On February 14, Yu yu held a press conference.
It's an ordinary story, but it's not so mundane either.
Before the special press conference on February 14, Chinese and English co-interpreter Li Wenyan did not expect that so many people could hear her voice in the "Little Black Room". She translated Yusheng's frustrated, disappointed, listless words in a slightly frustrated, disappointed, listless tone: "I still want to do 4A." ”
It was a row of small black houses on the right side of the media seat in the main press room of the Beijing Winter Olympics, and she and another colleague were in charge of Chinese-English simultaneous interpretation in one of the houses, one of eight language simultaneous interpretations. In past Olympic Games, simultaneous interpreters did not appear in the reporter's field of vision, but the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee moved the small black room to the scene and opened the window.
The windows are huge. The interpreter's expression and body language through the soundproof glass are an important part of the message and emotion.
At the Beijing Winter Olympics party, the translators in the little dark room came from all over the world, including an 81-year-old Swiss old man, a 60-year-old Italian aunt, and a 25-year-old Chinese girl. Li Wenyan is this little girl.
Li Wenyan is at work.
This is her first job after graduating with a master's degree, requiring simultaneous interpretation of the English or Chinese spoken by reporters or interviewees when they answer questions.
Under normal circumstances, only journalists wearing simultaneous interpretation headphones on the scene can hear her voice, but the press conference brought a little "surprise" to Yusheng.
Crazy Chinese fans are very much looking forward to the content of the conference, and the media knows where the traffic is, so they have found a way to broadcast live through various strange ways. Considering that this is not the official press conference of the Olympic Organizing Committee, but a media meeting unilaterally held by Yusheng Jiexin, the media outside the closed loop are less concerned about the copyright of the live picture.
So Li Wenyan's calm, calm but emotionally rich voice spread throughout the network.
Many people do not know where the real particularity of this conference is, and Li Wenyan knew it from the very beginning. She has experienced more than thirty press conferences before, and the press officer is usually sitting next to the athletes, as you know, which seems to be a kind of companionship, but it is actually a kind of protection. But Yusei walked to the podium alone, and there was no one else around.
The podium has 15 positions, and Yusei yushi sits in the middle, lonely and empty, just like he is in the ice rink.
Yu Yusei was alone on stage facing the media.
"I was a little surprised at the time. This was the largest number of reporters in all the press conferences of the Winter Olympics, and the smallest number of people on the stage. I was suddenly a little moved, and felt the sincerity of Yu Sheng's string, as if he appeared in front of everyone without any precautions. Li Wenyan said.
The identity of the simultaneous interpreter is destined to have a unique perspective on the Olympic Games. She is facing the "confrontation" between athletes and the global media after the game, the emotions and messages contained in the athletes' speeches, she wants to pass them out as accurately as possible, and this information may appear in any media, People's Daily, The New York Times, Yomiuri Shimbun...
Wenyu Li's undergraduate science is English, and he applied for a master's degree in translation. Between translation at Sun Yat-sen University and interpreter at Central South University of Forestry and Technology, she chose the latter. What makes her feel the charm of translation? She said that the phrase "curiosity killed the cat", a slang phrase that can be literally translated as "curiosity kills a cat", and that anyone can understand it, is a bit magical.
Chinese translators still believe in the three-character principle of "faith, da, and elegance" in their work, which is the golden rule written by Yan Fu in the preface to the translation of "The Theory of Heavenly Speech" more than 100 years ago. Li Wenyan said: "Letter is to accurately convey basic information, and to reach is to be smooth and understandable. Ya is even harder. On a simultaneous interpretation occasion like the Olympic Games, it is not an easy task to be able to 'reach'. ”
Before Yu Sheng tied the string, she was impressed twice, one was the Chinese short track speed skater Ren Ziwei, and the other was south Korea's Huang Daxian.
In the press conference hall after the short track speed skating men's 1000m final, a reporter asked the champion Ren Ziwei what he wanted to say to his parents, and Ren Ziwei replied: "There is nothing to say, the Winter Olympics are not over." ”
Ren Ziwei's Q&A was interpreted by another male colleague who was in a small black room with Li Wenyan. According to the division of labor, they rotated every 15 minutes.
There are 2 partners in each small dark room.
"I was a little embarrassed to hear that. Although it is a real answer, it does not seem to be an answer. A poor translation can mislead people into thinking that he is perfunctory about the problem. However, her partner did not have time to think about whether the interviewee's words were appropriate, and the job of simultaneous interpretation was to interpret the content as soon as possible.
Ren Ziwei may have realized that his answer was a bit awkward, so he quickly added a paragraph. "My dad was a soldier, I grew up in the army dean, if I don't practice this, I may also become a soldier." Sport is a peacetime war. I may have rushed over with a gun on my shoulders, and my son has inherited his father's business. ”
The sports values of the vast majority of Chinese athletes seem to be in this sentence. Interestingly, the words "war" and "carrying a gun" are cleverly not translated directly by Li Wenyan's partner, but the meaning of "the son inherits the father's business" is clearly expressed. The Olympic motto has just added "more unity", presumably not welcoming war and guns.
Translators are also people, and it is inevitable that they have their own emotional tendencies, not to mention Chinese translators who fight at home. In order to better understand the athletes, the translator must first watch the live broadcast of the game. Li Wenyan said that after watching so many Short Track Speed Skating competitions between China and South Korea, it is difficult for him not to have a tendency. When she knew that she was going to do a simultaneous interpretation for Huang Daxian's post-match press conference, her first reaction was also: "Huh? It's him. ”
But childish emotions will not be carried over to this dignified job. Instead, she and her partner maintained enough rigor. It was the post-match press conference of the short track speed skating men's 1000m semifinals where Huang Daxian was found to be fouled, and Huang Daxian's Korean was first translated into English, including the sentence "I didn't have a clean game."
After the press conference, they exchanged this question. The partner explained that he wasn't sure exactly what the phrase meant, and he tended to feel that Wong felt that his movements during the game were not clean. Li Wenyan tends to think that Huang Daxian is accusing the game of unfair punishment and that he is clean. They discussed the meaning of this sentence with their colleague in charge of Han Ying's simultaneous interpretation, and the colleague was also ambiguous. None of the three of them were quite sure what Huang Daxian meant.
This situation seems understandable. "Clean" is originally a word with ambiguous space, not to mention that the subject of the word is not clearly used. If a Chinese athlete says, "I'm a little dirty in this game," it's hard to be sure what he means.
"Not translating can be frustrating but it's also the best option. Our predecessors told us that translation is an art that is always flawed. Li Wenyan said.
From childhood to adulthood, Li Wenyan is not a sports enthusiast, because he participated in the Beijing Winter Olympics, he had the first Favorite Chinese athlete Wu Dajing. But the press conference made him feel that the charm of the Olympic Games was far beyond the scope of competitive competitions.
That afternoon, reporters packed the press room half an hour early. Yusei yushin bowed deeply to everyone as he entered the door, and then walked up to the press platform alone. The press officer prompted everyone offstage to raise their hands directly to ask questions, and Yusheng Yuxian himself raised his hand first to indicate that there was an opening statement to say. Li Wenyan, who has long been familiar with various work links, can easily cope with all this, but she can feel a sense of solemnity unprecedented in the press hall through the soundproof glass.
A 61-year-old Russian translator is doing simultaneous interpretation in a small dark room.
Yusheng Yuxian is the only athlete at the Beijing Winter Olympics to use 8 languages to perform simultaneously. Figure skating champion Chen Wei, who defeated Yusheng Knot, used only 5 types.
In the 35-minute interview, Yusei yusuke answered each question very carefully, and his expression was both accurate and emotional. "I was surprised that he was so sincere. I was easily drawn into his verbal mood by him. Listening to the simultaneous voice, it seems that because she did not jump into 4A, she kept comforting herself, but she was obviously unwilling.
After the interview, when Yusheng Yuxian stood up and bowed deeply to the media reporters present, the live broadcast screen had been cut off, and the simultaneous interpreters all thought that the work was over, but Yusheng Yuxian suddenly lifted up the microphone again, made a look in the direction of the small black house, and said: "I also want to thank the staff who translated for me." "Then bow again."
Li Wenyan said: "It was completely unexpected by me. After translating his words of thanks to the translator, I couldn't help but cry. I wasn't really cold to this boy. ”
In the process of exiting, simultaneous interpretation is no longer required. Yu Yu bowed a total of 5 times, the first 4 times were toward the crowd, and the last time was to walk off the stage and turn towards the Olympic flag. Li Wenyan could not see this last bow, because a crowd of photojournalists and on-site staff blocked the view of the small black room.
She probably always remembers the launch. It was a press conference about the first failed challenge to 4A, but the small universe of feathered strings was still hot.
The experience of the Winter Olympics has shaped Li Wenyan's view of sports. "I can feel now that sport can bring people together. I think Ren Ziwei, Huang Daxian and Yu Sheng are all the same, although athletes compete for results on the field, they are also doing one thing together, that is, to make sports infect everyone. ”
After the Winter Paralympic Games end in March, Li Wenyan's two years of experience in the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee will come to an end. She didn't know if she would stay in Beijing and wasn't sure where she would start her next job. But she thinks the Italian aunt in her 60s in the little dark room next door is a good one: "I've been working for 40 years, and I want to keep doing it, because translation is not only a job that learns something new every day, but also connects the world as much as possible." 」 ”
Therefore, the translator Li Wenyan also understood that the ultimate goal of "faith, reach, and elegance" was actually the "together" in the Olympic motto.