双语 | 为何选择做翻译？8个世界各地译员的回答
【编者按】对于许多人来说，翻译是一份神秘的职业，不仅收入高，还能接触到大人物，甚至能了解到各个行业、学科，各种稀奇古怪的事情。尽管工作起来压力大，但还是有很多译员对这门行业有着百分之百的热爱。翻译这份工作到底好在哪里？我们来听听他们怎么说~
A colleague recently commented that, ‘translators know things that almost nobody else knows’, and that’s what I love most about my job. I’ve translated brochures about pneumatic trash collection systems, cards for a zombie-themed role-playing game, reports about polio vaccination programs and the autobiography of a Sherpa from the 1950s. Very few people ever learn about these topics, much less get paid to read and write about them; that’s why being a translator is the best job for people who love languages!
我有个同事最近评价：“一个翻译知道的东西，别人几乎都没听说过”，这就是我最喜欢翻译的地方。我曾经译过气动垃圾收集系统的简介，僵尸主题的角色扮演游戏卡片，小儿麻痹疫苗项目的研究报告，甚至还有一位50后夏尔巴人的自传！这些课题甚至很少有人听过，更别说有人付钱请你去阅读和书写了。所以，对语言爱好者来说，翻译是最好的工作！
They say reading offers you windows to other worlds. With translation, I get to build those windows for other people, one sentence at a time. Sometimes, I even get to build doors – for refugees looking for a safer place to raise a family, for inventors seeking buyers or producers for their new technology, for international couples preparing to commit to a life together. It’s an honor to be involved in such pivotal moments of strangers’lives.
人们说阅读打开一扇窗。作为翻译者，我写的每句话都有可能为别人打造一扇窗，甚至可能是门。对于那些在寻找新家园的逃难者，那些需要买家的发明家、需要生产商的新技术，那些准备建立跨国婚姻的情侣，这些陌生人的重要时刻我都参与其中，想想也是很美的。
I also have the rare privilege of walking freely through these worlds that non-translators only catch glimpses of. Translation requires an intimate knowledge of both cultures involved. In an odd anthropological twist, I almost have to become the Other in order to properly comprehend the subtleties of the ideas I am asked to transmit across the language divide. This adds thrill to travel and to my everyday experiences: at all moments, in all places, I am both local and foreign.
作为翻译者，我还有自由穿行在不同世界之间的特权，而其他人则只能管窥一二。翻译需要你对两种文化都有透彻地了解。为了跨越语言的鸿沟，我几乎要变成另一个人去理解细微的思想，真是奇怪扭曲的人类学。这为我的旅行和日常生活都增加了刺激，因为我永远都同时是本地人和外乡人。
This privilege may become less rare. Forty-five percent of Californians now speak a language other than English at home. The lines between local and foreign are blurring for the average monolingual American, too. This is beautiful and exciting. As translation grows in importance to the mainstream, there are so many windows and doors being built – so many opportunities!
这个特权以后也许不再那么稀有，仅加利福尼亚就有45%的居民说英语以外的语言，对普通的单语美国人来讲，语言的界限也变模糊了。这也很让人兴奋，主流人群对于翻译的需求增长了，中间需要很多的窗和门，意味着大把大把的机会！
Hard question! As a reader, I love the diverse range of texts I have the opportunity to read. As a writer, I love the chance to tease original ideas out of one language and weave them into another. As a human being, I love the interaction I have with my clients and hearing their delighted feedback. Clients often even send me copies of the final, printed products or links to the finished websites, and let me know how they got on. I love that.
唔，不容易回答！作为读者，我喜欢读到的不同文字展现的巨大差异。作为作者，我喜欢从一种语言中梳理出思想原型，再把它编织成另一种语言。作为普通人，我喜欢和客户之间的交流，听他们喜悦的回馈。客户经常会给我寄最终定稿的复印件、打印好的产品或落成的网站链接，让我知道最新动向。我爱死这些了！
To answer the question, I think what I love most is success: not just my own, but helping people I form a connection with to succeed. Nothing feels better than knowing you helped a great idea gain traction with a broader, international audience. Translators help great ideas grow.
回到问题上，我想我最爱翻译的地方就是成功：不仅我自己成功，还可以帮助别人成功。我可以使他们的创意获得更广泛和国际化的关注，没什么比这更有成就感了！
What I find most interesting about translation is the fact that it gives you an opportunity to live different lives through different languages. Each language is different and has its own world. Another important thing is that translation helps you to know about both strengths and weaknesses of your native language. Some scientific and technical concepts are easily expressed in English, but require a great deal of effort to express in Hindi. It is not that Hindi lacks the capacity to express such ideas. It is because Hindi doesn’t have the opportunity to be a language of science and technology due to historical factors. Translators keep on finding new ways to express new ideas in their native language. Last but not least, translation has given me the satisfaction of contributing to my native language. Hundreds of sentence structures and idioms have been included in Hindi by translators. It is really surprising that more translators are not aware of this contribution to their native language.
我最喜欢翻译的地方就是我置身在不同的语言和文化中，每一种语言都是一个小世界。另外，翻译帮助我了解自己母语的优缺点。有些在英语中可以轻松表述的科学技术理念，用印度语就要费很大劲。倒不是说印度语不能容纳这些理念，而是由于历史因素，印度语未曾与科学与技术密切接触。翻译们需不断寻找新方法来用母语表述这些新思想。最后，因为从事翻译，我得以为母语贡献，这也给了我很大的成就感。印度语中因为翻译新增的句式和习语不胜枚举。而很多翻译者居然都没有意识到，自己对于母语的贡献有多大。
What stands out for me is the variety of things I learn while working. As a translator I’ve learnt about higher education systems in different European countries, the make-up of African and Latin American economies, the technical and tactical aspects of transatlantic sailing, the history of Spain, the graphic design process from start to finish, how small businesses operate and what services they offer, and a vast range of other fascinating information. What’s more, my translations have given a much wider audience access to this information.
我看重的是在工作中可以学到的丰富知识。通过翻译，我了解了欧洲不同国家的高等教育体系，非洲和拉丁美洲经济体的崛起，跨洋航海技术和战术，西班牙的历史，图形设计的始末，小企业如何运作以及他们提供什么服务，这一系列跨越极大的迷人知识。更迷人的是，我的翻译使得更多人有机会获取到这些知识。
I love unravelling a complex medical text in Spanish and putting it together again in English. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle. You have all the pieces and a picture of how it should look. You size up the pieces against each other, put some to one side and try others with a different shade of the same colour. You take a step back, to get a better perspective. And all of a sudden you have it: the whole picture.
我喜欢分解复杂的西班牙医疗术语，再用英语拼凑在一起。这就像拼图游戏一样！你手上有许多碎片和一幅完整的画面，你把它们挨个码在一起，这里用这样的碎片，那里用同色但不同深度的碎片来试试，然后你往后退一步，看一眼。突然，你就拥有了它，一整幅图片！
With translation, pieces are missing from the box. I have to look up terms and context in dictionaries and subject-specific resources. But I still get that exciting feeling of achievement when it all comes together and the whole picture has been rebuilt.
当然，翻译时有些碎片不在盒子里，我需要到字典里、专业资源里去查找术语和上下文。但是当整幅图出现的时候，心里的成就感是无与伦比的。
That’s what I love about translating.
我就是我爱翻译的地方。
What we love the most about translating is the fact that we play a small part in making global communication possible.
我们最爱翻译的地方是：我们这些螺丝钉，使得全球都可以交流。
Working as a translator is like getting paid to solve puzzles all day. Sometimes the puzzles are easy and you speed through them, other days they’re like monster brain teasers that follow you from your desk to the grocery store to the dinner table to the shower. And then something clicks and the answer is right there. You found it! Or did it find you? Either way it’s a good day’s work.
做翻译就好像是有人花钱来请你解决谜题。有时题很容易，你可以快速通过。而有些却像脑洞嘲笑怪，它紧紧跟着你，从书桌到杂货店到餐桌甚至淋浴时。然后有东西闪了一下，突然你就有了灵感。找到答案了！或者答案找到你了？不管怎么样今天的工作都很赞！
来源：沪江英语
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