One day he suddenly fell ill and immediately told one of his family to fetch Dr. Wang of East Street. The latter went in a hurry, but couldn't find the physician on East Street. So he fetched instead Veterinarian Wang of West Street. Mr. Cha Buduo, lying on his sickbed, knew that a wrong person had been brought home. But, with pain and worry, he could not afford to wait any longer. So he said to himself, "Luckily, Vet Wang is about the same as Dr. Wang. Why not let Vet Wang have a try?" Thereupon, the veterinarian walked up to his bed to work on him as if he were a cow. Consequently, Mr. Cha Buduo kicked the bucket before an hour was out.
(胡適《差不多先生傳》,張培基譯)
該段文字語言流暢、幽默,通過看病的具體實例,塑造了一位凡事茍且、辦事不認真的人物形象:知道請錯醫(yī)生后,差不多先生不但不糾正,反而依舊馬虎,讓獸醫(yī)治病,最終命喪黃泉。作者借此針砭這種害人又害己的社會陋習。由于人物形象主要是通過具體事件表現(xiàn)出來的,因此清楚地表現(xiàn)整個事件的起因、發(fā)展和結局,對烘托主題很重要。譯文完全遵循原文的時間發(fā)展順序排列信息,并相應譯出必要的銜接詞語,如“so、but、thereupon”等等,清楚地展現(xiàn)整個事件發(fā)展脈絡,較好地表現(xiàn)了原文的信息功能。