据《汉英词典》，“泡茶”是“make tea”，“沏茶”是“infuse tea; make tea”。这两种译法， 似乎“to infuse tea”要比“to make tea”强， 因为“泡茶”是“to make tea”的一种方法，“to make tea”未必是“泡茶”而完全可以是“烧茶”（象烧咖啡似地）。
“沏（泡）茶”英语中另外还有用其他方法表达的，如 “to brew tea”。请看：
1. brew .…4: to prepare (as a drink or other liquid) by influsion esp. in hot water. She is brewing the tea — W³
2. tea maker: a covered spoon with perforations for holding tea used in brewing tea in a cup — W³
3. ...she brewed a big brown pot of tea.
—Lonnie Coleman: Orphan Jim, MY 1975，
p. 110
又如，“to mash tea”。请看：
4. Shall I mash you a cup of tea?
—Alan. Stillitoe: Men,
Women and Chiidreny NY
1973，p.179
5. The tea-cozy was on the pot for five minutes till it mashed into a mellow brew, but then she poured it sharply as if to get rid of him as soon as possible.
— Ibid., p. 180
这两种译法，我曾向某外语学院英语系的一位学生介绍过。他却不以为然，说“to brew tea”不是“酿茶”么，怎么是“沏（泡）茶”呢？给他看了上列1-3三个实例后，他接受了这个译法。但他还认为“to mash”作为动词乃是“把 ……捣成泥（或“浆”）”，虽然请他看了例4-5之后，他还是不放心。于是，我又请他看Webster's New World Dictionary的释义：
mash vt 1 a: to reduce to a soft pulpy state by beating or pressure b: CRUSH, SMASH <〜a finger> 2: to subject (as crushed malt) to the action of water with heating and stirring in preparing wort
他明确了“to mash”确有“泡”的意思，但是由于释义“2”最后有“in preparing wort”的限 定，他还是将信将疑。这就有待于在今后的语言实践中去体会了。
最后，还有一种表达法，即“to do tea”：
Avery: Robert …do the tea.
Capone: Here comes the tea.
— "The Fiendish Plot of
Dr. FuManchu" as per
The Study of Current
English, January 1981,
p.44
据 The Study of Current English 的说明，“to do tea”为英国英语，意即“to make tea”云。
责任编辑：admin
上一篇：词义的褒贬色彩
下一篇：汉英翻译语序的调整
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。