Declaration of Independence

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Воронеж 2008

Утверждено научно-методическим советом факультета романо-германской филологии от 22 января 2008г., протокол № 1

Рецензент доц. Е.А. Княжева

Пособие подготовлено на кафедре теории перевода и межкультурной коммуникации факультета романо-германской филологии Воронежского государственного университета.

Рекомендуется для студентов юридического факультета. Учебное пособие может использоваться на занятиях по дисциплине «Практикум по переводу» при подготовке переводчиков по программе дополнительного образования «Переводчик в сфере профессиональной коммуникации».

Для дополнительного образования «Переводчик в сфере профессиональной коммуникации»

ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ

В настоящем пособии представлены научные, научно-популярные, газетно-информационные, законодательные тексты, документы физических и юридических лиц, судебные решения и другие тексты по специальности «Юриспруденция».

Цель пособия – научить студентов переводить тексты различных жанров по специальности.

Основное внимание уделено переводу с английского языка на русский, однако пособие также предполагает формирование навыков перевода с русского языка на английский и сопоставительный анализ некоторых жанров текста.

TEXT 1

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson wished to be remembered for three achievements in his public life. He had served as governor of Virginia, as U.S. minister to France, as secretary of state under George Washington, as vice-president in the administration of John Adams, and as president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. On his tombstone, however, which he designed and for which he wrote the inscription, there is no mention of these offices. Rather, it reads that Thomas Jefferson was "author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia" and, as he requested, "not a word more." Historians might want to add other accomplishments – for example, his distinction as an architect, naturalist, and linguist – but in the main they would concur with his own assessment.

Early Life

Jefferson was born at Shadwell in what is now Albemarle County, Va., on Apr. 13, 1743. He treated his pedigree lightly, but his mother, Jane Randolph Jefferson, came from one of the first families of Virginia; his father, Peter Jefferson, was a well-to-do landowner, although not in the class of the wealthiest planters. Jefferson attended the College of William and Mary and then studied law with George Wythe. In 1769 he began six years of service as a representative in the Virginia House of Burgesses. The following year he began building Monticello on land inherited from his father. The mansion, which he designed in every detail, took years to complete, but part of it was ready for occupancy when he married Martha Wayles Skelton on Jan. 1, 1772. They had six children, two of whom survived into adulthood: Martha Washington Jefferson (1772-1836); Jane Randolph Jefferson (1774-75); infant son (1777); Mary Jefferson (1778-1804); Lucy Elizabeth Jefferson (1780-81); Lucy Elizabeth Jefferson (1782-84).

Jefferson's reputation began to reach beyond Virginia in 1774, when he wrote a political pamphlet “A Summary View of the Rights of British America”. Arguing on the basis of natural rights theory, Jefferson claimed that colonial allegiance to the king was voluntary. "The God who gave us life," he wrote, "gave us liberty at the same time: the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them."

Declaration of Independence

Elected to the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, Jefferson was appointed on June 11, 1776, to head a committee of five in preparing the Declaration of Independence. He was its primary author, although his initial draft was amended after consultation with Benjamin Franklin and John Adams and altered both stylistically and substantively by Congress. Jefferson's reference to the voluntary allegiance of colonists to the crown was struck; also deleted was a clause that censured the monarchy for imposing slavery upon America.

Based upon the same natural rights theory contained in “A Summary View”, to which it bears a strong resemblance, the Declaration of Independence made Jefferson internationally famous. Years later that fame evoked the jealousy of John Adams, who complained that the declaration's ideas were "hackneyed." Jefferson agreed; he wrote of the declaration: "Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind."

TEXT 2