专业学位（硕士）论文

论文题目 社会符号学翻译方法在《枪》的汉译中的应用

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作者姓名 沈玉明

学科专业名称 翻译硕士

研究方向 英语笔译

指导教师 柯平教授

二〇一六年四月八日-五月十日

学 号：MF1309018

论文答辩日期： 年 月 日

指导教师（签名）：

The Application of the Socio-Semiotic Approach to Translation in the E-C Translation of Mark Haddon’s “The Gun”

by

Shen Yuming

Under the Supervision of

Professor

Ke Ping

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Translation and Interpreting

English Department of English

The School of Foreign Studies

Nanjing University

April 2016

原创性声明

兹呈交的学位论文，是本人在导师指导下独立完成的研究成果，在论文写作过程中参考的其他个人或集体的研究成果均在文中以明确方式标明，本人依法享有和承担由此论文而产生的权利和责任。

声明人（签名）：

年 月 日

Declaration of Originality

I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person or material which has to a substantial extent been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at any university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment has been made in the text.

Signature: __________

Name: Shen Yuming

                                             Date: March 25, 2016

致 谢

在各位老师的指导和各位同学的陪伴之下，我度过了在南京大学的三年美好学习时光。如今，我的毕业论文也即将完成。回顾这一切时，我心中充满了对这个校园的热爱和对所有帮助过我的人的感激。

首先，我要感谢我的论文指导老师——柯平教授，感谢他总是耐心地在百忙之中抽出时间来为我指导论文。在论文准备前期，他建议我去上他教授的研究方法与论文写作指导课。在他的课堂上，我不仅系统地学习了科研方法以及论文写作理论与和技巧，还有幸与许多优秀的同学分享论文写作经验，这对我后期论文的完成有很大的帮助。在我准备论文期间，他会帮我留心相关资源。他推荐的书籍、期刊，他介绍我认识的学长学姐，以及他通知我去参加的各种讲座都让我受益良多。除此之外，柯老师严谨的学术精神和一丝不苟、踏踏实实的工作作风也对我影响颇深。原本马虎大意的我开始变得认真，面对学术研究和论文写作的态度也更加端正。从选择翻译文本和论文主题、到开始翻译和修改、再到撰写论文的整个过程中，柯老师都为我提供了专业的指导和建议。柯老师渊博的知识、对学术的热情和对学生无私的教诲不仅帮助我完成了论文，更会一直影响着我，让我在今后的生活中不断进取。

其次，我要感谢MTI中心的所有老师，感谢你们教授我知识、陪伴我走过这三年。感谢仇蓓玲老师对我和全班同学的指导。感谢我的同学、我的室友在我困难时像兄弟姐妹般给我温暖，感谢他们对我的所有关心和照顾。

沈玉明

摘 要

社会符号学翻译理论产生于二十世纪八十年代末。它从社会符号学的广阔视角出发去研究翻译，而且从一开始就借鉴了语言学派和交际学派对翻译研究的丰硕成果，并在发展中被国内外学者不断完善。奈达（Eugene A. Nida）称其为最全面、最具一般适用性的翻译理论。

本论文报告了笔者运用社会符号学翻译理论翻译马克·哈登的小说《枪》的过程，小结回顾了笔者在该翻译过程中遇到的相关问题的解决情况，并在此基础上讨论了社会符号学翻译理论对于指导英语小说汉译的重要作用。

笔者在^……翻译过程中，笔者始终遵循社会符号学的翻译标准，先准确理解原文符号的多重意义，再尝试运用增益、视点转换、具体化、概略化、释义等多种翻译方法和技巧进行表达，以实现原文与译文的对等。在翻译评注中，笔者介绍了社会符号学、社会符号学翻译理论和它所研究的三类意义（指称意义、言内意义和语用意义），以及社会符号学的翻译标准。笔者以社会符号学语义理论观对意义的分类为框架，将此次翻译实践中所遇到的问题进行整理分类，并举例说明了这几类问题的解决方案。

社会符号学翻译理论揭示了翻译的本质，提出了具体可行的翻译标准和翻译方法，能够有效地指导翻译实践，提高译文质量。社会符号学语义观所区分的三类意义囊括了译者在翻译过程中能遇到的所有意义。应用社会符号学翻译理论进行翻译方法时，译者只需专注于意义的传递问题，而社会符号学语义观所区分的三类意义囊括了译者在翻译过程中能遇到的所有意义。此时，译者的任务就是尽最大可能迻译出原文符号在具体语境中可能量传递原文所包含的多重意义。即便在特定情况下，译者可能无法避免意义在传递过程中的缺失，但即便如此，译者也要尽最大努力保证具体上下文中最重要的意义的正确传译。笔者希望本论文的讨论与结论能对今后英语文学作品的汉译研究有所帮助。

关键词：小说汉英？翻译，社会符号学理论，意义，意义传递，意义缺失

ABSTRACT

The socio-semiotic theory of translation emerged in the late of 1980’s. It studies translation from the a much wider perspective of socio-semiotics while drawing upon standing on the shoulder of the merits of achievements made by the linguistic and the communicative approaches to translation. The theory, and it has been constantly improved by scholars at home and abroad throughout its development. Eugene Nida considered it as the most holistic and widely applicable theory of translation.

This thesis reports the process in which the author translated Mark Haddon’s short story “The Gun” under the guidance of the socio-semiotic theory of translation. It recapitulates how the author resolved the problems she encountered in the translation process, and discusses the role the socio-semiotic theory of translation can plays in guiding instructing the translation of English short stories into Chinese.

The author has followed the socio-semiotic principle of translation throughout the process of translating the original principle in translating the source text from beginning to end. In order to obtain equivalence between the source and target texts, the author manageds to fully understand all the meanings of in the source text before she can rendering them into the target language text by using such translation methods and strategies as contextual amplification, shift of perspective, specification, generalization, and paraphrase etc. In the commentary, the author introduces the socio-semiotic theory, the approach to socio-semiotic translation and the three groups of meanings it studies (the referential meaning, the intralingual meaning, and the pragmatic meaning) identified by socio-semioticians, as well as the socio-semiotic translation principle of translation. Then the author categorizes the problems she encountered in translating the source text according to which of the the categorization of the three types of socio-semiotic meanings they are primarily related to, and uses examples to illustrate major ways of resolving those problems, based on which examples are offered for further illustration.

The socio-semiotic theory of translation reveals the nature of translation and puts forward applicable translation principles and methods, so it is very effective in instructing the translation practice and as a result it can help to improve the quality of the translation. With the help of the socio-semiotic approach to translation, the translator only needs to focus on the issue of meaning transference while tThe three types of meaning as distinguished determined by the socio-semiotic theory of translation incorporate the maximum number of meanings the translator may possibly have to deal with. By adopting the socio-semiotic approach to translation, the translator only needs to focus on In this case, the translator’s task is reduced to transferring the greatest possible most number of meanings of the source text to target text. Even though sometimes the translator may not be able to transfer all the meanings of the source text, he/s/he should still always ensure thate correct transference of the most important meaning or meanings of the source expressions are communicated to the target recipients. It is hopeful The author hopes that this thesis will contribute in some way to the study of the E-C English-Chinese literaryture translation from English into Chinese in the future.

Keywords: English-Chinese literary translation, socio-semiotic translation approach to translation, meanings, transference of meaning, loss of meaning

目 录

原创性声明........................................................................................... iii

致谢........................................................................................................ iv

中文摘要................................................................................................. v

英文摘要................................................................................................ vi

目录..................................................................................................... viii

项目说明................................................................................................. 1

源语/译语对照语篇................................................................................ 2

翻译评注............................................................................................... 20

一 引论......................................................................................... 20

1.1 社会符号学概述............................................................ 20

1.2 社会符号学翻译方法概述............................................ 21

   1.2.1 社会符号学语义观所区分的三类意义............... 22

   1.2.2 社会符号学的翻译原则与意义的缺失............... 24

二 《枪》的汉译中三类社会符号学意义的传递..................... 26

2.1 指称意义的传递............................................................ 27

2.2 言内意义的传递............................................................ 29

2.3 语用意义的传递............................................................ 31

2.4 意义传递的缺失............................................................ 34

三 结论......................................................................................... 36

参考文献............................................................................................... 38

项目说明

本文翻译的源语语篇——《枪》（The Gun）是一篇短篇儿童小说，于2012年发行于《格兰塔》第199期的“不列颠”专号，2014年获得“欧·亨利奖”，作者马克·哈登（Mark Haddon）是英国作家、插画家、漫画家及剧作家。笔者第一次阅读《枪》就被它有趣而略带血腥的故事情节所吸引，之后又慢慢体味到其中所蕴含的深刻的人生哲理。它讲述了两个小男孩由于偷玩哥哥的危险“玩具”而踏上了一段匪夷所思、令他们终身难忘的冒险故事。一天，丹尼尔和肖恩在肖恩哥哥的衣柜里发现了一支枪，于是就带着它去森林里打靶。在摆脱了被枪声吸引来的校园恶霸罗伯特后，他们于无意间射杀了一只野鹿，并经历千辛万苦把它拖回家。这是一个我们所熟悉的关于冒险和成长的故事，作者以小主人公翁丹尼尔的视角来观察这个世界, 审视这个看似刺激实则残忍的事件，同时穿插了作者本身对世界的思考和感悟。许多看似矛盾的元素————孩子的天真与人性的邪恶，柔和的场景与血腥的暴力，自我选择与命运安排，逝去的记忆与它永不磨灭的痕迹等等————都被作者巧妙地组合在了一起。

《枪》的语言难度适中，虽属儿童文学，亦可被归为成年人读物。它语言特色鲜明，蕴含丰富的言内意义和语用意义，笔者因此选择它作为翻译的源语语篇。笔者着手翻译之前做了充分的准备工作。翻译过程中，笔者认真记录翻译过程和自己的思考。笔者希望通过本次翻译实践提高自己的翻译水平，加深对社会符号学翻译方法的理解。

本论文共分为三部分，第一部分为项目说明，第二部分为源语/译语对照语篇，第三部分为翻译评注。

源语/译语对照语篇

The Gun Mark Haddon Daniel stands in the funnel, a narrow path between two high brick walls that join the playground to the estate proper. On windy days, the air is forced through here then spun upward in a vortex above the square of so-called grass between the four blocks of flats. Anything that isn’t nailed down becomes airborne. Washing, litter, dust. Grown men have been knocked off their feet. A while back there was a story going round about a flying cat. Except there’s no wind this morning, there hasn’t been any wind for days, just an unremitting mugginess that makes you want to open a window until you remember that you’re outside. Mid-August. A week since the family holiday in Magaluf, where he learned backstroke and was stung by a jellyfish, a week till school begins again. He is ten years old. Back at home his older sister is playing teacher and his younger brother is playing pupil again. Helen is twelve, Paul seven. She has a blackboard and a little box of chalks in eight colors and when Paul misbehaves she smacks him hard on the leg. His mother is doing a big jigsaw of Venice on the dining table while the tank heats for the weekly wash. He can see the white legs of a girl on the swings, appearing, disappearing, appearing, disappearing. It is 1972. Silver Machine and Rocket Man. He cannot remember ever having been this bored before. He bats a wasp away from his face as a car door slams lazily in the distance, then steps into the shadow of the stairwell and starts climbing toward Sean’s front door. There will be three other extraordinary events in his life. He will sit at dusk on the terrace of a rented house near Cahors with his eight-year-old son and see a barn on the far side of the valley destroyed by lightning, the crack of white light appearing to come not from the sky but to burst from the ground beneath the building. He will have a meeting with the manager of a bespoke ironworks near Stroud, whose factory occupies one of three units built into the side of a high railway cutting. Halfway through the meeting a cow will fall through the roof and it won’t be anything near as funny as it sounds. On the morning of his fiftieth birthday his mother will call and say that she needs to see him. She will seem calm and give no explanation and despite the fact that there is a large party planned for the afternoon he will get into the car and drive straight to Leicester only to find that the ambulance has already taken his mothers body away. Only later, talking to his father, will he realize that he received the phone call half an hour after the stroke which killed her. Today will be different, not simply shocking but one of those moments when time itself seems to fork and fracture and you look back and realize that if things had happened only slightly differently, you would be leading one of those other ghost lives that sped away into the dark. Sean is not a friend as such but they play together because they are in the same class at school. Sean’s family lives on the top floor of Orchard Tower whereas Daniel s family lives in a semi-detached house on the approach road. Daniels mother says that Sean’s family are a bad influence but she also says that television will damage your eyes if you sit too close and that you will die if you swim in the canal, and in any case Daniel likes their volume, their expansiveness, their unpredictability, the china greyhounds on either side of the gas fire, Mr. Cobb’s red BMW which he polishes and T-Cuts lovingly on Saturday mornings. Sean’s older brother, Dylan, works as a plasterer and carpenter and they have a balcony which looks over the ring road to the woods and the car plant and the radio mast at Bargave, a view which excites Daniel more than anything he saw from the plane window between Luton and Palma because there is no glass and you feel a thrilling shiver in the back of your knees as you lean over and look down. He steps out of the lift and sees Sean’s mother leaving the flat, which is another thing that makes Daniel envious, because when his own mother goes to the shops he and Paul and Helen have to accompany her. “Try and keep him out of trouble.” Mrs. Cobb ruffles his hair and sweeps onward. She is lighting a cigarette as the silver doors close over her. Sean’s jumbled silhouette appears in the patterned glass of the front door and it swings open. “I’ve got something to show you.”  “What?” He beckons Daniel into Dylan’s bedroom. “You have to keep this a total secret.” Daniel has never been in here before. Dylan has explicitly forbidden it and Dylan can bench-press 180 pounds. He steps off the avocado lino of the hall onto the swirly red carpet. The smell of cigarettes and Brut aftershave. It feels like the bedroom of a dead person in a film, every object freighted with significance. Posters for Monty Python and The French Connection. “Jimmy Doyle Is the Toughest.” A motorbike cylinder head sits on a folded copy of the Daily Express, the leaking oil turning the newsprint waxy and transparent. There is a portable record player on the bedside table, the lid of the red leatherette box propped open and the cream plastic arm crooked around the silvered rod in the center of the turntable. Machine Head. Thick as a Brick. Ziggy Stardust. “You have to promise.” “I promise.” “Because this is serious.” “I said.” Sean tugs at the pine handle of the wardrobe and the flimsy door comes free of the magnetic catch. On tiptoe Sean takes down a powder-blue shoebox from the top shelf and lays it on the khaki blanket before easing off the lid. The gun lies in the white tissue paper that must have come with the shoes. Sean lifts it easily from its rustling nest and Daniel can see how light it is. Scuffed pigeon-gray metal. The words REMINGTON RAND stamped into the flank. Two cambered grips are screwed to either side of the handle, chocolate brown and cross-cut like snakeskin for a better grip. Sean raises the gun at the end of his straightened arm and rotates slowly so that the barrel is pointing directly into Daniels face. “Bang, ” he says, softly. “Bang.” Daniel’s father works at the local pool, sometimes as a lifeguard, more often on reception. Daniel used to be proud of the fact that everyone knew who his father was, but he is now embarrassed by his visibility. His mother works part-time as a secretary for the county council. His father reads crime novels. His mother does jigsaws which are stored between two sheets of plywood when the dining table is needed. Later in life when he is describing his parents to friends and acquaintances he will never find quite the right word. They aspired always to be average, to be unremarkable, to avoid making too much noise or taking up too much space. They disliked arguments and had little interest in the wider world. And if he is bored in their company during his regular visits he will never use the word boring because he is genuinely envious of their ability to take real joy in small things, and hugely grateful that they are not demonstrating any of the high-maintenance eccentricities of many of his friends’ retired and aging parents. They walk across the living room and Sean turns the key before shunting the big glass door to one side. They step into heat and traffic noise. There is a faint brown smog, as if the sky needs cleaning. Daniel can feel sweat running down the small of his back. Sean fixes the pistol on a Volvo traveling in one direction then follows an Alfa Romeo going the other way. “We could kill someone and they'd never find out who did it.” Daniel explains that the police would use the hole in the windscreen and the hole in the driver’s body to work out exactly where the shot came from. “Elementary, my dear Watson,” says Sean. “Let's go to the woods.” “Is the gun loaded?” “‘Course it’s loaded,” says Sean. The woods rise up on the other side of the ring road, a swathe of no-mans-land between town and country. People park their cars at the picnic area by Pennington on the far side of the hill and walk their dogs among the oak and ash and rowan, but the roar of the dual carriageway and the syringes and the crushed lager cans dissuade most of them from coming down its northern flank. They wait on the grass verge, the warm shock waves of passing lorries thumping them and sucking at their clothes. Go, shouts Sean, and they sprint to the central reservation, vaulting the scratchy S-shaped barrier, pausing on the ribbon of balding grass then running across the second carriageway to the gritty lay-by with its moraine of shattered furniture and black rubbish bags ripped open by rats and foxes. All that bacteria cooking slowly. An upturned pram. They unhook the clanky gate where the rutted track begins. Sean has the gun in a yellow Gola bag thrown over his shoulder. They pass the scrapyard with its corrugated-iron castellations. They pass the Roberts’ house. A horsebox with a flat tire, a floodlight roped to a telegraph pole. Robert Hales and Robert Hales and Robert Hales, grandfather, father and son, all bearing the same name and all living under the same roof. The youngest Robert Hales is two years above them at school. He has a biscuity unwashed smell and bones that look slightly too big for his skin. He used to come in with small animals in a cake tin, stag beetle, mouse, grass snake, but Donnie Farr grabbed the last of these and used it to chase other children round the playground before whipping its head against one of the goalposts. Robert pushed Donnie to the ground, took hold of the fingers of his left hand and bent them backward until two of them snapped. The curtains in the Roberts’ house are closed, however, and there is no red van parked outside. They walk on toward the corner where the path narrows and turns into the trees. Slabs of dusty sunlight are neatly stacked between the branches. If it weren’t for the smell of exhaust fumes you could imagine that the roar of traffic was a great cataract pouring into a ravine to your left. They find a clearing that contains the last few broken branches of a den they built earlier in the summer where they drank Tizer and smoked four menthol cigarettes which Sean had stolen from his mother’s handbag. “Let's do it here.” Sean finds a log to use as a shooting gallery and sends Daniel off in search of targets. He climbs the boundary fence and searches among the hawthorn bushes which line the hard shoulder, coming back with two empty beer bottles, a battered plastic oilcan and a muddy teddy bear with both arms missing. He feels exhausted by the heat. He imagines standing on the lawn at home, squeezing the end of the hose with his thumb and making rainbows in the cold falling water. He arranges the objects at regular intervals along the log. He thinks about the child who once owned the teddy bear and regrets having picked it up but doesn’t say anything. Sean raises the gun and moves his feet apart to brace himself. A deep cathedral quiet. The traffic stops. He can hear the shuttle of his own blood. He is not aware of the shot itself. The loose rattle of scattering birds. He sees Sean being thrown backward, as if a big animal has charged and struck him in the center of his chest mid-leap. The bear, the oilcan and the bottles are still standing. “Oh my God.” Sean gets to his feet. “Oh my God.” He begins dancing. He has clearly never done anything this exciting in his life. “Oh my God.” A military plane banks overhead. Daniel is both disappointed and relieved that he is not offered the second shot. Sean breathes deeply and theatrically. He braces himself again, wipes the sweat from his forehead with the arm of his T-shirt and raises the gun. The noise is breathtakingly loud. It seems obvious to Daniel that many, many people will have heard it. “What are you doing?” It is the youngest Robert Hales. They jump, both of them, but Sean recovers his composure quickest. “What do you think we’re doing?” “You’ve got a gun.” Despite the heat Robert is wearing a battered orange cagoule. “Duh.” “Let me have a go.” “Yeah, right,” says Sean. “I want a go,” says Robert. He steps forward. He is taller than Sean by a good six inches. Just as he did in the bedroom, Sean lifts his arm until the gun is pointing directly at Robert’s face. “ No way, José.” Daniel realizes that Sean may kill Robert. He is excited by this possibility. He will be a witness to a crime. People will respect him and feel sorry for him. Robert doesn’t move. Five, maybe ten seconds. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Daniel can’t tell if he’s terrified or utterly unafraid. Finally Robert says, “I’m going to kill you,” not in the way they say it to one another in the playground, but in the way you say, “I’m going to the shop.” He walks away without looking back. Sean aims at him till he vanishes. The two of them listen to the fading crunch of twigs and dry leaves under his trainers. “Spastic.” Sean lets his arm slump. “Bloody spastic.” He walks up to the teddy bear and places the barrel in the center of its forehead. Daniel thinks how similar they look, the bear and Robert, uninterested, staring straight ahead. But Sean can’t be bothered to waste another bullet. “Shit.” Robert’s appearance has made the adventure seem mundane. Sean throws the gun into the Gola bag. “Let's go.” They walk back through the woods, taking the long route that loops up the hill and comes out on the far side of the scrapyard, avoiding the Roberts’ house altogether. Gnats and dirty heat. Daniel has dog shit on his left shoe that he has not been able to scrape off completely. His sister, Helen, was unexpectedly born breech. The cord became trapped while her head was coming out and she was deprived of oxygen. Daniel is not told about this until he is sixteen. He knows only that there is a light in her eyes which stutters briefly sometimes then comes back on. He knows only that she has trouble with numbers, money, telling the time. She will leave school at sixteen with no qualifications, living at home and working in a furniture warehouse then in a greengrocer’s. She will change doctors and get better drugs. Ethosuximide. Valproic acid. The petit mal will stop. She will be easily confused but she will be plump and blonde and pretty and people will like her instinctively. She'll meet Garry at a nightclub. Overweight, thirty-five, detached house, running a taxi firm, a big man in a small world. They will marry and it will take Daniel a long time to realize that this is a happy ending. The noise, when it comes, is nothing more than a brief hiss followed by a clatter of foliage. Crossbow? Catapult? Then a second shot. It is the oddest thing, but Daniel will swear that he saw it before he heard it, before Sean felt it even. A pink stripe appears on the skin just above Sean’s elbow. He yelps and lifts his arm. “Bastard.” They squat on the path, hearts hammering. Sean twists his arm to inspect the damage. There is no bleeding, just a red weal, as if he has leaned against the rim of a hot pan. Robert must be somewhere further down the hill. The hole in the windscreen, the hole in the driver’s body. But Daniel can see nothing without lifting his head above the undergrowth. They should run away as fast as they can so that Robert is forced to aim at a moving target between the trees, but Sean is taking the gun out of the bag. “I’m going to get him.” “Don’t be stupid.” “And what’s your brilliant idea?” Another hiss, another clatter. They duck simultaneously. For a couple of seconds Sean looks frightened. Then he doesn’t. This way. He starts to commando-crawl through a gap in the blackberries. Daniel follows him only because he doesn’t want to be alone. Sean holds the gun in his hand as he crawls. Daniel thinks how easy it would be for him to pull the trigger accidentally. They drag themselves between the gnarly bramble trunks. Cracked seed cases, dry leaves and curls of broken bark. Born and bred in a briar patch. He tries to pretend that they are in a film but cant do it. They are moving in the wrong direction, away from the scrapyard. And this is Roberts back garden. They find themselves under a low dome of branches just big enough for them to lie stretched out, a place where an animal might sleep, perhaps. Improbably, they hear the sound of an ice cream van, far off. No fourth shot. “What do we do now?” “We wait,” says Sean. “What for?”   “Till it's dark.” Daniel looks at his watch. At six his mother will call Sean’s flat, at seven she will ring the police. He rolls onto his back and narrows his eyelids so that the light falling from the canopy becomes a shimmer of overlapping circles in white and yellow and lime green. The smell of dog shit comes and goes. Is this a safe place or a trap? He imagines Robert looking down at the two of them lying there under the brambles. Fish in a barrel. That weird keening noise Donnie made when his fingers snapped. After twenty minutes the tension begins to ease. Perhaps this was what Robert intended after all, to scare them then go home and sit in front of the TV laughing. Forty minutes. Daniel hasn’t drunk anything since breakfast. He has a headache and he can feel little gluey lumps around the edge of his dry lips. They decide to run for it. They are now certain that Robert is no longer waiting for them but the running will increase the excitement of their escape and recapture a little of their lost dignity. And this is when they hear the footsteps. A crackle. Then silence. Then another crackle. Someone is moving gingerly through the undergrowth nearby, trying not to be heard. Each heartbeat seems to tighten a screw at the base of Daniels skull. Sean picks up the gun and rolls onto his stomach, elbows braced in the dirt. Crackle. Daniel pictures Robert as a native hunter. Arrow in the notch, two fingers curled around the taut bowstring. The steps move to the right. Either he doesn’t know where they are or he is circling them, choosing his direction of approach. “Come on, ” says Sean to himself, turning slowly so that the gun points constantly toward the direction of the noise. Come on. Daniel wants it to happen quickly. He doesn’t know how much longer he can bear this before jumping up and shouting, “Here I am!” like Paul used to do during games of hide-and-seek. Then everything goes quiet. No steps. No crackle. Midges scribble the air. The soft roar of the cataract. Sean looks genuinely frightened now. A stick snaps behind them and they twist onto their backs just as the silhouette springs up and shuts out the dazzle of the sun. Sean fires and the gun is so close to Daniels head that he will hear nothing for the next few minutes, just a fizz, like rain on pylon wires. He sees straightaway that it is not Robert. Then he sees nothing because he is kicked hard in the stomach and the pain consumes him. When he uncurls and opens his eyes he finds himself looking into a face. It is not a human face. It is the face of a roe deer and it is shockingly big. He tries to back away but the brambles imprison him. The deer is running on its side, wheezing and struggling in vain to get to its feet. A smell like the camel house at the zoo. Wet black eyes, the jaws working and working, the stiff little tongue poking in and out. Breath gargles through a patch of bloody fur on its neck. It scrabbles and kicks. He can’t bear to look but can’t make himself turn away. The expression on its face. It looks like someone turned into a deer in a fairy tale. Crying out for help and unable to form the words. It’s weakening visibly, something dragging it down into the cold black water that lies just under the surface of everything. That desperate hunger for more time, more light. Whenever Daniel hears the phrase fighting for your life this is the picture that will come back to him. Sean hoists his leg over its body and sits on its chest. He presses the end of the barrel to the side of its head and fires, “bang... bang… bang… bang…” each shot sending the deer’s body into a brief spasm. The gun is empty. A few seconds of stillness then a final spasm. It stops moving. “Oh yes,” says Sean, letting out a long sigh, “Oh yes, ” as if he has been dreaming about this moment for a long time. Fingers of gluey blood start to crawl out from under the head. Daniel wants to cry but something inside him is blocked or broken. Sean says, “We have to get it back.” “Back where?” “To the flat.” “Why?” “To cook it.” Daniel has no idea what to say. A part of him still thinks of the deer as human. A part of him thinks that, in some inexplicable way, it is Robert transformed. Already a fly is investigating one of the deer’s eyes. Sean stands up and stamps the brambles aside, snapping their stems with the heel of his trainers so they don’t spring back. “We can skin it.” He tells Daniel to return to the lay-by to fetch the pram they saw beside the rubbish bags. Daniel goes because he needs to get away from Sean and the deer. He walks past the scrapyard. He wants to bump into Robert, hoping that he will be dragged back into the previous adventure, but the curtains are still closed and the house is silent. He removes the loop of green twine and opens the clanky gate. There is a brown Mercedes in the lay-by. The driver watches him from the other side of the windscreen but Daniel cannot make out the man’s face. He turns the pram over. It is an old-fashioned cartoon pram with a concertina hood and leaf-spring suspension. The rusty handle is bent, the navy upholstery is torn and two of the wheels are tireless. He drags it back through the gate, closing it behind him. It’s a trick of the light, of course. Time is nothing but forks and fractures. You step off the curb a moment later. You light a cigarette for the woman in the red dress. You turn over the exam paper and see all the questions you’ve revised, or none of them. Every moment a bullet dodged, every moment an opportunity missed. A firestorm of ghost lives speeding away into the dark. Perhaps the difference is this, that he will notice, that he will see things in this way when others don’t, that he will remember an August afternoon when he was ten years old and feel the vertigo you feel walking away unharmed from a car crash. Or not quite unharmed, for he will come to realize that a part of himself now exists in a parallel universe to which he has no access. When they lift the deer onto the pram it farts and shits itself. It doesn’t smell like the camel house this time. Daniel is certain that it would be easier to drag the body but says nothing, and only when the track flattens out by the scrapyard and they are finally free of the roots and the sun-hardened ruts does the pram finally begin to roll a little. The man is sitting against the bonnet of his Mercedes, as if he has arranged himself a better view for the second act. He has shoulder-length black hair, a cheap blue suit and a heavy gold bracelet. Sean shuts the gate and reattaches the loop of green twine. The man lights a cigarette. “Lads.” It’s all he says. The smallest of nods. No smile, no wave. He will recur in Daniels dreams for years, sitting at the edge of whatever else is going on. Cigarette, gold bracelet. “Lads.” They stand at the side of the carriageway. Hot dust, hot metal. Daniel sees drivers glance at them, glance away then glance back again. “Three, two, one.” The pram is less stable at speed and less inclined to travel in a straight line and they reach the central reservation accompanied by a whoosh of air brakes and the angry honk of a lorry that comes perilously close to hitting them in the fast lane. Clumsily, they heave the deer and the pram over the barrier. This takes a good deal of time and the strip of yellow grass is not wide. Police, says Sean, and Daniel turns in time to see the orange stripe of a white Rover slide past, lights and siren coming on as it goes up the hill. It will turn at the roundabout and come down the other carriageway. They have a minute at most. “Now,” yells Sean. And the relief Daniel feels when they bump over the curb of the service road and heave the pram up the bank through the line of stunted trees into the little park makes him laugh out loud. “The warrens,” says Sean, panting, and they keep their momentum up past a gaggle of rubbernecking children on the climbing frame and into the little network of walled paths round the back of the estate. They stop by the peeling red lock-ups and wait. No siren. No squeal of tires. Daniel’s head pulses. He needs to lie down in the dark. They push the pram across the parched quadrangle to Orchard Tower. An elderly lady watches them, transfixed. Polyester floral dress and varicose veins. Sean gives her a jokey salute. “Mrs. Daley.” The double doors are easy but it takes some juggling to get the pram and the deer into the lift and they leave a lick of blood across the mirror that covers one of the sidewalls. Sean puts his finger into it and writes the word murder in capital letters on the glass at head height. The chime goes, the lift bumps to a halt and the doors open. Later when he tells the story to people they won’t understand. Why didn’t he run away? His friend had a loaded gun. He will be repeatedly amazed at how poorly everyone remembers their childhoods, how they project their adult selves back into those bleached-out photographs, those sandals, those tiny chairs. As if choosing, as if deciding, as if saying no were skills like tying your shoelaces or riding a bike. Things happened to you. If you were lucky, you got an education and weren’t abused by the man who ran the five-a-side. If you were very lucky you finally ended up in a place where you could say, “I’m going to study accountancy…I’d like to live in the countryside… I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” It happens fast. The door opens before Sean can put his key into the lock. Dylan stands in dirty blue dungarees, phone pressed to one ear. He says, calmly, “Cancel that, Mike.” I’ll talk to you later, and puts the phone down. He grabs a fistful of Sean’s hair and swings him into the hallway so that he skids along the lino and knocks over the little phone table. He puts his foot on Sean’s chest and yanks at the bag, ripping it open and breaking the strap. He takes out the gun, checks the chamber, shunts it back into place with the heel of his hand and tosses it through the open door of his room onto his bed. Sean sits up and tries to back away but Dylan grabs the collar of his T-shirt and hoists him up so that he is pressed against the wall. Daniel doesn’t move, hoping that if he remains absolutely still he will remain invisible. Dylan punches Sean in the face then lets him drop to the floor. Sean rolls over and curls up and begins to weep. Daniel can see a bloody tooth by the skirting board. Dylan turns and walks toward the front door. He runs his hand slowly across the deer’s flank five or six times, long, gentle strokes as if the animal is a sick child. “Bring it in.” He wheels the pram across the living room and out onto the balcony. Dylan gives Daniel a set of keys and sends him downstairs to fetch two sheets from the back of his van. Daniel feels proud that he has been trusted to do this. He carries the sheets with their paint spatters and crackly lumps of dried plaster back upstairs. Dylan folds them and spreads them out on the concrete floor and lays the deer in the center. He takes a Stanley knife from his pocket, flips the animal onto its back and scores a deep cut from its neck to its groin. Gristle rips under the blade. He makes a second cut at ninety degrees, a crucifix across the chest, then yanks hard at one of the corners so that the furred skin rips back a little. It looks like a wet doormat. Daniel is surprised by the lack of blood. Under the skin is a marbled membrane to which it is attached by a thick white pith. Dylan uses the knife to score the pith, pulling and scoring and pulling and scoring so that the skin comes gradually away. Sean steps onto the balcony pressing a bloody tea towel to the side of his face. Daniel cannot read his expression. Turning, Daniel sees the radio mast and the sandy slab of the car plant. A hawk hangs over the woods. His headache is coming back, or perhaps he has simply begun to notice it again. He wanders inside and makes his way to the kitchen. There is an upturned pint mug on the drying rack. He fills it with cold water from the tap and drinks it without taking the glass from his lips. He hears the front door open and close and Mrs. Cobb shouting, “What the bloody hell is going on?” He goes into the living room and sits on the brown leather sofa and listens to the slippery click of the carriage clock on the mantelpiece, waiting for the pain to recede. There are framed school photographs of Sean and Dylan. There is a wall plate from Cornwall, a lighthouse wearing a bow tie of yellow light, three gulls, each made with a single black tick. The faintest smell of dog shit from the sole of his shoe. Sean walks down the corridor carrying a full bucket, the toilet flushes and he comes back the other way with the bucket empty. He dozes. Twenty minutes, maybe half an hour. The sound of a saw brings him round. It takes a while to remember where he is, but his headache has gone. So strange to wake and find the day going on in your absence. He walks out onto the balcony. Dylan is cutting the deer up. The legs have been sawn off and halved, hoofs in one pile, thighs in another. Carl from next door has come round and is leaning against the balcony rail smoking a cigarette. “I’ll have a word at the chippy. They've got a chest freezer out the back.” Sean is no longer holding the tea towel against his face. His left eye is half closed by the swelling, and his upper lip is torn. “Get rid of that, will you?” Dylan points to a yellow plastic bathtub. Lungs, intestines, glossy bulbs of purple Daniel cant identify. He and Sean each take a handle. As they are leaving Dylan holds up the severed head and says to Carl, “What do you reckon? Over the fireplace?” But it’s the bathtub that unsettles Daniel. The way it jiggles and slops with the movement of the lift, murder in capital letters. The inside of a human being would look like this. He says, “How are you?” Sean says, “Fine.” Neither of them means it. Some kind of connection has been broken, but it feels good, it feels like an adult way of being with another person. They put the bathtub down and lift the lid of one of the big metal bins. Flies bubble out. That wretched leathery stink. They hoist the tub to chest height. Two teenage girls walk past. “Holy shit.” A little countdown and they heave the bathtub onto the rim. The contents slither out and hit the bottom with a slapping boom. Upstairs, the oven is on and Mrs. Cobb has put a bloody haunch onto a baking tray. Carl is helping her peel potatoes with another cigarette in the corner of his mouth. Dylan drinks from a can of Guinness. Come here. Sean walks over and Dylan puts an arm around him. “If you ever do anything like that again I’ll fucking kill you. Understand?” Even Daniel can hear that he is really saying, “I love you.” Dylan gives Sean the half-finished can of Guinness and opens another one for himself. “Your mum rang,” says Mrs. Cobb. “Wondering where you were.” “Right.” He doesn’t move. Because it has nothing to do with the gun, does it. The gun is one of those dark stars that bend light. This is the moment. If he asks to stay then everything will be different. But he says nothing. Mrs. Cobb says, “Go on. Hop to it, or your mum will worry, ” and however many times he turns her words over in his mind he will never be able to work out whether she was being kind to his mother or cruel to him. He doesn’t say good-bye. He doesn’t want to risk hearing the lack of interest in their voices. He walks out of the front door, closes it quietly behind him and goes down via the stairs so that he doesn’t have to see the blood. Forty years later he goes to his mothers funeral. Afterward, not wanting to seem callous by heading off to a hotel, he sleeps in his old bedroom. It makes him profoundly uncomfortable, and when his father says that he wants things back to normal as soon as possible, he takes the hint with considerable relief and leaves his father to the comfort of his routine, the morning walk, the Daily Mail, pork chops on Wednesdays. There are roadworks on the way out of town and by chance he finds himself diverted along the stretch of ring road between the flats and the woods. It all comes back so vividly that he nearly brakes for the two boys running across the carriageway pushing the pram. He slows and pulls into the lay-by, grit crunching under the tires. He gets out of the car and stands in that same thumping draft that comes off the lorries. Freakishly the gate is still held shut by a loop of green twine. It scares him a little. He steps through and shuts it behind him. The scrapyard is still there, as is the Roberts’ house. The curtains are closed. He wonders if they have been closed all these years, Robert Hales and Robert Hales and Robert Hales, the same person, growing old and dying and being reborn in the stink and the half-light. That cathedral silence before the first shot. Slabs of dusty sunlight. He stoops and picks up a jagged lump of broken tarmac. He imagines throwing it through the front window, the glass crazing and falling. The loose rattle of scattering birds. Light flooding in. A stick cracks directly behind him. He doesn’t turn. It’s the deer. He knows it’s the deer, come again. He can’t resist. He turns slowly and finds himself looking at an old man wearing Roberts face. His father? Maybe Robert him-self. What year is it? The man says, “Who are you?” and for three or four seconds Daniel has absolutely no idea.

枪 马克·哈登 丹尼尔站在那条连接操场和住宅的小路上，小路前窄后宽，两侧是高高的砖墙。有风的日子，气流沿路面冲入住宅区，吹到四排公寓楼之间，然后向上旋转，在这片由所谓的草地构成的方场上空形成一个漩涡。不管什么东西，只要没被螺丝固定，都会被吹飞起来：晾着的衣服、垃圾、土，甚至还有大人被吹倒过。曾经还流传过一个故事，说到有一只飞行的猫。 不过今天上午没风，连着好几天都没风，只有持续的闷热，让你一直想打开一扇窗，因为你忘了自己就在户外。八月中旬。一星期前，他们刚结束了去马盖洛夫的家庭旅行，他学会了仰泳，被水母叮了，一星期后就又要开学了。他十岁。他姐姐又在家跟弟弟玩老师教学生。海伦十二岁，保罗七岁。她有一块黑板和一小盒八色粉笔，保罗一不听话，她就狠狠地打他的腿。他妈妈一边在餐桌上玩一个威尼斯的拼图，一边等水箱里的水烧开，然后进行每周一次的清洗。 他看见一个女孩在荡秋千，一双白腿在他的视线里出现，消失，出现，消失。1972年。《银色机器》和《火箭人》的时代。他感觉无聊透顶。远处的车门被砰地一声懒懒地关上，他拍走了脸上的一只黄蜂，然后走进楼梯井的阴凉下，开始上楼，往肖恩家门口走去。 他这一生还会发生另外三件不同寻常的事。他会在一个傍晚和他八岁大的儿子一起坐在卡奥尔附近所租的房子的阳台上，目睹山谷另一边的一个谷仓被闪电劈毁，那道白光不像从天而降，反到像从谷仓的地面迸发出来的。 斯特劳德附近有一家铁件定制工厂，它生产的铁件占据了所有铁路深槽高侧所用部件的三分之一，他会和这家工厂的经理开一个会。就在会议开到一半的时候，会有一只奶牛从房顶掉下来，听起来很好笑，但实际情况很糟糕。 他母亲会在五十岁生日那天的上午给他打电话，说要见他一面。她会显得很平静，不解释原因。虽然大家确实计划着下午要办一场惊喜派对，但等他开车出发，一路来到莱斯特的时候，他看到的却是刚刚被救护车运走的母亲的遗体。直到后来和父亲聊天，他才意识到，他是在母亲发病死后半小时才接到那个电话的。 今天会不一样，不仅会令人震惊，而且时间本身似乎会分岔、断裂，等回头看时你会意识到，哪怕当时事情的进展有一丁点不同，你也会因此而过上另一种生活，那些急速遁入黑暗中的幽灵的生活。 肖恩不能算朋友，但他们一起玩，因为在学校在同一个班。肖恩家住在果园塔的顶层，丹尼尔家住在引道旁的一幢半独立式房子里。丹尼尔的妈妈说肖恩一家对大家影响不好，但她也说，离电视太近会伤眼睛，在运河里游泳会死，但无论如何，丹尼尔还是喜欢他们的大嗓门，他们的豪爽，他们的不可捉摸，他们家煤气炉两边的陶瓷猎犬，还有那辆科布先生每周六都会细心擦拭打蜡的红色宝马。肖恩的哥哥狄伦是泥水匠和木匠，他家有一座阳台，站在上面，能从环城路一直看到那边的森林、汽车厂和巴格乌的电线杆，这景象让丹尼尔兴奋无比，比他从卢顿到帕尔马的飞机窗户里看到的景象都令人兴奋，因为阳台上没有玻璃，你倾着身子往下看的时候会感到膝盖后面有一阵兴奋的颤抖。 丹尼尔迈出电梯，正好撞见肖恩的妈妈出门，这又是一件让他嫉妒的事，要是他妈妈去商店，他、保罗和海伦都要跟着一起去。“好好玩，别让他惹麻烦。”科布太太摸摸他的头，把他的头发拨乱，然后风风火火地走了。银色电梯门关上的瞬间，她正点燃一根香烟。 肖恩错落的身影出现在压花玻璃门上，门开了。“我有个东西给你看。” “什么？” 他招了招手，让丹尼尔来狄伦的房间。“你得绝对保密。” 丹尼尔从来没进过这个房间。狄伦曾明令禁止过此事，毕竟他能卧推81公斤呢。他从客厅的黄绿色地板上走下来，踏上了带漩涡花纹的红色地毯。香烟和百露须后水的味道。这儿就像电影里已故之人的卧室，每一件物品都承载着重要的意义。蒙提·派森和《法国贩毒网》的海报。“吉米·多伊尔是最强的。”一摞《每日快报》上放着一个摩托车气缸盖，漏出来的油把报纸浸得像蜡纸一样透明。旁边的桌子上有一个手提唱片机，红色皮革箱的盖子被支开着，米黄色的塑料唱臂歪歪扭扭地搭在在唱盘中央镀银金属头上。《机器头》。《厚如砖》。《泽基星尘》。 “你保证。” “我保证。” “这件事很严肃。” “我说了我保证。” 肖恩猛一拉衣柜的松木把手，门不紧，摆脱了磁铁的吸力，开了。肖恩踮着脚从顶层的架子上取下一个浅蓝色的鞋盒，把它放在卡其色的地毯上，然后轻轻打开盖子。盒子里有些白纸巾，肯定是鞋里带的，纸巾里躺着一把枪。肖恩轻松地把它从沙沙作响的纸窝里拿出来，丹尼尔能看见它很亮。有些磨损的鸽子灰金属。侧面印有“雷明顿·兰德”几个字。把手的两边各有一个用螺丝固定的拱形手柄,巧克力棕色，上面有蛇皮纹，更方便手握。 肖恩把胳膊伸得笔直，用手把枪举起来，慢慢地转动，一直转到枪管对准了丹尼尔的脸。“乓，”他轻轻地说。“乓。” 丹尼尔的爸爸在当地的游泳馆上班，有时当救生员，大多数时间负责接待。丹尼尔曾因每个人都认识他爸爸而感到骄傲，现在却因他的知名度而感到尴尬。他妈妈在郡议会做兼职秘书。他爸爸爱读犯罪小说。他妈妈爱拼图，饭桌被占用时，她就把它们放在两片胶合板中间。长大后，他向朋友和熟人提起父母时，他总是不知该如何描述。他们想要的是平平凡凡，不出众，不弄太大动静，也不占太大空间。他们不喜欢争论什么，对外面的世界也没什么兴趣。他会定期去看望他们，就算跟他们在一起会无聊，他也不会说“无聊”这个词，因为他真的很羡慕他们能从小事中得到快乐的能力，他也很感激他们，因为他朋友的父母们在退休和年迈时都会表现出很多难伺候的古怪行为，但他们没有。 他们穿过客厅，肖恩拧了一下钥匙，然后把大玻璃门推向一侧。他们走进炎热和喧嚣的车流。天空有一层薄薄的棕色烟雾，就像要被清洗一下才行。丹尼尔能感觉到汗从他的后腰流下来。 肖恩用手枪指着一辆正在行进的沃尔沃，跟着它走，然后又瞄准了一辆开往另一个方向的阿尔法罗密欧，“我们可以杀掉一个人，而他们永远都不知道是谁干的。”丹尼尔解释说，警察可以根据挡风玻璃上的抢孔和司机身上的枪孔找出是谁开的枪。“以为我不知道吗？亲爱的华生，”肖恩说。“走，咱们去森林。” “枪上膛了吗？” “当然上膛了，”肖恩说。 森林伫立在环城路的另一端，是城镇和乡村之间的一条无人区。人们会把车停在挨着彭宁顿野餐区的山的另一头，在橡树、岑木和花楸林间遛狗，但复式车行道上呼啸疾驰的车辆、丢弃的注射器和压碎的大罐子让人们对这座山的北面望而却步。 他们在草地边上等着，路过的卡车的热浪拍打着他们，把他们的衣服往里吸。“走，”肖恩喊道，他们快速跑向中间的保留地带，跃过参差不齐的S型护栏，在秃草地上稍作停留，然后又横跨了第二条车道，跑向布满沙石的路侧停车带，这里到处堆满了废弃的家具，和被老鼠和狐狸撕破的黑色垃圾袋。所有的细菌都慢慢发酵。一个底朝上的手推车。他们打开一扇叮当作响的大门，大门通向一条布满车辙的大道。肖恩把枪装在了他肩上的黄色格拉包里。 他们走过那个带瓦楞铁皮墙的废品厂。他们走过罗伯特家的房子。一辆瘪了气的运马拖车，一盏用绳拴在电线杆上的泛光灯。罗伯特·黑尔斯，罗伯特·黑尔斯，罗伯特·黑尔斯，爷爷，爸爸，儿子，全是一样的名字，全住在同一个屋檐下。最小的罗伯特·黑尔斯在学校比他们大两级。他身上有一股脏脏的饼干味，骨头跟皮比起来似乎有点太大了。有一次他把小动物放到蛋糕盒里带到学校，有鹿角虫、老鼠和草蛇，没想到唐尼·法尔把草蛇抓走了，还用它吓唬别的孩子，追着他们满操场跑，然后他还在足球门柱上抽它的头。罗伯特按倒唐尼，抓住他左手手指往下掰，直到两根手指被掰断。 不过，罗伯特家的窗帘这时候是拉上的，也看不到有红色面包车停在外面。他们继续往前走，前方拐角处小路变窄了，延伸到了树林里。参杂着尘土的道道阳光整齐地从树枝之间穿过。要不是有汽车尾气的味儿，你完全可能把怒吼的车流想象成一道大瀑布正倾泻入你左侧的山谷。 他们找到了一块空地，夏天他们在这盖了一个小屋，现在只剩下最后几块破木板了，那时他们在小屋里喝着狄泽饮料，还抽了肖恩从他妈妈手袋里偷来的四支薄荷香烟。“就这吧。”肖恩找了一截木头当射击台，派丹尼尔去找个靶子来。他爬过院墙，到路肩上的山楂树丛里进行搜索，最后拿回来两个空啤酒瓶，一个破塑料油罐还有一个没有胳膊的脏泰迪熊。太热了，他都精疲力尽了。他想象着站在家里的草地上，大拇指按住水管，用喷出来的凉凉的水制造彩虹。他把这几样东西以相同的间隔顺着木头摆好。他想到了曾经拥有这只泰迪熊的孩子，后悔刚才把它捡了过来，但他没作声。 肖恩举起枪，叉开双腿支撑自己。一阵庄严的寂静。车流停止了。丹尼尔能听见自己血液的流动。他没有意识到枪响本身。鸟儿叽叽喳喳地四散飞走。他看见肖恩被震得往后一耸，就像一只巨兽猛冲向他，撞在他胸膛正中间。小熊、油罐和瓶子都没动。 “天啊。”肖恩站了起来。“天啊。”他开始手舞足蹈。显然他这辈子还从未干过这么刺激的事。“天啊。” 一架军用飞机从头顶倾斜飞过。肖恩没有让丹尼尔打第二枪，丹尼尔有点失望，但也松了口气。肖恩夸张地深吸一口气。他再次叉开双腿作支撑，用T恤衫的袖子擦了擦额头上的汗然后举起枪。枪声太大了，让人倒抽一口气。丹尼尔觉得肯定会有很多很多人听见这声音的。 “你们在干什么？”是家里最小的那个罗伯特·黑尔斯。 他们两个人都被吓了一跳，但肖恩立马重拾镇定。“你说我们在干什么？” “你们有把枪。”虽然很热，但罗伯特穿了一件带帽的防风衣。 “废话。” “让我打一枪。” “好，可以，”肖恩说。 “我要打一枪，”罗伯特说。他往前跨了一步。他比肖恩高出整整六英尺。 肖恩抬起胳膊指着罗伯特的脸，就像他在卧室所做的那样。“想得美，没门！” 丹尼尔意识到肖恩可能会把罗伯特杀了。他为此感到兴奋。他会因此成为犯罪“目击证人”。人们会尊重他并替他感到难过。 罗伯特没有动。五秒钟，也许是十秒钟。《黄金三镖客》。丹尼尔不知道自己是害怕还是不害怕。终于，罗伯特说：“我要杀了你，”不是以他们在操场上互相说这句话的语气，而是以“我要去商店。”这句话的语气。他头也不回地走开了。肖恩一直瞄准着他，直到他消失不见。他们两个听着渐渐远去的树枝和枯叶被他的运动鞋踩碎的声音。“抽筋了。”肖恩甩下胳膊。“他妈的抽筋了。”他走到泰迪熊跟前，用枪管指着它的额头正中间。丹尼尔想，他们长得好像啊，这只熊和罗伯特，冷漠地，盯着前面看。但肖恩不愿意再浪费一颗子弹。“妈的。”罗伯特的出现似乎使这次冒险显得有些俗气。肖恩把枪扔进格拉包。“咱们走。” 他们穿过书林往回走，选了一条较远的路，这条路盘绕至山顶然后一直通向废品厂较远的一端，完全绕开了罗伯特家。小飞虫和让人难受的热气。丹尼尔左脚的鞋子上沾了狗屎，怎么都没法完全刮干净。 谁也没想到，他姐姐海伦出生时是臀位生产。在她的头要出来时，脐带缠住了，当时她被缠得缺氧了。丹尼尔在16岁之前一直不知道这件事。他只知道，她眼里有道光，有时会突然消失，然后又回来。他只知道，她不识数，不认钱，不会看时间。 她16岁会从学校毕业，但拿不到毕业证书，她会一直住在家里，先在一家家具仓库上班，然后在一家蔬菜水果店上班。她会换一个医生，用更好的药。乙琥胺。丙戊酸。癫痫小发作会停止。她会经常头脑不清，但她会出落成一个丰满的、金发碧眼的美人，人们看到她都会立刻喜欢上她。她会在一家夜店与加里相遇。有点胖，三十五岁，复式房子，经营一家出租车公司，小池塘里的一条大鱼。他们会结婚，丹尼尔并不会觉得这是圆满的结局，但时间会让他相信的。 嗖的一声，然后树叶哗啦哗啦地落下，他们只听见了声音，并没看见是什么。弓箭？弹弓？然后又来了第二发。这简直太奇怪了，但丹尼尔发誓他在听见声音之前，甚至是在丹尼尔有感觉之前，就已经看到有东西飞过来了。肖恩的胳膊肘上方出现了一条粉色的印迹。他大叫一声，抬起了胳膊。“混蛋。” 他们蹲在小路上，心砰砰地跳。肖恩扭过胳膊看他的伤口。没有出血，只有一道伤痕，就像他靠在了热锅沿上被烫了一下。罗伯特肯定就在山下的某个地方。车窗上的弹孔，司机身上的弹孔。但丹尼尔什么也看不见，除非把头伸出灌木丛之外。他们应该以最快的速度逃跑，那样罗伯特就必须在树丛之间瞄准移动目标，但肖恩却正从袋子里掏枪。“我要杀了他。” “别傻了。” “你聪明，那你有什么好主意？” 又是嗖的一声，树叶哗啦哗啦响。他们一起闪躲了一下。肖恩害怕的表情持续了几秒，然后就消失了。“走这边。”他开始匍匐前进，穿过黑莓丛里的一片空地。 为了不落单，丹尼尔只能跟着他走。肖恩爬的时候一直握着枪。他很有可能不小心扣动扳机，丹尼尔想。他们拖着自己的身体在疙疙瘩瘩又多刺的黑莓灌木林间一点点挪动。开裂的果皮，干枯的树叶，破碎卷曲的树皮。出生、成长在这片荆棘之地。他想装作他们在拍电影，但很难。他们走错方向了，离废品越来越远。实际上，这里是罗伯特家的后院。 他们来到一个由树枝构成的矮棚子下面，正好够他们伸展身体躺下来，也许是个牲口棚。奇怪的是，他们听见不远处有冰激凌货车的声音。没有第四声枪响。 “我们现在怎么办？” “等等看，”肖恩说。 “等什么？” “等天黑。” 丹尼尔看了看手表。六点钟，他妈妈会给肖恩家打电话，七点钟她会报警。他翻过身躺着，把眼睛眯起来，这样，透过遮蓬的光就会变成白色、黄色和绿黄色的重叠光圈。有一阵阵的狗屎味。这是个安全岛还是个陷阱？他想象着罗伯特正看着他俩躺在这堆荆棘条下。瓮中之鳖。唐尼手指被折断时发出的怪异悲惨的动静。 二十分钟后，紧张的气氛开始缓和了。也难怪，也许这正是罗伯特想要的，吓他们一下，然后回家坐在电视前大笑。四十分钟。从吃完早餐到现在，丹尼尔一口水都没喝过。他有点头疼，他能感到唇边已经干得起皮了。他们决定跑开。此时此刻，他们确定罗伯特已经不再等着抓他们了，但快跑会使他们的逃跑过程变得更刺激，也会让他们重拾一点失去的尊严。 就在这时，他们听见了脚步声。树枝被踩断的声音。然后是寂静。然后又是树枝的被踩断的声音。有人正小心翼翼地穿过周围的灌木丛，努力不让人听见。丹尼尔的每一次心跳都仿佛紧了一下他的脑壳上的一颗螺丝。肖恩拿起手枪，翻过身趴着，把胳膊肘架在地上。树枝劈啪声。丹尼尔想象着，罗伯是个天生的猎人。箭在弓上，他两指弯曲钩在拉紧的弦上。脚步开始往右边移动。他要么是不知道他们在哪，要么就是在他们周围打转，选择一个好的方向进攻。“来吧，”肖恩对自己说，他慢慢调整角度让枪一直指着声音的方向。“来吧。” 丹尼尔希望这一切快点发生。他不知道在他跳起来大叫“我在这！”之前，他还能撑多久。就像保罗在玩藏猫猫时一样。然后一切都安静下来了。没有脚步声。没有树枝的噼啪声。蠓虫在空中乱飞。瀑布的轻吼。肖恩这次真的害怕了。 身后传来树枝折断的声音，他们扭动着翻过身，正好看见一个影子出现，遮住了太阳。肖恩开了一枪，枪离丹尼尔的头太近了，他在之后的几分钟内几乎什么也听不见了，只有嘶嘶的声音，就像雨落在高压电线上。 他马上就发现那不是罗伯特。然后他就什么都看不见了，因为他的肚子被狠狠地踢了一脚，痛苦难耐。当他放松身体睁开眼睛时，他看见了一张脸。不是人的脸。是一只獐鹿的脸，它大得惊人。他试着向后退，但荆棘枝挡着他。这只小鹿在试着逃跑，喘着气挣扎着想站起来，却不能。一股动物园里骆驼的味道。湿润的黑色眼睛，下巴不停地抬起，僵硬的小舌头伸出来又缩回去。它的气息从脖子上一块浸满血的皮毛上泻出。它挣扎，乱踢。他不忍再看，但却没办法让那个自己转过头去。它脸上的表情。就像童话里一个人变成了一只鹿。想喊救命却不能说话。 它眼看着慢慢衰弱，有一种东西正把它拖向冰冷的深渊，那个潜伏在所有事物表面的深渊。那种想要更多时间，更多光明的迫切。每当丹尼尔听见“努力活下去”这句话时，这个画面就会浮现在眼前。 肖恩抬腿跨过小鹿的身体，坐在它胸前。他把枪按在它头的一侧然后“乓……乓……乓……”地开枪，小鹿的身体随着每一声枪响抽搐一下。没子弹了。安静了几秒,它最后抽搐了一下。不动了。“啊，就是这样，”肖恩说着，长吁一口气，“啊，就这样，”就像他已经等这一刻等了很久。 粘稠的血液像手指头一样慢慢从它头下面爬出。丹尼尔想哭，但他身体内的某种东西似乎被堵住了，或者坏了。 肖恩说，“我们得把它弄回去。” “弄回哪里？” “我家。” “干嘛？” “把它煮了。” 丹尼尔不知该说什么。他多多少少还是把这只鹿看成了一个人。他多多少少还是在想，也说不清楚为什么，它就是罗伯特的化身。一只苍蝇已经在研究小鹿的眼睛了。 肖恩站起来把荆棘条踢到一边，用运动鞋鞋跟把它们的枝条踩断，不让它们再弹回来。“我们可以把它的皮扒了。” 他让丹尼尔去路侧停车带把他们那时在垃圾堆旁看见的手推车拿过来。丹尼尔去了，因为他需要离肖恩和那只鹿远一点。他穿过废品厂。他希望碰见罗伯特，希望他能被拉回原来的那场冒险，但窗帘仍是紧闭的，房子里没有任何动静。他解下绿色麻绳，打开叮当作响的大门。在停车带上有一辆棕色的梅赛德斯。司机从另一边的车窗看了看他，但丹尼尔认不出他是谁。他把手推车翻过来。这是一辆老式卡通手推车，之字褶车篷，钢板弹簧悬架。生锈的把手已经弯曲了，藏青色的座套已经破旧不堪，两个轮子上面也没有轮胎了。他把它拖出去，然后关上了大门。 不错，这是时光玩的把戏。时间就是不断分岔断裂的东西。你一会走下马路。你为红衣女子点燃香烟。你把试卷翻过来，可能满眼是你改过的题，也可能是一片空白。每一个瞬间都有一颗子弹被躲过，每一个瞬间都有一个机会被错过。一大批幽灵遁入黑暗。 也许今天的不同之处就在于，他开始注意到这一切，他注意到并非每个人都会从跟他一样的角度去看待事物，他记得十岁那年八月的那个下午，他感受到经历了一场没有受伤的车祸后所能感受到的眩晕。或者说，并不是完全没有受伤，因为他开始意识到，在另一个平行的时空中，存在着他永远无法接触碰到的另一个自己。 当他们把鹿抬上推车时，它自己放屁、拉屎了。这次不再是骆驼味了。丹尼尔很确定，直接拖着尸体走会更容易，但他没说什么，直到他们到废品厂旁边时，路变得平坦了，他们终于摆脱了植物的根茎和被太阳晒硬的车辙，这个推车才终于开始能走了。 这个男人正坐在他梅赛德斯的引擎盖上，好像为了第二次出场特意安排好了造型。他留着齐肩黑发，穿着便宜的蓝色T恤，戴着一个有分量的金手镯。肖恩关上大门，重新把绿色的麻绳捆上。那个男人点了一支烟。“伙计。”他只说了这句话。轻微点了一下头。没有微笑，没有挥手。好多年，他都反复地出现在丹尼尔的梦中，无论发生什么事，他都会坐在边上，静静地看。烟，金手镯。“伙计。” 他们站在车道边。尘土发烫，金属发烫。丹尼尔看见过往的司机都会朝他们瞥一眼，瞥回去，又瞥回来。“三，二，一。”手推车更不平稳了，不能保持匀速，还总不走直线，快车道上一辆货车险些撞到他们，伴随着一阵急刹车和愤怒的鸣笛，他们终于到达中央分道区。 他们笨手笨脚地把鹿和手推车抬过栏杆。黄色的草坪带并不宽，但他们花了很长时间。“警察，”肖恩说，丹尼尔转过身，正好看到带橙色条纹的白色路虎飞驰而过，它上山时，警灯闪烁，警笛鸣响。它会在绕行路上拐弯，从另一条车道上下来。他们至少有一分钟的时间。 “快点，”肖恩喊道。当他们跌跌撞撞地穿过难走的辅道，把手推车从矮树丛中抬到路上，最终到达小公园里时，丹尼尔感觉如释重负，他甚至大声笑了出来。“到人多的地方了，”肖恩说着，喘了口气，一群玩攀登架的孩子正伸着脖子看他们，他们打起士气穿过去，然后来到公园后方的一小片交错的篱笆小路上。他们在红色的已经掉漆了的车库门口停下来，等着。没有警笛。没有刺耳的刹车声。丹尼尔头上的筋在跳。他需要在暗处躺下。 他们把手推车推过炎热的四方院子，到达果园塔。一位年长的女士看着他们，被惊呆了。涤纶花裙子，静脉曲张。肖恩玩笑地打了个招呼。“戴利太太。” 双开门容易进，但把手推车和鹿弄进电梯还是费了一番功夫的，他们在电梯侧壁的镜子上留下了一道血迹。肖恩用手指蘸了一下，在他头那么高的玻璃上用大写字母写下 “谋杀”一词。铃声响了，电梯一下子停了，门开了。 他后来跟别人讲起这件事时都不被理解。他当时怎么没跑开？他朋友有一把上膛的枪啊。他也会因此而无数次感到惊讶，他们对童年的记忆居然那么差，他们居然想把成年的自己投射到那些褪色的照片、那双凉鞋和那些小椅子上。似乎选择、决定、拒绝都是系鞋带或骑自行车那样的技能一样。但事情就是发生在你身上了。如果你够幸运，你会接受教育，还不被足球队队长欺负。如果你非常幸运，你会最终如愿以偿，说，“我想学会计……我想住在郊区……我希望与你共度余生。” 一切只在转瞬间。肖恩还没把钥匙插进锁里，门就开了。狄伦穿着脏兮兮的蓝色工作服裤子站在那，电话按在一只耳朵上。他平静地说，“先挂了，麦克。我一会跟你说，”然后放下电话。他一把抓住肖恩的头发，把他甩向走廊，肖恩顺着地毯边滑过去，把小电话桌撞翻了。他把脚放在肖恩的胸膛上，把他的包猛地一拉，撕开然后扯开带子。他把枪拿出来，检查了一下枪膛，用手掌根把它推回去，然后通过他开着的房门，把枪扔回床上。肖恩坐了起来，想往后退，但狄伦抓起他T恤衫的领子，把他按在墙上，吊在空中。丹尼尔一动不动，希望只要他完全静止，就会变得隐形。狄伦给了肖恩的脸一拳，然后把他松开，让他回到地面。肖恩翻过身体，蜷起来，开始哭。丹尼尔在壁脚板旁边看见一颗沾满血的牙。狄伦转过身，向大门走去。他慢慢地抚摸鹿的侧身，摸了五六次，他的抚摸持续了很久，很轻，似乎这只动物是个生病的孩子。“把它弄进来。” 他推着手推车穿过客厅到阳台。狄伦给了丹尼尔一串钥匙，让他下楼到他货车后备箱拿两个床单。被信任去做这件事，丹尼尔感到很骄傲。他把布满了飞溅的油漆和干裂的石膏块的床单带回了楼上。狄伦把他们叠起来，扑在水泥地上，然后把鹿放在中间。他从口袋里拿出一把斯坦利刀，把这只动物翻过来，让它背朝下，然后从它的脖子到腹股沟划开一道深深的口子。软骨在刀锋下裂开。他以九十度角割了第二刀，胸膛上出现一个十字架刀口，然后他用力撕一个角，把皮毛向后撕开了一点。它看起来像是一张湿门垫。丹尼尔很惊讶，并没有多少血。皮下是一层带大理石花纹的薄膜，薄膜上附着一层厚厚的髓。狄伦用刀割这些髓，拉一下割一下，拉一下割一下，皮就慢慢地被扒下来了。 肖恩迈上了阳台，他正用一块茶巾捂着自己的侧脸，茶巾上满是血。丹尼尔看不出他脸上的表情到底代表什么。转过身，丹尼尔看见了那根电线杆和汽车厂的沙地。一只鹰盘旋在树林上空。他又开始头疼，或者说只是他又意识到疼痛了。他在房子里绕了一圈，然后向厨房走去。晾干架上有一只倒过来放着的品脱杯。他用它在水龙头那装满凉水，一口没停地把它喝光了。 他听见门开了，又关上了，科布太太大叫：“天啊，出什么事了？” 他来到客厅，坐在棕色皮沙发上，听着壁炉台上的旅行钟顺滑的滴答声，等着疼痛慢慢消退。墙上有一块来自康沃尔的壁板，一座灯塔戴了一个由黄色灯组成的领结，三只海鸥，都是黑色一撇画成。他的鞋底有一股淡淡的狗屎味。肖恩从走廊走过来，提了满满一桶东西，他冲了一下厕所，然后提着空桶回来。 他睡了一会。二十分钟，也许半个小时。锯子的声音让他醒过来。他花了一会功夫才记起来自己在哪，但他的头疼已经好了。一觉醒来，发现你不在的时候一切都在进行着，这种感觉很奇怪。他往外走来到阳台。狄伦正把鹿切开。腿已经被切下来，切成了两块，蹄子放在一堆，大腿放在一堆。隔壁的卡尔来了，正靠在阳台的栏杆上吸烟。“要我说，这些肉可以放到后面的冷冻柜里。”肖恩已经不再用茶巾捂着脸了。他的左眼由于肿胀而半闭着，上嘴唇也裂开了。 “把那个弄走，行吗？”狄伦指着一个黄色塑料澡盆说。肺、肠，还有光滑的紫色泡囊，丹尼尔认不出那是什么。 他和肖恩一人抬一边。他们离开时，狄伦举起割下来的头对卡尔说：“挂在壁炉上面？怎么样？”但令丹尼尔感到不安的是这个澡盆。他们抬着它走，所以它不停摇晃着要溢出来，大写的谋杀。人的内脏看起来应该和这个一样。 他说：“你还好吗？” 肖恩说：“没事。” 他们谁都没在意到底在说什么。他们之间的一种联系被打断了，但感觉不错，感觉就像两个成年人之间的相处。 他们放下澡盆，掀开一个大金属垃圾箱的盖子。苍蝇涌出来。一股令人作呕的恶臭。他们把盆抬到胸部。两个小女孩走过。“他妈的。”倒数了几个数，他们把桶垃举起来，顶在圾箱的边上。桶里的东西滑下去，哐当一声砸在箱底。 楼上，科布太太启动烤箱，把一块带血的腰腿肉放到烤盘上。卡尔嘴里又叼了一只烟，帮她削土豆。狄伦正喝着易拉罐的吉尼斯黑啤。“过来。”肖恩走过去，狄伦用一只胳膊搂住他。“如果你再敢做这样的事，我就宰了你。明白？”即使是丹尼尔也能听出来，他实际是在说，“我爱你”。狄伦把剩下的半罐吉尼斯黑啤给了肖恩，自己又打开一罐。 “你妈妈打电话了，”科布太太说。“她正找你呢。” “是啊。”他没动。 因为这一切都与那支枪无关，不是吗。那支枪是众多恒星中的一颗，它们自身不发光，但折射光芒。现在就是关键的一刻。如果他要留下来，那么事情就完全不同了。但他什么也没说。科布太太说：“快点。赶快走，你妈妈会担心的。”不管他在脑子里想了多少遍她所说的话，他都无法得知她这样说是为了他妈妈着想，还是她在对他不客气。他没有说再见。他不想冒这个险，他怕听见他们冷漠的声音。他走出大门，轻轻地关上，从楼梯走下去，这样就看不到血迹了。 40年后，他去参加母亲的葬礼。结束后，他不想直接去宾馆，这样会显得他麻木无情，所以他回到自己以前的卧室睡。这让他感到十分不舒服，当他的父亲说他希望一切尽快回归常态时，他听懂了他的言外之意，也感到松了一口气，于是他离开了，给父亲一个舒适的自我空间，让他能照常生活，每天早晨散步，看《每日邮报》，每周三吃猪排。 出镇的路上，有人在进行长跑训练，偶然间，他发现自己开到了公寓住宅和树林之间的那段环城路上。所有记忆都涌现出来了，有两个小男孩正推着手推车过车道，这画面如此生动，他差点要刹车给他们让路了。他减速，把车停在路侧停车带，轮胎轧过沙粒，噶扎噶扎响。他下车，站在和当年一样的大货车带来的强风中。诡异的是，大门还是被绿色麻绳捆住关着的。这有点吓到他了。他走进大门，把它从身后关上。 废品厂还在那里，罗伯特家的房子也是。窗帘是关着的。他在想这么多年以来，窗帘是否一直都关着，罗伯特·黑尔斯，罗伯特·黑尔斯和罗伯特·黑尔斯，他们是不是同一个人，在这个肮脏之地、阴暗之隅，变老，死去又重生。 第一枪打响之前的寂静。混着灰尘的一道道阳光。 他弯腰捡起一块参差不齐的柏油碎石。他想象着把它砸进窗户，玻璃被砸裂、掉下来。鸟儿扑棱扑棱零星地四散飞走。阳光满泻而入。 就在他身后，传来树枝被踩断的声音。他没有转身。是那只鹿。他知道是那只鹿，它又来了。 他忍不住。慢慢转身，发现他看到的是一个老人，有一张罗伯特的脸。他父亲？也许是罗伯特本人。现在是哪年？ 那个男人说，“你是谁？”丹尼尔愣了三四秒，根本不知道怎么回答。

翻译评注

社会符号学翻译方法在《枪》的汉译中的应用

一 引论

社会符号学翻译理论的产生和发展是建立在社会符号学研究的基础之上的。而社会符号学又集符号学、社会语言学于一体，是一门新兴的交叉学科。在此，有必要先对符号学和社会符号学的发展历史和主要内容做一简单介绍，以便益于读者对社会符号学视角下的翻译研究有更为清晰的认识。

1.1 社会符号学概述

“人的精神，人的社会，整个人类世界，浸泡在一种很少有人感觉到其存在却没有一刻能摆脱的东西里，这种东西叫符号。”（赵毅衡, 2012, p. 1）。研究人们如何使用和理解符号的学科就是符号学。

人类对符号学的研究有悠久的历史。鲍亨斯基（Bochenski）从方法论角度介绍了符号学，指出“最早系统研究符号学问题的是亚里士多德——在其《论修辞学》一书的内容中，就包括了现在所知的第一个句法范畴系统……”，柏拉图和智者学派、斯多戈学派和经院学派都对这一领域？的研究有所贡献，但那一时期值得夸耀的贡献寥寥无几(1987, p. 32)。到了二十世纪，符号学的发展取得了突破。二十世纪初，瑞士语言学家费尔迪南·德·索绪尔（Ferdinand de Saussure）在《普通语言学教程》中对符号有所阐述。他定义了符号学：“我们可以设想有一门研究社会生活中符号生命的科学；……我们管它叫符号学（semiology）。”（1980/1999, p. 38; 1999, p. 16），并将符号模式划分为“能指”和“所指”：“我们建议用符号这个词表示整体，用所指和能指分别代替概念和音响形象。”（1980/1999, p. 102; 1999, p. 65）。但是，正如奈达（Nida）所言：“当今（符号学）理论的形成在很大程度上要归功于皮尔斯对这一学科的洞见……”（1993, p. 154; 2001, pp. 246-257）。美国逻辑学家及哲学家查尔斯·皮尔斯（Charles Peirce）对符号学作了较为全面的阐述, 他指出“每一个符号化过程都体现了符号本身、符号代表的客体与解释者之间的相互关系。”。符号有三种表现形式：图像、标志和象征（陈宏薇, 1996, p. 3）。系统地发展了皮尔斯符号理论的学者当属美国芝加哥的哲学家和行为语义学家查尔斯·莫里斯（Charles Morris），他的《符号理论基础》一直受到学术界的高度重视。在皮尔斯的研究基础上，莫里斯提出任何符号都是由三部分组成的实体，包括：符号载体、符号的所指和解释者（陈宏薇, 1996, p. 4）。他在此基础上区分了符号关系的三个方面，即语义关系、符号句法关系、语用关系。语义关系指符号与其所指称或描写的实体与事件之间的关系，符号句法关系指符号与符号之间的关系，语用关系指符号与符号使用者之间的关系(柯平, 1993, p. 20; 李明, 2005, pp. 13-16; 柯平, 1993, p. 20)。{查重反馈及之后的修改：} 莫里斯的研究成果无疑是对符号学研究、语言研究的重大贡献，对翻译学的发展更有着特殊的意义。莫里斯的研究成果对符号学和语言学研究做出了重大贡献，对翻译学的发展意义重大。

社会符号学是在符号学的基础上发展起来的，它研究人类社会所使用的各种符号系统，探讨符号学与人的关系、符号系统如何用于社会实践并在社会实践中起作用。社会符号学的奠基人——英国语言学权威韩礼德（M. A.K. Halliday）指出，“解释语言必须在社会文化语境中进行”，并提出了社会符号学理论的六大要素：语篇、语境、语域、语码、语言学系统和社会结构（陈宏薇, 1996, pp. 8-14）。韩礼德的学生，美国语言学家冈瑟·克雷斯在《社会符号学》中指出，语言作为一种符号系统具有强烈的社会性，语言理论应是一种研究在社会中构建并被视为社会实践的一切符号系统的理论（Hodge & Kress，2012）。韩礼德和克雷斯的观点进一步拓宽了研究者的视野，为社会符号学翻译方法的发展提供了理论基础。

1.2 社会符号学翻译方法概述

从社会符号学角度出发去认识翻译是翻译理论研究上的一大突破。与其他翻译方法相比，社会符号学翻译方法是最全面的，最具有一般适用性的。，奈达曾如此评价它：

社会符号学是研究人类社会所使用的各种符号系统的一门学科，也许它对理解翻译活动将产生最为广泛和最为关键的影响，与其他研究语际交流的方法相比，符号学最大的优势在于它研究各种符号和代码，特别是它把语言作为人类所使用的各种符号系统中最全面、最复杂的一种系统来加以研究。{查重反馈及之后的修改：} 符号学作为编码和解码的一门基础学科，没有任何一种研究翻译的整体方法可以把它排除在外（1993, p. 164）。

社会符号学翻译方法产生于二十世纪八十年代末,它明确了语言与社会、文化和具体语境是不可分割的，从而揭示了翻译的实质——翻译是跨语言、跨文化、跨社会的交际活动。从社会符号学视角出发去研究翻译时，我们不仅研究语言本身，而且是要研究整个语言系统、社会文化系统关系以及它们之间的相互作用关系。我们需要把对特定的社会和文化背景的考察贯穿到整个翻译过程之的考察中，透过相对静止的语言体系对特定语境中的符号意义进行相对动态的分析。这种看待翻译的视角特别适用于指导文学翻译，因为文学翻译实践不只包含两种语言之间的互动，还特别容易涉及两种不同社会的文化系统的映射和交汇。而运用符号学意义观既能揭示文学作品作为符号结构在自指空间中所创建的符号关系，也可以洞悉文学作品作为一个符号与外界实体的关联及由此产生的意义。符号学意义观突出语用意义的研究，重视语境对意义生成、传达、理解的作用，强调人在意义建构中的作用。用符号学研究文学作品翻译，能认识到文学文本意义的多维性，能使意义在译文文本中的再现更趋客观和准确。此段内容如非你本人所创，需注明出处。下同。

在《论翻译理论在翻译教学中的地位和作用》这一演讲中，柯平回顾了翻译研究的发展历程，比较了社会符号学派的翻译研究与以往不同学派翻译研究的不同之处，简明扼要地阐释了社会符号学翻译理论所具有的科学性与全面性：

社会符号学理论吸取了语言学派的合理内核，把翻译研究的框架建立在语言学对语言结构所作的坚实的基本分析之上，同时它又接受了交际学派提供的启示，把翻译看成是一种特别的符际传通活动（跨语言、且常常又是跨文化的传通活动），把传通的内容具体分析为信息的各种意义。{查重反馈及之后的修改：} 这样，在审视翻译讨论中的许多基本问题时，社会符号学派译论就站在了比其他学派译论更高的角度（1997, pp. 49-55）。

1.2.1 社会符号学语义观所区分的三类意义

莫里斯区分了符号关系的三个方面，柯平区分了与这三种关系相对应的语言符号的三类意义，即指称意义、言内意义和语用意义（1993, pp. 20-21）。所有语言单位都具有言内意义；几乎所有的表达都具有指称意义；单词、词组、句子等又经常会蕴含语用意义，因为人们在陈述时也时在评论；，人们用语言沟通交流，也用语言做事（Ke Ping, 1993, 1996）。下面就具体介绍一下这三类意义。

1. 指称意义。指称意义是指语言符号同它所描述的事物、现象、性质或行为之间的关系，即词语、句子、篇章反映的客观世界。可以理解为语言符号的“所指”，通常是语言交际中的信息核心。指称意义与字面意义并不完全对等，在不同的语言符号系统中“对等词”所包含的指称意义以及指称意义之间的联系并非简单的一对一的关系。因此使得翻译过程因而变得复杂。在翻译过程中，译者一定要克服先入为主的印象，联系上下文，真正弄清词语的指称意义。

{查重反馈及之后的整段修改：} 1. 指称意义。“指称意义是语言符号和它所描绘或叙述的主观世界或客观世界的实体和事件之间的关系”（柯平, 1993, p. 22），可以理解为语言符号的“所指”，通常是语言交际中的信息核心。 “是语言符号的基本内容和它所传递的主要信息”（柯平, 1993, p. 23）。指称意义与字面意义并不完全对等，需要注意的是：指称意义与字面意义在大部分情况下是重合的，但它们并非完全对等。“在不同的语言符号系统中“对等词”所包含的指称意义以及指称意义之间的联系并非简单的一对一关系”（唐美华, 2007, p.145）。翻译过程因而变得复杂。在翻译过程中，译者一定要克服先入为主的印象，联系上下文，真正弄清词语的指称意义。正因如此，翻译才不是一个简单、机械的替换过程，而是一个复杂的、受多种因素影响的转换过程。译者在翻译过程中必须结合具体语境，联系上下文，彻底弄清词语的指称意义。

2. 言内意义。言内意义考察的是语言符号之间的关系所反映出来的意义。如: 发音、词汇、语法、句法、语篇等层面上的排列组合。比如，在发音关系上，比如，英语中有头韵、尾韵、半韵、和音等音节处理技巧；词汇意义是指通过对词语的选择、搭配来达到某种特定的效果，如各种双关、谐音、粘连；去看一下Introduction to Contrastive Linguistics 上词汇意义是怎么定义的。语法意义体现在句子中各成分的语序、句法和语篇层面上，如平行、回环、反复、对偶、设问、顶真等这些都是什么意义？。翻译时应认真理解这几种意义，尽量保持原文风格。文学是一种语言艺术，它所表达的内容远远多大于在普通场合运用语言文字符号所传递的信息。所以，译者在进行文学翻译时一定要将文学翻译特有的符号系统所表达的寓意全部表现出来。

{查重反馈及之后的整段修改：} 2. 言内意义。言内意义考察的是“语言符号之间的关系”（柯平, 1993, p. 23）。主要体现在发音、词汇、语法、句法、语篇等层面上。比如，在发音关系上，英语中有头韵、尾韵、半韵等音节处理技巧；词汇层面的言内意义是指通过对词语的选择、搭配来达到某种特定的效果，如各种双关、谐音、粘连；句子层面和话语层面的言内意义体现在句子中各成分的语序、句法和语篇层面上，如平行、回环、反复、对偶、设问、顶真等。发音层面上的言内意义指头韵、半韵、和音、尾韵、格律等技巧和现象；词汇层面上的言内意义常见于双关、一语双叙和词语的前后呼应中；句子层面和话语层面上的言内意义体现在句子中各成分的语序和句法上，如平行结构、反复强调、对仗等。（柯平, 1993, pp. 23-27）翻译时应认真理解这几种意义，尽量保持原文风格。文学是一种语言艺术，它所表达的内容远远多于在普通场合运用语言文字符号所传递的信息。译者进行文学翻译时一定要将文学翻译特有的符号系统所表达的寓意全部表现出来。在进行文学翻译时，译者应认真捕捉其言内意义，将文学特有的符号系统所表达的寓意全部表现出来，以还原原文风格。

3. 语用意义。语用意义是语言符号在使用过程中所获得的意义。也可以理解为符号使用者赋予文字的特殊意义或文字符号在特定语境中的意义。语用意义有很多种，包括表征意义、表达意义、社交意义、祈使意义和联想意义。语用意义所蕴含的信息不会直接通过符号本身表达出来，传递比如说话者的身份、年龄、地理方位、态度、个性、意图等信息，语用意义而是隐含在语言当中，需要译者去挖掘。指称意义是词的基本意义，是交际的信息核心，而语用意义是从属的、附加的。但指称意义并非交际的全部内容。在交际中，只有既理解了指称意义，又理解了语用意义才称得上真正透彻的理解。由此看来。在不同的语境下，指称意义可以不变，而语用意义却不尽相同。

{查重反馈及之后的整段修改：} 3. 语用意义。语用意义又包含很多种类，包括“表征意义”、“表达意义”、“社交意义”、“祈使意义”和“联想意义”。（柯平, 1993, p. 27）。语用意义传递说话者的身份、年龄、地理方位、态度、个性、意图等信息，语用意义能揭示说话者的身份、年龄、性别、地理位置等信息，能表达说话者的态度、个性和意图，能唤起人们的联想，等等。（柯平, 1993, pp. 27-31）语用意义隐含在语言当中，需要译者去挖掘。语用意义并不会显现在语言表面，译者只有有意挖掘，方可体会。指称意义是词的基本意义，是交际的信息核心，而语用意义是从属的、附加的，但指称意义并非交际的全部内容。在交际中，只有既理解了指称意义，又理解了语用意义才称得上真正透彻的理解。由此看来。在不同的语境下，指称意义可以不变，而语用意义却不尽相同。 “在不同的语境下，指称意义可以不变，而语用意义却不尽相同”,所以，“只有既理解了指称意义，又理解了语用意义才称得上真正透彻的理解”（唐美华, 2007, p. 145）。

区分上述三类社会符号学意义对于英汉翻译实践具有重要的指导意义，因为翻译实践的核心是翻译意义。需要指出的是：指称意义、言内意义和语用意义在语篇内的构建成分中均有体现？。但是，具体到特定文本时，三种意义所占的比重并不均衡。言内意义的范畴最广，存在于每个语言符号之中；而对于专业性较强的文本语言符号中，比如专有名词，指称意义十分重要相对而言突显；在文学性语篇中，则更加强调语用意义的地位则可以相当突显更加强调。因此，文本翻译对译者提出的要求之一就是要分别分析和理解原语文本中体现的三大意义，并以最大限度地把文本中最突出、最重要的意义准确地传达出来。

1.2.2 社会符号学的翻译原则与意义的缺失

翻译标准是翻译活动必须遵循的准绳，是衡量译文质量的尺度，也是译者应该努力达到的目标。切实可行的翻译标准，对于译者从事翻译，提高翻译质量，具有重要的指导意义。可以说，翻译标准一直都是翻译理论的核心问题。

陈宏薇在《新实用汉译英教程》中归纳总结了前人提出的翻译标准，并在此基础上提出了自己对翻译标准的见解：“意义与功能是语言系统不可分离的两个方面，翻译标准可界定为：意义相符，功能相似。”（1996, p. 26）。陈宏薇她是受到了社会符号学翻译理论的启发才提出这一标准的。她想提醒我们的是，在翻译实践中不仅要翻译出原文的字面意义，更要考虑到符号、事物概念及语言使用者三个要素之间的关系，进而确保译文在意义和功能两个方面都做到尽量接近、忠实于原文。柯平在其著作《英汉与汉英翻译教程》中提出了更具有指导意义的社会符号学的翻译原则：

在译语句法和惯用法规范以及具体接受者能够接受的限度以内，采取适当的变通和补偿手段，以保证特定上下文中最重要的意义优先传译为前提，尽可能多和正确地传递原语信息的多重意义，以争取原文和译文最大限度的等值（1991, p. 43）。

笔者在翻译《枪》时的翻译过程中努力遵循这一翻译原则，并在实践中对这一原则它有了更深刻的认识。首先，“在译语句法和惯用法规范以及具体接受者能够接受的限度以内”指的是译者在传递意义时要懂得灵活变通以保证译文符合目的语习惯，让读者读着舒服，避免“英式汉语”（以本文为例，笔者进行的是英译汉翻译活动）。比如，原文中“He knows only that she has trouble with numbers, money, telling the time.”这句话，不能译为“他只知道她在遇到数字、金钱和读时间时有困难。”。虽然“have trouble with”可译为“做某事有麻烦、有困难”，但在这句话中，它后面有“数字”、“金钱”和“时间”这三个不同的宾语，与三者搭配的动词并不一样，所以译者必须将其装换成汉语表达中能为人接受的形式。“他只知道，她不识数，不认钱，不会看时间。”这样译就更好些。再如，不能把“…Daniel likes their volume, their expansiveness,…”中的“volume”译为“音量”，而应译为“……丹尼尔还是喜欢他们的大嗓门，他们的豪爽……”；“It’s weakening visibly, something dragging it down into the cold black water that lies just under the surface of everything.”中的“cold black water”不是一片“冰冷黑色的水”，而是“冰冷黑暗的深渊”，这样才会更容易让中国读者联想到作者暗指的“死亡”。

其次，“采取适当的变通和补偿手段”说的是为了完整地传递原文意义而采取的翻译技巧，包括比如增益、视点转换、具体化、概略化、释义、归化、回译等。比如，“…just an unremitting mugginess that makes you want to open a window until you remember that you’re outside.”这句话如果直译会不太好懂：“……只有持续的闷热，让你想打开一扇窗，直到你记起你本来就在外面。”，不如进行视点转换，译为“……只有持续的闷热，让你一直想打开一扇窗，因为你忘了自己就在户外。”，这样语义就更清晰了。再如，“It is 1972. Silver Machine and Rocket Man.”译为“1972年。《银色机器》和《火箭人》的时代。”。《银色机器》和《火箭人》是发行于1972年的两首极具代表性的的歌曲，在当时风靡全^……国。所以作者把这两个歌名单独成一句？。英国读者或者对英国文化熟悉的读者会明白这句话和1972年之间的关系。但许多中国读者就会不知所云。译者此时采用增益的说法，既使表达清晰、自然，又沟通了源语和目的语不同的文化。

接下来是这条原则中很关键的一句话：“以保证特定上下文中最重要的意义优先传译为前提”。正如巴尔胡达罗夫（Barkhudarov）所说：

“{查重反馈及之后的修改：} 保持内容不变”只是相对而言,不是绝对的。在语际改变中……不可避免地会有所损失，不可能百分之百地传达原文表达的全部意义。因此，译文绝不可能同原文百分之百地等值……翻译理论的任务之一是确定意义的传达顺序。由于存在着各种类型的意义，因此必须确定，在翻译过程中主要应传达那些意义，哪些意义可以“牺牲”，从而使语义的损失减到最小限度（1975/1985, p. 5）。

所以，译者一定要正确理解原文，找出最重要的意义，把它优先传递到译文。比如，译者在翻译下面这段人物对话时，要优先传递的就是语用意义：

Sean is taking the gun out of the bag. “I’m going to get him.”

“Don’t be stupid.”

“And what’s your brilliant idea?”

这段对话中的“And what's your brilliant idea?”不能直接译为“那你有什么好主意？”，因为它不能传达出原文上下文中“最重要”的意义。观察上下文可知，这只是一个设问句，肖恩根本没想从丹尼尔那里得到答案，他只是听见丹尼尔对他的否定后存心挖苦一下丹尼尔。结合肖恩的性格特征和对待丹尼尔的态度，我们可以推定“brilliant”一词是带有讽刺意味的，所以这句话的表达意义最重要，译者要把这种意义优先传递，所以把它译为“你聪明，那你有什么好主意？”。这样处理虽然破坏了原文的句子结构，但这正是奈达所指的“动态对等”。由于在转移什么转移？中“意义都不可避免地有所更改，通常伴随着一定程度的丢失，尤其是在原交际活动的影响方面”,因此，转移并没有被看作是一个能绝对保证“保留意义”的滴水不漏的程序(Nida, 1969, p. 492)。

最后，“尽可能多和正确地传递原语信息的多重意义，以争取原文和译文最大限度的等值”这个命题提醒译者不能只满足于“最重要的意义”在译文中成功传递，也不要抱有消极的“不可译”的心态，而译者应该在翻译和修改校对时多问自己，原文的多重意义都传达到位了吗？在完成了最重要的意义之的传递后，能否再多传达一些其他意义？如果对以上问题的回答是否定的没有，译者就要继续反复琢磨译文，直到其达到最有优效果。

虽然翻译过程中最理想的状态莫过于原文和译文在指称、语用和言内三个意义层面上形成完全对等。但由于语言和文化差异，源语符号和译语符号几乎不可能一一对应。有“优先传递”就意味着有“滞后传递”，必定会有一部分意义得不到有效地传译，甚至会在传递的过程中完全丧失。不可否认，笔者在翻译《枪》的过程中确实碰到了这种问题，做了很多不得不做的“牺牲”。在第二部分的论述中，笔者会举出一些例子，对翻译中意义传递的缺失进行分析和解释。

{查重反馈及之后的整段修改：} 虽然翻译过程中最理想的状态莫过于原文和译文在指称、语用和言内三个意义层面上形成完全对等。若能使译文和原文的指称意义、语用意义和言内意义都分别完全对等当然是最完美的翻译结果，“但由于语言和文化差异，源语符号和译语符号几乎不可能一一对应”（唐美华, 2007, p. 145）。有“优先传递”就意味着有“滞后传递”，必定会有一部分意义得不到有效地传译，甚至会在传递的过程中完全丧失。不可否认，笔者在翻译《枪》的过程中确实碰到了这种问题，做了很多不得不做的“牺牲”。在第二部分的论述中，笔者会举出一些例子，对翻译中意义传递的缺失进行分析和解释。

二 《枪》的汉译中三类社会符号学意义的传递

章节不能以引文开头。不可像“直译还是意译”、“以原作者为中心还是以译语读者为中心”、“以形式为主还是以内容为主”这样一些译学领域里的老问题，在社会符号学理论那里都被消解了，余下的只是如何分析、理解和尽可能完整地传递原文信息的多重意义这一单纯的、被还原了的问题（柯平，1997）。

社会符号学翻译理论的优势就在于它具有的较强的科学性和指导性，能使译者在翻译实践的过程中有法可循。笔者在《枪》的汉译过程中始终专注于对三类社会符号学意义的传递。这一部分将主要结合实例说明如何准确地传达指称意义、言内意义和语用意义。从笔者所举例子和分析可见，笔者虽然在某一小节针对某一类意义的传递进行说明，其实是在表现同时传递多重意义的过程？，因为原语符号所编码的多种意义的传递轨迹绝非不是泾渭分明的。笔者还指出翻译过程中可能存在不可避免的意义的缺失。但无论如何，笔者不可没有放弃优先传递最重要意义的努力。

2.1 指称意义的传递

辨义乃翻译之本，不明辨词义，就难以准确地表达原意。所以词义的确定在翻译过程中有十分重要的作用。译者要在翻译过程中通过联系上下文语境和文本以外的社会文化语境来确定一个词的意义和功能,进而在译语中选择具有相同或相似意义和功能的词语加以表述。

例1：

原文：Daniel stands in the funnel, a narrow path between two high brick walls that join the playground to the estate proper.

初译：丹尼尔站在一条狭窄的漏斗型小路上，两边是两幢高高的砖墙，它们把整个操场完完全全围在这家人的院子里。

改译：丹尼尔站在那条正好连接了操场和住宅的小路上，小路前窄后宽，两侧是高高的砖墙。

分析：Funnel一词在字典中的意思是“a conical shape with a wider and a narrower opening at the two ends”，其后的定语从句解释了它是a path（一条小路）， 所以就译为漏斗形小路，或前窄后宽的小路，“巷子”本身就有狭窄的意思。如果只译为“漏斗型的”，人们会理解成竖着的漏斗，并不能形象准确地表达它在文中所指事物，即它的指称意义，所以还是前窄后宽为好。

例2：

原文：On windy days, the air is forced through here then spun upward in a vortex above the square of so-called grass between the four blocks of flats.

初译：有风的日子，气流从这吹进，然后向上旋转，在四排公寓之间的方形的，所谓的草地上空形成一个漩涡。

改译：有风的日子，气流沿路面冲从这挤入住宅区，吹到四排公寓楼之间，然后向上旋转，在这片四方形的，由所谓的草地构成的方场的上空形成一个漩涡。

分析：这句话中的“沿路面”、“住宅区”和“由……构成的”是译者在分析、理解了原文的基础上，采用了增益的翻译方法翻译出来的。初译的意思并不清晰，因为译者没有将“through here”和“the square of so-called grass”放到具体语境当中去处理，没有将它们所包含的真正意义翻译出来。只有在正确理解原文后，我们脑海中才会出现原文所描绘的画面：这个住宅区里有四排公寓楼，他们围成一个方形，中间有一片方形草地。住宅区通过两幢高墙，通往一个大操场。风就是从这两幢高墙中间的小路吹过来的，不是从上面吹过，而是从底部吹过，因为原文用了“through”一词。译者只有在充分理解了每个词在文中的指称意义之后才能更准确地将这层意思传递到译文中。在传递意义的过程中，既要注意保留指称意义，又要兼顾原文的句式结构，保证言内意义的传达。

例3：

原文：He will have a meeting with the manager of a bespoke iron-works near Stroud, whose factory occupies one of three units built into the side of a high railway cutting.

译文：斯特劳德附近有一家铁件定制工厂，它生产的铁件占据了所有铁路深槽高侧所用部件的三分之一，他会和这家工厂的经理开一个会。

分析：译者在初译时并不能完全理解什么是a high railway cutting。high是哪个词的定语？这个短语的指称意义是“高速铁路的槽”还是“铁路深槽更高的一侧”？cutting准确的指称意义又是什么？通过网络搜索和书籍查找，译者得以准确理解这一短语的指称意义是“铁路深槽更高的一侧”。

例4：

原文：Sean finds a log to use as a shooting gallery and sends Daniel off in search of targets.

初译：肖恩找了一截木头当射击厂，派丹尼尔去找个靶子来。

改译：肖恩找了一截木头当射击台，派丹尼尔去找个靶子来。

分析：译者在初次翻译文中的shooting gallery时，没有对上下文进行分析。查了词典和一些资料后就把它译为“打靶场”，因为词典中这样解释“a place where people shoot guns at objects for practice or to win prizes. 射击场；打靶场”。但进一步思考后发现，文中显然不是打靶场，应该是支撑枪的台子，它的指称意义根据上下文而有所变化，这时应该放弃其字面意义而转而翻译它在文中真正所指的意义。

2.2 言内意义的传递

言内意义既会表现在词汇层面，也会表现于句子层面和话语层面，比较常见的表现形式有词语的双关、句子的平行结构和反复。比如，译者将“Every moment a bullet dodged, every moment an opportunity missed.”这句话译为“每一个瞬间都有一颗子弹被躲过，每一个瞬间都有一个机会被错过。”，因为这样翻译才能保证原文和译文在句子结构和音韵上基本保持平行一致。

再如, 在描写丹尼尔的父母时，原作者为了表现两者特点而运用了平行和重复的手法。虽然是“AB/AB/AB”平铺直叙的简单结构，但丹尼尔父母的形象跃然纸上，读者读起来也轻松顺畅。在进行汉译时，译者也准求同样的效果。？

原文：Daniel’s father works at the local pool, sometimes as a lifeguard, more often on reception… His mother works part-time as a secretary for the county council. His father reads crime novels. His mother does jigsaws which are stored between two sheets of plywood when the dining table is needed.

译文：丹尼尔的爸爸在当地的游泳馆上班，有时当救生员，大多数时间负责接待……他妈妈在郡议会做兼职秘书。他爸爸爱读犯罪小说。他妈妈爱拼图，饭桌被占用时，她就把它们放在两片胶合板中间。

还有，为了突出罗伯特一家人的诡异，作者也运用了重复和前后呼应的手法：

原文1：Robert Hales and Robert Hales and Robert Hales, grandfather, father and son, all bearing the same name and all living under the same roof.

译文1：罗伯特·黑尔斯，罗伯特·黑尔斯，罗伯特·黑尔斯，爷爷，爸爸，儿子，全是一样的名字，全住在同一个屋檐下。

原文2：He wonders if they have been closed all these years, Robert Hales and Robert Hales and Robert Hales, the same person, growing old and dying and being reborn in the stink and the half-light.

译文2：他在想这么多年以来，窗帘是否一直都关着，罗伯特·黑尔斯，罗伯特·黑尔斯和罗伯特·黑尔斯，他们是不是同一个人，在这个肮脏之地、阴暗之隅，变老，死去又重生。

原文1出现在小说的开头，用于介绍罗伯特一家人，原文2出现在小说结尾，用于深化主题。作者不仅反复利用名字的重复和句式上的平行来突出这一家人的怪异，而且在全篇布局上也安排了上下文的相互呼应，以突出“时间是分叉、断裂的，未来是平行的”这样的主题。译文为了达到相同效果，必须要保留原文的符号信息。

同样的重复还有：分别出现在小说开头、高潮和结尾的关于“时间分叉”的思考。作者运用了重复、双关等手法表现和深化了小说的主题。

原文1：Today will be different, not simply shocking but one of those moments when time itself seems to fork and fracture and you look back and realize that if things had happened only slightly differently, you would be leading one of those other ghost lives that sped away into the dark.

译文1：今天会不一样，不仅会令人震惊，而且时间本身似乎会分岔、断裂，等回头看时你会意识到，哪怕当时事情的进展有一丁点不同，你也会因此而过上另一种生活，那些急速遁入黑暗中的幽灵的生活。

原文2：It’s a trick of the light, of course. Time is nothing but forks and fractures …A firestorm of ghost lives speeding away into the dark …for he will come to realize that a part of himself now exists in a parallel universe to which he has no access.

译文2：不错，这是时光玩的把戏。时间就是不断分岔断裂的东西……一大批幽灵遁入黑暗……因为他开始意识到，在另一个平行的时空中，存在着他永远无法接触碰到的另一个自己。

原文3：Because it has nothing to do with the gun, does it. The gun is one of those dark stars that bend light.

译文3：因为这一切都与那支枪无关，不是吗。那支枪是众多恒星中的一颗，它们自身不发光，但折射光芒。

可见，作者重复了“时间是分岔、断裂的”和“幽灵的生活”这两句话，也重复了“光”这个词，因为他想表达的正是“时间”和“死亡”的主题。light的本意是“光”，但作者一语双关，既用它指“光芒”，也用它指“时光”。翻译这个词时，一定要注意保留其重要的言内意义。

段落中语句的顺序有时也可以蕴含很重要的言内意义，由于汉英语言差异，在翻译时一定要注意调整语序以保证最主要意义的优先传递。如：

原文：On tiptoe Sean takes down a powder-blue shoebox from the top shelf and lays it on the khaki blanket before easing off the lid. The gun lies in the white tissue paper that must have come with the shoes. 

译文：肖恩踮着脚从顶层的架子上取下一个浅蓝色的鞋盒，把它放在卡其色的地毯上，然后轻轻打开盖子。盒子里有些白纸巾，肯定是鞋里带的，纸巾里躺着一把枪。

本篇小说的题目是《枪》，整篇小说都是围绕“枪”而展开。这一段便是”枪”的登场。原文作者用波澜不惊的叙述将”枪”介绍出场，随着枪的出现，小说将自然进入下一情节。原文的“枪”出现在句首，因为英语中重要的事物总是出现在句子最前面，英文读者看到这一句时定会眼前一亮，心想“唉，枪在这呢！”。但在汉语中，越是重要的事物，越要放到最后。为了让中国读者同样体会到“枪”第一次出现时的“仪式感”，译者特意调整了语序，将译文处理为“盒子……纸巾……枪……”这样的顺序。原文句子顺序内所包含的言内意义就这样被传递到译文中了。

2.3 语用意义的传递

笔者经统计得知，源语语篇全文6250字，其中人物对话只占了250词左右。虽然对话描写所占篇幅甚少，但每一句都极具变现力，很能突出人物特征。在小说的人物对话中，语用意义是最为突出的意义。所以，译者在翻译过程中十分注重对对话的语用意义进行传递，这样才不会辜负对语言描写“惜字如金”的原作者的意图。故事中产生对话的一共五个角色：丹尼尔、肖恩、肖恩妈妈、狄伦、罗伯特、邻居。主要对话发生在丹尼尔和罗伯特身上。把10来岁的小孩子的话翻译成汉语时，要注意用词，表明他们是小孩子，表明在交际中的态度。比如，肖恩一直是整个事件的主导人，是他和丹尼尔朋友关系中占主导地位的人，经常发号施令。丹尼尔则是比较顺从、胆小、不善于做决定。所以他们的对话必须表现出俩人关系特点。再如，在肖恩和罗伯特的对话中，要表现出肖恩对罗伯特的蔑视。

例1：

原文：“Try and keep him out of trouble.” Mrs. Cobb ruffles his hair and sweeps onward.

初译：“努力，别让他陷入麻烦。” 科布太太摸摸他的头，把他的头发拨乱，然后风风火火地走了。

改译：“好好玩，别让他惹麻烦。”科布太太摸摸他的头，把他的头发拨乱，然后风风火火地走了。

分析：这是科布太太临行前对儿子的小伙伴的提醒，让他们别捣乱。如果把try译为“努力”、 “加油”、 “试着”等就无法表达在这一特定环境下，这一特定的角色（科布太太），对她的儿子和儿子的伙伴的嘱咐,无法让译文富有该语境下所特有的祈使意义。

例2：

原文：Daniel’s father works at the local pool, sometimes as a lifeguard, more often on reception. Daniel used to be proud of the fact that everyone knew who his father was, but he is now embarrassed by his visibility.

译文：丹尼尔的爸爸在当地的游泳馆上班，有时当救生员，大多数时间负责接待。丹尼尔曾因每个人都认识他爸爸而感到骄傲，现在却因他的知名度而感到尴尬。

分析：Visibility 的意思是“可见度”，即能被看见的程度，在这句话中是指丹尼尔的爸爸能被大家认出来是接待员，而该语境所蕴含的言外之意是，爸爸工作很卑微，又在一个公共场合，难免被大家认出来，丹尼尔可能觉得有点丢人。所以译者在翻译过程中要注意这层言内意义的传达，因此将这一词译为“知名度”，褒义词贬用，形成一种对比和反差，突出丹尼尔不愿让大家知道爸爸的职业的心理。

例3：

原文：Sean fixes the pistol on a Volvo traveling in one direction then follows an Alfa Romeo going the other way. “We could kill someone and they'd never find out who did it.” Daniel explains that the police would use the hole in the windscreen and the hole in the driver’s body to work out exactly where the shot came from. “Elementary，my dear Watson, ”says Sean. “Let's go to the woods.” 

译文：肖恩用手枪指着一辆正在行进的沃尔沃，跟着它走，然后又瞄准了一辆开往另一个方向的阿尔法罗密欧，“我们可以杀一个人，而他们永远都不知道是谁干的。”丹尼尔解释说，警察可以根据挡风玻璃上的抢孔和司机身上的枪孔找出是谁开的枪。“以为我不知道吗？亲爱的华生，”肖恩说。“咱们去森林。”

分析：这一段描写了肖恩和丹尼尔拿着手枪走出家门，两人在街上的对话。从上下文可知，丹尼尔说了一大堆话，借以打消肖恩鲁莽行事为的念头，但肖恩回了他一句elementary, 还开玩笑把丹尼尔称作是华生（大侦探福尔摩斯的助手）。elementary的字面意义是“基础的”，“初级的”，但这里不能只传递字面意义，而应根据说话人的性格、语气来翻译。肖恩的回答明显是充满不屑的，他的内心其实是在想：你说了这么多，你以为我不知道吗？不要在我面前装作很懂得推理，这些都太基本了，真正的福尔摩斯是我，你只是我的跟班，华生。所以，译者的任务是将这一词的语用意义传达到一文中，因此，不再拘泥于原文，将一个词翻译成一个短语，以达到效果。

例4：

原文： “What are you doing? ” It is the youngest Robert Hales.

They jump, both of them, but Sean recovers his composure quickest. “What do you think we’re doing?”

“You’ve got a gun. ” Despite the heat Robert is wearing a battered orange cagoule.

“Duh.”

“Let me have a go.”

“Yeah, right, ” says Sean.

“I want a go, ” says Robert. He steps forward. He is taller than Sean by a good six inches.

译文：“你们在干什么？”家里最小的那个罗伯特·黑尔斯说。

他们吓了一跳，两个人都是，但肖恩立马重拾镇定。“你说我们在干什么？”

“你们有把枪。”虽然很热，但罗伯特穿了一件带帽的防风衣。

“废话。”

“让我打一枪。”

“好，可以，”肖恩说。

“我要打一枪，”罗伯特说。他往前跨了一步。他比肖恩高出整整六英尺。

分析：Duh在词典中的意思是“Used to express disdain for something deemed stupid or obvious, especially a self-evident remark”，是一个语气词，当一个人表现的很愚蠢或说出了一件显而易见的事时，用这个语气词去表示嘲笑，轻蔑。一方面，汉语中并没有跟他完全对应的语气词。一些英汉词典里把它译为“咄”，译者都认为并不准确。另一方面，汉语中可以表示这种轻蔑的语气的词倒是很多，如“废话”、“呵呵”、“多新鲜啊”、“可不是吗” 、“对啊”、“明摆着的啊”、“还用你说”等都可以。但无论从形式山还是从这个词要表达的语用意义上看，译者都觉得“废话”更贴切一点，所以选择了这个译法。

显然，在人物对话中，语用意义处于了最突出的地位，因为表征意义、表达意义、祈使意义和社交意义多依靠人物对话表现出来。但除此之外，同语用意义中的联想意义和表达意义联系最紧密的当数比喻手法（的运用，如一些生动形象生动的习惯用法、俚语和谚语等）的运用。在翻译这些比喻时不能只考虑一这句话里某单个词的指称意义，而是要综合全面地考虑这句话所要传达的意义，要将联想意义和表达意义传递给译文读者，让他们在脑海中产生同样的生动的画面。比如，原文在描写丹尼尔和肖恩几乎完全被罗伯特控制住了的时候，用了“Fish in a barrel.”这句话，这句话当然要译为“瓮中之鳖”而不是“桶里的鱼”。查词典可知，英语中也有“shoot fish in a barrel”这种表达，译为汉语是 “瓮中捉鳖，十拿九稳”。还有，在形容丹尼尔的妹妹所嫁的小老板时，作者用了这样一句话“A big man in a small world.”这当然是“小世界里的大人物”的意思，但译者亦可将其处理为“小池塘里的大鱼”以让读者体会的更真切. 因此，在进行上下文中最重要的意义的传递时（这里指语用意义），译者不必十分在意“接收语信息与源语信息的匹配”，译者的目的反而主要是“考虑接受者在自身文化情境里的行为模式”（Nida, 1964, p. 159; 沙特尔沃思, 2005, p. 63）。

2.4 意义传递的缺失

从上面的分析可以看出，在《枪》的翻译过程中，译者一直努力正确地理解原文的多重意义，然后再把所理解的多重意义完整有效地传递到译文中。但是，由于译者自身的局限性，还是留有许多遗憾：即使理解这一步做好了，在表达上还是可能出现表达上心有余力而不足的情况，有时只能眼睁睁看着翻译文中意义丢的缺失。以下就是一些意义在传译递过程中语义缺失的例子。虽然这种缺失是不可避免的，但笔译者相信追求译文质量的提高是一个没有止境的过程，译者必须不断提高自身文学素养，^……止于至善。

例1：

原文：Daniel has never been in here before. Dylan has explicitly for-bidden it and Dylan can bench-press 180 pounds.

译文：丹尼尔从来没进过这个房间。狄伦曾明令禁止过此事，毕竟他能卧推81公斤呢。

分析：文中的180 pound即180磅，这是它的指称意义，若准确地换算成国际重量单位，等于81.6466266千克，换算成中国的重量单位，等于163.2932532斤。联系上下文可知，这一数字和重量单位在此的作用是突出狄伦的强壮有力，这是他的语用意义。由此可见，180 pound既有它固有的指称意义，也有让读者产生联想的语用意义。为了让中国的读者弄清楚的到底有多重，译者需要进行单位转换，传递其他的指称意义，只有这样才能凸显它的语用意义。但译者还必须要考虑它的言内意义，为了句式整洁，行文流畅，没有必要把小数点之后的几位全部列出，所以译者选择放弃其指称意义的准确性，这样最大程度地保留了语用意义和言内意义。很明显，我们在传递意义的过程中丢失了指称意义的准确性，但这是不可避免的。

例2：

原文： Slabs of dusty sunlight are neatly stacked between the branches.

译文：参杂着尘土的道道阳光整齐地从树枝之间穿过。

分析：原文这一段主要是罗伯特家后院的景色描写。这句话运用了很修辞手法，阅读原文，立刻就会体会到那种阳光灿烂、静谧闲适的感觉。比如，“slabs…sunlight…staked…”中的“s”，“Dusty…neatly…”中的“-ty”和“-tly”，在音韵上形成一种^……美，这种前后呼应的音律自然令人产生有放松的感觉。但译者水平有限，琢磨好久也只能翻译出这句话的指称意义，失去了它的言内意义。倘若能将原文的各种意义饱满地呈现，读者在阅读译文时也会更加享受。同样遗憾的还有原文的主题句“time itself seems to fork and fracture”中的“fork and fracture”，译者没能译为押头韵，而是译为“分岔和断裂”，这两个词虽然比较贴切地表现了时间的特性，但并不“好听”。

例3：

原文: “I want a go,” says Robert. He steps forward. He is taller than Sean by a good six inches.

Just as he did in the bedroom, Sean lifts his arm until the gun is pointing directly at Robert’s face. “No way, José.”

译文：“我要打一枪，”罗伯特说。他往前跨了一步。他比肖恩高出整整六英尺。

就像他在卧室里那样，肖恩抬起胳膊指着罗伯特的脸。“想得美，没门！”

分析：查字典可知“No way, José.”这一俚语出现于20世纪60年代的美国，意思跟“No way.”相同，表示对否定的加强，可译为“没门”。José是人名，但在这个短语中已不再指某个人了，只是因为它的音韵和“no way”相似，读起来上口。译者在翻译这个俚语的时候，可以增译其它词语来强语气以保留其语用意义有，但不得已要舍弃其言内意义。

事实上，没有不可能被翻译的文本，译者所面对的一直都是如何提高可译程度的问题。所以，即使面对这些“不可译”的意义，译者也不能放弃努力，译者的任务是对原语和译语在语言文化方面的差异进行分析，尽力找出最大限度地传达原语信息的方法（Ke Ping, 1999）。

三 结论

从上述翻译评注可以看出，在文学作品的翻译过程中，要完整地传递原文信息所包含的多重意义，还原原文写作风格和原作者写作意图并非易事。社会符号学翻译理论阐明了翻译是什么，从宏观上说明了应该怎样译，因此可以有效指导译者对原文信息进行理解与表达，减少原文意义在传递过程中的损失，从而提高译文质量。

社会符号学翻译理论认为，语言符号所蕴含的意义是丰富的、多层的，可以分为指称意义、言内意义和语用意义三类。三类意义在具体上下文中的分量并不一样，比如，在文学作品中，语用意义和言内意义的地位就比较突出。最理想的翻译状态是即译者把原文语言符号中的全部意义都传递到译文中。但译者必须意识到，在特定情况下，意义在跨语言、跨文化的传递过程中会不可避免地产生缺失。而译者不应因此产生消极的想法，从而放弃意义的传递。译者应该遵循社会符号学翻译原则，在充分理解全语篇和特定上下文的基础上，运用翻译方法和技巧优先传递最重要的意义，并保证原文最多重意义的传递。

在传递指称意义时，译者应该关注这一语言符号在英汉两种不同文化中的所指是否一致，特定语篇和特定上下文中是否赋予了它平时所不曾具有的意义，不要拘泥原文，亦不要拘泥词典，准确地“偷梁换柱”，进行英汉转换；在传递言内意义时，译者应该关注原文在音乐、语法、词汇和句子层面的安排，找出这种安排所产生的效果，将这种效果以“挪移乾坤”的手法将这种效果复制到译文中，在英汉差异中寻找读者的共鸣；在传递语用意义时，译者应该对符号使用者“察言观色”，观察他们用符号“暴露”了自己的哪些信息，表达了哪些情感，达到了什么目的等等，并将这些隐性信息全部传递到译文中。需要强调的是，三种社会符号学意义在翻译中的传递并非是泾渭分明的事情，多数情况下，这三种意义是相互重叠的。如何将最突出的意义优先传递，同时又兼顾不突出的意义，是我们需要研究的问题。

本论文由于篇幅有限，笔者能力有限，只做了最粗浅的论述，还存在很多不足之处。笔者对社会符号学翻译理论的研究并不深入，只是从意义传递方面进行了论述。论述中缺少同其他翻译理论的对比，不能突出表现社会符号学翻译理论的特别之处。

柯平认为翻译过程的“传达”部分“需要艺术家的灵感和良知，也需要工匠的技巧和汗水”（1993，p. 97）。对于整个翻译过程来说，又何尝不是如此。笔者作为一为“艺术家”，还需要从生活和书籍中更多地汲取知识与灵感，也要进一步认识自己所从事的翻译艺术的重要意义，端正对待它的态度；笔者作为一位“工匠”，还需要下功夫从反复的练习，以及哪怕是错误和失败中获得经验，磨练出过硬的译技巧。

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