英文長句中的句子成分之間，從語法上說，有主有從;從修辭上說，有順有逆;從安排上說，有先有后;從結(jié)構(gòu)上說，有內(nèi)有外;從意思上說，有輕有重。理清上述

　　關(guān)系，由外到內(nèi)，逐層翻譯，這就是黃龍先生總結(jié)出的剝皮法(sentence-peeling)。下面是用剝皮法翻譯長句的一個(gè)實(shí)例：

　　Behold! That golden sea with dazzling waves mountain-high—an immensity of wheat field for three day's fly, where my father stands shoulder-high, my elder brother exposing only his head, my granny falling into the sea upon her tread, above me golden billows surging like a crest of hundred feet and I hold my breath, jumping two times and three, which ends in a failure to reach the ears of wheat!

　　這是一段描寫“麥浪”的寫景文，全段就是一句話，用韻文寫成，景中有人，借人寫景，借景詠人，人景互相烘托，感情油然而生。妙不可言的是全段找不出“喜悅”一詞，而內(nèi)心深處蘊(yùn)藏著的對豐收的無限喜悅卻分明洋溢于字里行間。人物出現(xiàn)的順序安排得更為巧妙，不是按照尊卑長幼的次序，而是按照身材的高矮次序，以此來襯托出麥子的高低。翻譯時(shí)應(yīng)遵循作者的安排，不可擅自變動(dòng)。該句從結(jié)構(gòu)上講有內(nèi)、中、外三層：

　　翻譯時(shí)應(yīng)按上述層次依次剝離，不可越軌，而且需用韻文譯出，以符合原文風(fēng)格。

　　請看黃龍先生提供的譯文：

　　君不見，那海洋金黃一片，波光耀眼，浪比山高——浩瀚無垠的麥田，縱是鳥兒也得飛三天，爸爸置身麥田間，麥兒高的可齊肩，哥哥來到麥田間，只能露出一頭尖，奶奶踏上這麥田，卷入麥浪看不見。頭上金濤萬丈起，似峰巔。屏住呼吸我跳三跳，還是沾不上麥穗的邊。

　　在此介紹的剝皮法大多是針對英譯漢而言的，漢譯英時(shí)則往往要反其道而行之，即把漢語的松散句或流水句按照它們內(nèi)部的邏輯關(guān)系轉(zhuǎn)換成相應(yīng)的英語復(fù)合句或長句，如：

　　在這些時(shí)候我可以附和著笑，掌柜是決不責(zé)備的。而且掌柜見了孔乙己，也每每這樣問他，引人發(fā)笑。

　　At such times I could join in the laughter with no danger of a dressing-down from my boss. In fact he always put such questions to Kong Yiji himself, to raise a laugh.

　　老栓正在專心走路，忽然吃了一驚，遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)地看見一條丁字街，明明白白橫著。他便退了幾步，尋找一家關(guān)著門的鋪?zhàn)?，蹩進(jìn)檐下，靠門立住了。

　　Absorbed in his walking, Old Shuan was startled when he saw the cross road lying distinctly ahead of him. He walked back a few steps to stand under the eaves of a shop in front of its closed door.

　　有下象棋者，久而無聲響，排闥視之，闃不見人，原來他們是在門后角里扭做一團(tuán)，一個(gè)人騎在另一個(gè)人的身上，在他的口里挖車呢。被挖者不敢出聲，出聲則口張，口張則車被挖回，挖回則必悔棋，悔棋則不得勝。

　　Once there were two players, whose long silence made some man of curiosity open the door to see what the matter was. In the extreme quietness neither was secn at first, later they were found grappling with each other—one over the other behind the door. The one who got the upper hand was trying to dig his chariot out from the other's mouth, so the latter was unable to make any noise, for he would have to open his mouth if he tried to, and, if he opened his mouth, the chariot would be taken out. And the chariot being taken back, his opponent would certainly make a retraction, which would cause him difficulty in winning the game.

　　嚴(yán)格說來，翻譯方法是不能機(jī)械套用的，正如錢歌川先生所指出的：“翻譯無一定的方法。同樣一句話，十個(gè)人也許可以翻譯出十種不同的譯文來。所謂戲法人人會(huì)變，各有巧妙不同?！痹鰟h也好，轉(zhuǎn)換也好，一切都得視實(shí)際情況而定。所以，要想提高翻譯水平，除了了解基本的翻譯原則和技巧外，主要就是靠多實(shí)踐，多積累，一勞永逸的方法是沒有的。