“亮子”的英语对应词是什么？如何英译？似乎不成什么问题，没有谈论的必要。某英语教科书在“The Blind Men and the Elephant”课文后的练习题里就有这样一问：
Do people who have eyes sometimes make such silly mistakes, too? why?
如此说来，“亮子”英语不就是“people who have eyes”了吗？这个说法其实还有推敲的余地，因为绝大多数的“盲人”也还是有眼睛 (“have eyes”）的——有眼睛并不等于不瞎。
还是先从“盲人”说起吧。上文提到的 “Blind men”，指的当然是“男性盲人”不过不是泛指。如果泛指“盲人”，不如说“the blind”:
1. If that conclusion was based on what the joint chiefs learned from the two Chungking-based generals, it had all the earmarks of a case of the blind leading the halt.
—E.J. Kahn, Jr: The China Hands, America's
Foreign Service Officers and What Befell
Them, The Viking, NY
或者用形容词“blind”修饰表示人的名词，如:
2. Each issue is filled with everything from humorous essays to reprinted articles from national magazines —plus information and news of particular interest to blind persons.
—Time, August 11, 1980, p.22
除了“blind”外，也可用形容词“sightless”：
3. While one reporter popped thousands of pictures, the other besieged me with questions designed to bring out the“real me”一 the sensitive, sightless student,...
—Reader's Digest, August 1972, p.225
4.“Why, ... how nice to see you!”the sightless man said.
—Reader's Digest, Junuary 1975，p. 44
可见，盲人的特点不是没有“eyes”而是没有“sight”。如果有的不就是“亮子”了吗？请看，下例中表示“亮子”的“亮”是怎样表达的：
5. Published ten times annually through our endowment, it offers the same variety of information and entertainment that's available to sighted persons ...
—Time, August 11, 1980, p.22
6. Now, although my vision was still exceedingly dim, my parents had a real chance to make me part of the sighted world.
—Reader's Digest, August 1972, p. 194
7.“Of course, someone with eyesight would know right away,”I suggested.
—Reader's Digest, February 1979, p.5
最后一例中用的虽是“with eyesight”，但也可略去“eye”而只说 “with sight”。
由此可见，“亮子”的英译，可任意采取两式中的一式:
上一篇：俄语比較級的譯法
下一篇：“手跟”的英语解释及翻译
微信公众号搜索“译员”关注我们，每天为您推送翻译理论和技巧，外语学习及翻译招聘信息。