On the Road 让人抓狂的日本车名

来源：百度文库编辑：神马文学网时间：2024/04/27 17:17:59

Over the years, Japanese car names have been a source of unending comedy, ¹⁾frivolity and perplexity in international motoring circles.
在过去这些年里，日本车的型号名称在国际汽车界一直让人觉得可笑、轻浮又费解。

Let’s face it, many of the names that surface only in Japan are simply ²⁾hilarious: Note That’s Century Life Zest Move Latte; Fit Cima Every Inspire Freed Naked President Crown Odyssey. No, that’s not some new language from ³⁾the back of beyond, but two sentences exclusively comprised of Japanese car names.
我们来正视现实吧，许许多多只出现在日本本土的汽车名称简直让人笑破肚皮。比如说 “Note That’s Century Life Zest Move Latte（注意那是世纪生活热情行动拿铁咖啡）”、“Fit Cima Every Inspire Freed Naked President Crown Odyssey（健康的西玛每每激励释放裸体总统皇冠征程）”。别误会，这可不是来自穷乡僻壤的新语种，而是由多个日本车名称组成的两个句子。

One look at such names and you feel like you are watching a badly ⁴⁾dubbed ⁵⁾martial arts movie. Remember those early Bruce Lee ⁶⁾flicks, such as ⁷⁾The Big Boss, in which the actors’ mouths seemed to move at random as the English ⁸⁾voice-over struggled to keep up? That’s the way the vast majority of Japanese car names come across—a little bit weird. It’s like you’re in a parallel universe where all the rules of language have been thrown out the window and just about anything goes.
看到这些名字的人会觉得自己正在看一部翻译蹩脚的武打片。还记得李小龙早期的电影吗？比如说《唐山大兄》。在这些影片里，演员的嘴巴似乎是乱动一气，而英语配音则费力地想跟上口型变化的节奏。日本车的大部分名称也会给你同样的感觉——怪怪的。你似乎身处与现实平行的另一世界里，而在那个世界，所有的语法规则都被抛弃，怎么说都行。

So why do the Japanese use English or Latin-sounding words? One Japanese colleague says, “They sound more ⁹⁾exotic and culturally deeper than Japanese names, even if we don’t understand the actual meaning of the word.” He ¹⁰⁾has a point, though I think the ¹¹⁾bottom line is this: The vast majority of Japanese involved in naming products just don’t really ¹²⁾give a hoot what a name means outside of Japan. As long as it looks cool, and captures the attention of domestic buyers, then that’s all that matters. The problem is, however, that many of the words just don’t make sense.
那么，为什么日本人会用英语或拉丁语发音的词给车起名字呢？我的一位日本同事说：“尽管我们并不清楚这些词的真实含义，但它们听起来富有异国情调，比日本本土的名字有更深的文化内涵。”他的话有道理，不过，我觉得关键是大部分给这些汽车命名的日本人对于这些词在日本之外会有什么含义根本不在乎。只要这些词看起来酷意十足，可以吸引国内消费者的注意力，那么其他的就都不重要了。可问题是，这些词很多都让人摸不着头脑。

Take the ¹³⁾Mitsubishi Legnum for example. To the company’s marketing types, Legnum must have sounded cool, although I can’t imagine why. When you think of it in an English context, it couldn’t be worse for a ¹⁴⁾sporty ¹⁵⁾wagon that ¹⁶⁾purports to be a driver’s car. I mean, hey, drive it too long and you get a “leg numb”? Not good.
以三菱汽车的Legnum为例吧。对三菱的营销人员来说，Legnum听起来一定棒极了——虽然我也不明白其中的原因。可是，放在英语语境里想一下，这个名字对于一款自称能让驾驶者享受驾驶乐趣的竞赛车型旅行车来说，真是糟得不能更糟了。我是说，嘿，这车开久了，你会“腿麻”（leg numb）？太差劲了。

And what about—hang on, parents, send your kids out of the room—the ¹⁷⁾Daihatsu Naked? Woah! That’s like calling a car mappadaka, the Japanese equivalent of naked. Check out the little 660cc minicar’s exterior, though, and you can see where that “raw” name might have come from. The car looks like it has lost its top layer of sheet metal! In its defense, it does actually look naked.
还有呢——等等，请父母先让孩子离开一会儿——大发的Naked这个车名怎么样？哗！这就相当于把车叫作mappadaka——日语“裸体”的意思。不过呢，你得先看看这辆排量为600cc的小型汽车的外观，这样你就明白这个“坦荡荡”的名字其由来了。这款车的最上面一层车壳钣金好像不见了！我得替这个名字辩护，这车确实看似赤裸裸的。

And what about the ¹⁸⁾Nissan Fuga? In Japanese, it means “elegance,” while in Italian it means “escape,” two perfectly reasonable descriptions for a luxury car. In English, however, it sounds like a ¹⁹⁾stale mushroom.
那么那款日产制造的叫Fuga的轿车呢？在日语里，这个词是“风雅”的意思，而意大利语则是指“逃避”。用这两个词来描述一款豪华车，倒也很贴切。可是在英语里，这个词听起来就像是霉臭的蘑菇。

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