翻译的出路在哪里？
Translators' blues
A pleasingly intellectual profession is under enormous pressure
TRANSLATION can be lonely work, which may well be why most translators choose the career out of interest, not because they crave[1] attention. Until recently, a decent translator could expect a steady, tidy[2] living, too. But the industry is undergoing a wrenching[3] change that will make life hard for the timid.
[1]crave：to have a very strong feeling of wanting something 渴望，热望；难以抑制的渴求
Many young children crave attention.
许多小孩子渴望得到关注。
[2]tidy：(of amounts of money) large （款额）巨大的；可观的
His business deals make him a tidy sum.
他做生意赚了一大笔钱。
[3]wrenching：extremely stressful
It was the most wrenching decision of the president’s life.
Most translators are freelancers[4], and with the rise of the internet a good translator could live in Kentucky[5] and work for Swiss banks. But going online has resulted in fierce global competition that has put enormous downward pressure on prices. Translators can either hustle[6] hard for more or better-paid work—which means spending less time translating—or choose an agency that fights for the work for them, but which also takes a cut.
[4]freelancer 自由职业者
[5]Kentucky 肯塔基(美国中东部一州)
[6]hustle：to act in an aggressive way or with a lot of energy
The alternative to schmoozing[7] oneself or working with an agency is to market one's skills in online marketplaces. But these display the most relentless price pressure of all: fees as low as $13-15 per 1,000 words translated are not unknown. Traditionally, something more like $50 has been the low end, with literary translation at around $120, and high-end work at $250. Buyers who know little about foreign languages and quality will, in online markets, shop almost purely on price.
[7]schmooze [ʃmuːz]
to talk informally with someone, especially in a way that is not sincere or to win some advantage for yourself 闲谈，闲聊
He spent the entire evening schmoozing with the senator.
他整晚都在和那位参议员闲谈。
To these pressures comes another: the rise in higher-quality machine translation. Just a year ago, machine translation still produced reliably rocky[8] results: both inaccurate as to content, and often unreadable too. Both have improved dramatically with translation engines based on so-called deep neural networks[9]. Those who offer rock-bottom prices for translation are almost certainly using translation software, and then giving it a quick edit for accuracy and readability. By and large, the big translation agencies are excited about technology and the possibilities of scale it offers them. What worries the translators themselves, though, is that the future may lie in nothing more intellectually pleasing than this kind of clean-up.
[8]rocky：uncertain and difficult and not likely to last long 不稳定的；不牢靠的；动摇不定的
Their relationship got off to a rocky start.
他们的关系一开始就不很稳定。
[9]deep neural networks 深度神经网络
Like all incumbents, those affected are not happy. To avoid being “the coffee-bean pickers of the future”, one veteran[10] counsels[11] improving specialist knowledge and writing skills to get high-end work. But not all can do that. Translators in the bulk and middle markets will inevitably be doing more editing, or will be squeezed out[12].
[10]veteran：a person who has had a lot of experience of a particular activity 经验丰富的人，老手
[11]counsel：to give advice, especially on social or personal problems （尤指对社会或个人问题）建议，劝告，忠告
The police have provided experts to counsel local people affected by the tragedy.
警方请来专家对受该惨案影响的当地居民提供咨询服务。
[12]squeeze out：to prevent someone or something from having an opportunity/to force out or displace someone or something by gaining better access to a limited resource 挤出；榨出；排挤
What will the rest be doing? For one, literary translation is under no threat. Sales of translated fiction rose by more than 600% in Britain between 2001 and 2015, and have been growing strongly in America too, with big authors like Elena Ferrante conditioning[13] readers in those countries to look beyond their borders for good books. Nobody thinks a novel can be translated by a machine. In Roy Jacobsen's “Unseen”, which is on the shortlist[14] for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize[15] (MBIP), the original dialectal[16] island Norwegian has been deftly[17] rendered[18] by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw into a kind of English that carries the same flavour: “Hvur bitty it is!” (“How small it is!”). The MBIP recognises that translation is, in effect, a kind of writing by sharing the prize money equally between author and translators.
[13]condition：to train or influence a person or animal mentally so that they do or expect a particular thing without thinking about it 训练；使习惯于；使适应；使（人或动物）形成条件反射
Women were conditioned to expect lower wages than men.
女性以前习惯于接受比男性低的工资。
[14]shortlist：a list of people who have been judged the most suitable for a job or prize, made from a longer list of people originally considered, and from which one person will be chosen 最终候选名单，决选名单
[15]Man Booker International Prize 布克国际文学奖是布克奖主办机构于2005年创立的一个文学奖，旨在奖励在小说创作上取得突出成就的作家，无论国别，全球所有以英语写作或作品有英译本的在世作家均有资格获得此奖。
[16]dialectal 方言的
[17]deft：(adj.) skilful, clever, or quick 熟练的；巧妙的；灵巧的
[18]render：to change words into a different language or form 翻译；把…译成
She is rendering the book into English from French.
她正在把这本书从法语译成英语。
Most work is in commercial translation, but that is a kind of writing too. Executives sometimes reject a translation of a speech or a letter because it doesn't look enough like their original. But a good translator needs to rethink a text, rewording important pieces, breaking up or merging sentences, and so on. Translation software can be accurate, but it translates sentence-by-sentence. Since languages have different rhythms and different expectations for what counts as a good sentence, that approach can result in a mess. So it is often best simply to rewrite after thinking about the intended meaning.
Another market is "transcreation", in which a translator—often in advertising—is expected to rethink a message, making sure that the version in the new language has the right cultural references, jokes and suchlike to recreate the impact, without the wording, of the original. In this case, the “transcreator” is even more of a writer than most translators.
Translation is hardly alone in being shaken up by technology. The legal industry, accounting and many other venerable[19] professions are seeing repeatable knowledge work done passably[20] by machines. The translators of the future need not only language and writing skills. They must, like the partners at a law or accounting firm, gain clients' trust and learn their minds in order to do truly good work. The loners[21] of the field, in other words, may find it hard going.
[19]venerable ['ven(ə)rəb(ə)l]
deserving respect because of age, high position, or religious or historical importance 德高望重的；令人尊敬的；崇高神圣的
a venerable tradition/company/family
备受推崇的传统／久负盛名的公司／德高望重的家族
[20]passably：in a way that is satisfactory but not excellent 尚可，还可以
[21]loner：a person who likes to do things on their own without other people 孤僻的人，不合群的人