Silence (Excerpt II)
By Zhao Lihong
Indeed, for a living being there is no such thing as true
silence, for silence itself is a revelation of the mind and the
heart, an echo of the soul of a different form.
Some people use silence as a disguise of the emptiness of
the head.
Some use it as a means to depict their disorientation and
melancholy.
And some use it as a way of expressing their angers and
sorrows.
...
Silence usually is ephemeral. It reminds one of the bronze
bells dangling from a pagoda's eaves; on windless days they are
a decoration upon the age-weathered beauty, but with wind they
give out wonderful tinkling and jingling metallurgic sounds, as
if echoing age-old stories of long, long ago...
Do you not think the same of silent people?
They say that "silence is golden", but of what
nature is this "gold"? It can include integrity,
honesty and kindness; it can stand for indifference to and
detachment from fame and fortune; but it can also act as an
excuse for hypocrisy, slyness and cowardice... the glittering of
gold may not necessarily be the most brilliant lustre in the
world.
Can it be that permanent silence is only represented by
death?
Perhaps even death cannot represent true silence, for the
carrier of the soul can turn into dust, so that the sincere and
wise voices from the bottom of the heart will trigger
long-lasting echoes in the seas of human hearts...
其实：这个词是承上启下的。英文里indeed这个词起的也是这个作用。人们经常把indeed理解为“的确”，这个意思只是indeed很多用法里的一个。这样的词在用的时候应当找一本英文的learner's
dictionary认真地翻阅一下。这里不妨从Longman
Dictionary of Contemporary English上摘两个例句看一看：Did
you hear the explosion? Indeed I did. / I didn't mind. Indeed, I
was pleased.前一句里的indeed是“当然”的意思，用来加重语气；后一句里的indeed是“甚至还……”的意思，表示“不但不……，而且还……”。
淡泊、超脱：中文里这几个词本身的含义就是不看重名利，所以英文说indifference
to and detachment from fame and fortune。另外要注意一下这里的搭配：indifference/indifferent
+ to; detachment/detached + from。底下的excuse则是与for搭配的。
6.金子的光泽，未必是世界上最动人的光泽。
光泽：glittering。
未必是：这里要译出原文的语气，就成了may
not necessarily be...。
最动人的光泽：译为the most brilliant lustre，“动人的”不用moving或touching，因为这里所说的“光泽”是视觉上的，而那两个词则是用来形容诉诸情感的东西的(having
strong effect on the feelings, causing strong feelings)。
7.是不是只有死亡才是永远的沉默?
Can it be that...?：是不是……的情况？这句话也可以说can
it be that only death represents permanent silence?但是这样话语的重点落不到“只有死亡”上面，不如译文中的译法到位。
8.也许，死亡……人心的海洋中引起悠长的回声……
载体：carrier。
心声：如果只译成inner voice，意思不到位，不如说得再具体一点，from
the bottom of the heart，能够更清楚一些。
长久地在……引起回声：注意一下英文和中文表达方法的不同之处：英文是trigger
long-lasting echoes in the seas of human hearts，因为trigger是瞬间性质的动词，不可以长时间地trigger，所以把“长久”的意思放到了“回声”之前。
seas of human hearts：可以理解为“像海洋那样多的人们的心中”，或者“人们的心像海洋一样”。
