“迷失北京”：中文“加油”怎么翻译？

One of the most perplexing language issues at the Olympic games is how to translate the all-purpose Chinese cheer, “加油!” (jiayou!), into English (or any other language).

本届奥运会中，一个比较考验人的语言问题就是，怎么来翻译中国人鼓舞斗志的“百搭”词语“加油”。

加 means to “add.” 油 means “oil” or “fuel.” (And technically gas stations are often called 加油站, or jiayou stops). But it’s almost never chanted in the context of a gas station. Instead, you’ll hear it often chanted at these Olympic games when the audience wants the competitors to dig deep and put in an extra effort.

“加”的意思是“添加”，“油”的意思是“油”、“燃料”，中国人给汽车加汽油的地方就叫做“加油站”。但这个词并不用在加油站里，你在奥运赛场上倒是到处能听到观众用这个词给选手助威。

But around the Web you can find a variety of struggles as the Chinese try to translate this all-purpose cheer into English. (On some chat boards it even makes it into the category of most frequently asked translations.)

有趣的是，在互联网上你能看到中国人为了把“加油”这个词翻译成英文所作出的各种努力。有的聊天论坛上，它们甚至被列为高频问题。

At the nail-biting China-Spain basketball game on Tuesday, thousands of Chinese fans performed the wave, which they call the “Mexican wave.” (Are Mexicans known for doing the wave? They are in China, and apparently in Britain and among scientists too). The fans also cheered “加油! 加油!” In that context the chant would seem best colloquially translated as “Go team! Go!” Except that 加油! can be used in contexts where there is no team to do the going, like a marathon or judo match.

周二中国男篮对战西班牙队，比赛十分紧张，上千名中国球迷在看台上表演他们口中的“墨西哥人浪”（墨西哥人做这种人浪吗？貌似中国人、英国人还有科学家们更喜欢做这个。）球迷们大喊“加油！加油！”这种场合下，加油被翻译为“Go team! Go!”比较贴切。当然，“加油”也被用在一些没有团队的赛事中，比如马拉松、柔道。

So at the game, the big Jumbotron screen flashed “Let’s go!” in green when it had 加油! That seems like a good, all-purpose translation.

比赛中，巨大的电子版上写出绿色的“Let's go!”，这是一个非常贴切又好用的翻译。

But at an Indian restaurant in China (with a buffet!), the staff handed out flags that said “加油”, where it was translated at “Come on!” One translation blog offers “come on” (as well as “go go go” and “hop on”). But Come on! doesn’t have the same sportsy chanting rhythm to it.

不过我去过中国的一家印度菜馆里，工作人员发给我们印有“加油”字样的小旗子上，这个词却被翻译成为了“Come on!”有一个翻译博客把“Come on”、“go go go”、“hop on”都写作了“加油”的译法，但是“Come on!”这个词显然没有很好的运动节奏感。

Another blog offers to translate it into different languages like Spanish (Vamos!) and Korean (파이팅! which apparently is rough transliteration of the English world “fighting” — bringing back fond memories of the last two World Cups, where “Korea Team Fighting!” was a popular, and much remarked-upon refrain).

另外一个博客还把“加油”翻译成了别国语言，比如西班牙语“Vamos!”、朝鲜语“파이팅! ”。这句朝鲜语是从英文单词“fighting”直接音译过来的。说起这个词，就让人不由想到上上届日韩世界杯上随处可见的流行语“Korea Team Fighting!”。

But the tricky thing is that 加油 is not just used in sports contexts. It’s also a way to encourage people to persevere through other sorts of difficulty. For example, after the Sichuan earthquake in May, 中国加油 (zhongguo jiayou, or China jiayou) and 汶川加油 (Wenchuan jiayou, Wenchuan was one of the hardest hit areas) became rallying cries in China. It’s a way of expressing sympathy, support and solidarity that “Let’s go” doesn’t quite capture.

不过比较有趣的是“加油”这个词并不只用在体育赛事上。人们也用这个词来鼓励别人坚持下去战胜困难。比如，五月的四川大地震中，“中国加油”、“汶川加油”成为流行全中国的词汇。这时，“加油”所表达的同情、支持和团结一致的情态则是“Let's go”所不能完好展现的。

But leaving the China-Spain basketball game, I saw a bunch of middle-aged Chinese men in white T-shirts that said 加油中国 in red lettering. They must have used an automatic translator for the English (perhaps Google’s), because it read: “Refueling China!”

越过中西篮球比赛不说，我看到很多中年中国男子身穿着印有红色“加油中国”字样的T恤。不过他们可能用的是某种翻译机器（没准是Google翻译），因为上面写的是：“Refueling China!”。