson is not a common name, I decided to write to him.
Dr. Generson was kind enough to write back. He told me that his father, Leonard Richard Generson, was born in 1909. He lived in New York City but went to medical school in Basel, Switzerland. He spoke 10 languages fluently. As an obstetrician and gynecologist, he opened a practice in the Bronx shortly before World War II. His son described him as “an extremely patriotic individual’’; right after Pearl Harbor he closed his practice and enlisted. He served throughout the war as a general surgeon with an airborne special forces unit in Europe, where he became one of the war’s most highly decorated physicians.
The list of his decorations reflects his ordeals and his courage: multiple Purple Hearts, the Bronze Star with “V’’ for valor, the Silver Star, and also the Cross of War, an extremely high honor from the government of France. After the war, he remained in the Army Reserve and attained the rank of full colonel, while also continuing his medical practice in New York. “He was a very dedicated physician who had a large patient following,’’ his son wrote.
Leonard Generson’s son didn’t remember the Dickens set, though he told me that there were always a lot of novels in the house. His mother probably “cleaned house’’ after his father’s death in 1977 - the same year my husband bought the set in a used book store.
I found this letter very moving, with its brief portrait of an intelligent, brave man and his life of service. At the same time, it made me question my presumption that somehow L.R. Generson and I were connected because we’d owned the same set of books. The letter both told me a little about him, and told me that I would never really know anything about him - and why should I? His son must have been startled to hear from a stranger on such a fragile pretext. What had I been thinking?
One possible, and only somewhat facetious, answer is that I’ve read too much Dickens. In the world of a Dickens novel, everything is connected to everything else. Orphans find families. Lovers are joined (or parted and morally strengthened). Ancient mysteries are solved and old scores are settled. Questions are answered. Stories end.
Dickens’s cluttered network of connected lives brilliantly exaggerates something that is true of all of us. We want to impose order through telling stories, maybe because there is so much we don’t know about our own stories and the stories of those around us.
Leonard Generson’s life touched mine only lightly, through the coincidence of a set of books. But there are other lives he touched more deeply. The next time I read a Dickens novel, I will think of him and his military service and his 10 languages. And I will think of the hundreds of babies he must have delivered, who are now in the middle of their own lives and their own stories.
【参考译文】
三十多年来，我一直在思考着L. R. 杰内森究竟是何许人。在我和丈夫一起度过的最初的几次圣诞节中，有一次他送给我了一整套狄更斯的作品。这些书有二十卷，用一块黑色边角的灰布包裹着，这些书尽管有些旧了但保存完好。每一卷的扉页上，都有模糊的大写字母，显示着它们之前的主人的信息：“L. R. 杰内森, 医学博士，布朗克斯，纽约。”
这套狄更斯的作品是我收到的最好的礼物之一。有些书现在还很新，但是一些书像《荒凉山庄》《大卫-科波菲尔》，尤其是《远大前程》，由于多次的反复阅读书已几乎变成散页了。多年来书中的人物一直萦绕在我身边，L. R. 杰内森也以沉默而神秘的方式陪伴着我。
是否他也像我一样喜爱这些书籍?他是谁呢?有一次心血来潮，我上谷歌搜索关于他的信息。没有搜到多少结果，只在一个老兵网站上搜到了一个叫莱昂纳多-杰内森的二战时期的一个上尉。但是我找到了莱昂纳多-杰内森博士，他是一位新泽西周的口腔医生。由于杰内森不是一个常用的名字，于是我决定写信给他。
杰内森博士很热心的给我回信。他告诉我他的父亲莱昂纳多-理查德-杰内森1909年生于纽约。后来在瑞士巴塞尔的一家医学院学习，他能熟练的讲十种语言。作为一名产科医生和妇科医生，他二战前不久在布朗克斯曾开了一家诊所。他儿子把他描述为一个极端的爱国主义者;日本偷袭珍珠港后，他随即关闭了诊所参了军。战争期间他以一个医生的身份和一个空军特别飞行队一起在欧洲服役，在当地他成了一名被赋予极高荣誉的医生。
他所获得的种种荣誉反映出他所受到的严峻考验及勇气：多个紫心勋章，带有象征英勇V字母的青铜星章，银星勋章以及法国政府所颁发的一项享有极高荣誉的战争十字勋章。战争结束后，他仍在陆军预备役任职，获得了上校军衔，同时，他在纽约继续从医。他儿子说，“他是一名非常敬业的内科医生，很多患者慕名向他求医。” 莱昂纳多·杰内森的儿子不记得那套狄更斯的书籍，但是他告诉我当时他们家一直有很多小说。他的妈妈在1977年他父亲去世后“清理过房间”，而恰在那一年，我丈夫在一家二手书店买了那套书。
尽管这封信只简单描述了一个智慧、勇敢的人以及他的军旅生活，但我觉得这封信很感人。同时，我不禁产生一个疑问，由于我和L. R. 杰内森曾共同拥有一套书，我们之间是否有某种缘分。那封信也告诉我了一些他的情况，而且信中还说我不会真正地了解他。为什么我要了解他呢?当他的儿子收到一个陌生人以如此勉强的一个借口给他写来的信时一定会很惊讶。我当时是怎么想的?
一种可能的而且是唯一听起来比较可笑的回答就是我读了太多狄更斯的小说。在他的小说里，任何事物都和其他的事物相关联。他的小说故事结束时，孤儿最终找到了亲人，有情人终成眷属，古老的秘密终被解开，昔日的宿怨最终化解，疑问终被解答。
在一套书的机缘巧合下，莱昂纳多·杰内森的人生对我的生活产生了些许的影响。但他深深地影响了其他人的生活。下次我再阅读狄更斯的小说时，我会想到他，想到他的军旅生涯，和他所讲的10种语言。我也会想到他所接生的数百名婴儿---他们现在正行走在自己的人生道路上，并且书写着自己的故事。
