高樓低廈,人潮起伏,
名爭利逐,千萬家悲歡離合。

閑雲偶過,新月初現,
燈耀海城,天地間留我孤獨。

舊史再提,故書重讀,
冷眼閑眺,關山未變寂寞!

念人老江湖,心碎家國,
百年瞬息,得失滄海一粟!

徐訏《新年偶感》

2013年5月27日星期一

古德明: 偏偏、有意退出




問:「偏偏」英文怎樣?例如以下一句:「現在的事,可以用cancould過去的事,可以用could,偏偏不能用can。」

答:「偏偏」這樣的詞,沒有一個固定譯法,得看上下文而定。「偏偏」一般指「跟願望、意料、道理等相反」或「有意做一些跟願望、意料、道理等相反」的事。第一個意思,常可譯做butyetthoughwhen;第二個意思,則或可譯做must needs,例如:(1He is the richest man in Asia, but / yet his greed for money remains unsatisfied(他是亞洲首富,偏偏還是貪財無厭),(2He continued working hard though / when he knew that his health was rapidly deteriorating(他明知自己健康迅速轉差,偏偏繼續辛勤工作)。(3He knew I did not enjoy rock music, and he must needs invite me to a rock concert(他知道我不喜歡搖滾樂,偏偏邀請我去搖滾音樂會)。

讀者示下那一句,可以用butWhen talking about the present, we can use "can" or "could"; when talking about the past, we can also use "could", but not "can"

問:I did not know his intention to withdraw from People Power(我不知道他有意退出人民力量)這一句,字典應改為 intention of withdrawing,對嗎?

答:我不知道讀者的是哪本字典,但兩個法其實都正確。謹再舉一例:I don't have the slightest intention of going / to go there(我完全無意去那裏)。