《当幸福来敲门》翻译日课20190102

Only after looking as deeply as I could into my mother’s life was I able to fully understand why she said those words to me at the time that she did. By recognizing the disappointments that happened in her life before and after I came along, I was able to see that, though too many of her dreams had been crushed, by daring me to dream she was being given another chance.

To fully answer the question of what it was that guided me through and became the secret to the success that followed, I had to go back to my own childhood and take the journey back to where my mother came from—in order to understand at last how that fire to dream got lit in me.

只有尽可能深入地了解妈妈的一生之后，才能彻底了解她当时为什么对我说那些话。了解到我出生前后发生在她身上令她失望的事情，我能看到，尽管太多她自己的梦想被毁灭，但鼓励我追逐梦想是她的另一个机会。

究竟是什么指引我走向最后的成功？要更好地回答这个问题，我得从我小时候以及我妈妈的来历说起，以便理解梦想之火最终怎样在我内心点燃。

我的故事就是她的故事。

点评：

come along：v. 出现；一起来；陪伴；进步

这里取的是“出现”的意思，是表示作者“出生前后”，译者只译了“前前后后”，“I came along”没有译出来。而且把“前前后后”的主语放在了作者的妈妈的身上，搞错了主语。

此书译者用中国的成语比较多，似乎是在尽力本地化，但有不少词不达意。“重温旧梦”是比喻重新经历或回忆过去的事情，而不是“重温当年的梦想”，是对过去已经发生过的事情的回忆，而不是对已经破灭的从未实现的梦想的回忆。

“孩提”，这个词太中文了，想象中出现的是扎着个一个或两个小髻髻的中国小孩儿，放在外国人身上感觉有点奇怪。而且，孩提一词的本意是2~3岁的婴儿，对应的英文应当是baby或者infant，而作者用的是child，这个词是相对于adult来讲的，意思是18岁成人之前。当然，“孩提时代”，中国人能看懂，也明白是什么意思，只是有点别扭。