翻譯中的文化沖擊[3]:你知道tooth fairy嗎?
且看下面的這一小段文字：
One summer day, when Bush invited some of the press corps to his vacation home for a barbecue, the young daughter of TV director Jack Gallivan went swimming in the Bushes' pool and lost her tooth. Noticing Katie Gallivan crying, Bush asked her what had happened. When he heard, he knew from his own children what that meant: no proof under the pillow for the Tooty Fairy! He called and aid to bring him a Presidential note card bearing an etching of his Kennebunkport house. Bush made a small X on the card and wrote:
"Dear Tooth Fairy, Katie's tooth came out where the X is. It really did -------- I promise. George Bush"
It fulfilled the best prerequisites for inspirational note writing: it was short on verbiage and long on empathy. And most important, it dried Katie's tears.
what is tooth fairy? 想知道什么是牙仙女嗎？ 看看下面的：
tooth fairy：
Children in America save each one of their first set teeth as they fall out because of a folk belief that a tooth fairy will come in the night to collect the tooth from under the child's pillow and leave money in its place(25cents). Katie thinks she is deprived of this opportunity because she can't find her tooth. Former President George Bush has marked the place on the picture of his property where the tooth was lost. Then he vouches for the truth of the statement that the tooth was lost there so the little girl can put the card under her pillow and still receive the money from the Fairy. The money is as important as evidence of a magical visit as for its finacial worth.
譯文：
某個(gè)夏日，布什邀請一些新聞界人士到他的度假地參加野外燒烤宴會(huì)。電視臺(tái)的總監(jiān) Jack Gallivan 的小女兒去布什的游泳池游泳，她的一顆牙齒掉入了游泳池。發(fā)現(xiàn)katie在哭泣，布什便問她發(fā)生了什么事情。他聽說后 從自己的孩子身上明白了此事意味著什么。她沒有放在枕頭下的證明了！ 他叫助手給他取來了一張印有他的Kennebunkport屋蝕刻的總統(tǒng)便箋。布什在上面打了個(gè)小差，還寫道：
“親愛的牙仙女： katie的牙齒掉落在打叉的地方。確實(shí)如此，我保證。 ------- 喬治 布什”
這張堪稱靈感之作的便條具備最成功的前提：言簡意賅。最重要的是它抹干了katie的眼淚。
