各位看官，你们好！

    今日给友人写了一封邮件，发了一些照片。邮件中有以下几句话，不知道能否获得你的共鸣？

    得知去年夏天去美国留学学生王婷5月3号不幸在美国死于车祸，我心亦悲！

    -- 人生无常也。因此，既然“健在”，就要充分享受人生。何况，你我 -- 牛马一生，至今已到夕阳西下时分，更应好好坐享啊！

    女儿女婿昨晚从海南飞回。上午整理了他们带归的照片，并为之题词。-- 乐事一桩。

    我觉得，奋斗一生，自己所获得的一切，皆不足挂齿。唯女儿女婿的成绩，才是我和夫人最感成就的快事；

    我觉得，浮生如梦，自己所获得的快乐，皆不足为最，唯女儿女婿的快乐，才是我和夫人最感兴奋的自满！

愿你 ---- 健康、快乐每一天。

本居士

2007年5月8日星期二夜

7. 自云先世避秦时乱，率妻子邑人来此绝境，不复出焉。遂与外人间隔。

1/ Then the villagers told him, "To avoid the chaos of war during the Qin Dynasty, our ancestors brought their families and villagers to this isolated place and never left it, so we've had no contact with the outside world."

2/ They themselves told him that their ancestors had escaped from the wars and confusion in the time of Qin Dynasty. Bringing their wives and children, all the people of their area had reached this isolated place, and had stayed here ever since. Thus they had lost all contacts with the outside world.  

又是一个主语省略句，是谁“率妻子邑人来此绝境”？原文没有交代，而英译则不能不交代，因此译1和译2不约而同地添加了一个主语 – ancestors。

此外，“邑人”被分别译成villagers / all the people of their area，似也欠当。所谓“邑”，泛指一般城镇。历来有“大曰都,小曰邑”之说，宋朝的苏洵在其《六国论》中就写道：小则获邑，大则获城。据此，“邑人”还是译成town folk为宜。

译文应经得起逻辑的细推慢敲。若对原句的深层结构缺乏洞悉，其表层转换则可能误入歧途。比如译2的Bringing their wives and children, all the people of their area had reached this isolated place就犯了“眉毛胡子一把抓”之逻辑病，原句中的“妻子邑人”乃并列关系，译文却理解为：率妻子，邑人来此绝境。非也。

改译：

He was also told by the villagers that their ancestors brought their families and town folks to this isolated land while seeking havens in the troubled times of the Qin. They never went out again, and had since lost contacts with the outside.