2007年国际翻译日主题

请勿迁怒于信使！

    聘用专业口笔译人员以圆满完成工作，这在任何时候都物有所值。尤为重要的是，不要迁怒于译者。

    “……他话一出口，会议室里一片哗然。尽管高层外交官员想引导他表示歉意，但是，贝卢斯科尼先生拒不服从……意料之中的是，他也试图迁怒于译者——此处是一位口译人员。如是美联社的一条消息引用了贝卢斯科尼下面的话：‘我讲的笑话并没有冒犯的意思。这是个具有讽刺意味的笑话，或许翻译没有传达出那种讽刺意味。’”

     “……‘总统是在开玩笑，’（一名克里姆林宫发言人）告诉BBC：‘俄语是一门非常复杂的语言，有时遣词造句会让意思变得非常敏感。我认为，通常的翻译未必能反映出那则笑话的内在意味。’”

    这种司空见惯的故事还有很多：让译者来承担政治过失以保全面子已是一个由来已久的传统，很少有人当真。译者总是宽容地耸耸肩，于是生活继续下去。

    然而，历史上却堆满了“翻译烈士”的尸骸，翻译行业也正在变得愈加危险。在世界的一些地方，翻译工作者仅仅因为其所从事的工作而受到切实的生死威胁。2006年，约有261名译者死于伊拉克；而在阿富汗，这个数字更高。在另一些地方，译者因为其工作而遭监禁，因为勇于翻译诸如萨曼"拉什迪（Salman Rushdie）等人的著作而受到死亡警告。其中一名遭到谋杀。

    翻译是一个充满风险的行业。口笔译工作者在传播不同语言和文化之间的信息方面肩负重任；而妨碍传递这些信息的种种困难很可能会给各方都带来灾难。因为，如果没有这些专业人士——笔译者、口译员、术语学家，我们的全球化社会就会全然陷入相互无法理解的乱局。

    从深入战场的译者，到为来访贵宾做耳语的译员，从为您的新车翻译用户手册的专业人士，到为新闻报道添加字幕的翻译，在世界的各个角落、各行各业专业翻译工作者的劳动均随处可见。无论何人，无论何处，都越来越依赖于语言工作者的服务。通情达理的领导也已开始明白，信使不是替罪羊，在那里等着出问题时代人受过。他们知道，专业翻译人士颇有见地的评论和引人深思的问题将使信息――无论是文字的还是口头的――更为清晰，更具影响力，从而能提升组织机构的形象。因此，专业翻译人士应该受到欢迎，获得称赞。

    国际译联选择将“请勿迁怒于信使！”作为2007年国际翻译日的主题，旨在让人们注意到翻译面临的危险，以及那些认为专业语言服务可有可无的人也面临的危险。无论您使用何种语言，只要借助专业翻译，都可确保您的意思得到全面准确的转达。
 

International Translation Day 2007
Don’t Shoot the Messenger!

It always pays to hire professional translators and interpreters to get the job done right.
And it’s extremely important not to shoot them.

“… At his outburst the chamber erupted, and despite attempts by high-ranking diplomats to extract an apology, Mr Berlusconi refused to oblige … Not surprisingly, there was also an attempt to shift blame to the translator – or interpreter, in this case. ‘My joke wasn’t meant to be offensive,’ an AP dispatch reports Berlusconi saying. ‘It was an ironic joke, perhaps the translation wasn’t done in the ironic sense’.”

“… ‘The president was joking,’ [a Kremlin spokesman] told the BBC: ‘Russian is a very complicated language, sometimes it is very sensitive from the point of view of phrasing. I don’t think that the proper translation is able to reflect the meaning of the joke’.”

These familiar stories are two among many: it is a time-honoured tradition for political gaffes to be put down to the translator or interpreter to save face. Few people are taken in; the translators patiently shrug their shoulders, and life goes on.

But history is already littered with the corpses of translator-martyrs, and the language professions are becoming increasingly dangerous. There are parts of the world where translators and interpreters literally risk death simply by doing their job. Some 261 translators and interpreters died in Iraq in 2006, and more in Afghanistan. Elsewhere, translators have been jailed for their work, and received death threats for daring to translate the works of authors such as Salman Rushdie. One was murdered.

Translation is a risky business. Translators and interpreters bear an enormous responsibility in carrying messages between languages and cultures, and problems getting the word across can spell disaster on all sides. For without such experts – translators, interpreters, terminologists – our globalised world would be an uncomprehending place indeed.

From the embedded translator in the battle zone to the interpreter whispering in the ear of a visiting dignitary to the specialist translating the owner’s manual for your next car or subtitling a news report, the work of the language professions is present in every part of the globe, in every walk of life. Everyone, everywhere, is increasingly dependent on the services of those who make language their business. And the savviest leaders are already aware that the messenger is no fall guy, simply there to take the flak when things go wrong. They know that the language professional is to be celebrated, to be welcomed for insightful comments and questions that lead to messages – text and speech – whose clarity and impact do credit to their organisation’s image.

The International Federation of Translators’ choice of Don’t Shoot the Messenger! as the theme for International Translation Day 2007 is intended to draw attention to the hazards faced by translators, and also by those who believe that professional language services are an unnecessary option. Using a professional means you can be sure of putting across your message in full, no matter what language you use.