TED演讲:世上最难翻译的词之一

 　　Which is the hardest word to translate in this sentence? 哪一个单词是这个句子中最难翻译的？

　　"Know" is easy to translate. “know”是很容易翻译的。

　　"Pep rally" doesn't have a direct analog¹ in a lot of languages and cultures, but can be approximated. “pep rally”（比赛前的动员大会）在许多语言与文化中没有一个直接的对应意义但是可以被猜出含义。

　　But the hardest word there is actually one of the smallest,"you". 但是最难的词实际上是短词之一，“you”。

　　As simple as it seems, it's often impossible to accurately² translate "you" 尽管“you”看起来很简单，

　　without knowing a lot more about the situation where it's being said. 在不大清楚具体应用语境的情况下，实际上经常很难准确翻译出来。

　　To start with, how familiar are you with the person you're talking to? 首先，你对你讲话的对象到底有多熟悉？

　　Many cultures have different levels of formality. 许多文化中都有着不同标准的礼节。

　　A close friend, someone much older or much younger, a stranger, a boss. 亲近朋友，大很多或小很多的人，陌生人，上司，

　　These all may be slightly different "you's." 这些人用“you”的时候都有细微的差别。

　　In many languages, the pronoun reflects these differences through what's known as the T–V distinction. 在许多文化中，代词通过T－V distinction（即用复数形态来表示来表示敬语）来反映这些差异。

　　In French, for example, you would say "tu" when talking to your friend at school, but "vous" when addressing your teacher. 比如在法语中，你可能在学校里和朋友聊天时用“tu”来称呼对方，但当与老师讲话时便会用“vous”。

　　Even English once had something similar. Remember the old-timey "thou?" 甚至英语中也曾有过相似现象。还记得古英语的“thou”吗？

　　Ironically, it was actually the informal pronoun for people you're close with, while "you" was the formal and polite version. 讽刺的是，它实际上是对亲近之人的非正式人称代词，现在所用的 “you”才是一种更加正式、礼貌的版本。

　　That distinction was lost when the English decided³ to just be polite all the time. 不过这种差异在英语决定只维持礼节性之时就遗失了。

　　But the difficulty in translating "you" doesn't end there. 不过在翻译“you”的时候这种差异并没有就此终结。

　　In languages like Hausa or Korana, the "you" form depends on the listener's gender⁴. 比如在豪萨语和科拉纳语中，“you”的形式取决于听者的性别。

　　In many more, it depends on whether they are one or many, such as with German "Du" or "ihr." 而在更多的情况下，它取决于听者是一个还是很多个，比如说德语中的“du”和“ihr”。

　　Even in English, some dialects use words like "y'all" or "youse" the same way. 即使在英语中，某些方言有类似于“y‘all”或是“youse”的词。

　　Some plural⁵ forms, like the French "vous" and Russian "Вы" 有些复数形式，比如说法语中的‘vous’和俄语中的“Вы”

　　are also used for a single person to show that the addressee is that much more important, much like the royal "we." 也都是由一个人来表示语言接收方的至关重要性，非常像高贵版的“we”。

　　And a few languages even have a specific form for addressing exactly two people, like Slovenian "vidva." 并且很多语言甚至都有特殊的形式来额外强调仅仅两个人，比如说斯洛文尼亚语的“vidva”。

　　If that wasn't complicated enough, formality, number, and gender can all come into play at the same time. 如果还不够复杂的话，关系、数量与性别都可以同时出现对选词产生影响。

　　In Spanish, "tú" is unisex informal singular, "usted" is unisex formal singular, 在西班牙语中，“tu”是一个阴阳皆宜的非正式单数词，“usted”是一个阴阳皆宜的正式单数词，

　　"vosotros" is masculine informal plural, "vosotras" is feminine informal plural, “vosotros”是一个阳性的非正式复数词，“vosotras”是一个阴性的非正式复数词，

　　and "ustedes" is the unisex formal plural. Phew! “ustedes”是一个阴阳皆宜的正式复数词。唉哟！

　　After all that, it may come as a relief that some languages often leave out the second person pronoun. 说了那么多，让人释然的是，有些语言常常省略掉第二人称代词。

　　In languages like Romanian and Portuguese⁶, the pronoun can be dropped from sentences 在罗马尼亚语和葡萄牙语中，代词可能从句子中省略掉，

　　because it's clearly implied by the way the verbs are conjugated⁷. 因为动词结合的方式很明显地顺便就将其给指了出来。

　　And in languages like Korean, Thai, and Chinese, pronouns can be dropped without any grammatical hints. 又比如在韩语、泰语及汉语中，代词可以在没有任何语法暗示的情况下给省略掉。

　　Speakers often would rather have the listener guess the pronoun from context than use the wrong one and risk being seen as rude. 讲话的人常常宁愿听众根据文本来猜这些代词，而不是冒着被当成粗鲁的风险使用错误的代词。

　　In one extreme example, 18th-century scholar Wang Xihou was executed, 举一个极端的例子，18世纪的学者王锡侯与他的家人被执行了死刑，

　　along with his family, simply for referring to the Emperor in a too familiar way. 仅仅因为以一个太亲近的方式提及了皇帝。

　　So if you're ever working as a translator and come across this sentence without any context: 所以如果你曾当过笔译者，然后碰见没有任何上下文联系的这个句子，

　　"You and you, no, not you, you, your job is to translate 'you' for yourselves"...Well, good luck. "You and you, no, not you, you, your job is to translate 'you' for yourselves"，那么，祝你好运咯。

　　And to the volunteer community who will be translating this video into multiple languages: Sorry about that! 对于那些要把本视频翻译成多种语言的义务翻译者们说抱歉咯！

1 analog   

n.类似物，模拟

参考例句：

• The analog signal contains high-frequency video information,which helps make up the picture.模拟信号包括有助于构成图像的高频视频信息。
• The analog computer measures continuously,without proceeding step by step.模拟计算机不是一步一步地进行，而是连续地进行量度。

2 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

5 plural   

n.复数；复数形式；adj.复数的

参考例句：

• Most plural nouns in English end in's '.英语的复数名词多以s结尾。
• Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。

6 Portuguese   

n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语

参考例句：

• They styled their house in the Portuguese manner.他们仿照葡萄牙的风格设计自己的房子。
• Her family is Portuguese in origin.她的家族是葡萄牙血统。

7 conjugated   

adj.共轭的，成对的v.列出（动词的）变化形式( conjugate的过去式和过去分词 )；结合，联合，熔化

参考例句：

• Hemoglobin can also be cross-linked to solublepolymers to form so-called conjugated hemoglobin. 血红蛋白也能交联到水溶性多聚体上，形成所谓的共轭血红蛋白。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Similar delocalization is found in other conjugated systems. 在其他共轭体系中，也发现类似的离域。 来自辞典例句