第三人与第三者

　　众所周知，法律上的“第三人”其英语译名不是“the third person”而是“the third party”。那么，现代“法制文学”下“第三者文学”分支中的主人公（当然还有主人婆）即“第三者”，该怎样用英语表达呢？

　　有同志也把上述“第三者”译成“the third party”了。但那样译是不贴切的，因为“第三人”大于而不等于“第三者”，或者说“第三者”是“第三人”属下的具体的、特殊的个体。

　　因此，就下决心睁大眼睛，从英语原作中去寻觅“第三者”的表达法。结果总算找到了——‘the third man’。可惜没有把它记下来存档归案，因此也就没有书面材料为此作证。前几天又看到了“第三者”的英语表达法——“the other woman”。这回，接受了前此的教训，就不厌其烦，把上下文一古脑儿全都照录不误。谨转抄如下，以飨读者：

　　She also has a married lover, which makes her the portly of The New Other Woman...

　　Richardson, 47, a professor at his State University, is married and says she has never served as anyone's Other Woman, old model or new.

　　In general, she found, the Other Woman, of today is her pursuing a promising career or trying to get past the turmoil of a divorce.

　　Richardson found that this happed even to veteran Other Women on their third or fourth affair. The single woman who falls in 1ove with a married man often creates a private culture of Shared jokes "mouthiversaris," and a scrapbook or photo album that takes on a "semi-sacred" character by affirming a relationship that cannot be made public.

　　The author believes that the number of Other Women 1ikely to keep rising.

　　As women enter the work force they have more opportunities for affairs and as they get older, there are fewer marriageable men—the age group 40 to 44 contains 233 single women  for every 100 single men. But the new Other Women seem to be just as disenchanted with their married men as the old Other Women. Richardson says that "the overwhelming majority of those she interviewed said they would not advise any woman to get involved with a married man.

　　—Time, January 20, 1986, p. 42

　　由此可见，把“第三者”译成“the other woman”是有英语实践根据的。但是，有一点必须注意——否则要犯大错误。因为妇女半边天，在第三者中妇女充其量也不过半数，要是把“第三者”一律译成“the other woman”岂不是往女同胞脸上抹黑。故曰：“第三者”的英语译为“the other （wo）man”。