Zheng Zhenduo's translation of Tagore's poems

郑振铎译泰戈尔《飞鸟集》，有一些颇为平淡。例如第一首，原文为：

STRAY birds of summer come to my window to sign and fly away.
And yellow leaves of autumn, which have no songs, flutter and fall there with a sigh.

郑译：

“夏天的飞鸟，飞到我窗前唱歌，又飞去了。
秋天的黄叶，它们没有什么可唱，只叹息一声，飞落在那里。”

不妨改为：

“夏天迷途的鸟儿，飞到我的窗前歌唱又飞去。
秋天的黄叶，无歌而振颤，随一声叹息便飘落。”

在当前的现代汉语中，“歌唱”似较“唱歌”更适于诗歌体裁，也许在一百年前郑振铎的时代两者完全没有差别？另外，对stray birds不译stray（“迷途的“）我认为不妥。

又如第四首：

IT is the tears of the earth that keep her smiles in bloom.

郑译：

“是‘地’的泪点，使她的微笑保持着青春不谢。”

不妨改为：

“是大地的泪珠使她的微笑永驻于灿烂。”

不知郑为什么对“地”字加引号，也许不加会有歧义（“地”成为助词）？改为“大地”不就解决了？

第七首很不好理解：

原文：

The sands in your way beg for your song and your movement, dancing water. Will you carry the burden of their lameness?

郑译：

“跳舞着的流水呀，在你途中的泥沙，要求你的歌声，你的流动呢。你肯夹跛足的泥沙而俱下么？”

试译：

“跳舞的流水呀，你途中的泥沙祈求你的歌声与你的流动。你愿意负起它们跛足的重担吗？”

原文中dancing water看似语法功能不明，是movement的同位语？或与它并列，是祈求的对象之一？从上下文语义看，理解为对话的对方合理（假如译为拉丁语，宜用呼格），相当于前置至句首并改为"O, dancing water!"，因此郑译无误。第二句他完全意译，我历来主张尽量直译但应灵活至基本能达意为止，不过我的翻译也不尽人意。

该诗集后面许多篇章郑译非常好，甚至胜过原文。如第82首：

LET life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves.

“使生如夏花之绚烂，死如秋叶之静美。”

原文前句beautiful译为“绚烂”，后句中为避免重复而省略，郑译为“静美”，其中“静”字是译者添加，但与死、秋的意象完美匹配；静美与flamboyant的绚烂之美形成鲜明对比。泰戈尔若能得知，或许会推敲beautiful一词，在前后两句中改用不同的词或词组；毕竟表达“美丽”的同义词在任何语言中都不匮乏。

billionaire被误译为“亿万富翁”

今天，马斯克成为人类历史上第一位trillionaire，百度翻译为“万亿富翁”，这是很准确的，因为“万”是10000（有4个零）、“亿”是100000000（有8个零），“万亿”就是1后有4+8=12个零，正是英语的一个trillion。

（从前在英国、澳大利亚的英语中trillion指million million million，即1后接6+6+6=18个零。托美国文化和科技“霸权”的福，现在没有人这样理解了。）
（又：Wiktionary中文版汉译trillionaire为“兆万富翁”。网页用繁体汉字，无疑这是香港或台湾的译法，暂不考虑。）

几十年来，我们一直认为billionaire译为“亿万富翁”很自然。从今天世界上首次出现一位trillionaire起，billionaire一词译为“亿万富翁”就开始值得商榷了。trillionaire当然是“万亿富翁”，但难道将这四个字的前两字颠倒（即billionaire译为“亿万富翁”）就能将它所代表的数值降低1000？这显然是荒谬的。严格地说，billionaire指拥有10亿至999999999999（12个9）元财富的人，英语一律用billion（10亿）附加比它小的数词表达这个数，因此字面翻译billionaire为“有十亿元的人”最准确，通顺点可添加“富翁”二字为“十亿元富翁”，再通顺点可省“元”为“十亿富翁”。无论如何也不应译为“亿万富翁”。这个误译长期以来不明显，但从诞生万亿富翁起，我们就应该考虑纠正这个误译了。

"Permanently pause"?

特朗普说"permanently pause"，汉语直译是“永久暂停”。问Google "Does 'permanently pause' sound like an oxymoron?"（注：oxymoron是“矛盾修辞”）回答Yes, the phrase "permanently pause" is an oxymoron because its two words contradict each other. 问ChatGPT，答It sounds contradictory, but it isn’t actually an oxymoron因为"pause" is being reinterpreted: instead of meaning “temporary stop,” it’s being used in a broader sense of “stop (without specifying duration).” Then permanently clarifies the duration. 问DeepSeek，答它can be considered a mild oxymoron / is technically oxymoronic但through common usage—especially in tech and business—it has developed a clear and practical meaning: to halt a process with no intention of ever resuming it, while often implying that the thing itself is not being deleted. So, while it's an oxymoron in a dictionary sense, it's a useful and accepted phrase in modern language.查Google图书，在1895年的《New York Court of Appeals》中就已出现"permanently pause"。

汉译为“永久暂停”也许非上乘，不妨译作“不设期限地暂停”更符合该词组的真正的意义。假如外国人问为什么那么多“无期徒刑”并且“缓期执行”实际并非“无期”？道理相同，也是因为我们用词不当。

A few medical terms

The broadest English term for 受伤 is injury, while wound refers only to injuries with visible cuts or skin damage, and does not include sprains, strains, or bruises. A sprain is an injury to a ligament (the connection between bones), and a strain is an injury to a muscle or tendon (the connection between muscle and bone). [英语“受伤”最广义的词是injury，而wound仅指有可见伤口或皮肤损伤的伤，不包括扭伤sprain、拉伤strain、瘀伤bruise。扭伤是韧带（ligament，骨骼与骨骼的连接）受伤，拉伤是指肌肉或肌腱（tendon，肌肉与骨骼的连接）受伤。]

By the way, a non-medical person may confuse the two words ligament and tendon. Here's a trick. A ligament is a link, connecting two things of the same type, between one bone and another bone in this case. (Generally speaking, there's no such thing connecting a muscle to another muscle, so that's ruled out.) For tendon, think of the word tension; they both begin with ten- and end with -on. When a muscle pulls on a bone, the muscle is under tension.

In case you can't think of link when seeing ligament, think of the word ligature (as 'fi' for 'f' and 'i' bound by a ligature, or 'æ' for 'a' and 'e'), or even league, which originally meant a pact binding governments.