參考翻譯:
Emperor was the supreme ruler of the feudalsociety in China. After Yingzheng, the king of Qin,unified China, he called himself Emperor. Sincethen, China had entered a period of emperors'reign,which lasted for 2,132 years. There were totally 495emperors in the history of China until 1912, when Puyi, the last emperor of China gave up thethrone. Emperors dominated all the rights of policy making and military decision and so on.They were the only ones who could decide the fate of the country and its people. In Chinesehistory many wise emperors were diligent in politics and loved their people. They made manyreasonable policies to promote the development of economy and society. There were alsomany cruel and incompetent emperors who brought endless disasters to the people and wereresisted fiercely.
1.第一句中,“中國封建社會”可用of帶出,放在所修飾的名詞后面作定語,符合英文表達習慣。
2.第三句中“長達2132年的”譯為英語時可用which引導的非限制性定語從句來表達,放在中心詞后面,使譯文前后平衡,避免頭重腳輕。
3.“到1912年中國最后一個皇帝…”一句的主句采用there be句型,說明中國歷史上皇帝的數量;再用until對時間范圍進行限制;在“1912”后面使用when引導的定語從句,說明該年份的特殊性:最后一個皇帝退位。
4.“皇帝一人掌握…國家和人民的命運”一句偏長,可拆譯成兩個句子。后半句“決定著國家和人民的命運”翻譯時增譯主語“皇帝一人”,雖然原文說的是“一個人”,但由于歷朝歷代都有很多皇帝,因此要處理成復數:theywere the only ones,后面再加who引導的定語從句。
5.最后一句中的“他們帶給…”譯為who引導的定語從句,指代前面的emperors,使譯文避免了代詞的重復,也使譯文的句式更加多樣化。