海外文化:"奧巴馬"還是"歐巴馬":美國人有話說

【背景】

到底美國總統Obama的中文名字是“奧巴馬”（大陸譯法）還是“歐巴馬”（臺灣、美國使館的譯法），本想就這個題目寫篇博客，不過《華盛頓郵報》11月16日就這個題目發表該報記者發自北京的報道，題爲Diplomatic tussle: 'Aobama' or 'Oubama'?（外交角力:“奧巴馬”還是“歐巴馬”？），今天就轉載一下（英語原文附後）：

【英文原文】

Diplomatic tussle: 'Aobama' or 'Oubama'?

By Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 16, 2009; 8:52 AM

BEIJING -- The Chinese government invited "President Aobama" to China. But it was "President Oubama" who emerged from Air Force One.
In a visit expected to be marked by trade tensions, disagreements over Tibet and disputes over the value of the Chinese currency, one of the earliest diplomatic tussles involved how to spell -- and therefore pronounce -- the name of the 44th American president in Mandarin Chinese.

And the wrangling went all the way to the White House, or, as the Chinese have always called it, the "Bai Gong," meaning "White Palace." But the Obama administration was having none of that, reminding their Chinese hosts that the United States has no palaces, and insisting on using in official statements the term "Bai Wu," literally "White House."

"The Embassy is working to standardize the translation of common vocabulary in Chinese," said U.S. embassy spokeswoman Susan Stevenson in an e-mail, when asked whether President Aobama or President Oubama was coming to China.

"Ou-bama," she said, "conforms to the actual pronunciation of the name and is our preferred Chinese appellation." And she added, "By the same token, "Bai Wu" (which means "White House") is more accurate than "Bai Gong" (White Palace)."

But President Oubama living in the Bai Wu also more closely conforms to how the names are commonly rendered in Hong Kong and Taiwan, which may explain why, so far at least, official Chinese media, and the Chinese foreign ministry, continue to use the old familiar forms.

The president has been referred to here as "Aobama" since he first appeared on the national scene. And change, as he himself often says, is hard.

One foreign ministry official Chinese translator even appeared to be mocking the American translation efforts. He said he preferred "Aobama," because the Chinese character for Ao is used also for Australia and as part of Macao, and means "profound and deep." By contrast, "Ou" is the Chinese character used for Europe.

The official agreed that the pronunciation of "Oubama" may indeed be closer to the American pronunciation of the 44th president's name. But he said it sounded strange to the ear, reminding him slightly of the Japanese term "Obaasan," which is a rather unkind way of referring to an old lady ("Obaasan," while Japanese, is widely understood by Chinese on Taiwan and in Hong Kong).

What the translator did not mention, however, is that the "Ao" character has a lot of other less complimentary meaning -- which may be why the Chinese government prefers to use it for Obama. "Ao" can also mean "difficult to understand," "abstruse" and "obscure."

The translator also recalled that the White House versus White Palace dispute was an old one between the embassy and the foreign ministry here. He said the ministry had no plans to change for the moment, and would probably take its cue from Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency.

So for the moment, Chinese journalists covering the visit are left with dueling Chinese and American translations of both the American president's name, and the name of the place where he lives and works.

"I think any change will take time to work its way through," Stevenson said in the e-mail, recalling how long it took for "Peking" to become "Beijing." She added: "The U.S. government, however, has adapted this new vocabulary."

【中文譯文】

中國政府邀請“奧巴馬總統”訪華，結果從“空軍一號”下來的卻是“歐巴馬總統”。

此行免不了貿易爭端、西藏問題分歧和中國貨幣幣值爭議等等。還有另一個外交交鋒是如何拼寫第44任美國總統的名字，接下來當然是如何用中國普通話把它讀出來。

交鋒可以一直追溯到“白宮”的譯法。中國人向來稱之爲“白宮”，意思是“白色的宮殿”。但奧巴馬政府對此持有異議。他們提醒中方說，美國沒有宮殿，堅持在官方聲明中使用“白屋”，意指“白色的房屋”。

當被間及即將訪華的是“奧巴馬總統”還是”歐巴馬總統”時，美國駐華使館女發言人蘇珊•史蒂文森在一封電子郵件中回答說:“使館正致力於常用詞彙的中文翻譯標準化。”

她說:“‘歐巴馬’符合這個名字的正確發音，我們偏向於這個中文翻譯。同理‘白屋’比‘白宮’更準確。”

但“歐巴馬總統”生活在“白屋”更接近於香港和臺灣的名稱用法。可能正因如此，至少迄今爲止，中國官方媒體以及中國外交部繼續沿用原有譯法。

自從這位總統首次出現在中國的電視屏幕上，其名的中文譯法一直是“奧巴馬”。按他本人的話說，改變很難。

中國一名官方譯員承認，“歐巴馬”的譯法可能事實上更接近於美國的發音。但他說，這聽起來很奇怪，因爲讓他想起日語詞彙“歐巴桑”這個對老年婦女不友善的稱謂。

他說，他更喜歡“奧巴馬”，因爲漢字“奧”的同音字還有“澳大利亞”和“澳門”的“澳”，“奧”還有“深邃”的意思。相比之下，“歐”是“歐洲”的“歐”。

因此眼下，中國記者在報道這次訪間時，這位美國總統的名字和他工作生活的地方就各自有了不同的譯法。

“我認爲，任何變革都要花費時日，”史蒂文森在郵件中說。她回憶起中國首都的英文名從“Peking”到“Beijing”花了多長時間。她說:“不過，美國政府已經適應了這個新詞彙。