From The Gene Page 234:

It is the impulse of science to try to understand nature, and the impulse of technology to try to manipulate it. Recombinant DNA had pushed genetics from the realm of sciece into the realm of technology. Genes were not abstractions anymore. They could be liberated from the genomes of organisms where they had been trapped for millennia, shuttled between species, amplified, purified, extended, shortened, altered, remixed, mutated, mixed, matched, cut, pasted, edited; they were infinitely malleable to human intervention. Genes were no longer just the subjects of study, but the instruments of study. There is an illuminated moment in the development of a child when she grasps the recursiveness of language: just as thoughts can be used to generate words, she realizes, words can be used to generate thoughts. Recombinant DNA had made the language of genetics recursive. Biologists had spent decades trying to interrogate the nature of the gene -- but now it was the gene that could be used to interrogate biology. We had graduated, in short, from thinking about genes, to thinking in genes.

“They could be liberated from the genomes of organisms where they had been trapped for millennia, shuttled between species, amplified, purified, extended, shortened, altered, remixed, mutated, mixed, matched, cut, pasted, edited”

這一個(gè)長句子，后半部分的動(dòng)詞排比并不難處理，相反，前面兩個(gè)動(dòng)詞liberated和shuttled相對難處理，尤其是liberated，修飾的內(nèi)容較長。遇到這種情況，我喜歡把長句子拆短，把修飾的部分單獨(dú)處理。這樣一來，原來很緊密的修飾結(jié)構(gòu)就會(huì)打散，句子的節(jié)奏也會(huì)變得更輕快。如果要添加小短句，有兩種最方便的辦法，第一種增加動(dòng)詞，因?yàn)樾《叹涞暮诵木褪莿?dòng)詞。動(dòng)詞就好像雨滴或者是雪花中心的小灰塵，雖然很小，但是能給蒸汽提供附著的點(diǎn)。第二種就是增加邏輯關(guān)系詞，把隱含的邏輯關(guān)系顯化出來。

They could be liberated from the genomes of organisms where they had been trapped for millennia這一部分，liberated其實(shí)是結(jié)果，trapped是產(chǎn)生結(jié)果之前的狀態(tài)。所以修飾和被修飾部分之間的關(guān)系，可以看做時(shí)間先后關(guān)系或者前后對比關(guān)系?？紤]到這一點(diǎn)，我先寫之前，再寫之后，然后點(diǎn)明兩者對比關(guān)系。就得出了“只是千萬年來禁錮在基因組中的一部分，相反，基因已經(jīng)能從基因組中提取出來”，稍作修改后，順應(yīng)前文，與前文構(gòu)成遞進(jìn)。

這樣一句話就被拆分成兩句話，更容易理解。

第二個(gè)翻譯的難點(diǎn)，就是本文題目啦。think about和think in。這種用法，是英文獨(dú)有的文字游戲，是讓人會(huì)心一笑，覺得英文很可愛又很調(diào)皮的用法。類似的說法我在之前某篇Vital Speech of the Day上也看到過，原文忘記了，大概是We need to use our brains to think about things, instead of think of them. 我當(dāng)時(shí)的翻譯是“有些事，我們要用腦子思考，不能只惦記著?！彪m然意思出來了，卻丟掉了英文里的小把戲。這一段也是一樣，雖然能把原意表達(dá)出來，卻沒能在翻譯中再現(xiàn)文字游戲，英文中同用一個(gè)think，而中文里卻很難找到有同一個(gè)字的詞語，分別對應(yīng)需要思考的問題和解決問題的思路。如果有人能想到，一定要告訴我。

譯文如下：

科學(xué)的出發(fā)點(diǎn)是了解自然，而科技的出發(fā)點(diǎn)是掌控自然。重組DNA的實(shí)現(xiàn)，使遺傳學(xué)從一門科學(xué)變成了一項(xiàng)科技?；蛞呀?jīng)不再是抽象概念，不再只是千萬年來禁錮在基因組中的一部分，相反，基因已經(jīng)能從基因組中提取出來，在物種間轉(zhuǎn)移，并進(jìn)行復(fù)制、提純、擴(kuò)充、縮減、修改、重排、變異、混合、配對、剪切、貼合、編輯。在人類手上，它們呈現(xiàn)出無限可能。至此，基因已經(jīng)不只是研究的課題，而變成了研究的工具。就好像小孩在長大的過程中會(huì)恍然大悟，原來語言的作用力是雙向的，人的思想可以用語言表達(dá)出來，而語言反過來也能對思想產(chǎn)生影響。重組DNA技術(shù)的出現(xiàn)，讓遺傳學(xué)的語言（基因）也變成了雙向的。生物學(xué)家耗時(shí)幾十年，想要探尋基因的本質(zhì)--而現(xiàn)在可以利用基因反過來探尋生物學(xué)本質(zhì)。簡言之，我們已經(jīng)進(jìn)步了，基因從“問題”變成了“思路”。

From the Gene Page 244:

It was an inverted fable: an academic Goliath versus a pharmaceutical David, one lumbering, powerful, handicapped by size, the other nimble, quick, adept at dancing around rules.

這一段主要考慮了中文讀者的接受度。inverted fable直接用故事梗概，“小個(gè)子羊倌打敗巨人格利亞”，簡單明了，直接給了主角和結(jié)局。后面的小詞都處理成了四字結(jié)構(gòu)。這是一個(gè)個(gè)人習(xí)慣，如果原文復(fù)雜難懂，我習(xí)慣翻譯成簡單易懂的，如果原文簡單淺顯，我又習(xí)慣翻譯成討巧順口的。當(dāng)然，前提是跟原文的語言風(fēng)格不沖突。

譯文如下

這簡直就是巨人不敵羊倌的翻版嘛：學(xué)術(shù)界的巨人單挑制藥界小個(gè)子，一個(gè)孔武有力，五大三粗，可是反應(yīng)遲鈍，另一個(gè)機(jī)敏靈活，凌波微步，而且擅長鉆空子使巧勁。