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乔布斯传翻译笔记:乔布斯和玩具总动员

2012-07-13来源:互联网

第二十二章,《玩具总动员》的一炮而红,让一直处于烧钱状态的皮克斯动画尝到了甜头,也让本欲卖掉它的乔布斯看到了改变电影业的可能。(he might be on the verge of transforming the movie industry)对于乔布斯而言,《玩具总动员》不仅让皮克斯赚到了钱,更是一个起点,让皮克斯成为和苹果一样伟大的公司的起点。这一期就让我们看看这部电影的基本框架是如何构思出来的吧!

英语原文】

The idea that John Lasseter pitched was called “Toy Story.” It sprang from a belief, which he and Jobs shared, that products have an essence to them, a purpose for which they were made. If the object were to have feelings, these would be based on its desire to fulfill its essence. The purpose of a glass, for example, is to hold water; if it had feelings, it would be happy when full and sad when empty. The essence of a computer screen is to interface with a human. The essence of a unicycle is to be ridden in a circus. As for toys, their purpose is to be played with by kids, and thus their existential fear is of being discarded or upstaged by newer toys. So a buddy movie pairing an old favorite toy with a shiny new one would have an essential drama to it, especially when the action revolved around the toys’ being separated from their kid. The original treatment began, “Everyone has had the traumatic childhood experience of losing a toy. Our story takes the toy’s point of view as he loses and tries to regain the single thing most important to him: to be played with by children. This is the reason for the existence of all toys. It is the emotional foundation of their existence.” (Chapter 22 TOY STORY:Jeffrey Katzenberg )

【译文】

约翰-拉塞特脑海里构思的故事叫做“玩具总动员”,灵感源自他和乔布斯共有的一个理念即产品是有灵魂的,它们皆有生来之使命。如果物体也有感情,这种感情的基础就是其对自身价值实现的渴望。好比玻璃杯的使命在于盛水。如果它有感情,那么它会杯满则喜杯空则哀。 又好比计算机屏幕的使命是与人交流,独轮车的使命是在马戏团内供人骑行。对于玩具们来说,他们的使命就是同孩子们玩耍,因而他们的恐惧来源于被抛弃或是被新玩具替代。因此一个饱受喜爱的旧玩具和一个闪亮登场的新玩具联袂出演的兄弟电影才会有了必不可少的戏剧效果。特别是所有的故事都围绕着同孩子分离的玩具们展开。电影原始脚本是这样开头的:“每个人在童年都有遗失玩具这样痛苦的回忆。我们的故事从一个玩具的视角展开,他一度失去但努力尝试寻回对他最重要一件事,那就是同孩子们玩耍。这是所有玩具存在的意义,也是他们存在的情感基础。  

翻译笔记】

1 spring (过去式sprang或sprung)

n. 春天;弹簧;泉水;活力;跳跃

vt. 使跳起;使爆炸;突然提出;使弹开

vi. 生长;涌出;跃出;裂开

短语:

spring from 起源于;发源(于)…;来自…

spring up 出现;涌现;萌芽

Unfortunately, as a standard mattress wears, the springs soften and so do not support your spine.
不幸的是,当一张标准床垫用旧后,其弹簧变软,因而不能支撑你的背脊。

Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.
青春不是年华,而是心境;青春不是桃面、丹唇、柔膝,而是深沉的意志、宏伟的想象、炽热的感情;青春是生命的深泉在涌流。(这是Samuel Erman的《Youth》中的第一段,小编我无论是作文还是演讲都很爱引用,通篇文章都很有哲理,大家不妨找来读读。)

Mary brought her boyfriend to my house, and sprang on me that they were going to get married soon.
玛丽把她的男朋友带到了我家,突然向我宣布他们很快就要结婚了。

Ethiopia's art springs from its early Christian as well as its Muslim heritage.
埃塞俄比亚的艺术起源于其早期的基督教和穆斯林教遗产。

His anger sprang from his suffering at the loss of the most important love he had ever known in his life.
失去一生中的至爱让他悲痛不已,愤怒涌上他的心头。

But even as some obstacles are removed, new ones spring up.
但即使有些障碍已经被扫清,新的障碍还会涌现。

2. interface

n. 界面; <计>接口; 交界面

vi. 相互作用(或影响); 交流,交谈 (人机之间)

inter-这个词根的意思是“between”在…之间。我们就可以联想在“face”之间的就是“界面”,而交流或者交谈也是在“face”之间,这个单词的意思就很容易记了。interact也有交流,互动的意思,那么你能像我刚刚分析的这样理解这个单词吗?

Observe what the users do, where they succeed, and where they have difficulties with the user interface.
观察用户做了些什么,他们在哪里操作成功了,在用户界面上哪里遇到困难。

Listening is our interface with the thoughts of others.
倾听是自我思想和他人思想交流的接口。

3. circus

n. 马戏,马戏团; 马戏表演(常在大帐篷里进行);环形广场(用于某些地名)圆形广场;<口>乱哄哄的热闹场面

circus一词是16世纪时直接借自意为ring(圈,环)的拉丁语circus,最初指“圆形场地”,1782年,一位名叫休斯的英国骑师创立了英国皇家马戏团,自此以后,circus一词才开始用于“马戏”,“马戏团”等意。后来也常用来指“环形广场”,如Oxford Circus(牛津广场),Piccadilly Circus(皮卡迪利广场)等。但这种用法仅限于英式英语,美式英语多用circle。实际上circle及其相关词circular(圆形的,环绕的),circulate(循环,流通)等可以说都源于拉丁词circus。

They put up posters all round the town advertising the circus.
他们在镇上四处张贴海报为马戏团作宣传.


The question is whether, in the face of an ongoing national crisis, we can stop the political circus and actually do something to help the economy.
问题是,我们是否愿意,面对不间断的国家危机,我们能够停止政治马戏,为了帮助经济来真正做点什么。

4. traumatic

adj. 造成创伤的;惊骇的;痛苦的;n. 外伤药

Our journey home was pretty traumatic.
我们归途中不太顺心。

But children are able to cope better with a traumatic event if parents, friends, family, teachers and other adults support and help them with their experiences.
但是,如果父母、朋友、家人、老师和其他成年人用自己的经验来支援和帮助他们,那么孩子们就能更好地应对创伤事件。

The prologue to China’s traumatic loss of national face can be found in the first modern encounter between East and West.
令中国大失颜面从而遭受创伤的起点,可以追溯到中西方之间的第一次现代接触。

5. 约翰-拉塞特其人

约翰-拉赛特生于1957年1月12日,是美国动画制作者,电影导演,皮克斯和迪士尼动画长片部门的首席创意官、华特迪士尼幻想工程的首席创意顾问。(John Alan Lasseter, born January 12, 1957, is an American animator, film director and the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. He is also currently the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering.)

毕业之后拉塞特就加入了迪士尼公司,他的第一个工作是加州迪士尼乐园丛林漂流的船长,后来他加入华特迪士尼制作公司(即Walt Disney Productions)开始了他在动画部门的工作。当他看到当时的电影电子争霸战(Tron)的时候,他就发现了计算机新技术带来的潜能。因为迪士尼就一直希望能让动画片的层次更多,以前就应用了多平面摄影技术,而拉塞特就意识到电脑可以生成三维的背景,让二维的人物穿梭其中。他在制作了一个测试短篇 Where the Wild Things Are(野兽家园) 之后,就找来Glen Keane(格兰-基恩)作搭档开始制作一个长片电影,可是后来当他激动地展示给迪士尼公司的人的时候,公司有一个人却不喜欢他的想法,并直接把他开除了,这样拉塞特离开了迪士尼。后来拉塞特先生加入了当时的卢卡斯电脑图形工作室,而后来这个组织变成了皮克斯。

拉塞特在1995年就创造了一项电影历史,他导演完成了第一部故事片长度计算机动画电影《玩具总动员》,该片为他赢得了奥斯卡特别成就奖。他随后参与制作的影片为他赢得了更多的荣誉,其中包括由他执导的《虫虫危机》 (1998)和获得了金球奖的《玩具总动员2》(1999);由他担任执行制片人的《怪物公司》、《海底总动员》 和 《超人总动员》。拉塞特同时也是是宫崎骏很好的朋友,并负责了好几部宫崎骏美国的上映,同时负责这些电影的英文版配音。