Mysteries of vernacular: Robot - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel

白话之谜：机器人 －－杰西卡·奥雷克和瑞秋铁尔

翻译人员: Jia Chen 校对人员: Qiwen Lu

Mysteries of vernacular:

白话之谜：

Robot,

机器人

a machine capable of carrying out

一台可以执行一系列可编程行动的机器。

a programmable series of actions.

The origin of the word robot

机器人（robot）一词

dates back more than a thousand years

起源于一千多年前

to the era of serfdom in central Europe

农奴制的中欧

when servitude was the currency for rent.

那时的农奴是用作租金的货币

In those days,

在当时，

the Old Church Slavonic word rabota

古教会斯拉夫语中用“rabota”

described the forced labor of the people.

形容人们被迫劳动。

A slight adjustment of spelling,

拼写稍稍改动后

and rabota became the Czech robota,

rabota 成为了捷克的 robota，

which, in addition to defining the toil of the serfs,

为了定义农奴的困苦，

was also used figuratively

同时，robota也用于比喻

to describe any kind of hard work or drudgery.

任何形式的艰难的工作或辛苦的劳作

In 1920, Czech writer Karel Capek published

在1920年，捷克作家卡雷尔恰佩克发表了

a science fiction play called "R.U.R.",

一部叫做 “R. U. R. ” 的科幻小说剧

short for "Rossum's Universal Robots."

“R. U. R. ” 是 “罗斯姆的万能机器人（Rossum's Universal Robots）”的缩写

The story featured automated machines

这个故事描绘了具有人性化功能的自动化机器

with distinctly human features

迎合人们的各种怪要求，

that, until they revolt,

catered to the whims of the people of Earth.

直到这些机器造反了

Capek originally considered

恰佩克原本打算

calling these hard-working machines labori

叫这些勤劳的机器“labori”

from the Latin word for labor,

"labori" 源于拉丁文的 “labor（劳力）”一词

but he worried it sounded a bit too scholarly.

但是他担心这样听起来有一点太学术了

He opted, instead, to emphasize their enslaved state

于是他选择强调它们被奴役的状态

by naming them roboti,

于是称它们为“roboti”

or robot in English.

也就是英语中的"robot（机器人）"

"R.U.R." was wildly successful,

"R. U. R." 赢得了巨大的成功

and when it was translated into English in 1923,

1923年，当它被翻译成英文时

the word robot was enthusiastically embraced.

“robot”这个词受到了热烈欢迎并被采用

Though most of today's robots look

虽然如今大多数的机器人看起来

quite different than Capek imagined,

和恰佩克想象中的非常不同

they've become just as popular as he predicted.

但是它们和他预言的一样受欢迎

Unlike in "R.U.R.", though,

和"R. U. R."不同的是，

our robots haven't risen up against us,

我们的机器人还没有反抗人类，

and here's hoping it stays that way!

并且愿它们能一直如此。