英文合同中长句的翻译技巧——分译法

分译法就是将原文一个句子分成几个句子来翻译，或者将其中某个较长的修饰成分单独翻译成一句或几句。当英语长句中的主句与从句、或介词短语及分词短语等有多层意思且所修饰的词与词之间的关系不是很密切，并且各具有相对的独立意义时，如果采用一个汉语句子对原文进行翻译，容易导致句义混乱，此时我们可根据汉语一个小句表达一层意思的习惯，对原文的各个意思层进行分解，再按时间顺序、逻辑顺安排，可增减适当的词语以便于短句之间的衔接。这样做也符合汉语多用短句的习惯，同时也可以使句子意思表达得更清楚明了。

例: Either Party may terminate the contract in case of failure on the part of the other Party to fulfill or perform any of its obligations hereunder and in the event that such failure remain sun remedied sixty (60) days after the service of a written notice as described in Article X below by the non-defaulting Party to the other Party specifying the failure in question and requiring it to be remedied.

译文:如果一方未完成或未履行其在本合同项下的任何义务，而且未按照下述第X条规定在另一方向其送达书面通知，指出其违约行为并要求其予以改正后六十(60)天内其仍未予以改正，另一方则可以终止本合同。

说明:原文是商务合同中有关期限和终止的条款，按照先讲结论，即合同任一方具有的权利“Either Party may terminate the contract”然后再列举实施此权利的条件“in case of failure...and in the event that...”的顺序行文。而汉语的行文习惯往往是先条件后结论,所以译文在整体上应采用逆序法。即:违约行为60天内未改正，60天是从无责任方书面通知送达之日算起，书面通知中无责任方已指出对方违约行为并要求其改正等等。如不对内容进行分解，则可能导致句义混乱。因此，翻译此句时应采用分译法，将原文意思表述清楚。

例:In Italy, the question of title is further confused by the fact that everyone with a university degree can be called Dottore—and engineers, lawyers and architects may also expect to be called by their professional titles.

译文:在意大利，任何人只要有大学学位就可以被称为博士，这使头衔的问题更让人糊涂。工程师、律师和建筑设计师也会要求别人以他们的职业头衔来称呼他们。

说明:该句可以拆分为三部分:“In Italy,the question of title is further confused by the fact/that everyone with a university degree can be called Dottore/and engineers, lawyers and architects may also expect to be called by their professional titles.”在翻译这个句子时我们将同位语从句“that everyone with a university degree can be called Dottore”的翻译前提，打乱了原来的语言顺序。将原来的主语部分“the question of title is further confused by the fact”同原来的部分分开翻译。这里我们采用了逆序法的翻译方法。但是，对于原句中的'and engineers, lawyers and architects may also expect to be called by their professional titles”部分，我们只有另起一个分句才比较符合我们的语言习惯，因此最后采用的是分译法。

例:The project involved the weekly production of about 50 million screw-worms at a specially constructed “fly factory", the use of 20 light airplanes to fly arranged flight patterns.five to six hours daily, each plane carrying a thousand paper cartons, each carton containing200 to 400 irradiated flies.

译文:这项计划包括每周在专门建造的“蝇厂”生产大约五千万只螺旋锥蝇，用20架轻型飞机按照预定的航线每天飞行五至六个小时，每架飞机运载纸盒1000个，每个纸盒装有经过辐射处理的螺旋锥蝇 200-400 只。

说明:注意这个长句的理解与翻译，首先分层理解，然后再用分译法翻译。本句的“involved”后面跟两个平行的宾语:“the weekly production of...”，和“the use of..”。“each plane carrying a thousand paper cartons",和“each carton containing 200 to 400 irradiated flies”是两个独立主格结构作状语。这两个结构可以译成两个分句。

摘自《国际商务合同的文体与翻译》