"As for the question of worrying about the inconsistency of the style of Jobs' biography translation, let Mr. Yang Guoyang answer it for you, I don't think anyone is more qualified to answer this question than him." After Zheng Yujie finished speaking, she turned her head slightly and glanced at Yang Guo.

Yang Guo smiled at her and nodded, although the two had not discussed it before, but at this moment, it seemed that they were partners who had cooperated countless times, and they could understand what the other party wanted to express at a glance, or, it was nothing more than a little understanding.

"Thank you." Yang Guo turned the head of the microphone to himself.

Looking at so many people and cameras, I was a little nervous at first, and my voice trembled slightly. In order to hide his nervousness, he also patted the microphone and made a banging sound.

The whole audience was watching him, quietly, and the atmosphere was a little depressing.

After taking a deep breath, Yang Guo's beating heart calmed down, and at first he was still reading the draft he had already typed: "I can understand everyone's worries. Once, when I finally received the notice of passing the assessment, I also hesitated for a long time because of this question. Many of you may know that my main job is to take over the translation task at Xinda Company. Of all the tasks I've done, none of them have been done in collaboration with others. Translating with others, this is still the first time that a big girl is in a sedan chair, not to mention working with so many people! ”

Just like chatting, slowly, Yang Guo said more and more smoothly: "But when I open the translated foreign works, it is not difficult to find that many translations have two or more translators, and there are many excellent works between them. Later, after a month of translating, I realized that it is not impossible to work with others to achieve a unified style. ”

"In my opinion, the style of translation can be divided into two types, one is the style of word choice and sentence formation, and the other is the overall style of the translation." Talking about his professional field, Yang Guo's eyes began to flash with confidence, and the rhythm of his speech became clearer and clearer.

"The choice of words and sentences, this style, or habit, is cultivated by individuals over time, and it is easy to be subtly influenced by past learning, life, work and other experiences." Yang Guo said with his fingers crossed.

"For example, urban hipsters who often use the Internet and older scholars who only come into contact with print media have significantly different styles in what they say and write. For example, people who are in the financial industry and those who have been immersed in the IT industry for many years will have different styles! Yang Guo said with a smile, "As the saying goes, the nature of the country is easy to change and difficult to change. This is also the part that worries me the most about the difficulty of reaching agreement. ”

"However, what surprised me was that in the translation team, there was not much difference in the styles of the four of us!" Yang Guo turned his head to look at the others on the stage, and said with a smile, "Here I think I should thank the editor-in-chief Pang and Deputy Editor-in-Chief Zheng of Dongxin Publishing House, as well as Mr. Chen of Yiyan.com. ”

"It's actually not difficult to understand, all four of us are college graduates, and we have enough knowledge of the technology industry and emerging things, for example, we are very interested in Apple and Jobs himself, of course, interest does not mean that everyone is a die-hard fan of Jobs. I would like to tell you quietly here that there is a translator in our group who is Steve Jobs, who knows Jobs' life well, but often studies it with a critical eye! Yang Guo paused, and a soft laugh came from the audience, and he continued, "But that doesn't stop us from having a pleasant conversation while translating this book." ”

"Besides, we are all young, not much different in age, and our knowledge comes not only from the books we have studied, but also from the Internet. And the most important thing is that we both have a strong interest in English, and I am ashamed to say that I am the only one with a bachelor's degree, but also the only one who has not obtained any translation certificate. Yang Guo pretended to wipe a cold sweat.

"Of course, everyone is an independent individual, and there will still be differences in the style of word choice and sentence construction, but in the process of review, I will correct the inconsistencies in everyone's translation, and strive to maintain the overall style." Yang Guo said confidently.

He held up two fingers and continued, "The second style is the style of the overall presentation of the translation. What is the style of writing, for example, some authors follow the literary style, either using poetry or some sad tones, and some authors' articles are small and fresh and look comfortable. Some of the writing styles are esoteric and obscure, while others are simple and easy to understand. The style of writing is different, and the feelings given to the reader are also different. ”

"You may have some misunderstandings about this aspect, and you may think that the article translated by so-and-so translator should be in this or that style. Actually, this is not true! ”

Yang Guo said solemnly: "The style of a qualified translator's translation will never be static, and the translator will change his style according to the author's style. If it never changes, then the translator is not translating, he is rewriting the original work! ”

Yang Guo's eloquent talk did not make the reporters in the audience feel boring, he showed an almost master style in his professional field, the tone of the subdued and frustrating, the in-depth exposition, so that everyone listened to the fascination, quite the feeling of listening to Yi Zhongtian teach the Three Kingdoms. Even Professor Luo Lin, who was sitting next to him, showed an expression of approval from time to time.

"Translated works are different from technical documents! The latter can be said to be translated as long as people who have a good understanding of English, because scientific documents focus on the superficial meaning of the communication, and you don't need to think about what kind of style and rhetoric to translate, and you can even use word-to-word translation, as long as the translation can be read by people and can accurately convey the information of the document. But the work is different, we have a very famous translator named Nida, he proposed the theory of functional equivalence translation - translation is to reproduce the source language information from semantics to style in the most appropriate, natural and equivalent language, which means that the translator should consider whether your readers can get the same feelings as the original readers. In addition to the level of meaning, the translator should also consider whether the style of the text should be consistent with the original author. ”

In another long paragraph, a reporter interjected a little impatiently and asked, "Then how do you unify your writing style?" Can it be unified just by talking about it? His voice was very abrupt and attracted everyone's side eyes, but he held his head high and looked defiant.

Finally, there was a different sound at the press conference.

Yang Guo was stunned for a moment, but still said calmly: "Thank you for this reporter's question." I would like to reassure you that before we started translating, we had many meetings and chose what we all thought was the most suitable plain language style. ”

"I've been saying it for so long, but I still haven't said it! I don't think you guys can figure out any style at all! A little white face who relies on women to take the position, and still wants to fool us? The reporter stood up and pointed at Yang Guo and said.

As his words fell, the audience buzzed. The reporters in the audience are not stupid, and at a glance they know that someone has invited them to make trouble, some of them are discussing the gossip behind the matter, and some are analyzing whether what he said makes sense.

"Everyone, be quiet." Patting the table, Pang Yue said into the microphone, worthy of being a very old editor-in-chief in the industry, under her words, everyone stopped the commotion and turned to look at her.

"If you ask a question without raising your hand once without consent, I can forgive your ignorance, and the second time you even intensified and spread rumors, so flouting the order of the press conference, where did you put your other peers? I'm sorry, but we don't welcome journalists like you. Security asked him to be ejected from the venue. As soon as Pang Yue's words fell, two big-shouldered and thick-waisted security guards surrounded him and forcibly dragged him away.

After the door of the venue was closed again, Pang Yue's face softened, and she said, "Let's continue." ”

Yang Guo was so impressed in his heart that Pang Yue's aura was so strong just now that the entire venue was suppressed by her, and no one dared to say another word.

After receiving Pang Yue's signal, Yang Guo said with a smile: "Okay, let me explain to you, why do we choose such a writing style?" One of the main reasons is that the author, Mr. Isaacson, has a very plain style of language, and if you read another of his biography, "The Biography of Franklin", you will know that Mr. Isaacson pays attention to readability, and his language is simple and clear, and the organization is particularly clear. So we decided to continue the style of the original text. ”

"If we choose a different style, like a romance novel, where the emotions are very intense, then the effect of the book that people see is already distorted, and you will even say, Jobs is not like this at all, he is not an emotional person! Therefore, we will try our best to restore the truth of the original text, rather than adapting it with the unique style of Chinese. ”

Yang Guo said, and the look of appreciation in Professor Luo Lin's eyes next to him became stronger!

"The problem of inconsistent styles was well addressed at the beginning. What impressed me even more was that with the deepening of the translation, everyone's cooperation became more and more tacit. Yang Guo said with a smile.

(This chapter is purely a personal blowing, don't think it's copied and pasted somewhere, and don't think it's a real translation theory, insiders please laugh it off.) ）