对《现代英汉综合大辞典》中习语“Greek to sb.”误译的多维探究

A Multidimensional Exploration of the Misinterpretation of English Idiom “Greek to sb.”

《现代英汉综合大辞典》将"Greek to sb."译成"对某人一窍不通"并不通顺,亦令人费解。其缘由可能有二:其一,译者对相关形容词主动与被动意义之区分不甚明确;其二,对介词to的有关用法与意义之区别注意不够。文章就此进行了多维探究,还对相关问题一并作了翻译原则上的思考。

This paper argues that the English idiom “Greek to sb.”has been wrongly translated into“（be）unfamiliar with sb.”in A Modern Comprehensive English Chinese Dictionary .There are likely to be two causes for this：first,the translator may be unclear about the distinction between the active and the passive sense of related adjectives;second,certain uses and senses of the preposition “to”have not been well attended to.Concerning this the author offers his multidimensional exploration and tenta-tive consideration of related translation principle.