更新时间:2017-12-02
Such is the plight of foreign language interpreters and translators who have wrestled with statements by Donald Trump in his bid for the US presidency. His NSFW language, malapropisms, chants in B flat and twisted logic have perplexed translators around the world.
美国总统候选人特朗普的言论对于语言翻译者来说简直就是噩梦。他的NSFW言论,词语误用,魔性B降调,逻辑混乱,让全世界的译员抓狂。
Trump’s rhetoricis notoriousfor being vague and evasive, but the haziness is often lost in translation. “A wink and a nudge from head to Artioli-shod toe, he exhales a cloud of words in which listeners see their chosen shape: a castle, a pony, a grinning skull.” This is how Tokyo-based freelance writer and translator Agnes Kaku described Trump’s rhetorical style on LinkedIn.
川普的措辞一向以模糊不清闪烁其词闻名,但是翻译中经常失去了含糊性。“从头到脚都是戏,听众简直云里雾里。”住在东京的作家和译者Agnes Kaku这样描述川普的措辞风格。
Much has been made of Trump’s comments in a surfaced Access Hollywood video about making advances on a woman without her consent. Trump dismissed the comments as “locker talk,” but foreign language translations of the lewd banter have only made the remarks sound worse.
川普十年前的轻浮言论被曝光后,他轻描淡写地称之为“更衣室聊天(locker talk)”,但是这些话翻译成外语后,听起来更不堪入耳了。
According to Victor Mair, a professor of Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania, the sentence, “I moved on her like a bitch, and I could not get there, and she was married,” became “Wǒ xing zhuī biǎozi yīyng zhuī tā, dn mi nng chnggōng,” on people.cn, which means: “I pursued her like a whore / prostitute / harlot / strumpet, but I couldn’t succeed.”
根据宾夕法尼亚大学中文教授Victor Mair的介绍,原来的句子“I moved on her like a bitch, and I could not get there, and she was married”被人民网翻成了“我像追婊子一样追她,但没能成功。”
Instead of “I moved on her like a bitch,” News.sina.com had Trump saying, “Wǒ du tā cǎiqǔle qiángli de jngōng,” or “I made a strong attack on her.”
新浪网则把“I moved on her like a bitch”翻成了“我对她采取了强烈的进攻。”
Another news site translated the sentence into, “Wǒ xing dudi dngf yīyng kojn tā,” or “I treated her like a slut to get close to her,” Mair wrote on the blog Language Log.
其他媒体有翻译成“我像对待荡妇一样靠近她,”Mair在博客Language Log中写道。
Translators say they often dodge Trump’s crude language altogether, either because they have no choice or to get around internal censors.
翻译者们说他们经常要避开川普的糙话,有时是没办法的事,有时是为了规避内部审核。
Odd but telling words like “bigly” and “braggadocious” caught Spanish translators so off-guard that they skipped right over them, according toAida González del álamo, who translated Hillary Clinton in the debates.
像“bigly”(大发了)和“braggadocious”(牛逼哄哄)这样罕见但是生动的词汇让西语翻译者措手不及,于是只能跳过去,在辩论中翻译希拉里发言的Aida González del álamo说。
In another example, Chinese translators interpreted the word “pussy,” which does not have a direct translation in Chinese, as: “Nǐ xiǎng zěnme zu dōu xng, bāoku mō tāmen de yǐnsī bwi,” or “You can do whatever you want, including touching / feeling / stroking / groping their private parts.”
还有个例子,“pussy”在中文里没有直接对应的翻译,比如 “你想怎么做都行,包括摸她们的隐私部位。”(注:这句也来自川普不雅言论,实际上pussy可以找到对应翻译。)
In the third debate, Reinaldo made a snap decision to use the softer phrase “Qu mujer más desagradable” (which translates to “What an unpleasant woman”) for Trump’s “nasty woman” comment. He tried to make up for it by using a disgusted tone.
在第三场辩论中,翻译者将川普的“nasty woman”(下贱女人)翻成了“Qu mujer más desagradable”(一个多么令人不悦的女人),简直在给川普洗白……