语言与文风2019polygon.com
《合金装备》英文翻译背后的故事
The Story of Metal Gear Solid’s English Translation
导读
这篇 Polygon 报道讲了 1998 年《合金装备》英文版翻译的幕后：译者 Jeremy Blaustein 如何在直译与“本地化改写”之间取舍，甚至为美国观众重写角色的说话方式，以及这种做法引发的争议（小岛秀夫并不认同）。对写作者来说，它是一堂关于“为读者改写”与“忠于原作”之间张力的案例课，也提醒我们：人物的性格很大程度上是通过台词的具体措辞塑造的。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
翻译或改写时优先让目标读者读得自然，但要清楚自己改动了什么：改的是语感，还是人物性格。
- 02
人物的“声音”藏在措辞习惯里；为他换一套说话方式，等于换了一个人，改写前要问这是否必要。
- 03
行话和术语要先做考据再用（例如用“pineapples”指手榴弹），准确的细节会让台词可信、耐记。
- 04
警惕生硬的“对应式”表达：一味追求词性和字面一一对应，会写出没人真正会说的话。
HN 评论精选
本地化若不标注，观众会在不知情中把译者的改写当成原作者的风格。
我很喜欢日本娱乐作品。我两种语言都不是母语，但常看日语音轨配英文字幕，因为英文比日文好。两套语言同时摆在眼前，我常发现译者自由发挥，甚至把角色性格整个改写，这让我很恼火。这篇文章让我理解了“本地化”而非“翻译”的动机，我也不怪译者想给美国观众最好的体验。但对非美国观众来说，这种本地化可能完全白费——他们对日本文化的熟悉程度未必低于对美国文化的熟悉程度。更糟的是，当本地化与原作差得很远时，观众根本无从得知。标明“本作受原作启发”而非“直译”，才是公平的做法；否则观众可能以为自己在喜欢或讨厌某位作者，其实评判的是译者。
sunaurus查看英文原文
I love Japanese entertainment. I'm not a native speaker of either, but I often use English subtitles with Japanese audio, because my English is better than my Japanese. As a result of having both languages in front of me at the same time, I often notice when translators take liberties and sometimes even rewrite entire personalities of characters, and it has always annoyed me a lot. This article was great for helping me understand the motivations for localizing stories and characters (instead of simply translating them). I certainly don't blame the author (and other translators) for trying to provide the American audience with what they think is the best possible experience. But for anybody who isn't American, the localization might be entirely wasted - there's a good chance that they're just as familiar with Japanese culture and history as they are with American culture and history. What's worse, in cases where the localization is wildly different from the original, the audience probably doesn't have any way of knowing it. It would be fair to tell the audience when the localization is inspired by or based on the original, instead of a direct translation of it. Otherwise, consumers can be misled to thinking they like or dislike a certain writer, while in reality their opinion is based entirely on a translator. Slightly related: in Final Fantasy XIV, a character in the main story was COMPLETELY changed for the English version of the game. Playing in Japanese, I grew quite fond of the character, so when the character eventually died in the story, it had an actual impact for me. A friend of mine plays the same game exclusively in English, and when I discussed the death with him, he told me that this character was completely forgettable for him and he didn't even really remember the circumstances of the death. I'm fairly certain that the lack of impact for him was entirely because of the localization.
“读起来自然”和“字面对应”常常冲突，生硬直译一眼可辨。
我做日译英杂志翻译时有过和作者非常相似的经历。编辑常常不满：我写出的英文读起来自然，但没有用上和原文意思、词性完全对应的词。做了一阵子翻译后我发现，糟糕生硬的译文真的一眼就能看出来。把“懐かしい”译成“How nostalgic!”很常见，可我从没听哪个英语母语者这么说话。语言之间的距离永远是译者的大难题；听说小岛秀夫并不认可这种译法，实在可惜。
laurieg查看英文原文
I have had very similar experiences to the author when doing a magazine translation job from Japanese to English. Very regularly the editor would take issue with me writing an English translation that sounded natural but didn't use a word with the exact same meaning and part of speech as the original. Having worked in translation for a little while, bad and awkward translations really do stand out a mile. "How nostalgic!" is such a common way to translate "懐かしい” but I've never heard anyone say that in English. The distance between the languages will always leave the translator with a sizable challenge. It's a real shame to hear the Kojima was not on board with this style of translation.
扎实的考据（如军用手榴弹俚语）让台词经得起多年回味。
这游戏有很多段落烙在我记忆里：配音极深、情感充沛；玩法也因为每种挑战都有不同解法而值得反复通关。我去查美军用语词表，才明白 Snake 在第一关通讯里把手榴弹叫作“pineapples”是怎么回事。这篇文章为我记住了很多年的台词补上了背景。《合金装备4》里还有一章发生在一代第一关与后续关卡的重制场景中，甚至有一段梦境可以玩到原版。从初代起，团队对作品的投入令人敬佩。
gatherhunterer查看英文原文
There are many parts of this game that are burned into my memory. It was such a deeply voice-acted game with so much emotional content. The gameplay was fun to repeat because there were different ways to approach each challenge. Reading up on the lexicon of the US military explains the use of the word “pineapples” to describe hand grenades when Snake is speaking over comm on the first level. This article gives context to many of the lines that have stuck with me. There is a chapter of Metal Gear Solid 4 that takes place in a modern remake of the first level and one of the later levels of the original. There is even a playable version of the original that comes up in a dream sequence. The dedication that the crew has had for their work from the original and on is remarkable.
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