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English to Chinese: History of the silence General field: Social Sciences Detailed field: Social Science, Sociology, Ethics, etc.
Source text - English A theme of the age, at least in the developed world, is that people crave silence and can find none. The roar of traffic, the ceaseless beep of phones, digital announcements in buses and trains, TV sets blaring even in empty offices, are an endless battery and distraction. The human race is exhausting itself with noise and longs for its opposite—whether in the wilds, on the wide ocean or in some retreat dedicated to stillness and concentration. Alain Corbin, a history professor, writes from his refuge in the Sorbonne, and Erling Kagge, a Norwegian explorer, from his memories of the wastes of Antarctica, where both have tried to escape.
And yet, as Mr Corbin points out in "A History of Silence", there is probably no more noise than there used to be. Before pneumatic tyres, city streets were full of the deafening clang of metal-rimmed wheels and horseshoes on stone. Before voluntary isolation on mobile phones, buses and trains rang with conversation. Newspaper-sellers did not leave their wares in a mute pile, but advertised them at top volume, as did vendors of cherries, violets and fresh mackerel. The theatre and the opera were a chaos of huzzahs and barracking. Even in the countryside, peasants sang as they drudged. They don’t sing now.
What has changed is not so much the level of noise, which previous centuries also complained about, but the level of distraction, which occupies the space that the silence might invade. There looms another paradox, because when it does invade—in the depths of a pine forest, in the naked desert, in a suddenly vacated room—it often proves unnerving rather than welcome. Dread creeps in; the ear instinctively fastens on anything, whether fire-hiss or birdcall or susurrus of leaves, that will save it from this unknown emptiness. People want silence, but not that much.
Translation - Chinese 人们渴望宁静而不可得,这是一个时代话题，至少在发达国家是这样。车船的轰鸣、手机铃声、汽车、火车站里数码发音的广播、空无一人的办公室里电视机的声音，不绝于耳，让人无法专心。对于噪音，人类不胜其扰而渴望绝无噪音的所在—野外，广阔的海面，或是用心营造静谧，有益于专心思考的氛围的休闲胜地。历史学教授阿兰∙科宾寄居索邦大学期间的著作和挪威探险家厄灵∙卡格源于对南极洲荒原的回忆的文章，都试着论述了逃离噪音。
English to Chinese (Canadian Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters Council)
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Adobe Photoshop, AutoCAD, Google Translator Toolkit, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Powerpoint
Bio
Born in Beijing and grown up speaking authentic mandarin. My professional background is in Mechanical Engineering and was a member of APEGBC, the association of professional engineer of the province of British Columbia, Canada. Now I am a freelancer translator enjoying translations in business, technology, healthcare, politics, and sports (golf, basketball, tennis, and table tennis related materials).Please give me a sample text and you get an idea in no time.
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