我們常說,交友和擇鄰的時候要注意“近朱者赤,近墨者黑”,那么這種說法如何翻譯成英語才算地道呢?
我們先來看看漢英詞典中的翻譯: One who stays near vermilion gets stained red, and one who stays near ink gets stained black. 或 One takes on the color of one's company.
也有人將這句話譯成:When you touch black, you become black, when you touch red, you become red.
英語國家中也有一些相近的表達方式,來看看下面這三種譯法。
One takes the behavior of one's company.(一個人的行為,往往受到朋友的影響。)
One takes on the attributes of one's associates. (attributes 復(fù)數(shù)時是指品質(zhì)、特性;associates 指朋友、同事)
Watch the company you keep!(小心交朋友!)
最后,我們再來看一個例句:
As one who lies with dogs will ride with fleas, how could your son learn anything good by mixing with those people?
就像和狗躺在一起的人身上會爬滿虱子,你兒子跟那些人混在一起,能學(xué)出個好樣來?
具體選用那種翻譯方法,我們要根據(jù)實際情況而定。
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(來源:中青網(wǎng)英語角,英語點津編輯)