翻译实例评析GeniusSacrificedforFailureDrWilliamN培训讲学.pptVIP

约150年前，在英国的约克郡，有一个乡村教区的牧师，他有三位聪颖可爱的女儿，但是他把希望却完全寄托在唯一的继承人──儿子布兰韦尔身上。这个年轻人在艺术和文学上都有出众的天资。 父亲和姐妹们都省吃俭用，帮弟弟凑足盘缠，打点行装，送他上了伦敦皇家艺术学院。但是要指望他在艺术上有所成就，那他可就走错了门。不到几个星期，他就分文全无，败北而归。 然而家人并不就此罢休，他们又想方设法帮布兰韦尔弄到一分私人教师的活计，希望这份差事能够使他自由施展自己的文学才华，获取应有的功名，可这次又失败了。 几年来，无私的姐妹们压抑着自己的志向，应邀去学校任教或当家庭教师，以负担那债台日益高筑的弟弟。她们深信，总有一天，弟弟的天才会得到社会的承认。然而，接踵而来的失败使布兰韦尔一蹶不振，他染上了酗酒、吸毒的恶习，最后临死时仍然与生前一样：一事无成。于是寄托在全家唯一男性身上的希望也随之破灭。而那三位默默无闻的姐妹，其命运又是如何呢？ * * 翻译实例评析　Genius Sacrificed for Failure 1Dr. William N. Brown During my youth in America’s Appalachian mountains, I learned that farmers preferred sons over daughters, largely because boys were better at heavy farm labor (though what boys anywhere could best the tireless Hui’an girls in the fields of Fujian!) 2 With only 3% of Americans in agriculture today, brain has supplanted brawn,3 yet cultural preferences, like bad habits, are easier to make than break. But history warns repeatedly of the tragic cost of dismissing too casually the gifts of the so-called weaker sex.4 About 150 years ago, a village church vicar in Yorkshire, England, had three lovely, intelligent daughters but his hopes hinged entirely on the sole male heir, Branwell, a youth with remarkable talent in both art and literature.5 Branwell’s father and sister hoarded their pennies to pack him off to London’s Royal Academy of Arts, but if art was his calling, he dialed a wrong number.6 Within weeks he hightailed it home, a penniless failure. Hopes still high, the family landed Branwell a job7 as a private tutor, hoping this would free him to develop his literary skills and achieve the success and fame that he deserved. Failure again. For years the selfless sisters squelched their own goals, farming themselves out as teachers and governesses in support of their increasingly indebted brother, convinced the world must eventually recognize his genius. As failures multiplied, Branwell turned to alcohol, then opium, and eventually died as he had lived: a failure. So died hope in the one male8 — but