§ 5. Сослагательное наклонение

В ряде случаев перевод сослагательного наклонения на русский язык представляет известную трудность. А именно:

1. Форма would + инфинитив, если она употреблена в простом предложении с подразумевающимся условием, переводится на рус­ский язык глаголом в сослагательном наклонении.

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Any interruption to oil supplies would be hugely damaging to the world economy. Любые перебои в поставках нефти нанесли бы огромный ущерб мировой экономике.

Однако, в тех случаях, когда описывается содержание какого-нибудь внесенного, но еще не принятого проекта, плана или пред­ложения, в русском языке принято употребление будущего времени изъявительного наклонения.

It was recommended that a special report should be submitted. This report would give a detailed account of the activities of the committee and their views on the situation. Рекомендуется предста­вить специальный доклад. В этом докладе будет сделан подроб­ный отчет о деятельности этой комиссии и представлена ее точка зрения по данному вопросу.

2. Трудность при переводе представляет также бессоюзное подчинение условных предложений с частичной или полной инверсией.

Had this policy been adopted, the subsequent history of the treaty might well have been quite different. Если бы такая политика была принята, последующая судьба этого договора вполне могла бы быть совершенно другой.

Примечание. 1. Часто не учитывается стилистическая окраска, лите­ратурный стиль инвертированного предложения, и предложение переводит­ся также с бессоюзным подчинением, что в русском языке характерно как раз для разговорного стиля.

Had it been as easy as that, no special negotiations would have been necessary. Если бы это было так просто, не понадобилось бы никаких специальных переговоров (литературный стиль). (Будь это так просто... — разговорный стиль.)

2. Условие может быть выражено не только полным придаточным пред­ложением, но и другими способами, например: if + причастие (см. «При­частие» , с. 40), или сочетание предлогов given, provided и др. с существи­тельным (см. «Причастия в функции союзов и предлогов», с. 54), или со­ставной предлог but for + существительное.

But for their willingness to assist, this decision would never have been arrived at. Если бы не их желание помочь, это решение так и не было бы принято.

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3. Форма were + инфинитив употребляется в придаточных усло­вия для обозначения маловероятного условия, относящегося к бу­дущему времени (еще менее вероятного, чем форма, омонимичная Past Indefinite); переводится глаголом в сослагательном наклонении. В русском языке нет грамматических форм для передачи различных градаций маловероятности, и поэтому они передаются, где это нуж­но, лексически (словами если вдруг/почему-нибудь/паче чаяния, об­стоятельственными сочетаниями с предлогом при и др.).

Such a system is bound to be unpopular among most Europeans, and if the Federal party were to support it, they would undoubtedly weaken their chances in the forthcoming federal elections. Такая сис­тема наверняка не будет пользоваться популярностью среди большинства европейцев, и если Федеральная партия вдруг (почему-либо) стала бы ее поддерживать, она, несомненно, уменьшила бы свои шансы на победу на предстоящих выборах.

4. Придаточные предложения условия с формой should (для всех лиц) + инфинитив при переводе на русский язык обычно начинают­ся словами в случае если бы В английском языке такие предло­жения часто бывают инвертированными, с опущенным союзом.

The resolution, passed unanimously by the Council members on March 2nd, promises the « severest consequences» should Iraq again hinder the UN's arm inspectors (= if Iraq should hinder). Резолюция, единогласно принятая всеми членами Совета безопасности ООН, предупреждает о « самых серьезных последствиях» в случае, если Ирак вновь стал бы чинить препятствия работе инспекторов ООН по разоружению

Проанализируйте и переведите следующие предложения.

1. The Saudis are well aware that their oil revenues would increase ifthey boosted production, because any fall in price would be more thanoffset by an increase in volume.

2. It would be dangerous folly to write off as insignificant the revivalof nazi-type extremism in Europe.

3. In preparation for their meeting tomorrow it would be a very goodidea if Trades Union Congress leaders would make a point of meeting therank-and-file workers who are lobbying Parliament today.

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4. If the Saudi royal family, in particular, were overthrown, it wouldsend oil markets into turmoil.

5. This veto provision reflects the conviction of those who drafted theCharter that the United Nations would be unable to take an important ini­tiative for the maintenance of peace and security unless there was una­nimity among the big powers, and that to attempt so would be a futilegesture endangering the organization.

6. The blacks believe that if white children had been involved in thetragedy it would have received huge public and press attention.

7. Iraq wants a date for sanctions to end. They could have ended longsince if Iraq had not been trying to rearm and Unscom (UNSCOM —United Nations Security Council observers mission) had therefore beenready to declare the country free of forbidden weapons.

8. Had there been no international safety net supplied by an act of theU.S. Congress, the Brazilian President might have seen fit to work harder.

9. The former Yugoslavia's people have lived together for centurieswith greater and lesser degrees of conflict but not constant «cleansing»of peoples from their land. Had they experienced nothing but that, theirnations would be homogeneous today, not endlessly diverse.

10. David Hare's play «Plenty» opened to poor notices and wouldhave lasted a fortnight had he not been in a position to «nurse» it.Eventually it reached Broadway and became a film.

11. Turkey's prime minister, who has been a hawk on foreign policyissues, argued that were it not for external inteference, Turkey's so-calledKurdish problem could «easily» be solved by planned economic andeducational improvements.

12. After tending to flower arrangements and throwing lavish parties,she takes up the task of hard-bitten negotiator — one who barks at topexecutives as if they were naughty children.

13. Accounting for about 40 per cent of OPEC production, SaudiArabia currently enjoys enormous leverage over the market and its oil-producing colleagues. If it were to cut back sharply, however, sagging oilprices would almost certainly jump up once again.

14. The major U.S. auto companies lost an astonishing $4.2 billionlast year. Of the three, only General Motors is likely to show a profit thisyear. If the two weaker companies were to collapse, hundreds of thou­sands of jobs would be lost in the auto industry alone, and perhaps a mil­lion jobs, taking into account the industries that produce materials for carssuch as steel and glass.

15. One of their fears is that the auto industry, if given relief, would

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increase prices rather than production. Another argument that they have used is that even if production were to increase, General Motors would pick up roughly 60 per cent of the lost Japanese sales and that would not provide enough help for Chrysler and Ford.

16. Such extraordinary growth of the political correctness industrywould quickly slacken //the driving force behind it — the language ofpolitical correctness — were to go out of fashion.

17. Any proposal to go ahead with this disgusting weapon should bevigorously combatted. It may be immensely profitable to the chemical in­dustry, but if ever it were used, it would bring an agonising death to thou­sands.

18. How would the West respond if one day China, say, were to carryout air strikes against an Indian government fighting to prevent its Mus­lim-majority province of Jammu & Kashmir from seceding?

19. The Iraqis see themselves trapped. But the Security Council is noless trapped: were it to bend in the face of Iraqi belligerence, it would de­stroy its remaining credibility.

20. To permit the programs of the new administration to be imposedupon the people is to embolden the ultra-right. Should this program becarried out, we shall then face a serious change in the situation that couldopen the road to a fascist America.

21. If Bonn should decide to buy less gas, it would certainly softenU.S. opposition. But if the Germans conclude they need all the gas theyare slated to get, there could be trouble.

22. Should the Tories succeed in finding another candidate, we mayyet see the spectacle of the three brands of Tories fighting each other forthe votes.

23. Today's talks will certainly lay down guide-lines for a Tory Mani­festo should an early election materialize

24. Should any appeal be needed, the Prime Minister will have op­portunities for personal chats with backsliders at a party for MPs of pre­vious Parliaments which he will give at 10 Downing Street tonight.

25. Economies depend less on oil than they did. The development ofmarkets to trade oil and oil futures means that price signals are relayedfaster and more efficiently. Oil-producing capacity outside OPEC couldbe brought back on stream should oil prices ever flip up again.

26. They had a special reason for preferring short-time — the lownormal wastage at its works — but, again, fear of a strike if redundancieswere declared also influenced the company.

27. Euro-MPs have been emboldened to go after the Commission

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members as they would never have dared to do in the days of Jacques Delors.

28. If the agreement in Berlin last week was a «success», then theworld could be forgiven for wondering quite what a failure would havelooked like

29. U.S. Embassy sources stressed that the visas would never havebeen issued to the five officers, who were presented as diplomats goingfor routine consultations with their own embassy, if their military functionhad been known

30. There would not have been a review if the estimate's conclusionshad totally supported the administration's charges.

31. Had the election campaign been still in progress, the wagesqueeze might have become an issue.

32. But for import restrictions, quotas and American-imposed embar­goes, Anglo-Russian trade would be larger than it is today.

33. But Solana's charm — the perpetual smile on his bearded, be­spectacled face, and his tactile Mediterranean manners — wouldn 't workif it was entirely insincere.

34. If the IMF were not refinanced, it could not bail out Brazil andBrazil would go the way of the Asian tigers, with serious repercussionsfor the US and world economy.

35. It is not possible to devise experiments to test whether, say, USgovernment would be less susceptible to institutional governmentgridlock if it abandoned the separation of powers, or whether communismcould have survived in the USSR had reforms been instigated ageneration earlier.

36. Were it not for circular highway that defines the limits of thecapital, it would be impossible to know where Paris ends and Boulogne-Billancourt begins.