北京外国语大学高级翻译学院

新加坡联合早报今天发表文章说，中共举行大会纪念改革开放30周年，总书记胡锦涛在讲话中的一句北方方言“不折腾”，难倒了国内外媒体界的双语精英。

在表明中国走社会主义道路的坚定不移决心时，胡锦涛连续用了三个“不”：“只要我们不动摇、不懈怠、不折腾，坚定不移地推进改革开放，坚定不移地走中国特色社会主义道路，就一定能够胜利实现这一宏伟蓝图和奋斗目标。”

文章说，当时，“不折腾”三个字刚落音，人民大会堂观众席随即传来会心的笑声。在正式的场合宣示重大发展方向时，一贯严肃的胡锦涛突然冒出一句很普通的口语，显然让大家觉得十分亲切。但笑声也说明观众是听懂了“折腾”二字的所指，也听懂了“不折腾”的含义。

文章认为，中共建国以来，因内外因素而走的冤枉路并不少。历次政治运动、反右、大跃进都给国家政治、经济发展造成不少损伤，文化大革命是损伤最大的一次。即使是改革开放的步伐，也曾在1989年后受挫，直到1992年邓小平南巡后才再次开启。如今，将过去的曲折、错误一律以“折腾”称之，表明中国不再做与经济发展无关的、内耗的路线辩论或政治斗争，“不折腾”的确有现实针对性，而且微妙贴切。

但是好了，对于希望了解中国想法的国际媒体来说，“不折腾”三个字如何翻译呢？

网络上，读者主动搜集了五花八门的各种译法，像“翻来倒去”(don't flip flop)，“别走岔路”(don't get sidetracked)，“别反复”(don't sway back and forth)、不踌躇(no dithering)，还有翻译成“没有重大变化”(no major changes)的。

闲聊时与英语媒体的同行说到上述译法，觉得都不够精彩，没有把“折腾”里头还带着的“混乱”、“自我消耗”涵义体现出来。

有趣的是，在12月30日国务院新闻办的发布会上，当有记者问到与“不折腾”有关的问题时，现场翻译干脆根据汉语拼音念出“bu zheteng”，让这三字用语再引来一轮现场笑声。事后，中国媒体在报道中赞扬一番，说“bu zheteng”或许将成为英语当中的专属名词。

三个字的法译折腾了半天，折腾出了一个“bu zheteng”。现代中国人为英语增加词汇，之前有先例。像宇航员，美国的叫“astronaut”，苏联的叫“cosmonaut”，2003年以后航天词库中又新增了“taikonaut”（源自“太空”的汉语拼音taikong），指中国的宇航员。一个国家国力增长，或受关注的程度增加，就有机会为外语词库做贡献。[1]

尽管我们希望bu zheteng成为英语词汇，但那只是一厢情愿。鉴于大家对“不折腾”的译法普遍不满意，如何翻译，便成为网上广泛的讨论话题；加上新闻发布会上使用汉语拼音，更引起国际兴趣。于是乎，懂外语的中国读者和懂中文（以及不懂中文）的外国读者纷纷献计献策。中国日报针对网友和专家的建议，甚至进行了网上投票（Chinadaily.com.cn Online Ballot），截止到2月6日为止，投票结果如下[2]：

 

 

这一结果显示，大家对所有这些译法，仍然不太满意，因为即使得票最高的选项，支持者也不到50%。让我们逐一分析一下这些译法得不到普遍认同的原因。

Avoid self-inflicted setbacks：据说这是一位驻外大使建议的译法。这个译法得票最高，但这个译法无疑是错误的，因为这个译法有逻辑矛盾。根据Collins COBUILD的解释：

A setback is an event that delays your progress or reverses some of the progress that you have made.

¨         The move represents a setback for the Middle East peace process.

¨         He has suffered a serious setback in his political career.

由此可见，setback（挫折）是一个静态的概念，只有在事情发生之后，你才知道是否存在setbacks；总书记讲的是一个动态的，未然的概念（“不再折腾”），所以，用setbacks并不合适。“挫折”无法避免，无论是self-inflicted还是others-inflicted；但可以在发生挫折时，坚定信心不动摇。一位老外写的博客也有类似的评论：

However, I agree that the phrase "no self-inflicted setbacks" is a lot better than the other translations. At least it is closer to what I understand the Chinese phrase "不折腾" to be. Except that setbacks are usually not known until afterwards. How would someone recognize a setback until it is all said and done? 

The nature of this whole thing is guidance from the top official on what not to do. If one knows ahead of time that some kind of action will cause a setback, yet engages in that action anyway, it really should be called "sabotage".^[3]

但他所建议的(avoid) sabotage显然与汉语意思不符。

Bu zheteng：音译也是一种正当的翻译方法。如果无法简练地翻译出来，可以用拼音，然后再通过其他途径慢慢向老外解释。比如，“豆腐”（通过日语）进入英语是tofu；日本的“寿司”进入英语就是sushi，而不是采用解释的方式。一位网友这样写道：

I think the meaning is close to "Much Ado About Nothing". But if you prefer calling "raw or cooked fish wrapped inside or outside of rice that was seasoned with vinegar and sugar" to sushi, then I think using the term "bu zhe teng" directly is the best choice. 

Last night, my colleagues, all of whom are Chinese, and I had a discussion about how to translate bu zheteng. They all seem to agree that the best solution is simply for us English-speakers to adopt bu zheteng into our language. What do you think?

Bearing in mind that I'm an engineer, not a linguist, off the top of my head I can think of two categories of Chinese words that have been adopted into the English language:

The first is Chinese words that have been fully integrated and are included in standard English language dictionaries. Examples: tofu, from the Chinese dou4 fu 豆腐, and kung fu, from the Chinese gong1 fu 功夫.

The second is Chinese words that expats living in China routinely use colloquially when speaking to each other, either because no equivalent English word exists, or because it describes perfectly a phenomenon unique to China. Examples:

-- chai 拆, meaning to demolish, e.g. "I used to love that restaurant; too bad it got chai'ed last week."

-- mafan 麻烦, meaning troublesome/annoying, e.g. "Traveling during Chinese New Year's is too much mafan, I think I'll just stay in Beijing next week."

My prediction is that bu zheteng will be integrated by expats into the unique brand of Chinglish that we use when speaking to other China expats, but that there is little to no chance that bu zheteng will become the next tofu. ^[4]

看来，译为bu zheteng也许可以临时救急，也许会在驻华的老外中间使用，但由于缺乏西方主流媒体的宣传，不大可能成为家喻户晓的英语词汇。所以，我的看法是，除非到了山穷水尽的地步，否则不宜使用音译。

No trouble-making：放在总书记讲话的语境中，应该是(As long as we don't waver, don't slack off and) don’t make trouble.译回汉语，就是（只要我们）不惹麻烦、不捣乱，显然不能表达“不折腾”的丰富内涵，也不会引起人们联想。这个说法据说是季羡林先生建议的。季老都快一百岁的人了，我估计他也不会去看上下文，也没有花太多时间思考。一定是有人请教他“不动摇、不懈怠、不折腾”怎么说，他随口说了一个（让过他知道上下文，怎么不用if we don’t make trouble）？所以，我们也不用迷信。

Don't flip flop: Flip-flop是北美的口语，意思是政策的突然改变（an abrupt reversal of policy）。回顾历史上的折腾人的事件，尽管每次折腾都是政策的改变，但改变政策并非折腾的全部内涵，甚至不是主要内涵。十一届三中全会突然改变了政策，但这不是折腾。根据百度百科，“所谓折腾，就是没事找事，无事生非；就是朝令夕改，忽左忽右；就是翻来覆去，改来改去；就是人为制造矛盾，无休止地搞运动，闹内讧，翻烧饼。”译者试图用它表示“朝令夕改”，但词不达意。

Don't sway back and forth: Sway的意思是“前后缓慢或有节奏的摇摆”（move slowly or rhythmically backwards and forwards or from side to side）。但sway作为不及物东西，并不包含政策摇摆不定的意思。Sway与思想变化有关的一个意思是cause to change in opinion, action, etc.; influence（影响，使……改变），但并不适合总书记讲话的上下文。

Don't get sidetracked: Sidetrack的本意是direct (a train) into a branch line or siding（把火车导入支线或侧轨），引申为distract from an immediate or important issue（使某人从重要的事情上分心）。Get distracted的意思是“被分心”，隐含了一个行为主体。但大家想想，有谁能使我们的党分心？总书记要说的是，我们自己不能折腾，不是别人不能折腾我们。所以，这个译法与原意差距更大。

No more hassle: 从hassle的英文解释中，就可以知道这样翻译不合适：

A hassle is a situation that is difficult and involves problems, effort, or arguments with people. (INFORMAL)（名词麻烦，打扰）

If someone hassles you, they cause problems for you, often by repeatedly telling you or asking you to do something, in an annoying way. (INFORMAL)（动词麻烦，打扰）

No dithering: Dithering的意思是be indecisive，显然不合适。No major changes在意思上差距更大。虽然译者想说的是政策上不要有大的变化，但词不达意。

Much ado about nothing: a humorous play by William Shakespeare. People sometimes use the title as a phrase to describe a situation in which there has been a lot of excitement about something that is not really important.小题大做，大惊小怪。肯定不能表达“不折腾的意思”，尤其是其中一惊一诧（excitement），无法给人以痛苦的联想。

有人译为Mess around，但也词不达意：If you mess around or mess about, you spend time doing things without any particular purpose or without achieving anything.

¨         We were just messing around playing with paint.

¨         Stop messing about and go and buy one.

¨         Boys and girls will enjoy messing about with any kind of machine.

字典上还可以查到更多类似的表达方法，包括monkey around (behave in a silly or playful way), muck about (Brit. informal behave in a silly or aimless way), potter (to do things in a slow and enjoyable way), putter (If you putter around, you do unimportant but quite enjoyable things, without hurrying).这些都无法传达“折腾”的含义。看来，要找到一个简洁达意的说法很难。

一位外国网友建议翻译为no more political turmoil, 但no political turmoil无法放在讲话的语境中。难道可以说as long as we do not have/avoid political turmoil?这样说好像political turmoil不是从党内发起的，而是别人带来的，我党努力去避免。这不是事实（人民一般折腾不起来）。同一位网友认为，political turmoil = political movement.即no more anti-rightist, no more Great Leap, no more Cultural Revolution or anti spiritual contamination.这个译法较好地传达了“折腾”的实质。放在讲话的语境中，可以用as long as we do not engage in political movements.至于是否需要把运动限定为政治运动，可以再考虑。

有人建议译为 no infighting（但句法上需要改为engage (ourselves) in infighting），能够反映“折腾”的部分含义（“搞内讧”），但不全面。

第一个意思和第二个意思可以合并为一个意思：反复做某事。这样，“折腾”就有两个特征：一是动作的反复性，二是动作给人带来痛苦。总书记讲话中的“折腾”，应该同时包含这两个意思，但动作的反复并不像拆装收音机一样，是同一动作的反复，而是具有共同特征的不同动作的反复。从上面的分析来看，很难在英语中找到一个能够表达“折腾”的本意和联想意义词或词组。Much ado about nothing, mess around, monkey around, muck about, potter, putter等词，都含有“漫无目的”或“忙忙叨叨”的意思，但无法表现大规模的“折腾”或“折腾”带来的痛苦。看来，从“折腾”的本意出发，只能使翻译进入死胡同。在这种情况下，我们看是否可以换个角度，用简洁的解释，来概括“折腾”在人们脑海里引起的联想，而不是这个词的本意。

既然“折腾”在人们脑海中勾起的回忆是过去一系列的政治运动，何不把“不折腾”翻译为“不搞政治运动”（as long as we do not engage in political movements）？虽然丧失了“折腾”的生动性，但基本意思正确。这也正是前面一位网友建议的。Infighting, flip-flop, sway back and forth, trouble-making, setbacks等译法，都是在沿着这条路思考，但概括得不够全面或准确。Political movements也许太具体，不能涵盖全部情形。让我们沿着同一思路，进一步思考，看是否可以找到更确切的表达方法。

My own feeling is that none of the attempts at translating bu zheteng has worked. This is because there are three factors underlying that term zheteng: (1) it serves no real purpose; (2) it achieves no real effects; (3) it causes physical and mental anguish among those involved.[5]

既然“折腾”serves no real purpose，那就可以用purposeless来描述。可是，“文革”没有purpose（目的）吗？“大跃进”没有purpose吗？好像都有。原来问题出在real身上。是没有real purpose。这时，我们可以去查找purposeless的近义词。我看到有：unhelpful, unprofitable; purportless, senseless; nonsensical.其中的senseless引起了我的注意。

Concise Oxford English Dictionary对它解释是：

    without discernible meaning or purpose. ▶lacking common sense; wildly foolish.

我们用lacking common sense或wildly foolish来概括建国前后的历次运动，不是很合适吗？

再看Collins COBUILD对它的解释：

If you describe an action as senseless, you think it is wrong because it has no purpose and produces no benefit.

¨         ...people whose lives have been destroyed by acts of senseless violence...

¨         If your child is thirsty for learning, then it is senseless to hold her back.

=pointless

从Collins的解释，我们看到，一项活动如果senseless，那它不但没有real purpose（满足了上述博客中的第一项要求），而且也不会带来好处（“[it] produces no benefit”），这就满足了博客中的第二项要求：“it achieves no real effects”. 同时，这两项要求也就是“折腾”所隐含的内耗和无谓的斗争。至于第三项要求：“it causes physical and mental anguish among those involved”, 我们认为可以隐含在senseless之中：一个人被逼去做毫无意义的事情，自然会引起身心痛苦。同时，柯林斯还告诉我们另一个选项：pointless.

这样，我们就初步认定一个可以用来描述历次“折腾”的词：senselss/pointless. “折腾人的事情”，就是senseless/pointless things (undertakings). 再翻译为汉语，就是“毫无意义的/愚蠢的事情”。顺藤摸瓜，undertakings的同义词还有：enterprise, ventures, activities, endeavours；联系中国政治运动的实际，还可以考虑使用battles（隐含政治上的斗争）。（注意：enterprise的意思不限于企业。中国人对这个词有误解。它的意思与undertaking相同。因为它来自古法语，字面意思就是something undertaken.）

接下来，我们把这些译法逐一输入Google，以检验以它们在英语世界是否存在；如果存在，它们的意思是否与中国的语境相符。经过逐一检验，发现这些说法都存在，试举例如下：

1. The teaching of a value-free science of politics in a university would be a senseless enterprise unless it were calculated to influence the values of the students by putting at their disposition an objective knowledge of political reality.

2. We honor these men and women and the choice they made to serve their country. We only wish that our leaders would’ve honored them by not sending them to their deaths in such a tragic and senseless enterprise.

3. In this paper, I argue that such an inquiry is a pointless enterprise due to its being based upon the incorrect assumption that linguistic competence requires knowledge of language.

4. "You seem to be spending a great deal of your available energy on a pointless enterprise."

1. ... that the whole program was "a senseless undertaking" (209) that not only subjected their homeland to health risks but made it economically dependent. ...

2. It was argued that any fair and accurate investigation into, and weighing up of, past judicial and lawyerly conduct would have to involve an effective “re-trial” of the issues in their appropriate context—a complex, time-consuming, expensive and ultimately senseless undertaking.

3. Barack Obama - We can try to stop people from wasting energy on pointless undertakings. Yes, we can.

4. I usually ignore them - time is too valuable to waste bickering over for what amounts to nothing more than a pointless undertaking.

1. A senseless venture, costing hundreds of thousands of lives and inflicting untold misery to millions, all in the name of religion, and under the symbol of the cross, had ended. Had these lives been invested in evangelizing the Muslims, the world would look different today.

2. In the end I felt that I read a book about a man who is taking a stupid journey, and I wasted my time reading about a senseless venture.

3. bring owls to Athens: (idiom) To undertake a pointless venture, one that is redundant, unnecessary, superfluous, or highly uneconomical.

4. I ask because my spare time is rather limited and I don't want to waste my time on a pointless venture.

1. This type of senseless activities ultimately tarnishes the image of the state and sends wrong messages to the outside world

2. The authorities want instead us to engage into senseless activities: to collect hundreds of thousands of signatures, bring suits against heads of government…

3. Malaysia has been involved in too much pointless activities for far too long.

4. If the whole of a country's GDP was made up of pointless activities that had no meaning then too bad - it is what those people chose to do of their own free will. They were not forced to do those things.

1. Now, often, conflicts are depicted in the media less as political confrontations than as brutal and ideologically senseless battles, and how better to communicate that than to show a damaged child?

2. Perhaps it's a pipe dream to think we might ever come to consensus about the grand purposes of public education. But unless and until we do, we will continue fighting senseless battles over specifics, thereby losing sight of the big picture and ensuring our continued slide toward second-tier-nation status.

3. By "pointless battles" I mean the various in-fighting that goes on, the anti-Christian attitudes that seem widespread (both on this site, and to some extent ...

4. Unfortunately, our schools are still locked in endless and pointless battles between "traditionalism" and "progressivism," between lecture-style teaching and immersion learning, as if these were the only two alternatives.

1. ... to strengthen the ranks of the protesting movement against the senseless endeavors of the US administration to impose their arrogance on the world. ...

2. The drug war is one of the most senseless endeavors our government pursues. It is a waste of money, time, resources and it often ruins the lives of people who pose no threat to society.

3. I personally feel that the State of Arkansas spends money on senseless endeavors. That money could be spent much more wisely.

在一个博客中[6]，用这样一句话来解释pointless endeavor，与我们所理解的“折腾”很相似：

An earnest and conscientious effort towards a goal devoid of meaning; to work with set purpose to achieve absolutely nothing.

1. The nine sons of the Chinese Dragon King waste their time engaging in pointless endeavors until their father suggests ways they can use their unique skills ...

2. And anyway, governments waste money on far more pointless endeavors than combating climate change.

最后看看这些短语和动词的搭配情况。按照总书记讲话的行文，可以用(As long as we don't waver, don't slack off and don't--

¨         engage in senseless/pointless enterprises,

¨         engage in senseless/pointless undertakings,

¨         undertake/engage in senseless/pointless ventures,

¨         undertake/engage in senseless/pointless activities,

¨         fight/engage in senseless/pointless battles, or

¨         engage in senseless/pointless endeavors.

这些选项都成立，但我倾向于用do not fight senseless battles（比较生动）和do not engage in (or: avoid) pointless endeavours（意思准确）。

如果要把动词短语缩减为名词短语，则可以翻译为：No wavering, no slacking, and no senseless/pointless undertakings (ventures, battles, endeavors, etc.).

 

*本文的英文版刊登在The Journal of Specialised Translation, Issue 13, 见：http://www.jostrans.org/

作者简介：李长栓 北京外国语大学高级翻译学院副教授

中国翻译协会专家会员 联合国认证译员

通讯地址：北京西三环北路2号16信箱

联系方式：lichangshuan@gmail.com

 

 

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