环球•译事 | 想入行笔译？听听这6位国际译者怎么说
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本期为第八期，带您了解如何优雅地入行笔译并get优质的工作。来吧，看看这6位国际笔译达人怎么说~~
翻译所有类型的文本
Being in the right place at the right time is how many successful translators entered the field. As a student, author and translator, Lyn Miller-Lachmann took a Portuguese language class in which she got to know a publisher who was looking for a translator for a Portuguese book. With that, Miller-Lachmann’s first translation project was in hand.
许多成功的译者都是在天时地利兼具的情况下入行的。Lyn Miller-Lachmann是一名学生、作家兼译员，她在上葡语课时结识了一名出版商，当时那位出版商正在寻找译员，翻译一本葡语书籍。就这样，Miller-Lachmann的第一单翻译项目到手了。
▲Lyn Miller-Lachmann
Today, she’s working on translation projects for children’s picture books and young adult fiction.
目前，她正在从事童书绘本和青少年虚构作品的翻译项目。
Translator Elisabeth Lauffer, on the other hand, was fascinated with translation from early on. Starting with some lines of Dante in high school, she translated any kind of text, she says, including chainsaw catalogues.
而译者Elisabeth Lauffer很早就对翻译产生了浓厚的兴趣。她说，她最初是在高中时翻译了但丁的一些语句，她什么样的文本类型都翻译，包括电锯手册。
▲Elisabeth Lauffer
“If I can enjoy translating a chainsaw catalogue,” she says she figured, “then I must really enjoy translating.”
她说她认为，“如果我喜欢翻译电锯手册，那我就一定是真的喜欢翻译。”
Despite a rather slow start, Lauffer didn’t get discouraged, and in 2014, she won the Goethe-Institut New York’s Gutekunst Prize for Emerging Translators. She says that she considers receiving the prize a big step in her career, not least because of networking opportunities with publishing world personalities as pa 44 34050 44 15045 0 0 1398 0 0:00:24 0:00:10 0:00:14 2976rt of the award ceremony.
虽然一开始Lauffer起步很慢，但她并没有气馁。2014年，她获得了纽约歌德学院古特孔斯特（德语“美好艺术”）奖的翻译新秀奖。她说，她觉得获得这个奖项是她职业生涯中迈出的一大步，尤其是在颁奖典礼上结识了出版界名人，建立了合作机会。
打出你的知名度
Such networking and making new contacts is an integral part of translators’ daily work, according to those with whom we’ve spoken.
我们从一些译员那里了解到，建立关系网是译者日常工作不可或缺的一部分。
“It’s really all about relationships,” says Allison Markin Powell, a New York-based translator who is co-chair of the PEN America Translation Committee and who launched her own translation database, Japanese Literature in English.
Allison Markin Powell是一位常驻纽约的译者，也是美国笔译委员会的联合主席，她推出了日语文学的英文翻译数据库。Powell说：“维护关系真的很有用。”
▲Allison Markin Powell
“It’s important to meet editors, to get your name out there.”
“认识编辑很重要，要让他们知道你的名字。”
Powell says she started her career as an editorial assistant at a trade publisher, which she found very rewarding. Not only did she meet many people to whom she could pitch translations, but she also gained valuable insights into the business. Important among those insights: a marketing perspective on the publishing sector and an understanding of how rights, licenses, and translation contracts work.
Powell说，她的职业生涯以出版社的助理编辑为起点，她认为这一职位对日后的工作相当有益。Powell不仅认识了许多可以推介翻译作品的人，也获得了关于这个行业的许多宝贵的见解，比如，出版行业的营销视角以及对版权、许可和翻译合同的了解。
加入相关组织拓展人脉，寻求机遇
▲Alta Price
Miller-Lachmann says she advises aspiring translators to get involved in organizations such as PEN International and its localized chapters; the American Association of Literary Translators (ALTA); or the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative. Being a member of such an organization makes it easier to get to know editors and fellow translators, to exchange valuable information about the business.
Miller-Lachmann建议有抱负的译员加入国际笔会及其地方分会、美国文学翻译协会或全球图书馆文学计划等组织。成为这些组织的会员能让你更轻松地结识编辑和其他译员，交流与业务相关的重要信息。
Workshops and translation conferences offer more possibilities to expand one’s network.
工作室和翻译会议更有助于拓展人脉。
Translator Alta Price—who specializes in art, architecture, and design—suggests cultivating both local and global contacts. She especially values a close relationship with her editors, she says, and appreciates what she describes as their constructive criticism.
译员Alta Price擅长艺术、建筑、设计等领域，她建议人际关系不仅限于当地，还要拓展到全球。Alta表示尤其重视与自己的编辑建立密切关系，认为他们提出的建设性意见很重要。
“I’m eager to get feedback on my work,” she tells Publishing Perspectives, “because I get so close to the texts that I can’t possibly know what it’s like to read them from an outside perspective.”
她在接受《出版视角》采访时表示：“我很期待收到工作的反馈，因为我过于沉浸在文本之中，可能无法了解外人读这些内容的感受。”
For her, Price says, a good translation involves close teamwork with the editor.
在Price看来，好的译作离不开与编辑的协作。
花时间学习一种文化
▲Miller-Lachmann
For inexperienced translators, Miller-Lachmann emphasizes reading a lot–both the original text and translations.
对于缺乏经验的译者，Miller-Lachmann强调要大量阅读原文和译文。
She suggests comparing versions of the same book handled by multiple translators to get a better awareness of the challenges of translation.
她建议将多个译者翻译的同一本书的不同版本进行比较，以更好地意识到翻译挑战之所在。
Alex Zucker, a translator from Czech and co-chair with Powell of the PEN America Translation Committee, also stresses improving one’s writing style, but with an eye to getting a thoroughgoing knowledge of the culture(s) behind the language you’re working in.
来自捷克的译者Alex Zucker和Powell共同担任美国笔会翻译委员会的主席。Zucker也强调要改进写作风格，但同时要着眼于深入了解你所从事的语言背后的文化。
He encourages fellow translators to spend a lot of time in a country relevant to one’s translation work, really diving into the language and familiarizing oneself with the culture.
他鼓励翻译同行们在一个与自己翻译工作相关的国家多生活一段时间，真正深入语言并熟悉文化。
“The main skill of a translator,” Zucker says, ” is to capture the style of the original text and create an equivalent in the language you’re translating into.”
Zucker说：“译者的主要技能是抓住原文的风格，用译入语创造一个对等体。”
Needless to say, a profound knowledge of the cultural and linguistic background of a book is critical for a high-quality translation.
毋庸置疑，深入了解一本书的文化知识和语言背景对于高质量译文是至关重要的。
“方法绝非一种”
▲Robert Bononno
Freelance translator Robert Bononno advises emerging translators to collect as much information as possible about the contemporary publishing world, and in particular about publishing houses which might be interested in publishing translations.
自由译者Robert Bononno建议刚入行的译者尽可能多地收集当代出版业的相关信息，特别是对出版翻译作品感兴趣的出版社。
Searching through current publishers’ catalogues and looking for popular contemporary authors or overlooked historical writers is also part of the strategy. Bononno says starting with smaller pieces is a good way to get going: “One approach would be to try to get shorter articles or excerpts published in literary magazines, or an online literary review or blog.”
通过搜索当前的出版商名录，寻找受欢迎的当代作家或被忽视的历史作家也是一种有效途径。Bononno称，从较为短小的作品开始翻译是个好方法：“可以尝试翻译较短的文章或摘录，发表在文学杂志、网络文学评论或博客中。”
Getting started in publishing as a translator can be difficult, he says, but it’s not impossible.
他还表示，从出版领域入门翻译可能很难，但也不是不可能。
“There’s no single solution,” Bononno says. “It takes time, connections, and luck.”
Bononno强调：“方法绝非一种。这需要时间、人脉和运气。”
英文来源：Publishing Perspectives
编译：Yee君
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