and is as close as anyone gets to seeing wind

enti · 发表于 2019-1-4 23:34:23

The hill is paved with wild wheat. If the conifers and sagebrush are soloists, the wheat field is a corps de ballet, each stem following all the rest in bursts of movement, a million ballerinas bending, one after the other, as great gales dent their golden heads. The shape of that dent lasts only a moment, and is as close as anyone gets to seeing wind.

这句话怎么翻译, 而且and是什么意思, 总不可能是并且吧? "as close as" 可以理解为 “最直观” 么？

trivialstuff · 发表于 2019-1-5 00:04:57

本帖最后由 trivialstuff 于 2019-1-7 01:31 编辑

“凹形转瞬即逝，恐怕是一个人所能目睹的最接近风的形状了。”

这里的and就是一个连接词呀，表示并列，不必太咬文嚼字。拆开来就是The shape of that dent lasts only a moment 和 The shape of that dent is as close as anyone gets to seeing wind.

因为风本身是看不见的，文中用as close as来表示风吹过时麦田产生的凹陷是人能所看到的最接近风本身的形状。

Edit: 现在又想了想，可能"那转瞬即逝的凹形，恐怕是一个人所能得到的最接近于肉眼看见风的机会了”会更切合原意。

Engdict · 发表于 2019-1-5 21:04:04

这段话出自哪里？描写好形象优美啊！

鸭呼嘿 · 发表于 2019-1-5 21:27:55

trivialstuff 发表于 2019-1-5 00:04
“凹形转瞬即逝，恐怕是一个人所能目睹的最接近风的形状了。”

这里的and就是一个连接词呀，表示并列，不 ...

trivialstuff 常有精辟见解。但是对这句话的解释我有点不同的看法。

以下的汉译是有道提供的，作为机器翻译，应该说是相当不错的了（不知道是用哪一个翻译引擎，感觉比欧路提供的翻译引擎的译文好多了）。但是最后一句我觉得也是有问题的。

------ 山上铺满了野生小麦。如果说针叶树和山艾树是独舞者，那么麦田就是一支芭蕾舞团，它们的每一根茎都随着其余的枝干一阵阵地舞动，当大风吹动它们金色的脑袋时，一百万个芭蕾舞演员一个接一个地弯腰。那个凹痕的形状只持续了片刻，几乎是任何人都无法看到的。The hill is paved with wild wheat. If the conifers and sagebrush are soloists, the wheat field is a corps de ballet, each stem following all the rest in bursts of movement, a million ballerinas bending, one after the other, as great gales dent their golden heads. The shape of that dent lasts only a moment, and is as close as anyone gets to seeing wind.------

...... a moment, and (the shape of that dent) is as close as anyone gets to seeing wind 这句话中，close的意思是 ‘’similar，好像，近于，简直是” ，as close as + clause 这个结构的as clause是个比较状语从句，意思是“ (... The shape of that dent lasts only a moment, and it's as if any plant of the wild wheat gets to seeing wind, 好像每一株麦子（anyone <-- any ballerina <--any plant of the wild wheat)都能够看到风（的到来似的）。

这一句话的内在逻辑是：如果那么多的舞者（麦株）是一行一行的“人”只能以次看到风的到来（“弯腰的指令”），或者后面的一行看到前面一行在做“弯腰”的动作再跟着做，那么那么多的麦子全部做完一次“弯腰”的动作会花费很长的时间。而实际上大家是很快就做完了，似乎大家能够同时看到风的到来。

Engdict · 发表于 2019-1-6 16:53:08

Engdict 发表于 2019-1-5 21:04
这段话出自哪里？描写好形象优美啊！

谢谢！这本书我听说过，以为就是回忆录，没想到作者的文学功底也很深厚。有空要读一下。

Engdict · 发表于 2019-1-6 18:41:23

鸭呼嘿发表于 2019-1-5 21:27
trivialstuff 常有精辟见解。但是对这句话的解释我有点不同的看法。

以下的汉译是有道提供的，作为机器 ...

你的解释很有道理，但还有地方我没搞明白。
1. get to 如果按你的解释是“能够”的意思，那搭配应该是get to do something, 而不是get to doing something。我觉得这里的搭配是get close to something, 表示接近，靠近什么，其中something用动名词形式seeing wind, 而close 为避免重复被省略了。
2. 既然as…as…代表的同级比较中，第二个as 引导的从句中close表示靠近，第一个从句中也应该表示相同的意思，即“The shape of that dent is close (to an observer)”。句子补充完整就是The shape of that dent is as close (to an observer) as anyone gets (close) to seeing wind. 凹陷的形状离观察者很近，就像任何人近距离看到风那么近。
你觉得呢？

enti · 发表于 2019-1-6 23:26:34

挺有意思。

但是可不可以这样理解：
close 表示 “接近的”，距离 / 程度

-- I'm close to you / I'm getting close to you “我离你很近了” (距离）
-- gets close to seeing wind / is close to seeing wind “就要看到风了” （动词 see 的完成度很接近了）

trivialstuff · 发表于 2019-1-7 01:20:45

本帖最后由 trivialstuff 于 2019-1-7 01:28 编辑

鸭呼嘿发表于 2019-1-5 21:27
trivialstuff 常有精辟见解。但是对这句话的解释我有点不同的看法。

以下的汉译是有道提供的，作为机器 ...

谢谢你的精彩讨论，不过在这点上可能我们要agree to disagree了... XD

若纯粹字面上看的话，我个人觉得as close as anyone gets to seeing wind可以拆分The shape of that dent is (as) close to seeing wind（那个凹形就像真的让人看到风一样）和as close as anyone gets（一个人所能得到的最接近/近距离的机会），所以我还是比较倾向于理解成那个凹形是一个人最接近于肉眼看见风的机会。

我最初翻译时又想要和前面的the shape对应起来，所以便进一步翻作“风的形状”，可能是有一些意译的成分，献丑了...
现在又想了想，可能"那转瞬即逝的凹形，恐怕是一个人所能得到的最接近于肉眼看见风的机会了”会更切合原意。

鸭呼嘿 · 发表于 2019-1-7 10:56:31

本帖最后由鸭呼嘿于 2019-1-11 08:39 编辑

trivialstuff 发表于 2019-1-7 01:20
谢谢你的精彩讨论，不过在这点上可能我们要agree to disagree了... XD

若纯粹字面上看的话，我个人觉得as ...

Now I find even your oginal understanding was closer than mine to the author's intention. I think I finally get to understand the sentence, or am close to understanding it, now.

"(The shape of that dent lasts only a moment, and) is as close as anyone gets to seeing wind" = is ( a vision, image, feeling, experience) as close to seeing wind as (the most possible vision ...) that anyone (can) get= is as close as anyone (can) get (close) to seeing wind.

Engdict · 发表于 2019-1-7 20:47:13

trivialstuff 发表于 2019-1-7 01:20
谢谢你的精彩讨论，不过在这点上可能我们要agree to disagree了... XD

若纯粹字面上看的话，我个人觉得as ...

谢谢travialstuff的精彩讲解。可以看出，你的英语知识很广博，语法功底也很深。刚才查了collins-ccad，才知道这里有个类似于as good as you can get 的固定搭配。
From collins-ccad：
You can say that something is, for example, as good as you can get to mean that it is as good as it is possible for that thing to be.
▸ Consort has a population of 714 and is about as rural and isolated as you can get.
▸ ...the diet that is as near to perfect as you can get it.
这里用的是The shape of that dent is as close to seeing wind as anyone gets. 把to seeing wind 后置，就成了The shape of that dent is as close as anyone gets to seeing wind. 大家的讨论很有意义，涨姿势了！

[语言求助] and is as close as anyone gets to seeing wind

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