能给人以震撼
能给人以感悟
能给人以启迪
能给人以方向
能给人以力量
其他
打卡学翻译 09 | 西南联大英文课 | 春运是一种文化现象 （励志英文演讲：New Year's Resolutions ）
关注“北极光翻译”
学习英语，领悟翻译，沟通世界！
翻译服务
北极光翻译
提供以下翻译服务
社科论文；政府文件；文学艺术；网站宣传
旅游美食；时政新闻；法律合同；各种证件
商务合作 CAT培训
WeChat/QQ: 563730218
7年600万字文学翻译实践
2012年获得CATTI二级笔译
汉译英
春运是一种文化现象
Spring Transport Is a Cultural Phenomenon
冯骥才
Feng Jicai
如今，报知春节迫近的已经不再是腊八粥的香味，而是媒体上充满压力的热火朝天的春运了。每入腊月，春运有如飓风来临，很快就势头变猛，愈演愈烈；及至腊月底那几天，春运可谓排山倒海，不可阻遏。
Today, the advent of Spring Festival is no longer heralded by the aroma of laba porridge1, but by the hustle and bustle of Spring transport, or “Spring travel” from the passengers’ point of view, that gets thickly covered in the media. When the year enters its twelfth lunar month, “Spring transport” gets under way like a hurricane, gathering momentum each day. Toward the end of the month, it sweeps all over the country with an overwhelming force.
每每此时我都会想，世界上哪个国家有这种一年一度上亿人风风火火赶着回家过年的景象？
When this happens, I cannot help wondering if there is such a thing in any other country that, once a year, millions upon millions of people rush home for their New Year.
我们一直把春运当做一种客运交通的非常时期，并认为这是中国社会发展到现阶段千千万万农民进城打工带来的特殊的交通狂潮，春运的任务只是想方设法完成这种举世罕见的客运重负。
We look at “Spring transport” as a special periodof passenger transport, and think of it as a crazy traffic torrent resulting from the movement of hundreds of thousands of rural people into the cities for employment, a phenomenon of China, characteristic of its development at current stage. The object of “Spring transport” is, by resorting to all kinds of resources available, to fulfill the unparalleled heavy task of taking the passengers to their destinations.
可是，如果换一双文化的眼睛，就会发现，春运真正所做的是把千千万万在外工作的人千里迢迢送回他们各自的家乡，去完成中国人数千年来的人间梦想：团圆。
However, if we perceive it as a cultural phenomenon, we will see that what “Spring transport” does is to take the people working elsewhere back home for family reunion, a highly cherished dream of the Chinese people over history.
前些年在火车站碰到的一个情景使我至今难忘。大约是农历腊月二十九吧，一个又矮又瘦的中年男子赶火车回家。火车马上要开，车门已经关上。这男子急了，大概他怕大年夜赶不回去，就爬车窗。
I still remember an incident I witnessed at a railway station a few years ago. It was probably the day before the Eve of the Lunar New Year. A short, thin middle-aged man was hurrying to catch a train home. As it was about to leave, all its doors closed, the man became so desperate that he began to climb in at a window, fearing that if he missed it, he would not be able to get home in time for the New Year’s Eve.
按常规，月台上的值勤人员怕他出事，一定要拉他下来，车上的人一准也要把他往外推。但此刻忽然反过来，车上的人一起往窗里拉他，月台上值勤人员则用力把他推进车窗。那一刻，车上车下的人连同那中年男子都开心地笑，列车就载着这些笑脸轰隆隆开走了。为什么？因为人们有着共同的情怀——回家过年。
Usually, the platform workers on duty will pull him back for his safety, and the passengers in the car will push him out. But what happened was the reverse. The passengers inside began to drag him in, while the platform workers helped to push him in from outside. The small adventure evoked hearty laughs in and out of the car, including the adventurer himself. The train rumbled off, the car carrying a crowd of passengers with broad smiles on their faces. Why? It is the common sentimental desire – to go home for the Festival.
为此，每每望着春运期间人满为患的机场、车站和排成长龙的购票队伍，我都会为年文化在中国人身上这种刻骨铭心而感动。春运的人潮所洋溢的不正是年文化的精神核心——合家团聚吗？还有哪一种文化能够一年一度调动起如此动情的千军万马？能够凸显故乡和家庭如此强大的亲和力？
So, when I find myself in an overcrowded airport or a railway station with long queues scrambling for tickets, I am simply moved by the festival culture deeply engraved in the minds of the people. Isn’t the enthusiasm exhibited by the eddying crowds the core of the festive culture – family reunion? Is there any other culture that can set so many people on the move around the country once a year who demonstrated so strong a sense of affinity with their hometowns and families?
春运是超大规模的农民进城打工带来的，没错。但它又是近二十年出现的最独特的一种文化现象。因为民间文化是生活文化，它往往从生活的形态而非从纯文化的形态中表现出来，所以我们不会一下子认识到春运的文化内涵。
“Spring transport” is brought about by the people from the country for employment in the cities. There is no doubt about it. But it is also a unique cultural phenomenon that has emerged in the past two decades. As folk culture reflects people’s lives and is represented in the form of everyday life rather than of pure culture, we are not aware of its cultural connotations right away.
由此，我想到前些年每逢春节都会出现的一个话题，就是年的淡化。淡化的原因有二，一是生活方式的骤变，致使数千年里超稳定的生活中形成的严谨的年文化松解了，而一时又难以构成新的年文化体系，淡化的现象必然出现；
This reminds me of a topic coming up during Spring Festival in the past few years: the festive atmosphere of the Lunar New Year is thinning out. I think there are two possible causes for it. One is the change of life style, so fast that the well-fabricated festival culture, established on the basis of the super-stable life over the past several thousand years, is relaxing, and it is difficult to reconstruct a new one in a short time.
二是由于我们对年文化的无知，把传统习俗视为陈规旧习，认为可有可无，主动放弃，如燃放烟花炮竹和祭祖等等；甚至提倡休闲度假，或把春节变成西方的嘉年华。
The other is that, due to our misconceptions about the festival culture, we look at traditional customs as outmoded practices and cast them aside of our own accord, such as celebrations with fireworks and firecrackers, and sacrifices to ancestors, etc. Some people even advocate celebrating it as a leisure break, or simply transforming it into a western carnival.
失去了民俗的节日自然变得稀松平常。特别是有些民俗深刻嵌在人们的记忆里，一旦扔掉，无以填补。应该说，这种主动地去瓦解自己的文化才是最致命的。记得十多年前看过一篇文章说，未来的春节将成为五花八门的多元节日之一，并预言它将不再是主角。
A festival without folk customs would naturally becomeprosaic, especially the ones embedded in people’s memory. Once they are cast aside, you cannot find substitutes for them. I should like to say that the breaking up of our culture by our own hand is most fatal. I remember an article I read about a decade ago, which predicted that the Spring Festival would become one of the multifarious festivals, and it would cease to be the annual principal one in China.
可是就在这时，春运形成了。五星级酒店里、歌舞厅和酒吧里、高尔夫球场上可以不要春节，但人们心中“年的情结”依然执着，而且每逢春节就必然吐蕊开花——回家过年，亲人相聚，脱旧穿新，祈安道福，以心亲吻乡土里的根。
Just at this time, however, “Spring transport” came about. You can do without Spring Festival in five-star hotels, dance halls or bars, or on golf courses, but in the hearts of the people the festival complex still holds fast. When the Lunar New Year comes, the festival complex will bebudding and blooming. People will go home to celebrate it and reunite with their families. They will wear new clothes, pray for a peaceful happy life and kiss the earth of their hometown.
由于那时没有看到春运人潮中的文化心理与文化需求，也就想不到在社会转型时期怎样去保护传统，想不到在传统的年俗出现松解时应该做些什么。现在明白了，年在人们心里并没有淡化，淡化的只是传统的方式与形态。
Because we did not understand their cultural psychology and failed to meet their cultural needs, we had no idea how to preserve traditions when society was undergoing transformation and what to do when some traditional festival customs were thinning out. Now we understand that, in the hearts of the people, the Spring Festival is not thinning out; what is thinning out is the declining old ways and forms of celebrations.
1. laba porridge: a rice porridge with nuts and dried fruits, served on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month.
（孟庆升、刘士聪译）
Making a New Year’s resolution is a good way to start off the coming year with the goal of improving yourself. Unlike a birthday wish, where you hope for something wonderful to happen, New Year’s resolutions are practical things that you can do to make yourself and your life better.
列一份新年愿望清单是一个激励自己在新年进步的好办法。和生日许愿之类的也许不同，新年愿望比较实际，更多的是说说自己要做什么来提高自身，改善生活。
2019年计划制定好了吗
有没有哪些新年计划
这个4岁小萝莉的看法
或许能给你一些新的思路
下拉阅读双语全文
I have a problem with New Year’s resolutions, not because they often fail, or because they are too difficult, and not because I am bad at them, either. I mean, I’ve only been alive for four New Years.
我的新年决心碰上了一个难题——不是因为这些决心总是以失败告终，不是因为它们太难实现，也不是因为我不擅长履行决心。我的意思是，我才过了四个新年呢！
No, I have a problem with resolutions because people think that that’s it—it’s the one time to change. Now, don’t get me wrong. We definitely all need change. I have no idea how to ride a bicycle, and my little brother has no idea what a toilet is for, and some of you…yeah, you should probably…should get out of the house more. But one big decision probably is not going to do it. Sorry!
都不是，我对新年决心有一个疑问，因为人们总觉得“这就够了”——他们觉得这样一来就能改变自己。别误解我的意思，没错，我们所有人都需要不断改变，比如我就还没学会怎么骑单车，我弟弟对马桶的用途一头雾水，而你们当中有些人——是啊，你们或许应该……应该多出门走走。不过，就这样定下一个大决心或许根本不会带来改变。不好意思咯！
So now what? Flush your resolutions down the toilet? The one my little brother can’t use? Of course not! Keep your resolutions, but go easy on yourself. Will you change? Maybe. But it probably won’t happen in one big moment. It will happen in thousands of little moments. Every time you choose to forgive, or slow down, or be grateful, or stay calm. Each little moment that you choose what’s right instead of what’s easy, faith instead of doubt, love instead of hate. That’s where the change happens!
那么，现在该怎么办呢？把你的决心用马桶冲走吗？就那个我弟弟不会用的玩意儿？当然不行！把你的新年决心坚持下去，但是对自己悠着点儿。你会有所改变吗？没准儿。但这种改变大概不会在某个重大时刻立马实现，而是发生在无数个微不足道的瞬间。每当你选择原谅，或放慢脚步，或心存感恩，或保持冷静；每当你选择正道而非捷径，每当你选择信任而非怀疑，每当你选择关爱而非憎恨，那就是你改变的一刻！
Even if you fail one, or two, or thirty times, it’s OK! You’ve got thousands of more little moments ahead of you. You’ll get better. Bye!
哪怕你失败了一次、两次，甚至是三十次，那都没关系！因为在你面前还有许多许多这样的瞬间，你总会取得进步的。再见啦
推荐阅读
记着结合此软件一起使用哟！
翻译技术 | Search and Replace 翻译必备神器
篇篇有干货，天天有惊喜
点赞是鼓励，分享增知识！
长按以下二维码
欢迎关注“北极光翻译”