春雨贵如油
2009-02-19
句子：春雨贵如油。
误译：Spring rain is as expensive as oil.
正译：Spring rain is as precious as (edible) oil.
解释：expensive 的意思是costing a lot of money，即“昂贵”，需要花许多钱才能买到。而 precious 的意思是valuable or important and not to be wasted，即“宝贵”或“珍贵”，指有价值或重要而不可浪费。“春雨贵如油”意思是指春雨因稀少而宝贵，而且是无价的，应当译为precious，而不宜译为expensive。我国采用人工增雨的方法，缓解旱情。“人工雨”，可译为artificial rain, man-made rain。如：
1. 市政府将求助于人工降雨，以使城市凉爽。The municipal government will resort to man-made rain to cool down the city.
“人工增雨”或“人工降雨”，英语可以译为artificial rainmaking, artificial precipitation, artificial rain production, rain enhancement。例如：
2. 由于人工增雨，这个干旱地区昨天得到了一些雨水。Thanks to an artificial precipitation, this drought-stricken area received some rain yesterday.
3. 中国政府已实施人工方式在干旱省份造雨。The Chinese government has employed artificial means to create rains in drought-stricken provinces.
4. 地方政府正在进行人工增雨，以缓解缺水状况，并保证人与牲畜的饮用水。The local government is carrying out artificial precipitation to alleviate water shortage and ensure drinking water for both people and livestock.
5. 在这些干旱地区采取了人工增雨的行动。Rain-enhancing practices were adopted in these drought-stricken regions.
汉语有“耕云播雨”的说法，比喻“人工降雨”。英语也有to seed clouds的说法，译为“播云”。例如：
6. 自从20世纪40年代中期，科学家们就一直努力实施播云和人工降雨。Scientists have been trying to seed clouds and produce rain since the mid-1940s.▲
（本栏目供稿：王逢鑫教授）
