翻译题目

《本草纲目》(The Compendium of Materia Medica)是明代（the Ming Dynasty）著名的医学家李时珍所著。这部著作近乎200万字，记载药物(medical substance) 1892种。除了中草药（Chinese herhal medicine)，该书也包含了动物和矿物质作为药物的记载。《本草纲目》堪称中医史上最完整的医书，对各种药物的名称、气味、形态等都做了详尽的介绍。它被翻译成20多种语言并在全世界广为流传。即便现在，人们还常常将它用作医学参考书。

表达难点

1.第1句中“著名的医学家”和“李时珍”所指为同一个人，故将前者处理为后者的同位语,表达为Li Shizhen, a famous medical scientist。
2.第2句为并列的两个汉语短句，合为一句翻译的处理办法是将其中一个句子“介词化”,将前半句用介词短语With almost 2 million Chinese characters来表达，符合英语中多用介词短语的表达习惯。句首的“这部著作”(the book)移到第2个分句中作主语。
3.第3句中的“作为药物的”可处理为“动物和矿物质”的后置定语，用过去分词短语used as medical substances表被动。
4.第4句“《本草纲目》堪称……最完整的医书，对各种药物……做了详尽的介绍”可直译为并列结构The book is regarded as... and introduces in detail...，但因句子成分太多而显繁冗，故可对该句进行拆译，处理成两个独立的句子。第2个分句“对各种药物……做了详尽的介绍”可增译主语the book，也可转换宾语“介绍”(introduction)为主语，用被动语态，整句译作 Detailed introductions... are given..., including...。
5.最后一句可按汉语句式直译为Even now people still often use it as a reference book in medicine, 但如将主语转换成it，将句子转换成被动语态，则能与全文的论述视角更为统一。
参考译文

The Compendium of Materia Medica is written by Li Shizhen, a famous medical scientist in the Ming Dynasty. With almost 2 million Chinese characters, the book lists 1,892 kinds of medical substances. Besides Chinese herbal medicines, it includes animals and minerals used as medical substances. The Compendium of Materia Medica is regarded as the most complete medical book in the history of traditional Chinese medicine. Detailed introductions of all the medical substances are given in the book, including name, smell, appearance, etc. It has been translated into more than 20 languages and spreads all over the world. Even now it is still often used as a reference book in medicine.