## 原文 The last two months have seen some astonishing bidding in auctions of Chinese treasures. Record after record has fallen away as newly wealthy collectors from mainland China have piled into salerooms in London, New York and Hong Kong, anxious to bring home their imperial cultural patrimony. The market for Chinese art works has strengthened considerably over the past five years, and the high prices have drawn out a number of masterpieces from old collections in Europe and America. However, there is a danger of sellers becoming over-confident, even greedy. A close examination of some of the lots that have achieved record prices since early October shows that success cannot be taken for granted. ## 譯文及評析 The last two months have seen some astonishing bidding in auctions of Chinese treasures. 近兩個月來，中國文物拍賣會上出現一些驚人的投標。 **這里很好地處理了month see 的關系，英文中這類“無生物主語”是比較難翻譯的。astonishing的意思不準確，只是“驚人”，而沒有表達出“令人吃驚的高價”。另外bid翻譯為“投標”不妥當，拍賣會上只有“出價”和“競價”，沒有“投標”。** Record after record has fallen away as newly wealthy collectors from mainland China have piled into salerooms in London, New York and Hong Kong, anxious to bring home their imperial cultural patrimony. 來自中國大陸的新富豪收藏家們急于把他們帝國的文化遺產帶回家，在倫敦、紐約和香港的拍賣廳創造了一個又一個新記錄。 **原文強調的是“新記錄不斷產生”，意思是承接上文的“令人吃驚的高價”，將“一個又一個”放在句末，切斷了這種承接關系；piled into的意思沒有翻譯出來，imperial cultural patrimony翻譯為“帝國的文化遺產”不夠準確，中文里較少用“帝國的”指中國，用“帝制”、“王朝”更多。** The market for Chinese art works has strengthened considerably over the past five years, and the high prices have drawn out a number of masterpieces from old collections in Europe and America. 近五年來，中國藝術品市場已經大大加強，高昂的價錢也吸引了歐美老收藏家們的一批杰作。 **“加強”不準確的，而且搭配不當，沒有“市場加強”的說法，strengthen可翻譯為“鞏固“、”繁榮“；“高昂”不能用來形容“價錢”，只能用來形容“成本”、“代價”；“吸引”來翻譯drawn out不夠準確，沒有“引發現身”的意思；collections不是“收藏家”。** However, there is a danger of sellers becoming over-confident, even greedy. 然而，賣家有可能過于自信，甚至貪婪。 **這里沒弄懂原文的意思，danger完全沒翻譯出來，而且譯文不通順，要重新整理。** A close examination of some of the lots that have achieved record prices since early October shows that success cannot be taken for granted. 一份10月以來的記錄調查顯示，成功并不是理所當然的。 **close examination的close沒有翻譯出來，archived record prices沒翻譯出來，“成功”的意思太空泛，讀者不知道“成功”在這里指什么；另外，如果譯文不是在當年發表，應注明“10月”為“xx年10月”。** ## 總評 這是一篇典型的新聞報道，用語簡單，意思明確。這類短文章一般不會有太高的翻譯難度，只要譯者能夠足夠耐心細致，都可以完成。 這篇譯文有個很大的問題，就是采用了很多“中性”的詞語來翻譯，模糊了原文中明確的意思。比如“令人吃驚的高出價”就成了“令人吃驚的出價”，“（市場的）鞏固和繁榮”變成了“加強”，“成功拍賣”變成了孤零零的“成功”。其結果就是，譯文傳遞的信息遠不如原文清楚鮮明。