Translation and association of "One small step forward, one big step for civilization"

Nearly ten years ago, Yikangjun attended the "Second Translation Talent Training Seminar for Central Ministries and Commissions" as a representative of the Ministry of Health, and the Foreign Languages ??Publishing Administration served as a matchmaker and hosted foreign affairs translation exchanges between ministries and commissions.

Mr. Lin Wusun, former director of China International Publishing Group and winner of the "Translation Culture Lifetime Achievement Award", personally gave guidance and personally donated his new work "A New Translation of the Analects" (in early 2017, Mr. Lin also published "A New Interpretation of the Analects") "Full Translation"), the audience has benefited a lot.

What I remember deeply is that during the meeting, these seniors were discussing the translation standards for public places, and they suddenly came up with the open-ended proposition "One small step forward, one big step for civilization" , smiled for a moment. From reverence to reverence, the great path leads to simplicity. As far as citations are concerned, this sentence should be adapted from the famous saying of Neil Armstrong who walked on the moon: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." , one giant leap for mankind")"

It is said that all men know this, but not women. What does it mean? Search Baidu or 360: "One small step forward, one giant leap for civilization." " is a popular reminder in the men's bathroom. The purpose is to remind men to move forward when urinating to avoid the uncivilized phenomenon of excreting urine on the ground outside the urinal. Moreover, usually there is a warning before such a reminder. The words "warm reminder" should be added to give the men who are using the toilet a sense of superiority that they are doing "something to promote the development of civilization."

Then, let's put the first man on the moon. Is it excessive to extend the astronaut's famous saying to the men's toilet slogan?

"Drinking the same water, drinking the same wine", expand it to " "We urinate the same way" and say "we are different", excluding subtle physiological and pathological differences, but in fact "our urine is the same as a ball". Whether we can urinate into a pot depends on fate! So is it so difficult to take a small step forward? ? Since the ubiquitous use of slogans has become a fact, does it indicate the existence of a kind of widespread mysophobia in society? Mysophobia refers to thinking that "things within the normal hygiene range are dirty, feeling anxious, and compulsively cleaning them" , check and reject "unclean" things. A type of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Mysophobia is divided into physical mysophobia, behavioral mysophobia and mental mysophobia. The onset is often affected by psychosocial (environmental) factors. The symptoms are not based on proven organic lesions and are inconsistent with the patient's actual situation. However, the patient feels painful and powerless about the existing symptoms and has complete or basically complete insight. , the course of the disease is often protracted." Does the ubiquitous mysophobia in society indicate a kind of widespread anxiety, which means that everyone lives a more depressed life?

Is it possible to skip the topic of mysophobia and refuse to take a small step forward? Is it related to the rationality of the design of toilet appliances? In terms of experience, a urinal designed to be too high at waist level, protruding too far forward, and with a large ejection contact surface is probably inferior to a urinal designed to be lower than foot level. Urinals that are even lower than the ground level and have a small ejection contact surface

Of course there are also funny ones

Next, let’s go back to the topic of translation, the translation of 10 years ago. At the seminar, the phrase "one small step forward, one giant step for civilization" was just an open discussion with a smile, and no unified standard was given. The author's idea was three words: "Step? Closer, Please" ”, 10 years later, in countless public restrooms with such bilingual signs, the author has almost never found the exact same translated expression, especially in expressway service areas (which are naturally used for internal emergencies or refueling). The author has been there This is true for dozens of high-speed service areas. I can't help but sigh, is it so difficult to establish a standard expression? Several years later, in our country, it is generally necessary to establish a unified standard for all regions. , it is indeed not easy, whether it is segmentation or local protection, "Live and let live", each unit and place has its own bidding design, to name a few.

There are literal translations

The intentional translations are pretty good

There are mistranslations (grammar/spelling errors, etc.), all kinds of weird, but It has to be said that these erroneous and poor translations account for more than 90% of the bilingual public toilet signs!

The biggest flaw of this kind of literal translation is that it makes the reader confused and confused. When peeing, a small step forward can take a big step towards civilization. It sounds too high-minded. The strange thing is scary. If you take a small step forward, you are basically touching the wall of the pool. If you take a big step forward, you can reach the deodorant-scented camphor balls in the toilet. Speaking of this, Yikangjun highly recommends this movie. The best French fantasy comedy blockbuster "Time Tunnel" that will make you laugh until your stomach hurts (link: Visitor in Time), the 12th century aristocrat Duke Condé Thébert (played by Jean Reno) and the servant Andre (Chris Ting Clavell) comes to Chicago in the 21st century. Andre takes a big step forward and fishes out the sanitary ball (with the smell of the forest) from the urinal (the blue fountain in his eyes) and eats it as a mint. .

So is there a unified expression? Or is there a unified expression of toilet etiquette (toilet etiquette) in native European and American countries? The answer is yes. Although private toilets do not appear too frequently in public toilets in Europe and the United States, the following are more commonly used:

The first idiom "We aim to please," is widely recognized in the industry. You aim too, please!", In addition, "Gentlemen, your aim will help", "Please be neat and wipe the seat." are also common expressions applicable to various scenarios.

In this toilet rule, "Even if you are in a rush, please remember to flush" can be described as the standard equivalent translation of "come in a hurry, go in a rush".

Looking at the sign of the men's toilet, many female readers may be happy. Don't be secretly happy. In terms of toilet etiquette (toilet etiquette) and mysophobia, of course it is not limited to men, but also to women. There are also requirements, don't laugh, it may be you:

The requirement for ladies is "Ladies, please remain seated for the entire performance." The implication is that during the entire toilet process , women may also perform various weird postures such as stepping on their feet, hanging in the air, standing somersaults, etc., so a polite reminder: please remain seated at all times.

Back in China, some of the expressions "We aim to please, you? aim too, please!" were taken out of context, resulting in confusion:

Some were copied, but with punctuation The wrong use of symbols leads to ambiguity and errors in semantic understanding. For example, some scholars pointed out that the sign of the Capital Airport is wrong:

In the authentic expression "We aim to please, you? aim too, please!", it is used skillfully. There are multiple semantic puns and homophonies: 1. The first aim is an intransitive verb (vi. aim at; aim at...; commit to; decide), and the first please is a transitive verb (vt.? to satisfy; (to make people happy), the previous sentence means that we are committed to customer satisfaction, second, the second aim is a transitive verb (vt. aim; aim; kick; swing to), and please after the second comma is an interjection (int. used to politely request or order) please, please; (used to strengthen the tone of a request or statement) please, please, indeed; (a polite word to express acceptance) thank you so much, great) , the next sentence means that you must be on target, and the good news will not go to outsiders; 3. to and too are homophonic. In the next sentence, too means that users are expected to cooperate, giving the whole sentence a couplet-like melody beauty.

In the Capital Airport logo, the second sentence "too" is not separated by a comma. Now the problem arises. The following "please" is also understood as a transitive verb (vt.? to satisfy; to make happy), resulting in a grammatical error.

To sum up, from the perspective of honest and elegant translation standards, "a big / giant? step toward civilization / civilization" is a relatively hard literal translation that sticks to the "trust" standard. "Your aim will help", "keep it cleaner", "Please be neat" and other expressions tend to be more "up to", while "Please get closer to the urinal" is too "up", plus the toilet urinal is superfluous, superfluous, and seriously underestimates the intelligence of urinal; "fire in the hole", "Your big john is not as long as you think", etc. are too wretched. "We aim to please, you? aim too, please!" is undoubtedly the most elegant, but there is one point worth considering here, that is, will high music lead to dissatisfaction? From the perspective of application scenarios, it is necessary to consider the foreign audience of domestic public toilets. As we all know, most of the foreigners in China are international students from friendly countries such as Asia, Africa and Latin America, representatives of multinational companies, and tourists. On the contrary, people from European and American countries The proportion is relatively small. "We aim to please, you? aim too, please!" involves multiple semantic transformations and understandings. In view of the explanations of domestic professional English speakers on the Internet, this may also constitute a problem for foreigners from non-native English speaking countries. Obstacles to understanding. Therefore, from the author's point of view, I still prefer the concise and concise "Step/Stand closer, please."? After all, everyone understands this expression!