时间:2019-02-07 作者:英语课 分类:实用英语


英语课

   编者:《蜗居》真实地展现了“房奴”的艰辛生活,让每个有着痛苦买房经历的人都有强烈的认同感。对于“房奴”的英语翻译,有mortgage slave 和 house slave 两种,哪种更地道呢,今天来看一下吧。


  如今,“房奴”的翻译也成了热点问题。新出版的两部汉英字典都在做产品宣传时着重介绍了这个词的翻译。《汉英大辞典》的翻译简单些,只有对应词 mortgageslave,《汉英词典》则复杂些——mortgage slave; house slave (someone under the pressure of paying back housing mortgage loan)。
  这两个译法孰好孰坏?在我看来,单用mortgage slave足以。若用house slave可能会适得其反。为什么这么说呢?因为一看到house slave一词,英美人士可能马上会想到奴隶制废除前在家中充当佣人的奴隶。根据《牛津英语词典》的信息,house slave一词早在1738年就有(Some people have a good many House-Slaves...and they live so well and easy, that it is sometimes a very hard matter to know the Slaves from their masters.)。当时的slave通常可分为两类:一类是house slave(若译作“家奴”[现汉大:私家的奴仆]可能也会起误导作用);另一类则是field slave(田奴或庄园奴隶)。美利坚的开国元勋华盛顿就是出身于种植园主家庭,家中应该有不少奴隶。据说,他也包过“二奶”——一个年仅15岁的穆拉托人(mulatto,即黑白混血儿),名叫Venus,还是他家的house slave。
  不过,也有媒体曾用过house slave一词。例如, 1月20日的CNN上就有题为“Chinese 'house slaves' grow in booming economy”(中国经济蓬勃发展,房奴数量大增)的报道。既然house slave是放在引号中的,所以就不是表示这层意思的地道英语。
  那mortgage slave地道吗?答案是肯定的。英国的多家报纸都曾用到过这个词。例如,《每日电讯报》(The Daily Telegraph)在2008年4月16日就刊登了一篇题为“Is Britain a nation of mortgage slaves?”(英国沦落为房奴的国度了吗?)的文章。
  如今,奴字漫天飞,像“卡奴”、“婚奴”、“车奴”、“孩奴”、“白奴”、“租奴”、“垄奴”等时髦词日渐充斥着报端。在翻译这类词时,若将slave当作万能钥匙,那是万万不可以的,否则会闹大笑话的。——Are you a child slave?你是孩奴吗?(或:你是童奴吗?)

标签: house slave
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