When the Moon Follows Me(Mary E. Potter)

　　Each of my sons made the discovery early. We would be riding in the car at night, and a little voice would call out from the back seat, “Hey, the moon is following us!” I would explain that the moon was not actually gliding along with our car. There would be another period of critical observation and the final verdict, delivered more quietly this time: “But it really is moving. I can see it.”

　　I thought of that one evening as I was driving. The moon, one day short of fullness, rode with me, first gliding smoothly, then bouncing over the bumpy stretches, now on my right, then straight ahead, the silver light washing over dry grasses in open fields, streaking along through black branches, finally disappearing as the road wound its way through the hills.

　　When I crested the hill in the village, there it was again —— grown suddenly immense, ripe, flooding the town with a sprawling light so magical I began to understand why it is said to inspire “looniness.” I could hardly wait to get back home to show the boys.

　　Robert was in the bathtub, so I grabbed John. “ Close your eyes and come see what followed me home,” I said, hoping to increase the dramatic impact. I led him out into the night. “Okay. Open! Isn’t it beautiful?”

　　John blinked a few times and looked at me as if I might, indeed, be loony. “Mom, it’s just the moon. Is this the surprise?” I suppose he was hoping for a puppy.

　　I should have realized that, being only ten, he was probably too young to know how much we sometimes need the magic and romance of moonlight——a light that is nothing like the harsh glare of the sun that it reflects. Moonlight softens our faults; all shabbiness dissolves into shadow. It erases the myriad details that crowd and rush us in the sunlight, leaving only sharp outlines and highlights and broad brushstrokes——the fundamental shape of things.

　　Often in the soothing, restorative glow we stare transfixed, bouncing our ambitions and hopes and plans off this great reflector. We dream our dreams; we examine the structure of our lives; we make considered decisions. In a hectic, confusing world, it helps to step out into a quiet, clear swath of moonlight, to seek out the fundamentals and eschew the incidentals.

　　The night after I showed John the moon, he burst breathlessly through the door, calling, “Mom, come out for a minute!” This time, he led me, coatless and shivering. The driveway gravel crunched underneath our sneakers. From somewhere in the woods beyond the pond, the plaintive calls of geese honked and died away.

　　Past the row of pine trees that line the road, the sky opened up with the full moon on it, suspended so precariously close that it might come hurtling toward us—— incandescent, even larger and more breathtaking than the night before, climbing its motionless climb over the molten silver of our pond. Even a ten-year-old could see this wasn’t just the moon. This was The Moon.

　　When I turned around, John was grinning, expectant, studying my face intently to see if he had pleased me. He had. I knew that now the moon was following him too.

　　月兒隨我同行　　(瑪麗.E.波特)

　　我的兩個兒子各自都在很小的時候就有了那驚人的發現。每當我們驅車夜行的時候,后座上總會傳來稚嫩驚奇的聲音: “嘿,瞧!月亮實際上并沒有跟在我們的汽車后面滑行。發出驚嘆的孩子往往審視良久,終于得出定論,再一次用較冷靜的口吻說: “它確實在動的嘛,我看得見的。”

　　一天晚上，在驅車回家的途中，我想起了這件事兒。再過一天就要盈滿的月亮隨我一路同行;它先是平穩地滑行，繼而又在崎嶇的山路上躍動，忽而在我右邊，忽而又跑到我的前頭。銀色的月光潑灑在曠野的枯草上，沿著一路黑黝黝的枝叢投下斑駁的光點，最后，當車道在山間繞了個彎，它便消失得無影無蹤。

　　當我的車開上村子里的小山頂時，月亮又出現了——突然變得碩大、飽滿;神奇的銀輝充盈四野，整個城鎮都被淹沒在溶溶的月色中。我這才開始明白，為什么人們會說月兒能激發起“瘋狂”。我急不可待地趕回家，想讓孩子們出來看看。

　　羅伯特正在洗澡;于是我一把拉起約翰，說：“閉上眼睛，來看看什么東西隨我回家了。”希望這樣能增強戲劇性的效果。我牽著他走到戶外的夜色中。 “行了，睜開眼睛!瞧，多美啊!”

　　約翰眨巴眨巴雙眼，盯著我看，仿佛我真的發瘋了一樣。“媽，不就是月亮嘛。這有什么稀奇的?”我猜他希望我帶了只小狗回來。

　　我本應該意識到這一點：他才十歲，也許還太小，弄不清我們有時是何等需要月光的魅力和浪漫，這種光和它所反射的太陽那耀眼的光芒是多么大相徑庭。月光淡化了我們的各種缺點，所有的卑微都化解為依稀朦朧的陰影。它抹去了在陽光下充塞于我們周圍、壓迫著我們的無數細微的事物，只留下輪廓鮮明的剪影、最精彩的場面和粗線條的繪畫——萬物的基本形狀。

　　常常，在那令人屏神靜氣的光華中，我們注目凝視;這時，我們的雄心壯志、美好希望和宏偉藍圖便會從那了不起的反射物上躍然而出。我們做著五光十色的夢，考察我們的生活結構，作出深思熟慮的決定。在一個喧囂、混亂的世界上，走進一片寧靜、清新的月光，去尋循事物的根本，避開不期而至的變故，那可真是大有裨益。

　　就在我讓約翰看月亮的第二天晚上，他氣喘喘地一頭闖進屋來，喊道：“媽，快出來一會兒。”這一次是他牽著我。當時我沒穿外衣，不由得一陣哆嗦。車道上的礫石被我們的旅游鞋踩得嘎嘎作響。從水塘彼岸的樹林里不知什么地方傳來幾聲鵝的哀鳴，轉而又悠然消失。

　　走過路邊那排松樹，天空豁然開朗，一輪滿月晃晃悠悠地懸浮在上面，離我們那么近，仿佛就要掉下來撞到我們身上。它光華照人，比前一天晚上還大，更令人心馳神往，在熔銀般的水塘上空悄悄地爬升。就連十歲的孩童也能看出，這不僅僅是個月亮。這是個大寫的月亮。

　　我轉過身，只見約翰正咧著嘴笑，滿臉期盼的神情;他熱切的目光想從我的臉上探明他是否博得了我的歡心。他確實博得了我的歡心。我意識到現在月兒也正在隨他同行。

　　講解

　　這是一篇非常優美的關于月亮的散文，它將細膩的描寫和真摯的情感及人生感悟交融在一起。翻譯這樣的文章，譯者不僅要譯出基本信息——字面上的意思，還要譯出原文的韻味。這就需要在選詞、句式安排及形象化詞語的運用上仔細琢磨，不僅要注意字、句上的局部效果，更要注意段落、篇章的整體效果。

　　就該篇譯文而言，譯者基本做到了形神合一。原文中不乏一些十分抽象的描寫性的語言，然而譯者能發揮自己的形象思維能力，用形象化的語言化解原文的抽象性描述帶來的理解與認知上的困難，從而使譯文更貼近譯語讀者的理解模式(比如原文第二、六、七自然段)。這種應用形象化語言替代抽象化描述語言的譯法較廣泛地應用于文學語篇的翻譯，是翻譯的難點，也正是這篇譯作的最主要的長處。

　　此外，在處理形容詞方面，該譯作也有值得鑒賞之處。形容詞在描寫文體中出現的頻率頗高。在翻譯形容詞時，譯者一是要準確理解形容詞在特定的上下文及搭配中的含義，二是在用漢語表達時要順應漢語行文及修辭規范。該原文出現了好幾處多個形容詞排放在一起的句式，如翻譯時把握不好，很容易造成上下文不通順的斷句，嚴重時會造成上下文意義的斷裂，從而導致歧義。這也是同學們在翻譯實踐中常犯的錯誤之一。該譯者充分注意到了這方面的問題，在充分理解原文的基礎上他還充分考慮到了漢語的表達習慣和修飾特點，并順應之，使譯文流暢自然。

　　該譯文采取的抽象描述語言形象化的處理以及翻譯時側重考慮譯入語的表達習慣等其實體現了譯者歸化的翻譯技巧的靈活應用。歸化和異化是翻譯時常用的方法。歸化指譯者采取透明、流暢的風格以盡可能減弱譯語讀者對外語語篇的生疏感的翻譯策略;異化則指刻意打破目的語的行文規范而保留原文的某些異域特色的翻譯策略。可以說，任何譯文都是歸化和異化翻譯策略相互結合的產物，而歸化尤為重要，因為對異域語言文化規范的接納和吸收必須在本民族語言文化規范的根基上進行。