這“部長”不是那“部長”

文/常玉田

這“部長”不是那“部長”

文/常玉田1

高校的學生會是個小社會，名分響亮，機構林立，官職繁多，輪換頻繁。對此筆者十分理解，沒有攪局干犯的意思。恰恰相反，是想議論一下這類職務的英文表達，幫助大家把自己辛苦積攢的名銜寫對，最好能打扮得洋氣一些，至少不至于直愣愣地向老外宣布自己是個小騙子。

本文只揀“部長”一詞稍作舉證。上個學期看到有個學生在作文中說她是個minister，受此啟發(fā)，就在一次課上要求大家把這個句子譯成英語：

我是院學生會學術實踐部副部長，男友是體育部部長。

學生譯完后請人嚴格按照原樣錄入，現(xiàn)分批羅列如下：

D1. I’m viceministry of Academic Action apartment， my boyfriend is a sports minister.

D2. I am the assistant Chair of the student association. My boyfriend is the chair of

D3. I’m the of academic department in the student’s union， and my boyfriend is the president of Physics department.

D4. I’m the chair academic and activity part of the students union in our department， and my boyfriend is the PE

D5. I’m the minister of Practicing Pertment in student organization, my boyfriend is the master of Sport Partment.

D6. I am the vice minister of Academic Practice Department and my boyfriend is Minister of PE department in the School.

D7. I am the vice minister of the Academic Department of our school，and my boyfriend is the minister of Sports Department.

D8. I’m the vice minister of Study and Research Department of Student’s Government， and my boyfriend is the minister of PE Department of it.

D9. I am the viceminister of the Academy and Practice Department of theSchool Student Union. My boyfriend is the minister of the Sport Department.

D10. I am viceminister of the Department of Studying in the Student Union of our school and my boyfriend is the minister of the Department of Sports.

D11. I’m the deputy minister of the department of Academyand Activity in the Student Union of school， and my boyfriend is the minister of the Department of Sport.

為了便于討論，筆者于撰寫本文之際在每個譯文前加了一個英文字母，用于對譯文質量打分。D表示“錯”，C表示“差”，B表示“對”，A則表示“又對又好”。如果同一個“級別”出現(xiàn)了多個譯文，則在字母后面增加數(shù)字以示區(qū)別。同時，以黑體加粗的形式指出問題所在。

譯文D1至D4不成句。D5至D11都用了minister一詞，這便是認定為錯的主要問題之一。據(jù)Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary，minister是指a member of the government in Britain and many other countries who is in charge of a particular department or has an important position in it，并舉了三個例子：the foreign/health minister及the Minister of/for Education。在我國，vice-minister也是只用于政府的副部長。

D12. I’m the undersecretary of our college students union Learning department， and my boyfriend is the secretary of sports department.

D13. I’m the monitor of Professical in student’s group， and my boyfriend is the monitor of TiYu.

D14. I’m the co-monitor of Student’s Practice Department， and my boyfriend is the moniter of PE Department.

D15. I am the leader of academic department of English college， and my boyfriend is physical education departmentadminister.

D16. I’m vice secretary of the Academic and Practice apartment of the institutional Student Union， and my boyfriend is the secretary of sport department.

D17. I’m the vice leader of the AcademyandPractice Organization in the Student Union of Apartment. My boyfriend is the leader of the Sports Organization.

C1. I’m the president of Academy Practicing Department of Students Union in our school.

C2. I am the vice manager of the Academic and Practicing Department of School’s Student Union. My boyfriend is the manager of the PE Department.

C3. I am vice manager of Study and Practice Department of Student’s Union of School and my boyfriend is manager of Physical Education Department.

C4. I am the Deputy Director of Acdemics Department in my school’s Student Union. My boyfriend is the Director of Sports Department.

美國政府各部的副部長稱為Under Secretary，這可能是譯文D12的依據(jù)。其他譯文的問題請見黑體標記，共同的一點在于沒有正確表達“學生社團中的副部長或部長”這一基本事實。

本文的主題實際上涉及的是職稱職務（Titles & Positions）的表達問題，正是初入職場的年輕人應當盡早掌握、準確譯寫的教學內容。就這個例子而言，英語專業(yè)的20個學生提交了21個版本，只是遺憾都不對。漢語原文簡單明了，學生錯譯五花八門，且錯譯一直占了參與人群的多數(shù)。知道的說你英語太爛，不了解的告你企圖詐騙。究其原因，大多可以歸罪于這個簡單的事實或常識：漢語字少，英語詞多，因而需要一詞多譯。

職務一般要與部門名稱連同出現(xiàn)，或者說只有將兩者一起講才能說明白是否使用介詞、定冠詞、大小寫等問題，故此具體的一個詞（在本文中以“部長”和“副部長”為例），對應的英文詞是什么取決于其所在的上下文。

中國企事業(yè)單位的職務的英語寫法，應當遵循英語國家的慣例。這與人名的寫作規(guī)范（參見本刊2016年第12期）不一樣，根本原因在于英語國家也有這些職務，我們需要做的便是尋找對應詞語，或者說盡可能對應的詞語。

按照北京市質量技術監(jiān)督局發(fā)布的《組織機構、職務職稱英文譯法通則》（征求意見稿），中共北京市市委辦公廳、部、委、辦中的副部長通譯deputy director-general，而企業(yè)或事業(yè)單位的副部長則多用deputy director，其他省市的黨委系統(tǒng)的副部長也有對應deputy head的情況。這里至關重要的是各位“副部長”的實際級別。概括而言，似乎可以講國務院下屬的部級干部多用minister，司局級往下就不可以用了——無論黨、政還是企業(yè)或社會團體。在校生的學生社團應當屬于最后一類。

本題的部門名稱與職務的正確寫法，可以參考以下這三種。敬請與前面的21個版本自行對比，包括是否使用定冠詞。

A1. I am deputy director of the research department in my school’s Students Union. My boyfriend is director of the sports department.

A2. Deputy Director，the Research Department， Students Union of ××School

Director，the Sports Department， Students Union of ×× School

A3. Both my boyfriend and I are leaders /directors in the Students Union of the school /college. I’m a deputy for study and he is the sports director.

A1是C4的修改版，A2用于簡歷中的列表格式，A3用于文本寫作或聊天。當然還可以有其他的表達方式。

A2那樣的簡歷格式，其中包含的“規(guī)范”主要有：職稱職務應當使用單詞或者短語；如果與單位名稱連用，其間使用逗號分隔，不要使用介詞或者介詞短語，也就是不要寫成近似句子一樣的結構。斜線“/”表示可以兩者擇一。

是否大寫職務和機構名稱的首字母，取決于你對整個文本（簡歷、求職信及英文版?zhèn)€人陳述之類）中同類信息的版面編排。這時的關鍵是前后一致，全文統(tǒng)一風格。 □

Most Famous Dogs in History (4)Hachiko, Faithful Dog

Hachiko was an Akita dog who lived near the city of Odete， in the Akita prefecture of Japan. He was owned by Hidesaburo Ueno， a professor at Tokyo University. At the end of each day， Hachiko would greet his owner at nearby Shibuya Station. This daily routine was followed until one day in May of 1925， when the professor did not return home from work. He had died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Each day for nine years， the Akita returned to Shibuya Station at the time that his owner’s train should have arrived. Hachiko died in 1935，found on a street in Shibuya.

1對外經(jīng)濟貿易大學教授，全國翻譯資格（水平）考試英語專家委員會委員。研究方向：英漢互譯、商務英語寫作。