涉外公证书翻译的常见问题
一、 公证书首部(标题)的翻译。(heading)
公证书可译作“notarization”或“notarial certificate”,一般不应做改动。具体的,比如‘毕业公证书’、‘收养公证书’等可以译成‘notarization of diploma’和‘notarization of adoption’,也可以就直接译成“notarization”或“notarial certificate”
标题翻译过程中应特别注意以下四个问题:
1.标题字母必须全部大写(capitalize all letters)或大写标题中每个单词的第一个字母(capitalize the very first letter of each word);但
2.标题中的冠词(articles)及少于5个字母的连词(conjunctions)、介词(prepositions)不应大写,除非位于句首;
3.标题中不用引号(quotation marks)及句号(periods);
4.标题要在公证书上方中央位置(center top);
受公证书类型限制,在公证书标题中一般不会出现象“between”这样长的连词或介词。
二、公证书正文的翻译(body)
1.“兹证明”的翻译:我国公证书公证词多以“兹证明……”开头,其英文翻译(english equivalent)应该是:“this is to certify that…”
2.公证词翻译应忠实于原文(conformity)。下面是一篇翻译不准确的译文,你能看出问题在哪里吗?
this is to certify that liu, who is male and was born on october 15, 1982, and zheng, who is female and was born on october 19, 1985, registered marriage on october 1,2008 at the registration office of civil affairs department, hangzhou city, zhejiang province.
这篇译文的问题出在时态上面。 “registered”一词为动词的过去式,登记结婚的事实表明的是过去发生的事情,而不能证明现在的婚姻状况。他们现在也许是离异(divorced)、或者分居(separate)等。这样便不能满足法言法语的周密性、准确性要求。因此,笔者认为将时态该为现在完成时态,以表达“一直持续到现在的状态”要妥一些。缺陷之二在于译文不够简洁。建议改为:
this is to certify that liu (male, born on october 15, 1982) and zheng (female, born on october 19, 1985) have been married since on october 1, 2008
at the registration office of civil affairs department, hangzhou city, zhejiang province.
还有,有的公证员在翻译诸如毕业证公证书时,将《毕业证》等按照中文的习惯在翻译中加上书名号,使人觉得十分滑稽。我们知道在英语中是没有书名号的,在严肃的公证文书翻译中出现这样的错误是很可笑的。正确的方法是将汉语中应该加书名号的部分斜写(italicized)、划下划线(underlined)或大写(capitalized)
三、涉外公证书的落款(close)
涉外公证书译文正下方须注明:
1.公证员(notary)姓名和签名(signature)或盖章(stamp);
2.公证处名称及盖章;
3.“中华人民共和国”(the people’s republic of china)字样;
4.日期。日期的格式一般为月/日/年。
此外,在出国留学经济担保(affidavit of financial support)中通常有担保人(financial sponsor)如下誓词:
i certify that i will provide tuition fees, living expenses for my son lee during his stay in the united states. if he requires any further monetary
assistance, i will provide this as well.
通常,公证处需要担保人出具财产证明或银行存款证明(bank savings statement)。所有这些均附于公证材料后。在涉及财产证明时,有时会遇到个体工商户(individual business)的营业执照(business license)。在逐项翻译中会遇到如“某某市/县工商行政管理局”印章。笔者认为不应译作“commercial and industrial administration bureau of city (prefecture) /county x”,而应译为“x city (prefecture)/county administration of industry and commerce”。因为,“administration”一词本身便有“executive branch of a government”的意思,即“行政机关、局(署)等”。
有时,公证机关还对材料的译本的真实性和可靠性予以公证,即“翻译件与原件一致公证”(notarization of the conformity of translated copy and the original)。最后一点,在涉及“毕业证书公证”时,最后一句通常是:“原件上的校长某某某和毕业学校某某大学之印签均属实”。周帮友老师的实用英语应用文大全中将“属实”二字译为“genuine”。笔者认为通译该是“authentic”。因为“authentic”一词在法律英语中常用。比如:“作准证书”是“authentic instrument”,“作准文件”是“authentic document”。《麦克米伦字典》中将“authentic”一词解释为:“being what it purports to be”,并且给出了一个搭配例子即:“an authentic document”;而且,还有的书中,将“公证书”译为:“authentic deed”或“authentic act”。由此可见,用“authentic”一词更准确一些,更与公证书语言靠近一些。现将上面一句汉语译出以供参考:“both the signature of president xxx and the stamp of the graduation school yyy university are found to be authentic. ”