原 文:
As luck would have it he was caught by the teacher again.
原 譯:
正如幸運所有的那樣,他又一次被老師逮個正著。
辨 析:
“正如幸運所有的那樣”是照字面死譯,意思不清楚。as luck would have it是一個常見短語,這里的luck(原意為“運氣”)實際上是中性的, 該短語表示“碰巧”,可以指“走運”,也可以指“背運”,“不走運”。其含義是不是指“幸運”,完全取決于上下文,在As luck would have it, no one was in the building when the bomb exploded.這一句中是褒義:幸虧炸彈爆炸時大樓里沒有人。在原句中則含有“倒霉”的意思?!靶疫\”一般要要說as good luck would have it / by good luck。(當然“倒霉”則可以說as ill / bad luck would have it 或by ill luck。)所以原句應譯做:不幸的是,他又被老師逮個正著。不過有時候單獨一個luck也可能是褒義的,如in luck就是“交好運”的意思。又如:Finally, he came to luck and a beautiful girl fell in love with him.(最后他交了好運 / 時來運轉,一個美麗的姑娘愛上了他。)至于形容詞lucky,則永遠表示“幸運”的意思, 如:a lucky day(好日子)。luck的同義詞fortunes(注意,常用復數(shù)形式,因為單數(shù)形式多為“財產”之意;首字母大寫的Fortune則指“命運女神”)也有類似的情況,有good fortunes和bad fortunes之分,一個人的fortunes可以high,也可以low。try one's fortune / luck中的fortune / luck是中性的,意為“碰碰運氣看”,“冒險”,可是形容詞fortunate卻總含有褒義。