CATTI和MTI每日一譯Day558

原文

'Being unready and ill-equipped is what you have to expect in life. It is the universal predicament. It is your lot as a human being to lack what it takes. Circumstances are seldom right. You never have the capacities, the strength, the wisdom, the virtue you ought to have. You must always do with less than you need in a situation vastly different from what you would have chosen as appropriate for your special endowments.'

- Charlton Ogburn

昨日翻譯譯文參考：

原文

'It is a common observation that those who dwell continually upon their expectations are apt to become oblivious to the requirements of their actual situation.'

- Charles Sanders Peirce

參考譯文：

“如果總是想著日后干大事，難免無心做好眼下要緊事，這種現(xiàn)象極為常見?！?/p>

——查爾斯·桑德斯·皮爾士

原文和譯文解析：

首先確定“'It”是形式主語，“that those who dwell continually upon their expectations are apt to become oblivious to the requirements of their actual situation.”是真正的主語，所以可以按照中文表達(dá)習(xí)慣，先翻譯陳述情況部分“'that those who dwell continually upon their expectations are apt to become oblivious to the requirements of their actual situation.”，然后翻譯結(jié)論部分“It is a common observation”

Dwell on的意思是“to think, speak, or write at length 細(xì)想; 詳述”，動(dòng)作所指的對(duì)象是“expectations”，注意，“expectations”與下文同為復(fù)數(shù)的requirements相對(duì)應(yīng)。注意，“dwell continually upon”與“become oblivious to”同樣是對(duì)應(yīng)關(guān)系，甚至說是對(duì)比關(guān)系，因?yàn)橐粋€(gè)是“心心念念”，而另一個(gè)是“漠不關(guān)心/毫不上心”。

相比之下，因?yàn)椤皌he requirements of their actual situation.”相對(duì)比較好理解，所以“expectations”的意思我們先暫時(shí)不論，先看前者的意思。“the requirements of their actual situation.”我理解為“what you are required to do under the actual situation“，也就是“眼下需要做的實(shí)事”，此處“實(shí)”需要重點(diǎn)強(qiáng)調(diào)一下，因?yàn)槭鞘菍?shí)實(shí)在在存在，需要踏踏實(shí)實(shí)去做的事情。

再看與之對(duì)應(yīng)的““expectations””，expectation有多個(gè)意項(xiàng)，其中常用復(fù)數(shù)形式的用法有二，其一是“預(yù)期的事物，希望，期望”，其二是“前程，成功發(fā)達(dá)的前景，可望繼承的遺產(chǎn)”（見《陸谷孫英漢大辭典》）。

與“the requirements of their actual situation.”相對(duì)應(yīng)，我更傾向于 “成功發(fā)達(dá)的前景”這個(gè)意思。中文有“不務(wù)正業(yè)，好高騖遠(yuǎn)”，應(yīng)該大概就是這個(gè)意思。當(dāng)然，翻譯的時(shí)候可以淡化expectations的具體表達(dá)，處理成類似“眼巴巴瞅著未來，卻無心眼下工作“即可?！?/p>

“It is a common observation”是對(duì)前面這種情況的總結(jié)和評(píng)論，可以考慮用成語或四字格“司空見慣/比比皆是/并不鮮見”等即可。

作者簡(jiǎn)介

查爾斯·桑德斯·皮爾士（Charles Sanders Santiago Peirce，1839年9月10日－1914年4月19日），美國最具獨(dú)創(chuàng)性的哲學(xué)家之一，物理學(xué)家，數(shù)學(xué)家，實(shí)用主義創(chuàng)始人。