译事 译员们，是时候认清事实了

本期为第二十二期，Yee君将与你分享在德国柏林工作的译者兼编辑Simon Klys的观点——译员该如何应对翻译行业的新技术带来的变革？...



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本期为第二十二期，Yee君将与你分享在德国柏林工作的译者兼编辑Simon Klys的观点——译员该如何应对翻译行业的新技术带来的变革？

“Once a new technology rolls over you, if you’re not part of the steamroller, you’re part of the road”. While certainly not the most delicate analogy from US writer Stewart Brand, I believe it is apt and highly applicable to today’s language services industry.

“当一项新技术从你身上碾压的时候，如果你不成为压路机的一部分，那么你就会成为路的一部分。” 当然，这并非出自美国作家Stewart Brand最精美的类比，但我相信，它适用于且高度适用于当今的语言服务业。

As a young translator with just a few years notched up on my CV, I have experienced an industry that is in flux and divided. An industry that is polarized by technology, which marches on with global heavyweights chomping at the bit and clamoring for a piece of the action.

作为一名简历上只有几年工作经验的年轻翻译工作者，我经历了行业的不断变化和裂变。这是一个被技术极化的行业，全球重量级人士争先恐后地向前推进，并极力想要分一杯羹。

But where does this leave the modern linguist? Is doomsday really on the horizon? Or maybe, just maybe, we are on the cusp of a new dawn.

但这又会给现代语言工作者留下什么呢？世界末日真的即将到来吗？又或者是我们即将迎来新的黎明。

Whether you like it or not, the tech gods are aligning in their endeavors to transform the world of translation. As worldwide demand for language services continues to boom, it is no surprise that major players are positioning themselves to capitalize on this development.

不管你喜不喜欢，技术大牛们都在努力改变翻译世界。随着世界范围内对语言服务的需求不断增长，主要的参与者正在利用这一发展进行自我定位，这一现象已经不足为奇。

Included in this list are Google, Facebook, Amazon, Salesforce, Microsoft, IBM – you can scarcely imagine a more dominant teamsheet. With a growth in demand for localized content, open-source neural machine translation frameworks springing up and seemingly limitless computing power in the cloud, translation technology has a platform from which to develop exponentially.

这些主要参与者包括谷歌、脸书、亚马逊、Salesforce、微软和IBM，你很难再想出一个更厉害的团队列表了。随着对本地化内容需求的增长、开源神经机器翻译框架的兴起以及看似无限的云计算能力，翻译技术拥有一个可以成倍发展的平台。

And it is high time too. Following corporate stints in the aerospace, marine and IT sectors, I am accustomed to industries being transformed by the latest and greatest game-changing technology.

并且现在也正是时机。随着航空、海洋和IT行业的公司紧缩，我已经对行业受到最新、最强的变革技术颠覆这一现象见怪不怪了。

This is why I was bemused at the archaic and fragmented state of translation technology when arriving on the scene in 2015. My first few months in the industry consisted of using a clunky, ‘state-of-the-art’ desktop CAT tool – its tedious interface, sluggish processing times and hopeless plugins resulting in a truly miserable user experience.

这就是为什么我在2015年时，对翻译技术的陈旧和欠缺感到困惑。我在这个行业工作的头几个月使用了一款拙劣的、当时“最先进的”桌面CAT工具——单调的界面、缓慢的处理时间和让人绝望的插件，使得用户体验非常糟糕。The warning signs were there from the off. From battling to activate my license to struggling to even import files correctly, I began to spend more and more time troubleshooting. And while I could cope with some lag when scrolling through segments, there were some more serious bugs that severely impacted both my productivity and my relationships with clients.

从一开始就各种不顺，先是大费周章地激活许可证，然后要努力以正确的方式导入文件，就这样我开始花费越来越多的时间排除问题。尽管我能应付在板块之间切换时出现的滞后，但还要面对一些更为严重的漏洞，极大影响了我的效率和我与客户之间的关系。

One particularly embarrassing episode comprised of me explaining that I could not export a client’s translation from my language productivity tool, an excuse which understandably did not cut the mustard. Rather than enjoying the 30% productivity boost I had been promised, I was watching my daily rate being gradually eaten into. This left me scratching my head over the value of forking out on a hefty license fee for a tool that frequently diminished my productivity.

有次颇为尴尬的经历：我解释说无法从自己的语言产出工具中导出客户的译文，可想而知这个借口站不住脚。之前我得到的承诺是可以让效率提高30%，但现在我却看到日常效率在逐渐被蚕食。为这样一个经常拖后腿的工具支付了大笔许可费，简直让我抓狂。

Fast-forward to 2018, and I look out at an industry reborn. My desktop productivity tool has been traded in for a shiny web-based SaaS solution, with fully-integrated NMT engines and user-friendly features and functions.

时间很快来到2018年，我看到一个行业的重生。我的桌面产出工具被焕然一新的网页软件服务解决方案所取代，充分融入了神经网络机器翻译引擎和人性化特色功能。While some performance issues remain and there are still unanswered questions with regards to data security, web-based language productivity tools offer linguists a stripped back, simplified interface. Through trading in complexity for usability, I have experienced considerably less faff and far, far more output.

虽然还存在一些性能问题，数据安全问题也有待解决，但基于网页的语言产出工具为语言工作者提供了简洁的界面，化繁为简，提高了可用性，让我不用再那么操心，产出也显著增长。

When coupled with flexible and affordable (often free) licensing, it is no surprise that cloud-based translation software is increasingly becoming the tool of choice for LSPs. The software allows LSPs to scale rapidly and also provides them with simple and effective collaboration tools.

再加上灵活、廉价的许可方式（一般是免费的），云翻译软件日益受到语言服务供应商的青睐不足为奇。这些软件让语言服务供应商迅速扩大规模，并为他们提供简单高效的协作工具。

For me, the switch to cloud-based technology has been a no-brainer. My productivity is on the rise, along with my bottom line – translation tech is no longer the harbinger of suffering, it is the cornerstone to continued success in an increasingly competitive and ever-changing sector.

在我看来，向云技术转变是必然之事。我用最低的成本实现了产出的不断增长，意味着翻译技术不再像以前那样让人苦恼，而是在这个竞争愈发激烈、不断变化的行业里不断取得成功的基石。As a linguist, it’s time to sink or swim. Technology is relentless in its pursuit of efficiency. Backed by the globe’s most powerful enterprises, and top of the agenda of most world-leading LSPs, technology has arrived, it’s working and it’s not going away.

作为语言工作者，是时候决定是否沉浮了。技术对效率的追求是无情的。在全球最具影响力的企业的支持下，在大多数全球领先的语言服务供应商的重要议程中，技术已经到来，它正在发挥作用，并且不会消失。Yet there is still a considerable portion of linguists vehemently resisting the inevitable adoption of new technologies, in fear of being replaced. But in a globalized market with stretched resources, I believe these new technologies will be essential tools if we are to meet requirements.

然而，仍有相当一部分语言工作者强烈抵制全面采用新技术，担心自己被取代。但是，在资源紧张的全球化市场中，我认为如果要满足需求，这些新技术将是必不可少的工具。

Closing the gap between humans and machines is what the market demands. Continuing to deny that computers and humans complement one another is regressive and nonsensical. Battling it is futile.

缩小人与机器之间的差距符合市场需求。一直否认人机互补是一种倒退和荒谬的观点。和新技术对抗是徒劳的。Like any sector dominated by private enterprise, change in the translation industry is both unavoidable and necessary. As Silvio Picinini eloquently exemplified in his article The Future of Human Translation: A Rosy View, linguists will maintain a central position in the sector, even if the nature of the work will change.

就像私营企业主导的领域一样，翻译行业的变革是不可避免，也是必要的。正如西尔维奥·皮奇尼尼在《人类翻译的未来：乐观的看法》一文中雄辩的例证——语言工作者将在这一领域保持核心地位，即使工作性质会发生变化。We need to move away from the age-old arguments of ‘Man vs. Machine’, and start accepting a future where the two are ever-closer knit. This new breed of augmented translator will be fast and efficient, and adjusted to a modern global industry with ever-growing demands.

我们需要从持久的人机争论中走出来，开始接受两者关系越来越紧密的未来。这种新型的强大译者将是快速、高效的，并能适应现代全球产业日益增长的需求。

英文来源：Slator

编译：Yee君

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