“剩女”可以說成:
1. single woman over 27/unmarried female above the age of 27
2. leftover woman
第1種翻譯是意譯,但是“剩女”的年齡到底是27還是28或是其他,見仁見智,不絕對。
第2種翻譯是直譯,其中l(wèi)eftover一詞和中文的“剩”精確對應,Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English對leftover的解釋是:remaining after all the rest has been used, taken, or eaten。
如果想向外國人精確傳遞“剩女”的含義,建議這樣說:
“Shengnu” literally means "a leftover woman". It refers to a single woman who is above the age of 27. “剩女”的字面意思是“被別人選剩下的女人”,用來指過了27歲的單身女性。
以下是來自于BBC官網(wǎng)的文章(節(jié)選),供大家參考:
Emotional advert about China's 'leftover women' goes viral
By Heather Chen
8 April 2016
Single women over 27 in China are known as "leftover women"
The issue of unmarried females, often stigmatised as "sheng nu" or leftover women, has long been a topic of concern in a society that prioritises marriage and motherhood for women.
By government definition, a "leftover woman" refers to any unmarried female above the age of 27