導讀Thegreatestmistranslationsever史上最大誤譯事件ByFionaMacdonald菲奧娜·麥克唐納編輯2February2015二....

The greatest mistranslations ever

史上最大誤譯事件

By Fiona Macdonald

菲奧娜·麥克唐納編輯

2 February 2015

二零一五年二月二日

After Google Translate’s latest update, BBC Culture finds history’s biggest language mistakes – including a US president stating ‘I desire the Poles carnally’.

谷歌翻譯最近更新后，BBC文化欄目發掘出了歷史上最大的翻譯錯誤——包括美國總統的發言：“我在肉體上渴望波蘭”。

Google Translate’s latest update – turning the app into a real-time interpreter – has been heralded as bringing us closer to ‘a world where language is no longer a barrier’. Despite glitches, it offers a glimpse of a future in which there are no linguistic misunderstandings – especially ones that change the course of history. BBC Culture looks back at the greatest mistranslations of the past, with a 19th-Century astronomer finding signs of intelligent life on Mars and a US president expressing sexual desire for an entire nation.

谷歌翻譯的最新更新——將手機應用變為實時翻譯器——作為能使“語言不再成為世界溝通的障礙”的神器被廣而告之。且不看這款應用現存的一些小故障，它使我們瞥到了不存在語言不通造成誤解——尤其是會改變歷史進程的誤解——的美好未來。BBC文化欄目回顧了歷史上存在最大的翻譯錯誤，包括20世紀一位天文學家在火星發現了智慧生命的痕跡以及美國總統向整個國家表達性趣的錯誤翻譯。

Life on Mars

火星上的生命

喬凡尼·斯基亞帕雷利的地圖于1888年出版——他把火星上的溝壑成為“運河”（科學圖片庫）

When Italian astronomer Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli began mapping Mars in 1877, he inadvertently sparked an entire science-fiction oeuvre. The director of Milan’s Brera Observatory dubbed dark and light areas on the planet’s surface ‘seas’ and ‘continents’ – labelling what he thought were channels with the Italian word ‘canali’. Unfortunately, his peers translated that as ‘canals’, launching a theory that they had been created by intelligent lifeforms on Mars.

1877年，當意大利天文學家斯基帕雷利開始制作火星地圖的時候，他無意間激發了整個科幻小說界的創作熱潮。這位米蘭布雷拉天文觀測臺的臺長將火星表面的暗區和亮區命名為星球表面的“海洋”和“大陸”——還把他認為是海峽的位置命名為意大利文“canali’”。不幸的是，他的同事將其翻譯成了“運河”，并由此建立了火星智慧生物開鑿運河的理論。

Convinced that the canals were real, US astronomer Percival Lowell mapped hundreds of them between 1894 and 1895. Over the following two decades he published three books on Mars with illustrations showing what he thought were artificial structures built to carry water by a brilliant race of engineers. One writer influenced by Lowell’s theories published his own book about intelligent Martians. In The War of the Worlds, which first appeared in serialised form in 1897, H G Wells described an invasion of Earth by deadly Martians and spawned a sci-fi subgenre. A Princess of Mars, a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs published in 1911, also features a dying Martian civilisation, using Schiaparelli’s names for features on the planet.

美國天文學家帕西瓦爾·羅威爾信以為真，1894年到1895年間他在火星地圖上標注了上百條運河。之后二十年間，他發表了三本關于火星的書，上面的插圖展示了他認為的用于運輸水的人工建筑，他認為這些建筑是由具有工程師般頭腦的睿智種族建造的。有一位作家也受到羅威爾理論的影響，出版了自己的作品來介紹聰慧的火星人。在1897年開始連載的《星際戰爭》里，赫伯特·喬治·威爾斯描述了致命危險的火星人入侵地球的故事，由此建立了科幻小說的新分支。埃德加·賴斯·巴勒斯1911年出版的《火星公主》里，也描述了即將沒落的火星文明，還用斯基亞帕雷利的名字為火星的特色建筑命名。

While the water-carrying artificial trenches were a product of language and a feverish imagination, astronomers now agree that there aren’t any channels on the surface of Mars. According to Nasa, “The network of crisscrossing lines covering the surface of Mars was only a product of the human tendency to see patterns, even when patterns do not exist. When looking at a faint group of dark smudges, the eye tends to connect them with straight lines.”

當然，用于運水的人造運河只是語言翻譯錯誤和狂熱幻想的產物。現在天文學家們已經達成一致意見，認為火星表面沒有運河存在。美國宇航局表示，“火星表面縱橫交錯的網絡只是人類以圖案方式理解物體的視力慣性造成的，實際這種圖案可能并不存在。當看到一組模糊的深色污點時，眼睛會趨向于將它們連成一條直線。”

Pole position

波蘭問題

Jimmy Carter knew how to get an audience to pay attention. In a speech given during the US President’s 1977 visit to Poland, he appeared to express sexual desire for the then-Communist country. Or that’s what his interpreter said, anyway. It turned out Carter had said he wanted to learn about the Polish people’s ‘desires for the future’.

吉米·卡特很清楚如何吸引觀眾的注意力。他于1977年擔任美國總統期間訪問波蘭并發表演講，并向這個當時的共產主義國家表達了性暗示。至少他的翻譯官是這么說的。然而事實證明卡特說的是他想知道波蘭人民“對未來的期望。”

Earning a place in history, his interpreter also turned “I left the United States this morning” into “I left the United States, never to return”;according to Time magazine, even the innocent statement that Carter was happy to be in Poland became the claim that “he was happy to grasp at Polands private parts”.

據《時代》雜志介紹，他的翻譯官在歷史上也贏得了自己的一席之地，他將“我今天早晨離開了美國”這句話翻譯成了“我離開了美國，再也不會回去了。”甚至還把卡特表示“很高興來到波蘭”的純潔表述翻譯成了“他很高興能抓住波蘭的私處。”

Unsurprisingly, the President used a different interpreter when he gave a toast at a state banquet later in the same trip – but his woes didn’t end there. After delivering his first line, Carter paused, to be met with silence. After another line, he was again followed by silence. The new interpreter, who couldn’t understand the President’s English, had decided his best policy was to keep quiet. By the time Carter’s trip ended, he had become the punchline for many a Polish joke.

毫無疑問，總統先生在這次訪問隨后舉行的國宴中說祝酒詞的時候換了一個翻譯官——但是他的厄運還在繼續。卡特講完一句話后就停了下來，可是沒有人翻譯。他又講了一句，還是一片寂靜。這位新任翻譯官聽不懂總統說的英語，因此他認為最好的策略就是保持沉默。等卡特的波蘭之行結束之后，他已經成了波蘭街頭巷尾的大笑話。

Nikita Khruschev, 1935 (Hulton Archive/ Getty Images)

尼基塔·赫魯曉夫 1935年（蓋帝圖像）

Keep digging

繼續深挖

Newspaper headlines in 1956

1956年的報紙頭條

Google Translate might not have been able to prevent one error that turned down the temperature by several degrees during the Cold War. In 1956, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev was interpreted as saying “We will bury you” to Western ambassadors at a reception at the Polish embassy in Moscow. The phrase was plastered across magazine covers and newspaper headlines, further cooling relations between the Soviet Union and the West.

谷歌翻譯可能無法阻止一個導致冷戰期間各國氛圍下降好幾度的錯誤的產生。1956年，蘇聯主席尼基塔·赫魯曉夫在波蘭駐莫斯科大使館招待會上對西方大使們的發言被翻譯成了“我們會埋葬你們。”這一翻譯當時被各大雜志報刊設為頭條，將蘇聯與西方的關系再度冷卻。

Yet when set in context, Khruschev’s words were closer to meaning “Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will dig you in”. He was stating that Communism would outlast capitalism, which would destroy itself from within, referring to a passage in Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto that argued “What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers.” While not the most calming phrase he could have uttered, it was not the sabre-rattling threat that inflamed anti-Communists and raised the spectre of a nuclear attack in the minds of Americans.

然而實際上，赫魯曉夫說的話結合語境翻譯的話，意思更接近于“不論你們是否喜歡這種趨勢，歷史都是站在我們這邊的。我們會埋葬你們的制度”。他想說明的是，共產主義終將戰勝資本主義，資本主義制度會從內部瓦解，這段話源于卡爾·馬克思《共產黨宣言》里的論點“無論如何，資產階級創造的，是他們自己的墳墓。”雖然他的遣詞用句不是最能安撫人心的那種，但是也算不上是武力恫嚇而點燃反共產主義熱潮，但還是在美國人心中勾畫出了核武器攻擊的魔鬼形態。

Khruschev himself clarified his statement – although not for several years. “I once said ‘We will bury you’, and I got into trouble with it,” he said during a 1963 speech in Yugoslavia. “Of course we will not bury you with a shovel. Your own working class will bury you.”

赫魯曉夫之后澄清了自己的發言——然而這都是若干年后的事情了。“我曾經說過“‘我們會埋葬你們’這樣的話，然后就因此惹上了麻煩，” 他1963年在南斯拉夫發表演講時說。“我們當然不會用鏟子把你們埋起來。你們自己國家的工人階級會埋葬你們的。”

Diplomatic immunity

外交免疫

Mistranslations during negotiations have often proven contentious. Confusion over the French word ‘demander’, meaning ‘to ask’, inflamed talks between Paris and Washington in 1830. After a secretary translated a message sent to the White House that began “le gouvernement fran?ais demande” as “the French government demands”, the US President took issue with what he perceived as a set of demands. Once the error was corrected, negotiations continued.

事實證明，談判期間的錯誤翻譯會引起爭議。法語單詞demander，意為“請求”，就曾于1830年由于翻譯意義的混淆在法美兩國的會談中引發了糾紛。一位秘書將發往白宮的信息的第一句“le gouvernement fran?ais demande”翻譯成了“法國政府命令”，美國總統對此持有異議，他認為這個是法國方面的請求。這一錯誤被糾正后，談判得以繼續。

Some authorities have been accused of exploiting differences in language for their own ends. The Treaty of Waitangi, a written agreement between the British Crown and the Māori people in New Zealand, was signed by 500 tribal chiefs in 1840. Yet conflicting emphases in the English and Māori versions have led to disputes, with a poster claiming ‘The Treaty is a fraud’ featuring in the Māori protest movement.

有的政府曾被指控利用語言差異為己牟利。1840年，英國皇室和新西蘭毛利人的500位部落酋長簽訂了一份書面協約，《懷唐伊條約》。然而英國和毛利版本強調的內容相互沖突，由此引發了爭議，毛利抗議活動中舉出了“條約是個騙局”的標語。

Zhou Enlai, 1950 (Hulton Archive/ Getty Images)

周恩來，1950年（蓋帝圖像）

Taking the long view

眼光長遠

More of a misunderstanding than a mistranslation, one often-repeated phrase might have been reinforced by racial stereotypes. During Richard Nixon’s visit to China in 1972, Chinese premier Zhou Enlai famously said it was ‘too early to tell’ when evaluating the effects of the French Revolution. He was praised for his sage words, seen as reflecting Chinese philosophy; yet he was actually referring to the May 1968 events in France.

理解錯誤比翻譯錯誤更厲害，一個經常被重復的習語可能會受到對民族固有觀念的影響。理查德·尼克松1972年訪華期間，中國總理周恩來在評價法國大革命時發表了著名言論“言之過早”。他的明智評價大受稱贊，被視為是中國人哲學觀的反映；而實際上他指的是1968年5月的法國學生運動。

According to retired US diplomat Charles W Freeman Jr – Nixon’s interpreter during the historic trip – the misconstrued comment was “one of those convenient misunderstandings that never gets corrected.” Freeman said: “I cannot explain the confusion about Zhou’s comment except in terms of the extent to which it conveniently bolstered a stereotype (as usual with all stereotypes, partly perceptive) about Chinese statesmen as far-sighted individuals who think in longer terms than their Western counterparts.

已退休的美國大使查爾斯·W·弗里曼——尼克松這次歷史性訪問的隨行翻譯——表示，這條被誤讀的評論“是那種永遠不需要更正的有利于溝通的誤解。”弗里曼說：“我無法解釋對周恩來評論的誤讀，只能說，它加固了我們的固有觀念（和所有的固有觀念的情況一樣，這一觀念某種程度上來說是被如此理解而已），和西方國家的同行相比，中國發言人大多眼光長遠，想得更深遠。”

“It was what people wanted to hear and believe, so it took hold.”

“只有人們希望聽到并相信的內容，才會被抓住。”

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