编者按：本文选自今年5月2日的《纽约时报》，文章对中式英语进行了探讨，采访了多位专家对中式英语的看法。有专家认为，中式英语并非一无是处，有些时候反而很有趣，是中国人思维的一扇窗户。不过我们还是应该坚持使用地道的英语，一些不影响沟通的中式英语就当是“点缀”吧。

资料图:中式英语

　　For English speakers with subpar Chinese skills, daily life in China offers a confounding array of choices. At banks, there are machines for 'cash withdrawing' and 'cash recycling.' The menus of local restaurants might present such delectables as 'fried enema,' 'monolithic tree mushroom stem squid' and a mysterious thirst-quencher known as 'The Jew's Ear Juice.' 　　对于中文不过关的英语人士来说，在中国生活不得不稀里糊涂地做各种选择。在银行，有“取钱”和“回收利用钱”的机器。地方餐馆的菜单上，有“炸灌肠”、“巨树蘑菇干鱿鱼”等美食，还有一种神秘的“犹太人耳朵果汁”止渴饮品。 　　Those who have had a bit too much monolithic tree mushroom stem squid could find themselves requiring roomier attire: extra-large sizes sometimes come in 'fatso' or 'lard bucket' categories. These and other fashions can be had at the clothing chain known as Scat. 　　吃多了巨树蘑菇干鱿鱼的人，或许要穿更宽大的衣服：超大号有时叫 “胖子”或者“猪桶”。在名为“赶快走开”的时装连锁店里就能看到这样或那样的时装。 　　Go ahead and snicker, although by last Saturday's opening of the Expo 2010 in Shanghai, drawing more than 70 million visitors over its six-month run, these and other uniquely Chinese maladaptations of the English language were supposed to have been largely excised. 　　去偷着乐吧，不过到上周六2010年上海世博会（展会举行的六个月期间预计将吸引7000多万游客）开幕之时，这些词语和其他中国式的错误英语用法应该大部分都被删除了。 　　Well, that at least is what the Shanghai Commission for the Management of Language Use has been trying to accomplish during the past two years. Fortified by an army of 600 volunteers and a politburo of adroit English speakers, the commission has fixed more than 10,000 public signs (farewell 'Teliot' and 'urine district'), rewritten English-language historical placards and helped hundreds of restaurants recast offerings.

　　至少这是上海语言文字工作委员会在过去两年一直想实现的。在600名志愿者和一批英语专家的协助下，该委员会已经修正一万多个公共标识（“Teliot”和“urine district”都不见了），改写介绍名胜古迹的英语解说牌，帮助几百家餐厅改写菜单上的菜名。

资料图:中式英语

　　The campaign is partly modeled on Beijing's herculean effort to clean up English signage for the 2008 Summer Olympics, which led to the replacement of 400,000 street signs, 1,300 restaurant menus and such exemplars of impropriety as the Dongda Anus Hospital - now known as the Dongda Proctology Hospital. Gone, too, is Racist Park, a cultural attraction that has since been rechristened Minorities Park. 　　这场运动部分是模仿北京的做法。2008年奥运会召开之前，北京下大力气整治英语标识法，共更换了40万个街道标识，1300家餐厅的菜单，以及其他一些用词不当的地方，如“东大肛门医院”，现在已改名为“东大肛肠医院”。文化旅游景点“种族公园”也不见了，取而代之的是“民族园”。 　　'The purpose of signage is to be useful, not to be amusing,' said Zhao Huimin, the former Chinese ambassador to Qatar who, as director general of the capital's Foreign Affairs Office, has been leading the fight for linguistic standardization and sobriety. 　　“标识的目的是对人们有所帮助，而不是逗人笑的，”中国前任驻卡塔尔大使赵会民说。他现在是北京市外事办公室主任，长期领导语言规范工作。 　　Oliver Lutz Radtke, a former German radio reporter who may well be the world's foremost authority on Chinglish, said he believed that China should embrace the fanciful melding of English and Chinese as the hallmark of a dynamic, living language. As he sees it, Chinglish is an endangered species that deserves preservation.

　　纪韶融曾经是德国某电台记者，他可能是目前世界上最权威的中式英语专家。他认为，中国应该接受英语与汉语的巧妙融合，因为这是一种富有活力且活生生的语言。在他看来，中式英语是濒危语言，需要加以保护。

　　'If you standardize all these signs, you not only take away the little giggle you get while strolling in the park but you lose a window into the Chinese mind,' said Mr. Radtke, who is the author of a pair of picture books that feature giggle-worthy Chinglish signs in their natural habitat. Lest anyone think it is all about laughs, Mr. Radtke is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Chinglish at the University of Heidelberg. 　　“如果规范所有的标志，不但带走了在公园散步时的一些乐趣，而且失去了了解中式思维的一扇窗户，”纪韶融说。他已经写了两本有关中式英语标识的插图图书。若认为这只是搞笑，那你就错了：他正在海德堡大学攻读中式英语方向的博士学位。 　　Still, the enemies of Chinglish say the laughter it elicits is humiliating. Wang Xiaoming, an English scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, painfully recalls the guffaws that erupted among her foreign-born colleagues as they flipped through a photographic collection of poorly written signs. 'They didn't mean to insult me but I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable,” said Ms. Wang, who has since become one of Beijing's leading Chinglish slayers. 　　不过反对者表示，中式英语引起的笑声令他们颜面无光。中国社会科学院英语学者王晓明痛苦地回忆说，她还记得自己和外国同事翻看一本画册时，书中蹩脚的标识令外国同事大笑。“他们并非有意侮辱我，但我感到很不舒服，”王晓明说。这之后，她成了北京消除中式英语的领军人物之一。 　　Those who study the roots of Chinglish say many examples can be traced to laziness and a flawed but wildly popular translation software. Victor Mair, a professor of Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania, said the computerized dictionary, Jingshan Ciba, had led to sexually oriented vulgarities identifying dried produce in Chinese supermarkets and the regrettable 'fried enema' menu selection that should have been rendered as 'fried sausage.' 　　研究中式英语源头的人表示，许多问题是因为人们偷懒，以及现在流行的一种翻译软件存在缺陷。宾夕法尼亚大学中文系教授维克多?迈尔表示，金山词霸将中国超市里的干货翻译得淫秽粗俗，而菜单上的“炸灌肠”应该翻译为“fried sausage”。 　　Although improved translation software and a growing zeal for grammatically unassailable English has slowed the output of new Chinglishisms, Mr. Mair said he still received about five new examples a day from people who knew he was good at deciphering what went wrong. 'If someone would pay me to do it, I'd spend my life studying these things,' he said. 　　虽然翻译软件有所改进，且中国追求英语语法准确的热情日益高涨，使得中式英语输出的速度降低，但迈尔表示，人们知道他擅长识别中式英语，经常会发些例子给他，他每天都会收到五条左右的新例子。“如果有人出钱，我愿意一辈子研究这些，”他说。 　　Among those getting paid to wrestle with Chinglish is Jeffrey Yao, an English translator and teacher at the Graduate Institute of Interpretation and Translation at Shanghai International Studies University who is leading the sign exorcism. But even as he eradicates the most egregious examples by government fiat, he has mixed feelings, noting that although some Chinglish phrases sound awkward to Western ears, they can be refreshingly lyrical. 'Some of it tends to be expressive, even elegant,' he said, shuffling through an online catalog of signs that were submitted by the volunteers who prowled Shanghai with digital cameras. 'They provide a window into how we Chinese think about language.' 　　杰弗雷?姚就是拿钱同中式英语做斗争的人之一，他是一名翻译，也是上海外国语大学翻译学院的教师，如今正领导这场标志整治运动。虽然他消除了政府给的大多数例子，但在感情上却十分矛盾。他指出，一些中式英语表达方式虽然在外国人听来有些奇怪，但读起来朗朗上口，给人耳目一新的感觉。“一些（中式英语）很形象，甚至很优美，”他一边说，一边在翻看志愿者提交的一些标识。志愿者在上海各地搜寻这些标志，用数码相机拍下来，然后上传到网上。姚说：“它们构成了了解我们中国人语言思维方式的一扇窗户。” 　　He offered the following example: While park signs in the West exhort people to 'Keep Off the Grass,' Chinese versions tend to anthropomorphize nature as a way to gently engage the stomping masses. Hence, such admonishments as 'The Little Grass Is Sleeping. Please Don't Disturb It' or 'Don't Hurt Me. I Am Afraid of Pain.' Mr. Yao read off the Chinese equivalents as if savoring a Shakespearean sonnet. 'How lovely,' he said with a sigh. 　　他列举了下面这个例子：西方公园的标识让人“莫践踏草坪，”而中国公园的标识则往往将自然拟人化。如“小草正在休息。请勿打扰它”或者“不要伤害我。我怕疼。”姚读着这些中国的标识，仿佛在品读着一首莎士比亚风格的诗作。“多可爱啊，”他感叹道。 　　He pointed out that this linguistic mentality helped create such expressions as 'long time no see,' a word-for-word translation of a Chinese expression that became a mainstay of spoken English. But Mr. Yao, who spent nearly two decades working as a translator in Canada, has his limits. He showed a sign from a park designed to provide visitors with the rules for entry, which include prohibitions on washing, 'scavenging,' clothes drying and public defecation, all of it rendered in unintelligible - and in the case of the last item - rather salty English. The sign ended with this humdinger: 'Because if the tourist does not obey the staff to manage or contrary holds, Does, all consequences are proud.' 　　他指出，这种语言思维方式导致出现了诸如“long time no see（好久不见）”这样的表达，这个按中文字面意思翻译的句子经成为英语口语中常用句。姚已经在加拿大做了将近20年的翻译工作，但他的容忍也有限度。他展示了一处公园里的一则标志，上面写着游客入园规定，其中禁止在园中洗衣服，用的是“清洗”一词，禁止晾晒衣服，禁止排便，让人不知所云，尤其是最后一条，用词相当粗俗——“如果游客不服从工作人员管理或者执意坚持，由此造成的所有后果自负。” 　　Even though he had had the sign corrected recently, Mr. Yao could not help but shake his head in disgust at the memory. And he was irritated to find that a raft of troublesome sign verbiage had slipped past the commission as the expo approached, including a cafeteria sign that read, 'The tableware reclaims a place.' (Translation: drop off dirty dishes here.) 'Some Chinglish expressions are nice, but we are not translating literature here,' he said. 'I want to see people nodding that they understand the message on these signs. I don't want to see them laughing.'

　　虽然他最近改正了这一标志，但想起它还是不由得直摇头。世博会开幕在即，他却发现一些问题标志逃脱了组委会的眼睛，这令他大为恼火。比如，一家餐厅有这样一则标志：“餐具要求归还一地”（用过的餐具放在此处。）“一些中式英语不错，但我们不是在翻译文学，”他说。“我希望看到人们看得懂标识而点头，而不是看到他们发笑。”