A Widow’s Story: A Memoir. By Joyce Carol Oates. Ecco; 432 pages; $27.99. To be published in Britain by Fourth Estate in March; £20. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk 《一个寡妇的故事:回忆录》乔伊斯•卡罗•奥茨著;爱步出版社,432页, 27.99美元;英国《报刊新闻出版社》将于3月出版; 20英镑。Amazon.com和Amazon.co.uk有售
This grim kick in the teeth is the brunt of “A Widow’s Story”, Ms Oates’s raw account of the months after her husband died three years ago.
《一个寡妇的故事》是奥茨对三年前她丈夫去世后头几个月未经加工的叙述,其主题就是这始料未及的厄运。
这里的raw,偶觉得可能是释义中的这层意思:raw emotions or qualities are strong and natural, but not completely developed or controlled...
With “A Widow’s Story”, she makes up for lost time.
她凭借《一个寡妇的故事》这本书弥补了失去的时间。
这句应该是说原来她没怎么写自己,这一次With “A Widow’s Story”补上了,但直接这么译“弥补了失去的时间”的话中文读者可能会很迷惑...
我看的比较细,有些地方可能会显得有些挑剔,望楼主见谅:
第一段:
1, WHEN you sign on to be a wife, you are signing on to be a widow one day, possibly. “登记为一名妻子,或一名寡妇”不太符合中文的表达方式,建议可以跳出原文词语和结构的束缚,试译为“成为人妻,即意味着终有一日可能会成为寡妇。”
2, the reaper will claim us all, yet to live is to pretend otherwise,这里的pretend otherwise不是“另类的…”而是“pretend that the reaper will not claim us all”,试译“死神终将召唤众生,然而活着就是要假装它永不到来。”
3, the objective of life may be to remain ignorant of death for as long as possible,这里的remain ignorant of death可能不是“躲避”吧,躲避意味着怯懦,缺乏勇气,而作者要说的意思可能是,生活的目的也许是尽可能的忽视(或无视)死亡的存在,只有这样才能尽情生活,享受生活。
4, The lesson of loss will come soon enough,此处loss译为“失去”感觉有些笼统,“丧偶”或者“失去爱人”;lesson译为“一课”也还是太字面化,衔接上一句,将整个句子试译作“但是,痛失爱人的时刻也可能迅速到来,快到让人猝不及防。”不知如何?
第二段:
5 This grim kick in the teeth is the brunt of “A Widow’s Story”, “kick in the teeth”是个idiom,意为“a severe set back, bad news or a sudden disappointment”,因此这句话可能想表达:“这本书主要描绘了作者在突然丧偶后,面对生活的残酷无情的所思所感。”不知道这样是否贴切,还望高人再指点。
第三段:
6 sees Ms Oates feeling her way through the inky darkness of widowhood. 这里的inky darkness,我的理解是:作者在失去爱人之后,生活毫无目标,就像走在漆黑的夜里,失去了方向。这一点和她后来提到的“she worries she doesn’t know how to live without him”是呼应的。另,“暗无天日”更多的是指社会很黑暗,百姓受尽压榨,过着暗无天日的日子,这里用来形容守寡的日子,貌似有些夸张或者不恰当。
7 would prefer to disappear,此处的disappear就是明确的“想自杀”,和引用尼采的话也是紧密联系在一起的。
第四段
8 An unnervingly prolific writer,奥茨多产,并不会让人产生不安的情绪吧,最多也就是“惊人的多产”,强调她著作实在很多,然后转折到“她自己却从未如此强烈的审视过自己”。
9 This is not a book about her marriage, but about the demons that screech in her ears following its end. 此处的following its end,应该不是“在他们婚姻结束后”,我还没理解透,尚在求证中,等找到答案了,再来补充吧。
10 full of reticence and distinct spheres,reticence理解成“有所保留”应该没错,不过sphere楼主没有理解透,没译明白,我想会不会是“particular interests in activities”,即兴趣爱好截然不同,所以才会有He never read her fiction。
第五段
11 But it is a shame that,没什么“令人惭愧的”,“只可惜”吧。
12 The Year of Magical Thinking,可以搜索到译名,基本上都是《奇想之年》。
13 but it might have been a richer story of love and loss. “但这个故事本应该充满更多的爱与失去。”
9 This is not a book about her marriage, but about the demons that screech in her ears following its end. 此处的following its end,应该不是“在他们婚姻结束后”,我还没理解透,尚在求证中,等找到答案了,再来补充吧。
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following its end. 这里的 its 指的就是 their marriage's 这个没有问题。