The Aswan Dam, for example, stopped the Nile flooding but deprived Egypt of the fertile silt that floods left——all in return for a giant reservoir of disease which is now so full of silt that it barely generates electricity.
翻译是:以阿斯旺大坝为例,它挡住了尼罗河的洪水,但也使埃及失去了洪水冲积的肥沃土壤,换回来的却是一个病态的大水库。现在水库积满泥沙,几乎不能用于发电了。
我的问题是in return for不是“作为...的回报”吗?
却翻译为 回报是一个病态的大水库?
但是如果译为“作为对一个病态的大水库的回报”代入又觉得不通顺。
原文的翻译很正确,有时英中词典的翻译容易使人混淆,不如看英英的词典。 in return for 应该翻译成--以什么作为回报。由于but deprived Egypt of the fertile silt that floods left的原因,所以它的回报是 a giant reservoir of disease which is now so full of silt that it barely generates electricity.不过我到是觉得which所引导的是个非限定性的定语从句,所以应该在disease,which间加逗号,还有后面的silt,that间加逗号。that是reservoir同位语。