筆者曾在其它場合談到過一條英澤漢規(guī)則：明明漢語用兩詞語就能表達的英語詞語，在漢語譯文中卻往往從漢語的習慣而出現了四詞語，如“make waves”明明是“作浪”，但在漢語譯文中看到 的卻都是“興風作浪”。這里所以舊話重提，是再補充并分析若干新收集的實例：

一、以“張口結舌”譯（只須“結舌”就足以表達的Tongue-tied"

1. Two years before, at fifteen, Pat was tonguded and embarassed with girls; now he seemed to have nothing else but girls on his mind.

-- Andrew H. Greeley : The Cardinal Sins, 1981, p. 3

 

2. Africans, Indians and Arabs often speak beautifully correct, fluent and musical English, to the puzzlement and envy of the tongue-tied Japanese students.

     ——James Kirup； "New Japan Now", Modern English 

            Teachings August 1979, p . 30

 

二、以"赤手空拳”譯下例中的“hare hands" 即“赤手”：

3. With their bare hands they are building an irrigation system that is catapulting the country forward from the dark ages of feudalism into modern times.

               —Class Struggle, Summer , 1978 . No. 10，p. 89

三、以“謝天謝地”譯下例中的“thank heavens" 即“謝天”：

4. There is also, thank heavens , less exhortation.

             —The Economist, December 29, 1979, p. 20

四、漢語不會把下例中的“beat the shit”譯作“打得屎滾”而只會譯成“屎滾尿流”的吧：

5. “I always wanted to beat the shit out of that guy.”

—Andrew M. Greeley: The Cardinal Sins, 1981，p. 213

 

五、以“頭重腳輕”譯“top-heavy”即“頭重”：

6. Our American system of government seems to some unwieldy or top-heavy.

                          —You and the Law, 1980, p. 28

 

六、以“黯然失色”譯下例中的“Pale”（“黯然”）。

8. But the gains of the first Green Revolution pale beside the challenge of assuring food supplies for a global population growing at the rate of an additional billion every decade.

                                        -- Newsweek, August 16, 1982，p. SA3

 

最后，來歸納一下：

甲. 用四詞語于英譯漢是客觀存在的翻譯法之一；

乙. 但這未必是唯一可取的譯法，有的只能或更宜于采用四詞語，(如一至五所列各例），有的則未必要用四詞語，如：例8的 “pale”就未必要譯作"黯然失色”一一也可譯作“遜色”；而有些四詞語中，有的含有兩個概念， 雖其中有一個概念是原文沒有的，但由于這兩個概念有特殊的、密切的聯(lián)系，故雖用了四詞語而不悖原意；有的則并不因用了四語而比原文多了一個概念，如譯例8中 “pale" 的四詞語“黯然失色”， “黯然”和“失色”是同義反復而不存在兩個概念，當然也是忠實于原文“pale”的。