摘要：有人说，幸福就是一种感觉。这话没错。在农耕社会，风调雨顺、庄稼丰收是幸福的，再加上人丁兴盛、六畜兴旺则更是幸福的；耕读传家之家族，有人金榜题名，整个家族的人是幸福的，荣耀地幸福着。而在如今这物质主义泛滥的年代，每个人都在追逐着名和利，倘若突然一问：你幸福吗?相

下面这个段落是《中国翻译》杂志刊登的蔡立坚先生译文节选。原文如下：

有人说，幸福就是一种感觉。这话没错。在农耕社会，风调雨顺、庄稼丰收是幸福的，再加上人丁兴盛、六畜兴旺则更是幸福的；耕读传家之家族，有人金榜题名，整个家族的人是幸福的，荣耀地幸福着。而在如今这物质主义泛滥的年代，每个人都在追逐着名和利，倘若突然一问：你幸福吗?相信很多人都会回不过神来。因为，过多的压力已经消蚀了我们的幸福感。

在翻译“在农耕社会”时，可以翻译成In a bygone agricultural society，但译者增加了bygone会更好。“风调雨顺、庄稼丰收是幸福的”中的“是幸福的”可以翻译成be happy，但实际上它的完整意思是风调雨顺和庄稼丰收可能会给这个社会带来幸福，那么译者译成...would bring happiness to a whole community会更加贴切，意思更完整。

通常我们见到“而在如今这物质主义泛滥的年代，每个人都在追逐着名和利”时，多数会把“在如今这物质主义泛滥的年代”译成介词短语做状语，把“每个人都在追逐着名和利”译成一个句子，但译者把这两部分合译，作为整个句子的状语，即However, in today's materialistic...be in a hot pursuit of fame and wealth,这样的译文简洁又紧凑。下面是译文：

Some say happiness is but a feeling, and nothing could be truer. In a bygone agricultural society, favorable weather and bumper harvests would bring happiness to a whole community, and a feeling of being doubly blessed would prevail if there was also a baby boom accompanied by thriving livestock populations. For a clan that valued farming and letters, all its members would be feeling on top of the world if one of them was successful in an imperial exam. However, in today's materialistic world where everyone seems to be in a hot pursuit of fame and wealth, people would be at a loss if asked “Are you happy?” Indeed, too much stress has eroded our sense of happiness.

来源：一品姑苏城