跟清教徒学英语(8)|"consist in" and "in which ... consist"

in #cn5 years ago (edited)


22 因为得着他的,就得了生命,又得了医全体的良葯。

所罗门·箴言4章22节

40多天疫情带来的副作用是,看到大部分的宝爸宝妈们都在朋友圈表示在家教育是一种极大的痛苦折磨,于是调整了时间安排,分担Emma的教育任务,每天上午安排1小时来教导David文学和数学。

今天的作业是画一张维恩图(Venn),比较两个不同对象的异同,并写一篇简要说明。David盼着自己的生日礼物,于是写了“Lego”和“Block”,并武断地将Lego划为50岁以下才能玩的玩具。

不过,他的文字倒是还过得去,没有写成这样:

I have made it appear that a hearty propensity to a holy practice cannot be attained without some good persuasion of our reconciliation with God by justification, and of our everlasting happiness, and of sufficient strength both to will and to perform our duty; and that these, and all other endowments necessary to the same end, are to be had only in Christ, by union and fellowship with Him; and that Christ Himself, with all His fullness, is united to us by faith; which is not a condition to procure a right and title to Christ, but an instrument by which we receive Him actually into our hearts, by trusting on Him for all salvation freely promised us in the gospel.

这种句子,完全不符合中文的断句习惯,理解起来实在是困难。


我想要检查的是下面这个句子:

All these means of a holy practice are things in which our spiritual life and happiness consists, so that, if we have them, everlasting life is begun in us already.

我的译者暂时译为:

这些引向圣洁行为的方式皆是我们的属灵生命和永恒福乐的组成部分,因此,我们若有了这些手段,那么永恒的生命就已然在我们心中开始。

先不去讨论语言的问题。这句话又是要处理一个定语从句,不过是汉语里很难看到的宾语型的定语从句:“things in which our spiritual life and happiness consists”,因为这个从句的主语是our spiritual life and happiness,而things in which则是宾语。


从语法上看,consist是一个不及物动词,不能单独接名词, 需要consist of (组成)或者consist in(存在于,在于),或者consist with (联系)。所以这里的问题很简单,in which ... consists,应当按照consist in来翻译。

修改:

我们的属灵生命和永恒福乐全在于引我们行圣的手段,若有了它们,就开启了我们通向永恒生命的门路。


各种前置词引导的定语从句,例如“by which”,"in which", "for which", "of which", "among which"等等,大概是我合作的译者们比较容易处理不好的地方,待我收集更多的例子之后再来讨论吧。

昨天的文章,“军备禁赛”,在微信公号上存活一天之后被删除了,大概动到了某块奶酪。这是为何我总是将文章发在wordpress上,再转载steemit上,再来考虑是否进入公众号传播的缘故。我不愿意用奇怪的符号或代码,删了就删了吧,我也不打算重发,毕竟作为作者和读者,是我们养活的企鹅,并非仰仗企鹅施舍我们,让我们有了阉割文字来讨赞赏,分成广告的地方。继续推荐用邮件列表或rss来订阅“eddyemma.com”,因为总有一天我们会需要放弃或者被迫放弃某些平台的。


至于我的朋友们,在eddyemma.com主页上输入您的邮件,订阅每天更新的mailchamp邮件列表,或者用手机上的InoReader来订阅eddyemma.com的rss,是最简单安全的方式,特别是rss,古老的手法才是最有效的。


Inoreader界面:订阅无疆,无所不至