《乔布斯传》翻译笔记：苹果股票带来的友情纷争

 第九章中苹果公司上市。1980年苹果公司正式首次公开筹股（IPO）准备上市，当时的苹果公司价值近18亿美元，乔布斯瞬间名利双收（a man of wealth and fame），25岁的乔布斯身家达到2.56亿美元。可是就是这样一个名利双收的年轻人，再次表现冷酷无情的一面，这一次的对象则是多年密友丹尼尔·科特肯（Daniel Kottke）这个一直和乔布斯并肩作战的好朋友、苹果公司的创业元老级员工，在苹果公司上市的时候，却没有获得任何股票。尽管周遭的人们都在出各种主意想要为科特肯尽点力，但乔布斯却冷酷地拒绝。他对老友的漠不关心和冷漠让科特肯很伤心，觉得他们之间的友情完了。你会这样对待朋友么？

【英语原文】

Daniel Kottke was not one of them. He had been Jobs’s soul mate in college, in India, at the All One Farm, and in the rental¹ house they shared during the Chrisann Brennan crisis. He joined Apple when it was headquartered in Jobs’s garage, and he still worked there as an hourly employee. But he was not at a high enough level to be cut in on the stock options that were awarded before the IPO. “I totally trusted Steve, and I assumed he would take care of me like I’d taken care of him, so I didn’t push,” said Kottke. The official reason he wasn’t given stock options was that he was an hourly technician, not a salaried engineer, which was the cutoff level for options. Even so, he could have justifiably² been given “founder’s stock,” but Jobs decided³ not to. “Steve is the opposite of loyal,” according to Andy Hertz-feld, an early Apple engineer who has nevertheless remained friends with him. “He’s anti-loyal. He has to abandon the people he is close to.” (Chapter 9 Going Public: Options)

【译文】

丹尼尔·科特肯却不是其中一员。他是乔布斯的多年挚友，从大学时代，到印度的精神之旅，到团结农场，再到出租房，陪他经历初恋女友的怀孕风波。苹果总部还在乔布斯家的车库里的最初创业时期，科特肯就加入了公司，他一直以时薪雇员的身份在苹果公司工作。不过因为他在公司的职位不高，所以无法获得苹果在首次公开募股（IPO）前为员工提供的股票认购权。“我完全信任是史蒂夫，我以为他会像我一直以来照顾他那样照顾我，所以我没有催他。” 科特肯这样说。他并没有获得员工股票认购权，公司给出的官方理由是因为他只是时薪技术员，并非领固定工资的全职工程师，这也是股票认购权的最低要求。但即使如此，他也理应获得一些“创始人股权”。决定不给他股权的正是乔布斯。“史蒂夫的为人可跟忠诚扯不上边儿，” 苹果的一位早期工程师安迪·赫茨菲尔德这样说道，虽然他跟乔布斯一直保持着朋友关系，但是他还是很不客气地这样评价道：“他就是反忠诚的代表，他总是会抛弃身边亲密的人。”

【翻译笔记】

1. 名词用作动词：headquarter（headquartered）与 salary （salaried）。headquarter用作名词时表示总部，用作动词时表示总部设在某处，常用短语 (be) headquartered in some place。名词意为薪水和工资的salary，在用作动词时可以表示给...发薪水或给...加薪。salaried 多用于形容词表示拿薪水的（工薪阶层）。

The nerve center for any U. S. military operations is headquartered at Central Command, based in Florida. 美国的任何一次军事行动，其指挥中心都会将总部设在佛罗里达州的中央司令部。

Salaried people who earn more than a few thousand dollars must pay a certain percentage of their salaries to the federal government. 每月工资超过几千美元的工薪人士必须向联邦政府缴纳一定比例的税款。

2. cutoff：截止，中断，捷径。cutoff date（cut-off date）：截止日期；cutoff point：截点，起征点；cutoff score：录取分数线。

cutoff date 与deadline 都可以表示某件事必须被完成或者被递交的期限日期，但cutoff date的特别之处在于是金融方面的专业术语，指账单等结算的日期。（例如交水电费，每月规定在20号之前将上月的水电费缴清，那每月的20号就是cutoff date而非deadline。）

After the adjustment of the cutoff point, the number of taxpayers⁴ will drop by more than a half, approximately. 在起征点调整之后，缴纳个人所得税的人数预计将减少超过一半。

By Wednesday evening, both were buoyed⁵ by news of the cutoff scores for their district. 到了周三的下午，他们俩都为本地区刚发布的录取分数线感到振奋。

3. stock options and IPO:

stock options：（职工）股票认购权，指公司的职工以事先决定好的价格在规定的期限内能购买该公司事先约定的股票数量这一权利。

IPO：Initial Public Offerings 首次公开筹股（发行），指股份有限公司或有限责任公司首次向社会公众公开招股的发行方式。有限责任公司IPO后会成为股份有限公司。

1 rental   

n.租赁，出租，出租业

参考例句：

• The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。
• We can organise car rental from Chicago O'Hare Airport.我们可以安排提供从芝加哥奥黑尔机场出发的租车服务。

2 justifiably   

adv.无可非议地

参考例句：

• There General Walters would come aboard to greet me, justifiably beaming with pride at his arrangement. 在那儿沃尔特斯将军会登上飞机来接我，理所当然为他们的安排感到洋洋得意。 来自辞典例句
• The Chinese seemed justifiably proud of their economic achievements. 中国人似乎为他们的经济成就感到自豪，这是无可非议的。 来自互联网

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 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

5 buoyed   

v.使浮起( buoy的过去式和过去分词 )；支持；为…设浮标；振奋…的精神

参考例句：

• Buoyed by their win yesterday the team feel confident of further success. 在昨天胜利的鼓舞下，该队有信心再次获胜。
• His encouragement buoyed her up during that difficult period. 他的鼓励使她在那段困难时期恢复了乐观的情绪。 来自《简明英汉词典》