【华慧考博】2020年考博英语翻译每日一练(10月31日)
【翻译-段落翻译练习】卡特总统近来不断把他最亲近的顾问召集到一起,以便对他的政府的棘手问题进行一次称之为“不留情面的重新评价”,可是谁会向他说真话?你几乎可以把这一点看成首都的一种惯例:历届总统都经常请他们的助手提出“直率的批评”,可是他们听不到什么批评,而且即使听到了,通常他们也不照着去做。出现这种情况的原因倒并非不清楚。白宫椭圆型办公室是美国最令人生畏的一个房间。它使多数进入这间房子的人产生一种需要尊敬的感觉,甚至在国会上对总统咆哮如雷的议员们跨进白宫大门后,也往往把声音压低一些,按照事先准备好的稿子讲话。白宫的助手们很少在向总统提出不同意见时不表现出惶恐不安的。就是基辛格这个有点傲气,喜欢乱发言论的人在把他知道要发生的灾难告诉尼克松时也有点踌躇不前。
【翻译参考译文】
(1) President Carter has been calling his closest advisers together for what is called as a hard reappraisal of his administration’s troubles but who will tell him the truth? (2) You can almost put it down as a general rule in this capital that presidents often invite “honest criticism” from their aides but seldom get it and usually don’t follow it when they do. (3) The reasons for this are not obscure. (4) The Oval Office is the most frightening room in America. (5) It imposes a kind of respect on most visitors and even those legislative lions who roar against the president on Capitol Hill tend to usually lower their voices and follow their prepared speeches when they walk through the White House door. (6) Few While House aides dare to say anything against the president without betraying their fears. (7) Even Henry Kissinger who is not an excessively modest or silent man hesitated to face President Nixon with the disaster he knew lay ahead.