中西文之间的优劣比较的准则 定理，2008年12月20日 戒网前偶过两三个万维论坛，发觉对中英文优劣比较的帖子虽多，但都流于空泛，亦看不出议者对英文是否有深的体会，于是临别前提供一个切实的准则： 语言Ａ胜于语言Ｂ当且仅当： 一，绝大部分本来用Ｂ表达的东西能被Ａ清晰地表达，而且 二，有相当一部分本来用Ａ表达的东西不能被Ａ清晰地表达。 这个准则的好处是可运作，而不让辩论双方停留在空对空的形而上的争辩。它的另一好处是基于语言的最根本的功能：表达（思想和情绪）。 我用此‘定理之准则’来开个头。 例一：大部分数学原来是用西文表达的，而它们都能被中文清晰地表达。不信的话，拿一本标准的中国大陆的中学数学教材来看看即可。嫌微积分太初阶者，去看陈景润的《数论入门》。 例二：有人说西文里的诗词用中文表达不出来，果真如此吗？还是因为说那话的人本身的中文或西文不够好？本人虽然读的是美国的大学、中文只是少时读的几本繁体字线装书留下的记忆，但也能用自己几招蹩脚的中文做了几次试验、把几首出名的英文诗译成中文，自问还能表达出原文的意境和节奏。不信看看－－－－ 第一首当然是莎士比亚的哈姆雷特独白： 原文： To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. 比较我的译文： 是进，还是退：这是问题所在： 哪个更崇高？是在心中强忍 恶运所加的绞索和箭， 还是拿起武器面对如海般的苦难， 以对抗来结束它们？去死：睡过去吧； 再没烦恼了；睡过去，于是结束心灵的痛楚 和这肉身逃不掉的万般打击， 这是一个虔诚盼望的结局。去死，睡过去吧； 睡过去，或许还能做梦：唉，难就难在： 在死的长眠中， 既是我们蜕出这可朽的皮囊之时， 能梦得见的东西 一定会把我们怔住。 好死不如赖活着，还是有点道理的； 否则谁愿强忍时光的鞭挞和嘲讽， 压迫者的加害，傲慢者的谩骂， 所恋被夺时的剧痛，法治的延误， 官吏的傲慢，庸民的摒弃， 假如他都能简单地一刀了断？谁愿打掉牙齿和血吞， 呻吟咕噜汗流浃背，拖着疲倦的身躯， 逆来顺受， 除非是那对死后的事物的畏惧， 那未知之地，只见人去， 未见人回，谜不可解， 让我们宁愿强忍今生的苦难， 也不敢飞越到未知的彼岸？ 所以心智确让我们都变成了懦夫， 所以飞扬勇决的本色， 在苍白的思考中褪尽， 而从压抑中喷薄而出的精神激流， 
由于这些思考而改道
 缓解，终于无所事事。 第二首是二十世纪英国的诗坛泰斗Philip Larkin的轻松的粗口诗（看中文能表达西文里的骂人话不？） 原文： This Be The Verse They f u ck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you. But they were f u cked up in their turn By fools in old-style hats and coats, Who half the time were soppy-stern And half at one another's throats. Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, And don't have any kids yourself. 对照我的译文： 如是我吟 你的爹妈操大你。 无心之过赖不掉。 他俩毛病堆成你， 烬上添花糟更糟。 但他们自己也被操， 操人的是正经傻冒， 西装革履，道貌岸然， 互掐脖子，背后捅刀。 苦难一代传一代， 越挖越深如海沟。 跳出来吧，尽快， 别生孩子，受够。 最后一首，来点严肃的，是Yeats的The Second Coming。在此多事之2008年，算是应景。 原文： Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand; A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? 我的译文： 第二次降临 划出不断加宽的旋转轨迹， 猎鹰猛然飞离主人的掌控； 万物分崩；中心不支； 混沌倾泻到人世。 遍地汹涌着暗血之潮， 淹没了纯洁者之典礼； 至善者失去信念，而至恶者 却饱含激情。 肯定地有一个启示要到了； 肯定地第二次降临要到了。 第二次降临！这几字还没全说出， 一个浩大的景象，出自世界之灵， 就眩目般地闪现眼前：沙漠深处 一庞然大物，狮身人面， 目光无情如烈日， 正缓缓站起，周围投影着 一行行企图螳臂挡车的悲愤的沙漠鸟。 灵光一闪即没；但我已知 两千年来石一般的长眠 已被一摇篮恼成了恶梦， 是何等鲁蛮灭裂之兽啊，时辰终于到了， 爬向巴涩勒寒，应运而生？ －－－－－－－－－－－－ 以上各例，按照‘定理之原则’，都是在帮助‘中文胜于英文’一说的。持另一说者，完全可以按照同一原则举出相反方向的例子。例如李商隐的‘相见时难别亦难’诗，谁能译成英文？ 双方例子日积月累，将来就能对中西文之间的优劣比较作出个定论。否则象现在这样空对空，徒费唇舌。