关于法律翻译的一个问题

wherestip wrote:

Yueyin,

I am simply floored. How do you do it? I know firsthand that it is extremely time-consuming to search for examples like this.

jingmlittlejohn wrote:

相信这个问题大家在做法律翻译的时候都碰到过。

在翻译协议或合同（英文翻成中文）的时候，常常会遇到首字母大写的词条，例如“Defendant”、“Person”等等。以前一直是直接翻译，也没有做特殊处理（例如加下划线或加双引号），主要是注意保持整个文档中这些词的翻译一致。但是最近翻译一份协议，其在开头处做出明确说明：all capitalized terms are as defined in Section **. 这句话翻译起来不难，但中文译文中这些词条不再是capitalized。想问问大家对这种情况是怎么处理的？

ysun wrote:

请看这句话：“生效日期”是指根据下文所载的程序，通过点击“继续”，“接受”或类似的按钮，进入本协议的日期。（这句译文令人费解吧？其原文是："Effective Date" means the date on which this Agreement is entered into by clicking on the "Continue", "Accept" or a similar button in accordance with the procedure described below.）

wherestip wrote:

That is so true.

There are clearly such definitions made in the definition section of this document:

“Person” means any natural person or incorporated or unincorporated entity.

“Customer” means any Person who is a shareholder of the Client.

“Services” means the services set forth in Schedule 2 to the Agreement.

Yet there are numerous places in the body of the document where these defined terms intentionally do NOT get capitalized, such as:

… incurred by the Service Provider or such person in any action or proceeding between …

Its shareholders are not customers of the Service Provider by virtue of this Agreement;

… to continue to provide transfer agency services to the Client in accordance with the terms of this Agreement.

ysun wrote: "进入本协议的日期"？


什么叫做“进入本协议的日期”？不看原文真难以理解。难道中国人在签协议时会说“双方特此进入本协议”吗？

QHE wrote:

这让我想到那张 “banana bond” 的漫画。不同知识背景的人看到 “banana bond” 这个词可能会产生不同的错觉，也不一定觉得有什么特别；而实际上正是对硼烷这类特殊结构(3c-2e bond)的研究, 使 William Lipscomb 荣获了诺贝尔化学奖。

上面那段译文的作者显然不具备应有的专业知识，“勇于承担”项目翻译，但翻出的东西或许其本人都不知所云，这种职业道德令人三思。使用这样译文的用户实际上也是很露怯；况且 “垃圾译文” 也会造成污染。