這位「美版孫寧」先後為七位美國總統擔任翻譯

本文來源：譯·），文章已獲授權。

在全世界各大重要會議或是領導人的私下會晤中，總有一些人坐在領導人身後，不間斷將聽到的信息翻譯給自己的領導人，比如國內被翻譯圈視為「女神」的張璐。美國也有這樣一位總統背後的神級口譯員——哈利·奧博斯特，在30年的口譯生涯中，他曾先後為七位美國總統擔任翻譯。今天，Yee君就來帶你認識這位口譯大神~~

▲美國前總統里根（左）和譯員哈利·奧博斯特

翻譯之路充滿坎坷

Harry Obst was born in East Prussia in 1932. He spent his early high school education as a refugee in Saxony under Soviet occupation. As the teaching of French and English was forbidden at that time, he learned English with the help of a small dictionary and eight copies of the Ladies Home Journal, the only English texts he could find. He enrolled at Mainz University in 1954, with no money, majoring in translation and rounding out his language studies.

哈利·奧博斯特於1932年出生在東普魯士，早年以難民身份在蘇聯佔領下的薩克森讀高中。當時禁止教授法語和英語，在一部小字典和8份影印版《婦女家庭雜誌》的幫助下他學會了英語，這些是他唯一能找到的英語材料。1954年，身無分文的奧博斯特進入美因茨大學，主修翻譯專業，完成了語言學習。

Unable to find work as a professional translator, Obst emigrated to the United States in 1957. He worked in private industry for eight years until the Department of State offered him a staff position as diplomatic interpreter in 1965. He gained a thorough knowledge of the U.S. from 26 trips around the country as an escort interpreter for leading personalities from Europe and from his work with American presidents.

由於無法找到專職譯員的工作，奧博斯特於1957年移民美國，在私企工作了8年，直到1965年美國國務院聘用他從事外交口譯。作為美國總統和歐洲重要人物的陪同翻譯，奧博斯特在全美遊走過26次，這讓他對美國有了全面了解。

著書分享翻譯經歷

His book, White House Interpreter: The Art of Interpretation, takes a look at five of the presidents from the interpreter's perspective: Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan. Most Americans have very little familiarity with professional interpreting, a profession known fairly well in Europe and Canada. After finishing WHITE HOUSE INTERPRETER, the reader will understand what interpreting is all about and why this profession is of considerable importance to many segments of our society: from the White House to the courthouse, from the military battlefield to our hospitals.

在《白宮譯員：口譯的藝術》一書中，奧博斯特從譯員的角度對其中五位總統進行了描述：約翰遜、尼克松、福特、卡特和里根。大部分美國人並不像加拿大和歐洲那樣熟悉職業口譯，看完《白宮譯員》后，讀者就會了解口譯是什麼以及為何這個職業對我們社會的很多方面來說至關重要——從白宮到法院，從軍事戰場到醫院。

The book is written for the general reader. The author avoids the linguistic jargon. He mixes the technical information with interesting anecdotes, many of them never published before.

該書是面向大眾讀者的，因此作者沒有使用語言學術語，而是將技術性信息融入了趣聞軼事中，很多內容此前從未公開發表過。

給總統做翻譯是什麼樣的體驗？

By the time an interpreter gets into a room with the president and a foreign leader, he or she brings in more than simply past meetings. The first, essential foundation is a wide range of general knowledge. White House interpreters are provided by the Office of Language Services, which tests would-be interpreters on general knowledge.

等譯員與總統和外國領導人走進屋子，他或她帶來的不僅是以往參會的經驗。首先，最基礎的是廣博的知識。白宮譯員由語言服務處提供，服務處會就一般常識對譯員進行測試。

「To work at the very top, you have to have an incredible arsenal of general knowledge, because the president will get into every damn topic you can imagine, from nuclear submarines to agriculture to treaty problems to labor problems to God knows what, jellyfish in the sea,」 Obst says. 「If you don』t know how an airplane flies, if you don』t know how a nuclear reactor works, you』re going to make mistakes.」

「在高層工作，你必須掌握大量的常識，因為總統會談及你能想象到的每個該死的話題，從核潛艇到農業，從條約問題到勞工問題，甚至天知道，還有海里的水母，」奧博斯特說，「如果你不知道飛機是怎麼飛的，不知道核反應堆如何工作，你就要出錯。」

Like anyone else in a sensitive meeting, an interpreter must have high security clearance. He or she will also have received all the same briefing books as the president. That』s essential so that the interpreter can understand the nuances of the information discussed and knows the vocabulary. But it also means that the interpreter can serve as a crutch for the president, catching minor factual errors or slips of the tongue.

和所有其他參加敏感會議的人一樣，譯員必須通過嚴格的安全審查。他或她也和總統看一樣的內部參考。這對譯員很關鍵，他們要能理解所討論信息的微妙之處，知道如何表達。但這也意味著譯員可以成為總統的拐杖，發現小的事實性錯誤或口誤。

Once in the meeting, typical protocol calls for a principal to speak, followed by an interpretation by his or her interpreter—so, for example, Trump would speak, and then his interpreter would pronounce what he said in Russian. That helps insulate the principal from factual errors, but it also helps avoid problems of idioms lost in translation. American presidents might be tempted to discuss 「punting,」 a football metaphor that would make little sense to a non-native English speaker; likewise, a European leader who referred to the 「89th minute,」 as in the final moments of a soccer game, would only confuse an American counterpart.

開會時，一般性禮節是發言人先說，譯員再翻譯，例如川普說話，然後譯員用俄語再說一遍。這有助於把發言者的事實性錯誤濾掉，也有助於避免「迷失在翻譯中」的用法問題。美國總統可能會說「踢空中球」，這一橄欖球用語對不說英語的人而言沒什麼意義；同樣歐洲領袖可能會說「89分鐘」，即足球比賽的最後時刻，這隻會讓美國大人物摸不著頭腦。

「The interpreter will help the principal if he wants to be helped,」 Obst says. 「Usually you say, 『Mr. Secretary, did you really mean to say such and such?』 Then he has a chance to correct himself. 」

「譯員會幫助發言者，如果發言者需要的話，」奧博斯特說，「通常你會說，『國務卿先生，你的意思是這樣嗎？』於是他就有機會改正。」

A figure like Trump, who sometimes mangles the English language and offers his own array of peculiar phrasings and usages (sad! bigly!) can present a different set of challenges for an interpreter.

像川普這樣的人，有時會胡說一通，自造用法（sad! bigly!），這對譯員而言著實是非同一般的挑戰。

「People misspeak, and some very frequently, people like Alexander Haig,」 Obst said, referring to the retired general who was chief of staff to Richard Nixon and secretary of state to Ronald Reagan. 「He had a very crazy knowledge of the English language. He would not say what he really meant to say.」

「人們會辭不達意，有人經常如此，例如亞歷山大·黑格，」奧博斯特說的是退休將軍、理查德·尼克松的幕僚長和羅納德·里根的國務卿黑格，「他會說的英語多極了，他說的話偏偏不是他要表達的。」

Not that interpreters are immune to making their own errors. Obst began working as an interpreter after just six months of training, and was helped out by the kindness of his more experienced counterparts.

譯員自己也難免出錯。奧博斯特接受了六個月的訓練就開始做譯員，很多更有經驗前輩好心幫他提高。

「If I would make a minor mistake, they would just not react at all, because it was not important. If I would make a serious substantive mistake, they would stare at me and raise their eyebrows: Harry, you』ve just made a bad mistake. They give you a chance to look back into your memory and correct it yourself. If you can』t, you look back at them and shrug you shoulders: Help me!」

「我要是犯了個小錯，他們壓根不會吱聲，因為那不重要。可要是犯了個實質性錯誤，他們就會盯著我，瞪大眼睛：哈利，你犯了個大錯。他們給你機會回想一下，自己糾正過來。如果沒辦法糾正，你就看著他們，聳聳肩說：幫個忙吧！」

But Obst said he was lucky enough to avoid serious errors in his career. Interpreters who make a major gaffe tend to be quickly dismissed, he said.

可奧博斯特說他很幸運，職業生涯里沒犯過大錯。犯了大錯的譯員很快會被解僱。

Others become the story in other ways: Fred Burks was a talented linguist who resigned over complaints about secrecy in the Bush administration; he later testified on behalf of an accused terrorist in Indonesia, and now contributes to a conspiracy-theory website.

也有人以其他方式出名：弗萊德·博克斯是個很有天分的翻譯，因對布希政府的保密規定感到不滿而辭職，後來他在印尼代表一名被控為恐怖分子的人作證，現在建了一家陰謀論網站。

Those who stick around end up being the witnesses—though sworn to secrecy—to pivotal moments of history, likeGamal Helal, an Egyptian-born American who interpreted decades of Middle Eastern diplomacy between Arabic and English.

那些堅持下來的會成為關鍵歷史時刻的見證者，儘管他們發誓保密。埃及出生的美國人賈馬爾·希拉勒就是其中一員，他做英阿翻譯幾十年，見證了中東外交進程。

Interpreters also serve an essential role as record-keepers, taking notes that end up in the National Archives, Obst said. Of course, interpreters are not always asked to take notes.

譯員還可以成為記錄者，他們的筆記最後會保存在國家檔案館，奧博斯特說。當然，不是總允許譯員做筆記。

Obst recalls that Nixon and Henry Kissinger, who distrusted the State Department and had a rocky relationship with Secretary William Rogers, sometimes kept U.S. interpreters out of meetings, for fear that they would brief Rogers on what had been discussed. (This also meant that Obst sometimes found himself assisting Rogers in conversations with foreign leaders on topics about which the White House had kept him in the dark.)

奧博斯特回憶起尼克松和亨利·基辛格，基辛格不信任國務院，和國務卿威廉·羅傑斯關係緊張，有時他們甚至不讓美國譯員參會，擔心譯員會向羅傑斯彙報討論內容。（這也意味著奧博斯特有時要協助羅傑斯參與同外國領導人的對話，因為話題內容是白宮不想讓他知道的。）