状语的三个位置各具功能。但是，就审美价值而言，以句b（倒装句型）为最美。若是将置于句末的“像秋天里的落叶”置于句中，我们还能欣赏到那种“余音绕梁”的韵味吗？

    试读：日历一页页地撕去，像秋天里的落叶，散乱地布满房间。

    无独有偶。状语，在英语表达中，也有句前、句中和句后等三种安置法。

    请读以下三句（注：以下三例句摘自Robert Silverberg 的短文Pompeii）：

    a/ Thousands of eyes turned upward. Thousands of arms pointed. A black cloud was rising from the shattered summit of the mountain. Higher and higher it rose. Like the trunk of a tree, it rose in the air, branching out as it climbed.

    (注：Higher and higher / Like the trunk of a tree置于句首，增强了表达的动感和形象感)

    b/ Rushing throngs, blinded by the darkness and the smoke, rushed up one street and down the next, trampling the fallen in a crazy fruitless dash toward safety.

    (注：blinded by the darkness and the smoke置于句中，令行文更趋紧凑)

    c/ At dawn on August 24, in the year A.D. 79, Pompeii’s 25000 people awakened to another hot day in that hot summer.

    (注：in that hot summer置于句末，与紧挨其前的another hot day中的hot构成重复，音律铿锵悦耳，文采顿出)

    同样，状语的三个位置相比，各具功能。但是，以句c置于句末的“倒装句型”最为出彩！若是将置于句末的in that hot summer提前，我们还能欣赏到“余音绕梁”的韵味么？

    试读：

    At dawn on August 24, in that hot summer, in the year A.D. 79, Pompeii’s 25000 people awakened to another hot day.

    诗人艾青说过：“最充分地和最准确地表现你的感情、感觉和思想的语言，就是最好的语言。”其实，这也是选择句式的标准。

    认识了倒装句式的美，译者的笔下就能出现让人把玩、让人喝彩的佳译。

    汉译英之译例：

    洋教师阅后，评出了最佳作文一篇，学生们听后大为不解，这种通篇说谎的文章怎么能被评为“最佳”？原来这篇作文是写学校食堂。写作文的学生来自郊区农村，人很老实，胆子又小，生怕得罪校方，妨碍将来毕业时的分数、评语、分配工作等等，便不顾真假，胡编乱造，竭力美化，唱赞歌。使得一些学生看后愤愤然。

    Having gone through the students’ essays, the teacher selected one which he considered the best. When he read it to the students, they were greatly perplexed. Of all the essays, why did he like this one best? Not a single word of it was true. The article was about the institute cafeteria and the author was a peaceable and timid student from a village in the outskirts. In order not to offend the institute authorities—the decisive factor concerning his final grading, evaluation and, most important of all, where he was to go after graduation—he had made up a high-sounding story eulogizing the cafeteria, regardless of reality, thus making his classmates very angry.

    其中成功使用英语倒装句的佳译是：

    Of all the essays, why did he like this one best? Not a single word of it was true.

    而其汉语原句却非倒装句：这种通篇说谎的文章怎么能被评为“最佳”？

    再看英译汉之译例：

    The air that has been hot all day becomes heavy. It hangs over the trees, presses the heads of the flowers to the ground, sits on my shoulders. With a vague feeling of uneasiness I move to the window. There, in the west, lies the answer—cloud has piled on cloud to form a ridge of mammoth white towers, rearing against blue sky.

    这是一段描写暴风雨即将来临的文字，先写空气，再写自己的心情，最后写自己来到窗户边的所见。当“我”来到窗户边，见到了什么呢？作者用极其从容，极其倜然的笔调写道：

    There, in the west, lies the answer …

    倒装，典型的倒装句型！作者还特别聪明地使用了两个逗号。停顿的增加，令本来就很美的倒装句型更增添了韵律波澜。

    译文：整日灼热的空气变得格外沉闷，它笼罩着树木，逼迫花朵垂向地面，并坐压在我的双肩。怀着茫然的不安，我信步走到窗前。原来，答案就在西边天际：云层重重叠叠，就像一排嵯峨的白塔，高耸在蓝天之上。

    此译的美中不足是：译者对原句中的一个倒装句竟无动于衷！

    译文似可以而且应该尊重原句的行文语序，以倒装译倒装，如译作：

    原来，在远方，在西边的天际，正藏匿着答案：云层重重叠叠，就像一排嵯峨的白塔，高耸在蓝天之上。