《微物之神》和《小事情的上帝》的译文比较

文学，首先是文字的魅力。洛伊的文字既有儿童式的简单活泼又有天马行空般的五彩斑斓。

下面是对两段原文的不同翻译：

Estha had always been a quiet child, so no one could pinpoint with any degree of accuracy exactly when (the year, if not the month or day) he had stopped talking. Stopped talking altogether, that is. The fact is that there wasn’t an “exactly when.” It had been a gradual winding down and closing shop. A barely noticeable quietening. As though he had simply run out of conversation and had nothing left to say. Yet Estha’s silence was never awkward. Never intrusive. Never noisy. It wasn’t an accusing, protesting silence as much as a sort of estivation, a dormancy, the psychological equivalent of what lungfish do to get themselves through the dry season, except that in Estha’s case the dry season looked as though it would last forever.

- 《THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS》

伊萨一直是个安静的孩子，所以没有人能够准确无误地说出在什么时候（哪年，如果不是哪月哪天）他不再说话，就是说彻底的一言不发。事实是，根本就没有一个准确的时间，那是一种渐渐消逝直至封闭的过程，一种几乎不被注意的静默。好像简单地他把话都说完了，再没什么好说的了。伊萨的沉默从来不别扭，不扰人，不突兀，那种沉默不是责难，不是抗议，而是更像一种冬眠，一种夏隐，像是肺鱼试图熬过旱季的那种心理，只是伊萨的旱季似乎永远持续着。

- 《小事情的上帝》

艾斯沙向来是个安静的孩子，因此，没有人可以准确地指出他是从何时开始不再说话的（哪月、哪日或哪一年）。这是指完全停止说话。事实上，这件事不是发生在某个“明确的时候”，而是一种渐渐封闭的过程，一种几乎没有人注意到的渐渐变安静的过程，就仿佛他只是把话说完了，再也没有话可说了。然而，艾斯沙的静默从来不是笨拙的，从来不干扰人，也从来不吵闹。与其说那是一种控告性、抗议性的沉默，不如说那是一种夏眠、一种冬眠，那种心理等同于肺鱼藉以度过干季的方法；只是在艾斯沙的情况中，干季似乎将永远持续下去。

- 《微物之神》

Once the quietness arrived, it stayed and spread in Estha. It reached out of his head and enfolded him in its swampy arms. It rocked him to the rhythm of an ancient, fetal heartbeat. It sent its stealthy, suckered tentacles inching along the insides of his skull, hoovering the knolls and dells of his memory, dislodging old sentences, whisking them off the tip of his tongue. It stripped his thoughts of the words that described them and left them pared and naked. Unspeakable. Numb. And to an observer therefore, perhaps barely there. Slowly, over the years, Estha withdrew from the world. He grew accustomed to the uneasy octopus that lived inside him and squirted its inky tranquilizer on his past. Gradually the reason for his silence was hidden away, entombed somewhere deep in the soothing folds of the fact of it.

- 《THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS》

静寂一旦降临，它便在伊萨身上驻扎扩散。它从他的头顶伸展开来然后把他整个身体笼罩在它粘湿的臂爪中，它用胎儿心跳的古老节奏给他催眠。它那偷偷摸摸的吸爪攀援在他的颅骨里面，吸平他记忆中的山丘和峡谷，驱逐出熟知的句子，并把它们迅速从他的舌尖上消除。它剥光了他赖以描述思维的词汇，使他的思维变得光秃赤裸，不可言说，直至麻木。因此在旁观者看来，他的思维几乎从没存在过。慢慢地，伊萨从世界中抽身出去。他学会了适应生活在他体内的这只忧心忡忡的章鱼，它为他的过去喷射了它那墨汁般的麻醉剂。渐渐地，他沉默的原因被掩盖了，埋葬在事实深处某些令人安慰的褶皱里。

- 《小事情的上帝》

安静一旦降临，便停留在艾斯沙身上，在那扩散。它从他的头伸展开来，用它潮湿的手臂拥抱他；它摇动他，带他进入一种古老的、胎儿心跳的节奏；它让他偷偷摸摸地长出吸根的触毛，沿着头颅的内部逐渐移动，吸他记忆的小山和小溪谷，驱逐旧的语句，将它们自他的舌尖掸走；它剥除他用来描述思想的话语，使得这些思想变成赤裸、麻木、说不出口。因此，对于一个观察者而言，他几乎是不存在的。在几年之间，艾斯沙慢慢地退出这个世界。他已经对住在他里面的那只对过往时光喷出漆黑镇定剂的不安的章鱼习惯了。渐渐地，他沉默的理由被隐藏起来，被埋在这个事实的安慰人心的折层深处。

- 《微物之神》

下面的一段在《微物之神》中存在着明显的翻译错误：

When Khubchand, his beloved, blind, bald, incontinent seventeen-year-old mongrel decided to stage a miserable, long-drawn-out death, Estha nursed him through his final ordeal as though his own life somehow depended on it. In the last months of his life, Khubchand, who had the best of intentions but the most unreliable of bladders, would drag himself to the top-hinged dog-flap built into the bottom of the door that led out into the back garden, push his head through it and urinate unsteadily, bright yellowly, inside. Then, with bladder empty and conscience clear, he would look up at Estha with opaque green eyes that stood in his grizzled skull like scummy pools and weave his way back to his damp cushion, leaving wet footprints on the floor. As Khubchand lay dying on his cushion, Estha could see the bedroom window reflected in his smooth, purple balls. And the sky beyond. And once a bird that flew across. To Estha—steeped in the smell of old roses, blooded on memories of a broken man—the fact that something so fragile, so unbearably tender had survived, had been allowed to exist, was a miracle. A bird in flight reflected in an old dog’s balls. It made him smile out loud.

- 《THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS》

当苦禅 - 那只他心爱的，又瞎又秃，大小便失禁的十七岁杂种狗决定上演一出凄楚而漫长的死亡剧时，伊萨照料它走完了临终的磨难，好像他自己的生命依赖着它一样。在苦禅生命的最后一个月，它有着最好的愿望和最不可靠的膀胱，它拖着身子尝试穿过门下方那个带合叶帘子的通往后院的狗洞，常常是它的脑袋刚刚探出去，它就禁不住尿了，断断续续的，明黄色的尿液留在了屋里。然后带着空了的膀胱和清醒的良知，它抬起浑浊的绿眼睛看着伊萨，那双眼睛在它脑袋上的凌乱灰发中像是两汪充满浮渣的脏水池。它摇摇晃晃地走回它那潮湿的垫子上，在地板上留下一串脚印。在苦禅躺在它的垫子上等死时，伊萨看到卧室的窗户映射到它那光滑的紫色睾丸上，还有窗外的天空，甚至有一次是一只飞过的鸟。对伊萨来说 - 曾经谙熟凋败的玫瑰味道，并深藏那个被摧残的男人的血腥记忆 - 世上还能有这么脆弱的生命，这么令人不能承受的温柔遗留下来，并被允许存在，是一个奇迹。一只飞翔的鸟映射到一只老狗的睾丸上，这让伊萨笑逐颜开。

-《小事情的上帝》

库布强是他所爱的一只瞎眼、秃头、患失禁症的十七岁杂种狗。当它决定要上演一出凄惨、拖得长长的死亡戏剧时，艾斯沙在它最后的受苦阶段一直照顾它，仿佛他自己的生命正以某种方式依赖这件事情。库布强有最好的意图，却有最不可靠的膀胱。在它生命的最后几个月，它会拖着身子走到建造在通往后花园那扇门下面、顶端装有铰链的狗吊门那儿，将头从吊门伸出去，在屋里摇摇晃晃地排出鲜黄色的尿液。然后，它会带着空了的膀胱和无愧的良心抬头看着艾斯沙，它那不透明的绿眼睛在灰色的头颅中，就像满是浮渣的水池。然后，它会迂回回到潮湿的软垫上，在地板上留下湿足印。当库布强奄奄一息地躺在软垫上时，艾斯沙可以看到它光滑的紫色眼球反映着卧室的窗，以及窗外的天空。有一次甚至反映出从那飞过的一只鸟。艾斯沙经常沉浸于即将凋萎的玫瑰气味中，且思忖着关于一个受伤男人的记忆。因此对他而言，一个如此脆弱、如此不堪一击的东西竟能存活下来，且竟被容许活下来，真是一个奇迹。一只飞鸟映在一只老狗的眼球里，这使得他大笑出声。

- 《微物之神》