8岁的帕科放学以后气冲冲地回到家里，进门以后使劲地跺脚。他的父亲正在院子里干活，看到帕科生气的样子，就把他叫了过来，想和他聊聊。
帕科不情愿地走到父亲身边，气呼呼地说：“爸爸，我现在非常生气。华金以后甭想再得意了。”
帕科的父亲一面干活，一面静静地听儿子诉说。帕科说：“华金让我在朋友面前丢脸，我现在特别希望他遇上几件倒霉的事情。”
他父亲走到墙角，找到一袋木炭，对帕科说：“儿子，你把前面挂在绳子上的那件白衬衫当作华金，把这个塑料袋里的木炭当作你想象中的倒霉事情。你用木炭去砸白衬衫，每砸中一块，就象征着华金遇到一件倒霉的事情。我们看看你把木炭砸完了以后，会是什么样子。”
帕科觉得这个游戏很好玩，他拿起木炭就往衬衫上砸去。可是衬衫挂在比较远的绳子上，他把木炭扔完了，也没有几块扔到衬衫上。
父亲问帕科：“你现在觉得怎么样？”
他说：“累死我了，但我很开心，因为我扔中了好几块木炭，白衬衫上有几个黑印子了。”
父亲看到儿子没有明白他的用意，于是便让帕科去照照镜子。帕科在一面大镜子里看到自己满身都是黑炭，从脸上只能看到牙齿是白的。
父亲这时说道：“你看，白衬衫并没有变得特别脏，而你自己却成了一个‘黑人’。你想在别人身上发生很多倒霉事情，结果最倒霉的事却落到自己身上了。有时候，我们的坏念头虽然在别人身上兑现了一部分，别人倒霉了，但是它们也同样在我们身上留下了难以消除的污迹。”
摘自阿根廷《生活》
参考译文：
A White Shirt and Black Charcoal
华中农业大学 龚献静 刘万云 译注
Fuming with rage, Pak aged 8 returned back after class. The moment he entered the door to his home, he began to stamp around in anger. At the towering anger of Pak, his father who was busy with something in the courtyard asked him over, ready to soothe him with a chat.
Despite reluctance, Pak dragged himself to his father and said in awful resentment, “Dad, I’m burning with anger now and I’m determined to take Hugh down a peg or two one day.”
While remaining at his work, Pak’s father lent an ear to the son. Pak continued, “today Hugh had me make a fool of myself in front of my friends, so my GREatest wish is that woes betide him repeatedly.”
His father walked to a corner where he got a bag of charcoal which he then handed to Pak and said, “Boy, just take the white shirt on the string ahead as Hugh and the charcoal as the woes which you imagine will befall Huge and fling the charcoal to smudge the shirt. One stain will mean one nuisance to be encountered by Hugh, let’s see what will become of the shirt when you use up the charcoal.”
Pak believed there would be a lot of fun in the game, so he readily did as his father had told him. However, as the shirt on the string was a little bit far, he had only a few pieces of charcoal touched the intended object when all of it ran out.
Then the father asked the son, “How do you feel now?”
He said, “I’m tired to death, but I’ve got tons of joy at the few smuts on the white shirt which have been made by my charcoal.”
Because the son was still in the dark about his father’s purpose, the father asked him to take a look at himself in front of the mirror, where Pak found himself covered by a coating of soot from head to foot except for his white teeth.
At the moment, the father said, “you see, the white shirt is not unbearably dirty, but you yourself turn out to be ‘black’. In fact, it is more often than not that yourself are subjected to the woes when you wish they betided others. Sometimes, the wishes that you hope others to suffer the most unfortunate things really come true, but at the same time they also bring dishonor to you which can not be removed from your life.”
翻译注解：
一、这是一篇告诉我们做人道理的小文章，比喻生动形象。翻译时要注意说话者的语气——小孩讲英语非正式的特点，要多用些简单生动的口语化词语。例如：
1．“爸爸，我现在非常生气。华金以后甭想再得意了。” 译为：“Dad, I’m burning with anger now and I’m determined to take Hugh down a peg or two one day.” “be burning with anger” 要比译为 “I’m very angry”好。 “take sb. down a peg or two” 是非正式的固定词组，表示“让某人不再得意”。翻译时根据句子所体现的含义加上“be determined to”, 形象地表达了帕科当时的心情。
2． “累死我了，但我很开心……。”译为：“I’m tired to death, but I’ve got tons of joy...”要比译为：“I’m very tired, but I was very happy...” 更生动，并符合小孩说话的特点。
二、在翻译时，不能只从词语的表面意思去找相对应的英语单词，要注意汉语词语所蕴涵的意义，从而在翻译时适当地增词或减词。例如：
1． “想和他聊聊”如果只翻译为 “want to chat with him”就不能表达汉语句子的真正含义,根据上下文爸爸想和他聊聊的目是要知道他为什么生气以使他平静下来，所以应适当增词来表达其含义。文中译为 “ready to soothe him with a chat”就很恰当。
2.最后爸爸的话中重复了许多倒霉的话，根据英语句子的逻辑关系，“别人倒霉了”省略不译。
三、注意选词，在翻译时如果在词典中查一个词就会有很多相对应的英语单词，这时候应根据所翻译文章的文体选出最佳的词。例如：
1． “帕科不情愿地走到父亲身边”中的“不情愿地走到”有很多词表达，如: “unwilling walked over to” 但为生动表达出帕科的心情，译文采用了 “Despite reluctance, Pak dragged himself to his father.”
2. “父亲看到儿子没有明白他的用意”中的“没有明白”可以译成 “be unaware of, do not know” 译文采用了 “be in the dark about sth.”，使语言更加生动形象。
四、汉语和英语用词的习惯不一样，汉语一般不强调词语变化，但英语却要求 “variety of words”。在文中，“倒霉”重复出现很多次，翻译成英语用了 “woe, nuisance, unfortunate things”等不同的词语。
