英国威廉希尔公司第一届翻译竞赛题目及参考答案：

中译英：

《人到中年》（节选）

谌容

从死亡线上回来的她， 虽然穿了这么多衣服，仍觉得身上轻飘飘的。 当她站起来时， 两腿打着哆嗦， 很难支持身体的重量。 她整个身子几乎全靠在丈夫身上， 一手拽住他的衣袖， 一手扶着墙，才迈出了步子。接着， 一步又一步，她慢慢走出了病房。

赵天辉院长、孙逸民主任， 还有内科和眼科的一些同志们， 跟在她身后， 看着她一步一停地沿着长长的甬道， 朝门外走去。

接连下了几天雨， 一阵冷风吹得光秃的树枝呼呼地响。 雨后的阳光格外的明媚， 强烈的光束直射进这长长的长廊， 冷风也呼啸着迎面吹来。傅家杰倍加小心低搀着妻子， 迎着朝阳和寒风朝前走去。

门外石阶下停了一辆黑色的小卧车。 那是赵院长亲自打电话给行政处要来的。

陆文婷大夫靠在丈夫臂上， 艰难地一步一步朝门外走去……

 At Middle Age

By Chen Rong

She felt feeble and cold, though so warmly dressed. Her legs trembled when she stood up. With one hand gripping her husband’s arm, the other touching the wall, she moved forward leaning heavily on Fu. Slowly, she walked out of the ward.

Zhao, Sun and her other colleagues followed her, watching her progress along the corridor towards the gate.

It had rained for a couple of days. A gust of wind sighed though the bare branches of the trees. The sunshine, extraordinarily bright after the rain, slanted in though the windows of the corridor. The cold wind blew in too. Slowly Fu, supporting his wife, headed for the sunlight and the wind.

A black car was waiting at the steps. It had been sent by the administration department at Zhao’s request.

Leaning on her husband’s shoulder, Lu walked slowly towards the gate…

 

英译中：

The Season of Divorce

By John Cheever

(An Excerpt)

My wife has brown hair, dark eyes, and a gentle disposition. Because of her gentle disposition, I sometimes think that she spoils the children. She can’t refuse them anything. They always get around her. Ethel and I have been married for ten years. We both come from Morristown, New Jersey, and I can’t even remember when I first met her. Our marriage has always seemed happy and resourceful to me. We live in a walk-up in the East Fifties. Our son, Carl, who is six, goes to a good private school, and our daughter, who is four, won’t go to school until next year. We often find fault with the way we were educated, but we seem to be struggling to raise our children along the same lines, and when the time comes, I suppose they’ll go to the same school and colleges that we went to.

Ethel graduated from a women’s college in the East, and then went for a year to the University of Crenoble. She worked for a year in New York after returning from France, and then we were married. She once hung her diploma above the kitchen sink, but it was a short- lived joke and I don’t know where the diploma is now. Ethel is cheerful and adaptable, as well as gentle, and we both come from that enormous stratum of the middle class that is distinguished by its ability to recall better times. Lost money is so much a part of our lives that I am sometimes reminded of expatriates, of a group who have adapted themselves energetically to some alien soil but who are reminded, now and then, of the escarpments of their native coast. Because our lives are confined by my modest salary, the surface of Ethel’s life is easy to describe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

《离婚时节》（节选）

【美】约翰. 奇弗

我的妻子有一头褐色头发，一对乌黑眼睛，还有一副温柔的性情。 我有时候想， 正因为她性情温柔， 就把孩子们惯坏了。 她对他们无所不依， 他们也总能使她事事顺从。 埃塞尔和我结婚已经十年。 我们俩都是新泽西州莫里斯敦人。 如今， 我甚至想不起来我什么时候第一次遇见她。 就我来说， 我们这段婚姻似乎总是幸福美满、 令人慰藉的。 我们住在东区第五十大街一个没有电梯上下的楼房套间里。 儿子卡尔六岁， 在一所很好的私立学校读书； 女儿四岁， 明年才上学。 虽然我们对自己过去受教育的方式每每求全责备， 然而我们却总是拼命照老一套来养儿育女， 到头来， 孩子们还是得上我们曾经读过的中学和大学。

埃塞尔毕业于东部一所女校， 后来在格连奴布尔大学读书一年。 她从法国回来后， 在纽约工作一年， 我们就结婚了。 有一次她把自己的文凭挂在厨房洗碗池上面。 这不过是一时之间开的玩笑， 文凭现在下落何方我也不得而知。 埃塞尔不光是性情温柔， 而且爽朗随和。 我们都来自特别擅长于怀旧的中产阶级中极大的一个阶层。 破财的事在我们生活中真是司空见惯，这使我有时候会联想到那些客居异域的人， 他们虽说已经很热衷于独处异乡，但还会不时地想到故乡海岸的峭壁悬崖。 由于我工资不高， 我们的日子过得处处受制， 因此埃塞尔生活的外表也就很容易勾画出来。