长句是指联合成分多，修饰语多，结构比较复杂的句子。短句则是指形体短，词数少的句子。长句严密周详、精确明晰、委婉细腻、气势畅达，便于周密、详尽地阐述道理，郑重、庄严地表明观点主张，气势磅礴地抒发思想感情，绘声绘影地描写叙述。短句简洁、明快、活泼、有力。由于活泼、明快，就可以干脆地叙述事物；由于简洁、有力，就可以表示紧张、激动的情绪，坚定的意志和肯定的语气。英语中的长句多半是并列句、复合句和并列复合句。短句则多半是简单句。当然， 有的简单句也是长句。
因为汉语的语法关系往往要靠词序和虚词来表示，句子一长，过多地运用虚词，重三叠四，头绪纷繁，造成句子内部层次复杂，不容易驾驭，从而带来组织语句和理解语意的双重麻烦。因而，在文学作品中，短句是一种常用技巧，它能直接、清楚地强调或突出所陈述的事实或所表达的概念。从某种意义上来讲，汉语中的长句是在“五四”运动以后受到英语长句的影响才被广泛应用起来的。不过，在《红楼梦》这部早在两百多年前写就的百科全书式的巨著里，为了表现人物错综复杂的思想感情，描写宏大广阔的场景，容纳深刻的社会内容，安排盘根错节的故事情节，曹雪芹经常选用结构复杂、节奏缓慢的长句，来表达丰富的内容。
1) 原来那宝玉自幼生成有一种下流痴病，况从幼时和黛玉耳鬓厮磨，心情相对，及如今稍明时事，又看了那些邪书僻传，凡远亲近友之家所见的那些闺英闱秀，皆未有稍及林黛玉者，所以早存了一段心事，只不好说出来，故每每或喜或怒，变尽法子暗中试探。（第二十九回）
这是一段——实际上是一句——非常成功的心理描写：这个一 百多字的长句中，包括了三层因果关系：第一层以“故”为标志，指出 “变尽法子暗中试探”的原因；第二层以“所以”为标志，说明为什么“早存了一段心事，只不好说出来”；第三层以“凡”为界，解释“那些闺英闱秀”不及黛玉的理由。而在第三层因果关系中，又包含着一个并列关 系（以“况”为标志）和一个递进关系（以“既”和“又”为标志）。这样一来，因果复句中既包含着因果复句，又包含着并列复句和递进复句，一环套一环，组成一个逻辑严密的多重复句，准确恰当地描写了宝玉的心理。
下面，我们来分析这一多重复句的译文：
杨译：
Now Baoyu had always been deplorably eccentric. Since childhood, moreover, he had been intimate with Daiyu, finding her a kindred spirit. Thus now that he knew a little more and had read some improper books, he felt none of the fine girls he had seen in the families of relatives and friends fit to hold a candle to her. He had long since set his heart on having her, but could not admit as much. So whether happy or angry, he used every means to test her secretly.
霍译：
Bao-yu had from early childhood manifested a streak of morbid sensibility, which being brought up in close proximity with a nature so closely in harmony with his own had done little to improve. Now that he had reached an age when both his experience and the reading of forbidden books had taught him something about 'worldly matters', he had begun to take a rather more grown-up interest in girls. But although there were plenty of young ladies of outstanding beauty and breeding among the Jia family's numerous acquaintance, none of them, in his view, could remotely compare with Dai-yu. For some time now his feeling for her had been a very special one; but precisely because of this same morbid sensibility, he had shrunk from telling her about it. Instead, whenever he was feeling particularly happy or particularly cross, he would invent all sorts of ways of probing her to find out if this feeling for her was reciprocated.
从篇幅来看，霍译远比杨译长；细读译文，虽然二者都是简单句与复合句并用，但较明显的特征是杨译多用短句，霍译则多用长句。尽管如此，杨译并没有少译、漏译之嫌；霍译也没有多译、补译之疑。通过更大范围的比较，我们发现杨霍两个译本在篇幅上所呈现的基本特征就是杨短霍长。也就是说，两位翻译大师在长期的翻译实践中已逐步形成了自己独特的风格。这一方面要归因于二者不同的语言文化根基，以及在此基础上的语言表达方面的个人习惯；另一方面，也体现了二者文学素养和艺术鉴赏的独特性，以及在译文中锤词炼句的不同特色。 谈到“杨短霍长”的译文特点，我们再举一例如下：
上一篇：斯图尔特▪贝茨(E. Stuart Bates)的著作《现代翻译》
下一篇：波斯盖特（J. P. Postgate)的《译论与译作》
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。