今天公众号“高斋翻硕”给大家分享张培基译《太阳》节选的单词解析。

原文

太阳与大家有关，人们跟着太阳起床，随着太阳的沉没而沉睡，等待明天的太阳。大家喜欢太阳，等着看日出，《日出的印象》是举世绘画名作，“夕阳无限好”是千古名句。太阳赋大自然色彩，太阳在人间创造了阴影。没有了阴影，也就看不清光明，有了阴影才认识世界原来是立体的。

张培基译文

We are all closely related to the sun. We get up at sunrise and fall into a heavy slumber after sunset until the sun reappears the next day. We all love the sun and long for sunrise. Impression, Sunrise is a world-famous painting. “The setting sun shines with unrivalled splendor” is a celebrated line from an ancient Chinese poem. The sun endows Mother Nature with color and creates shadows for men. Without shadows, we could be unable to see light. It is by means of shadows that we find the world to be three-dimensional. 

单词解析

第一句：太阳与大家有关，人们跟着太阳起床，随着太阳的沉没而沉睡，等待明天的太阳。

We are all closely related to the sun. We get up at sunrise and fall into a heavy slumber after sunset until the sun reappears the next day.

1. be closely related to sth 与……密切相关，如汉英大词典上有这么一句话：

Light industry is closely related to agriculture.

轻工业和农业密切相关。

2. slumber [ˈslʌmbər] n. 睡眠，文中fall into a heavy slumber指的是“沉睡”，相当于fall into a deep slumber，如牛津词典上有这么一句话：

She fell into a deep and peaceful slumber.

她睡着了，睡得又沉又香。

第二句：大家喜欢太阳，等着看日出，《日出的印象》是举世绘画名作，“夕阳无限好”是千古名句。

We all love the sun and long for sunrise. Impression, Sunrise is a world-famous painting. “The setting sun shines with unrivalled splendor” is a celebrated line from an ancient Chinese poem.

1. long for 渴望。如外研社英语同义词辨析词典上有这么一句话：

I long for the day when my dream can come true.

我渴望有一天能够梦想成真。

2. unrivalled [ʌnˈraɪvld] adj. 无与伦比的；无双的。如外研社英语同义词辨析词典上有这么一句话：

The grassland scenery here is unrivalled.

这里的草原风景是无与伦比的。

3. splendor ['splendər] n. 华丽；壮丽；光辉；显赫。The setting sun shines with unrivalled splendor. 夕阳无限好。

4 celebrated [ˈselɪbreɪtɪd] adj. 著名的；闻名的；驰名的，如金融时报上有这么一句话：

These celebrated markets deserve attention from economists as well as tourists.

除了游客之外，这些著名的市场也值得经济学家关注。

第三、四句：太阳赋大自然色彩，太阳在人间创造了阴影。没有了阴影，也就看不清光明，有了阴影才认识世界原来是立体的。

The sun endows Mother Nature with color and creates shadows for men. Without shadows, we could be unable to see light. It is by means of shadows that we find the world to be three-dimensional.

1. endow sth with sth 赋予；使拥有。如牛津词典上有这么一句话：

Herbs have been used for centuries to endow a whole range of foods with subtle flavours.

数个世纪以来，香草一直被用于给各种食物增添淡淡的香味。

2. by means of  通过，用，如柯林斯词典上有这么一句话：

The drawing is transferred onto the wood by means of carbon paper.

这幅画是通过复写纸印到木头上的。

3. three-dimensional  三维的，立体的，栩栩如生的，逼真的，鲜活的。