“佛系青年”的英文怎么说?

原文:http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzA4MDYyMTcxOA==&mid=2651257313&idx=1&sn=b70bd03a6208d9b8b7f38dec6446c31e&chksm=84532018b324a90e29c0290a0cc0c8044bbac23208b74cbc678b8d8274862a164b5f24a441da#rd

在后台收到一个问题:


您好,可以请教一下最近网上出现的“佛系”"道系"怎么翻译比较确切吗?谢谢



“佛系” “道系”是流行文化中的新词,在收到这个问题之前我并没有听说过它。通过搜索我了解到:






尤瓦尔•赫拉利在《人类简史》中说人类最强的本领是“无中生有”,通过编故事来创造共同想象。了解到“佛性”在流行文化中的定义后,我们知道这个词是新编的概念,历史上可能有类似的社会状态,但是都无法准确的表述当下的情形。


这时候我们需要用描述的方式来解释这个词。就像是The beat generation(垮掉的一代), the lost generation(迷茫的一代),如果不了解背景的话,我们无法准确的解读他们到底是什么。


来源 en.people.cn/n3/2017/1214/c90000-9304484.html


人民网的英文版把“佛性青年”翻译为“Buddha-like youngsters”,用于具体说明的关键字是casual and calm mindset:


By using the phrase "Buddha-like youngsters" (佛系青年), it claimed that some of the post-90s generations, who were born between 1990 and 1992, have"seen through the vanity of life" and kept a casual and calm mindset toward career and life.



专门报道中国新闻的supchina把“佛性青年”译为“Buddhist Youths”。Buddhist除了表示“佛教徒”外,还可以用作形容词表示“佛教的”。


来源 supchina.com/2017/12/13/peoples-daily-buddhist-youths-stop-being-so-chill-about-everything/


这篇文章的作者是Jiayun Feng, 本科就读于复旦大学,后在纽约大学新闻系读研究生。文章写得不错,如果你不知道该如何用英文表达“佛系青年”的话,可以参考、背诵下面这段话:


Not long after well-off middle-aged Chinese men found themselves labeled “greasy” (油腻 yóunì) by millions of internet users, China’s post-1990s generation has discovered its own social identity as “Buddhist youths” (佛系青年). But don’t be fooled by the name. The term doesn’t actually mean young people are converting to Buddhism — it’s closer in meaning to “slacker,” and describes life attitudes such as having no desires, no needs, and no expectations. People who identify as Buddhist youths yearn to be free of strong feelings. They avoid conflict, and try not to take anyone or anything too seriously. These attitudes in some ways resemble Buddhism thinking.


在描述“佛系”文化时,她用到了close to "slacker", have no desires, no needs, and no expectations, yearn to be free of strong feelings, not to take anyone or anything too seriously. 后面她还用到了breezy来表示《人民日报》的评论语“云淡风轻”。




她也翻译了「新世相」中的几个例子,我们也可以参考:


Xin Shixiang 新世相, a popular WeChat public account, provided a few examples of how Buddhist youths apply their philosophy to everyday life:



通过这篇文章,我们也了解到了翻译的基本套路:先清楚我们要翻译的东西,然后用描述+例子的方式把它表述出来即可。甚至把“佛系”直接用拼音“foxi”表示也没问题的,加以说明即可。我们来看一下《经济学人》是如何介绍有中国特色的文化的:




读完这篇文章后你可以学到:


1. 有关文化的翻译,我们可以自信一点,不需要一定要找一个英语词汇来表示。白酒就是baijiu,饺子就是jiaozi,翻译成什么都不如原汁原味准确。


2. “佛系”可以用"Buddha-like" "Buddist"表示,不过这是一个新词,我们需要对它加以描述解释。描述“佛系”生活态度时,我们可以用到这样几个词:casual, calm, breezy, close to "slacker", have no desires, no needs, and no expectations, yearn to be free of strong feelings, not to take anyone or anything too seriously. 描述后还可以补充一个例子进行说明。


“佛系”说完了,

“道系”该怎么翻译和描述呢?


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