笔者曾在其它场合谈到过一条英泽汉规则：明明汉语用两词语就能表达的英语词语，在汉语译文中却往往从汉语的习惯而出现了四词语，如“make waves”明明是“作浪”，但在汉语译文中看到 的却都是“兴风作浪”。这里所以旧话重提，是再补充并分析若干新收集的实例：

一、以“张口结舌”译（只须“结舌”就足以表达的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”译下例中的“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“谢天谢地”译下例中的“thank heavens" 即“谢天”：

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

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

四、汉语不会把下例中的“beat the shit”译作“打得屎滚”而只会译成“屎滚尿流”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“头重脚轻”译“top-heavy”即“头重”：

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”译下例中的“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，来归纳一下：

甲. 用四词语于英译汉是客观存在的翻译法之一；

乙. 但这未必是唯一可取的译法，有的只能或更宜于采用四词语，(如一至五所列各例），有的则未必要用四词语，如：例8的 “pale”就未必要译作"黯然失色”一一也可译作“逊色”；而有些四词语中，有的含有两个概念， 虽其中有一个概念是原文没有的，但由于这两个概念有特殊的、密切的联系，故虽用了四词语而不悖原意；有的则并不因用了四语而比原文多了一个概念，如译例8中 “pale" 的四词语“黯然失色”， “黯然”和“失色”是同义反复而不存在两个概念，当然也是忠实于原文“pale”的。