在上一篇網誌中，我轉載了查建英發表在《紐約客》上的長篇文章《國家公敵》。當時，我說她的英語水平令人歎服，完全可以同美國主流作家的英語水平媲美。
我精讀了原文，下面就是一些筆記。
1.
【英文】Beijing Second Prison is on the outskirts of the city for which it is named, and you can drive past the drab compound without ever noticing it.
【中文】北京市第二監獄位於這個城市的郊區，驅車經過，你很容易忽視這個單調簡陋的建築。
【筆記】compound的意思是“用圍牆圈起的建築物及場地”，中國的大多數單位都是這種樣子。注意與complex（單體的綜合性建築物）區分。你可以將兩者都稱為facility。另外，drab與後面一句的dun是近義詞，都表示土褐色。
2.
【英文】Inside the waiting room, adjoining the gate, I stow my purse and cell phone in a locker, present my documents, and wait to be called.
【中文】在緊鄰大門的等候室，我把錢包和手機放進帶鎖的保險箱，然後出示證件，等候被叫到。
【筆記】這句的用詞很講究，注意“adjoining”、“stow”、“present”這三個詞，要是我寫這句句子，很可能用的是“beside”、“put”和“give”。
3.
【英文】his eyes were rheumy and infected, his hands and face were swollen, and his fingernails were purple, evidently from poor circulation and nutrition.
【中文】他的眼睛得了沙眼和感染，他的手和臉都是浮腫的，指甲是紫色的，明顯生活在惡劣的環境之中，嚴重營養不良。
【筆記】 注意“poor circulation”這個詞，circulation通常指“流通、發行”，引申為“正常的生活”，比如in circulation表示“積極參與社交活動”，get back into circulation表示“恢復社交生活”。
4.
【筆記】一些與監獄（prison/jail）有關的詞：犯人是prisoner/inmate/convict，牢房是cell/ward,獄卒是jailer/gaoler，監獄長是warden，假釋是parole，監/禁是incarceration。
5.
【英文】the officer peered at the head shot of the gloomy foreigner, but didn’t know who he was.
【中文】檢查官盯著封面上這個神色陰沉的洋人頭像看了半天，卻不知道此人是誰。
【筆記】head shot是頭像，snapshot是用小照相機拍下的照片，mug shot則是在警察局拍下的大頭照。
6.
【英文】The novelist Wang Meng, who was then the Minister of Culture, got out of it by claiming ill health and checking into a hospital himself.
【中文】當時的文化部部長，小說家王蒙，稱病住院躲過這一要求。
【英文】He was leaning on a Jetta, smoking a cigarette, when I got out of the prison snack shop.
【中文】我走出監獄小賣部時，他正斜靠在一輛捷達車上抽菸。
【英文】we had got off the expressway and had entered the maw of downtown traffic.
【中文】我們已經下了高速公路陷進市區的車流中。
【筆記】這三句中的got out of 和got off的涵義，都不完全一樣，但又差得不多。
7.
【英文】“Good thing you’re still here,” I said as I got into the car, “or I’d have had a long walk to the bus stop.”
【中文】"幸好你還在這兒，"我進車之後對他說："否則我就得走很遠去坐公交車了。"
【筆記】 I’d have had a long walk to the bus stop.這句是虛擬語氣。
8.
【英文】Though we were just a forty-minute drive from the city, everywhere you looked there were old factories, low piles of rubble, industrial-waste dumps, half-deserted farm villages on the brink of being bulldozed and “developed.”
【中文】儘管離城不過40分鐘的車路，這裡到處都是舊工廠、瓦礫堆、工業垃圾、面臨拆遷和"發展"的半荒蕪的農莊。
【筆記】北京就是這種樣子，異常奢華的CBD，異常貧瘠的京郊，少數人像“抽水機”一樣掠奪大眾的財富。最後一句是點睛之筆，所有這一切都是借用了“發展”的名義。
9.
【英文】This gave me a start.
【中文】我吃了一驚。
【筆記】這句與to my surprise同義，但不可以說to my start。後文中的take aback、I am appalled和she was flabbergasted，都表示震驚的意思。
10.
【英文】“ Most important thing is: get some guns! How can you beat the Communist Party? Only by armed struggle!”
“That’s an interesting idea,” I said, taken aback and trying to hide it. “But then China would be in a war. It would make for bloody chaos.”
“That would be great!” the driver said.
I was appalled. “If that happened, don’t you worry that the biggest victims would be ordinary people?”
“The ordinary people are the biggest victims already!” the driver replied, his face mottled with fury. “You look at this city—at what kind of life the officials and the rich people have, and what kind of shitty life we have.”
【筆記】某些人總是說，如果發生社會/動/亂的話，吃苦的總是老百姓；又說，和平穩定的環境，對老百姓最有利。但是就像上文中那位司機說的，老百姓才無所謂呢，他們已經是最大的受害者了，生活不可能再差到哪裡去了。維持現行的社會秩序，富人和利益集團受益最多。用經濟學語言說，在中國，和平穩定的環境是對富人的一種補貼。
11.
【英文】On both sides of Chang’an Avenue, new skyscrapers and giant billboards stood under a murky sky.
【中文】在長安街的兩旁，新的高樓大廈和巨型的廣告牌屹立在晦暗的天空之下。
【筆記】這句是很漂亮的暗喻（metaphor）。
12.
【英文】He had even taken to carrying around a toothbrush.
【中文】他早就隨身攜帶了一支牙刷。
【筆記】注意，這裡使用了take to這個片語，意思是“喜歡，養成習慣”，所以後面跟了carrying這個動名詞形式。
13.
【英文】my brother is frozen, with his unchanging, unchangeable vision of what is to be done.
【中文】哥哥已經冰凍了，他的世界觀不會改變也不可能改變了。
【筆記】注意unchanging, unchangeable這樣的用法。
14.
【筆記】一些政治詞彙：subvert,round up, ransack, suppress, purge, crackdown。
15.
【筆記】這篇文章的題目是《Enemy of the State》，表面是指主人公因為反對政府而被判刑，實際上有更深的涵義。這個國家的敵人是誰？我覺得，是理想主義。一個理想主義者就是這個國家的敵人，他無法在這個國家生存。這塊土地的使命就是消滅理想主義。
（完）
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附：一些中文常見詞彙的英譯
青面獠牙 a green-faced, long-toothed monster
排成一隊 in single file
有幾分 kind of
某某人 so-and-so
體力勞動 manual work
一次性筷子 disposable chopsticks
抄家 ransack
歡送會 going-away party
貧窮落後 poverty and backwardness
政治表現 political record
黑紗 black gauze
鄉巴佬 country bumpkin
部門 section
滄桑的 weather-beaten
小賣部 snack shop
工業垃圾 industrial-waste
解僱費 severance pay
遊手好閒 goof off
眨眼之間 in the blink of an eye
咬緊牙關 clench one's teeth
風雨飄搖 float in wind and storm
一蹴而就 throw a switch
政治局 politburo
主流報刊 major publication
哀其不幸，怒其不爭 sorry for him, and angry at him
名人效應 name-dropping
忠孝不能兩全 One must choose between loyalty and filial devotion
自我膨脹 inflated self-regard
振作精神 prop up one's spirit
弱勢群體 disadvantaged people
和平崛起 peaceful rising
建設和諧社會 building a harmonious society
不以成敗論英雄 Do not judge a hero by victory or defeat
千瘡百孔 a hundred holes and a thousand wounds