Three kingdoms, two empires

三国鼎立，两帝称雄

★题目翻译：

three kingdoms应该是借鉴了中国的《三国演义》，而中文翻译也同样借鉴了“三国鼎立”这个成语，相当于增补了一个动词；

后半部分的two empires则为了和前面对应，同样增补了动词“称雄”♂

这个增补词语的选择与正文所讲述的内容有关，主要讲了中国三大互联网公司的发展现状，其中阿里巴巴和腾讯发展势头迅猛而百度则被甩开，所以这里取“称雄”作为动词。

THERE was a time, not that long ago, when China’s big internet companies weredismissedby investors in Silicon Valleyasmarginalfirmswith a tendencyto copy Western products.Not any more. Today they are monsters with increasinglyheftyinternational ambitions.

就在不久前，硅谷的投资者还根本不把中国的大型互联网公司放在眼里，认为它们不过是些边缘企业，往往都是照搬西方的产品。时过境迁，今天这些中国互联网公司已经长成了猛兽，在国际市场上的野心不断膨胀。

★单词

dismiss: V-T If you dismiss something, you decide or say that it is not important enough for you to think about or consider. 不予理会，比如：

Mr. Wakehamdismissedthe reports as speculation.

韦克厄姆先生把这些报道当作臆测而不予理会。

其他常用含义：

解雇 V-T When an employer dismisses an employee, the employer tells the employee that they are no longer needed to do the job that they have been doing.

marginal: ADJ If you describe people as marginal, you mean that they are not involved in the main events or developments in society because they are poor or have no power. 无足轻重的，比如：

The tribunals were established for the well-integrated members of society and not formarginalindividuals.

这个特别法庭是为社会中的主流人群设立的，而不是为了无足轻重的小人物。

其他常用含义：

边际的 ADJ Marginal activities, costs, or taxes are not the main part of a business or an economic system, but often make the difference between its success or failure, and are therefore important to control. 边际的

hefty: ADJ Hefty means large in size, weight, or amount. 庞大的; 沉重的，比如：

She was quite a hefty woman.

她是个相当高大的女人。

其他常用含义:

有力的 ADJ A hefty movement is done with a lot of force.

★翻译tips

as-这里把介词翻译成了“认为”，动词化。

with a tendency：译为频度副词“往往”，而不是直译成“有…的趋势”。

Not any more. 英文文章中常见的一句话，“时过境迁”是个值得积累的中文表达，意思是随着时间推移，情况发生了变化。

international ambitions：增译，只译为“国际野心”没有任何含义，在根据语境增译了“市场”，意思就通顺了。

Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce group, handles more transactions each year than do eBay and Amazon combined. Jack Ma, its chairman, pledges to serve 2bn consumers around the world within 20 years. Tencent, which specialises in online games and social media, is now the world’s tenth most valuablepublic firm, worth some $275bn. Pony Ma (no relation), its chairman, wants China to“preside overthe global tech revolution of the future”. But as the two firms become global forces, the third member of China’s “BAT” trioof internet giants, Baidu, an online-search firm that came to dominate the mainland market after Google left the country to avoid censorship, is lagging behind.

中国最大的电商集团阿里巴巴每年处理的交易量超过eBay和亚马逊的总和，董事局主席马云承诺要在20年内为全球20亿消费者提供服务。专注网络游戏和社交媒体的腾讯公司现在是世界第十大最有价值的上市公司，市值约2750亿美元。董事长马化腾（和马云不是亲戚）希望中国能“领导未来的全球科技革命”。中国互联网三巨头“BAT”中的第三位是百度。谷歌为避免审查制度退出中国后，百度便称霸中国大陆的在线搜索市场。另外两大巨头已成为国际大公司，百度却落在人后。

★单词

马云、马化腾有“二马”之称，在外刊中一般都只使用他们的英文名字，前者Jack Ma，后者Pony Ma

public firm：上市公司。go public 上市

preside over: to be in a position of authority at a time when important things are happening 负责（重要局面），比如：

The government seemed to be presiding over large-scale unemployment.

政府似乎正面临着大规模的失业状况。

其他含义：

1）to be the head of a company or organization 掌管，管辖，领导

2）to be in charge of a meeting or activity 主持

BAT trio：

1）trio：a set or group of three people or things三人组，三件套。主要是强调“三”这个概念，和原文中的trio of internet giants合起来就是常说的“三巨头”。Trio还有一个意思是“三重唱，三重奏”，与之相关的独唱（奏）、二重唱（奏）、四重唱（奏）分别是solo，duet，quartet

2）BAT-中国国内三大互联网公司，B-Baidu百度、A-Alibaba阿里巴巴、T-Tencent腾讯。

美国也有类似的三巨头，称为“GAF”,即：G-Google谷歌、A-Amazon亚马逊/A-Apple苹果、F-Facebook脸书。

bn=billion 十亿；mn=million 百万；tn=trillion 万亿/兆

★长难句解析

Alibaba(主语), China’s biggest e-commerce group（同位语）, handles（谓语） more transactions（宾语） each year（时间状语） /than do eBay and Amazon combined(状语).

不好理解的点在于than后面的部分，do代替了前面的handle，combined作后置定语修饰eBay and Amazon表示二者加起来的。涉及比较的句子中，如果谓语动词是实义动词，那么than后面的比较对象的动词一般用do/did/does替代，并提到名词前面。

But as the two firms become global forces（状从）, the third member of China’s “BAT” trio of internet giants（主语）, Baidu（同位语）, an online-search firm（同位语）/ that came to dominate the mainland market after Google left the country to avoid censorship（定语从句，after是定从嵌套的状从）/, is lagging behind（主句谓语）.

这一句主语部分较长，官方的译文并没有严格按照英文的顺序进行翻译，而是根据中文的表达逻辑进行了调整。

1）先翻译the third member of China’s “BAT” trio of internet giants, Baidu将短语译成了句子。先翻这一句是因为前面分别介绍了阿里巴巴和腾讯，从这一句开始都是讲百度，所以先把句子的主要对象引出来，再去翻译它的情况。

2）an online-search firm that came to dominate the mainland market after Google left the country to avoid censorship 把定语从句和先行词也单独译成了一句。这一句主要按照时间顺序翻译，先说谷歌退出中国，再说百度占领市场，并且先行词和定从中的market进行了结合，避免重复介绍百度，同时说清楚了它所占领的是什么市场。

3）介绍了百度之前的情况之后，在翻译现在和另外两家公司的对比，But as the two firms become global forces以及is lagging behind两部分。

这一个长句的翻译很好的体现了中英文表达上逻辑的不同，这一句主要是按照以时间为线索，先介绍主体，再介绍主体过去和现在的情况。

All three firms differ from their Western peers in important ways. First, Western companies usually prefer to focus on a few core areas, whereas Chinese internet firms typically try to do everything from cloud computing to digital payments. When this works,as withTencent’s wildly successful app, WeChat, the results can be impressive.

这三家公司与西方同行在几个重要方面有所不同。首先，西方公司通常会聚焦几个核心领域，而中国互联网公司一般涉猎广泛，从云计算到数字支付无不尝试。这样的尝试一旦成功，结果便会非常可观，腾讯大获成功的应用微信即是如此。

★单词

as with：正如，如同…一样

★翻译tips

When this works, as with Tencent’s wildly successful app, WeChat, the results can be impressive.

this-Chinese internet firms typically try to do everything from cloud computing to digital payments

as…WeChat 插入语放到了后面翻译，先翻译从句和主句

Second, with the exception of politicalcensorship, the internet sector in China is lightly regulated. Facebook, Apple and Google, in contrast, face increasing scrutiny. Chinese internet firms can achieve market dominationof a sortthat would attract close attention in other markets.

第二，抛开要接受政治审查这一点，中国互联网行业的监管较为宽松；而Facebook、苹果和谷歌则面临日益严格的审视。以中国互联网企业能达到的市场支配地位，换在其他市场，会受到监管机构的密切关注。

★单词

censorship: N-UNCOUNT Censorship is the censoring of books, plays, movies, or reports, especially by government officials, because they are considered immoral or secret in some way. (官方对书刊、剧本、电影或新闻报道的) 审查，比如：

The government today announced that press censorship was being lifted.

该政府今日宣告说正在撤销新闻审查。

中国的电影审查制度就用 film censorship；电影分级制度可以说film/motion picture rating system；（电影电视中）广告植入 product placement

of a sort：一种，一类，sort可看做等于market domination

其他含义：of sorts/of a sort 勉强称得上的，勉强算的，比如：

I have a conversation of sorts with a very drunk man at the bus stop.

The third difference is that they can succeed on a rapid and massive scale because the state-dominated economy is so inefficient. Often there is not even aphysicalinfrastructure toleapfrog—so-calledthird-tiercities, for example, often lack big retail centres. Nationwide there is one shopping mall per 1.2m people.

第三个区别是，由于国家主导的经济效率低下，中国互联网企业可以快速取得大规模成功。企业发展过程中通常甚至都没有挡路的实体机构，比如在所谓的三线城市，往往都缺少大型零售中心。中国每120万人才有一个大型购物中心。

★单词

physical：实体的。实体店-physical store

leapfrog: V-T/V-I If one group of people leapfrogs into a particular position or leapfrogs someone else, they use the achievements of another person or group in order to make advances of their own. (利用别人成就) 超越，比如：

It is already obvious that all four American systems have leapfrogged over the European versions.

显然，美国的全部4套系统已经超越了欧洲的版本。

third-tier：三线城市；second-tier：二线城市。或者也可以说tier two/tier three city

★翻译tips:

a physical infrastructure to leapfrog：

1)infrastructure 通常译为“基础设施”，既可以是可数名词也可以是不可数名词，原文前面加了a，所以译文将其具体化成“实体机构”，主要是指国有的机构。

2）按照顺序应该是“对企业来说甚至没有可以让其超越的实体机构”，译文直接转换了角度，将“企业去超越实体机构”转换成“挡路的实体机构”，更符合中文表达习惯。

A huge home market has not stopped the trio from fighting bloodyturf warsamong each other. The outcome to this battle is rapidly becoming clear. Tencent and Alibaba are surging ahead; a series ofown goalshas left Baidu far behind. The common jibe about Baidu among local experts is that it is becoming the Yahoo of China, a once-dominant search giant that sank owing to a lack of innovation and a series of managementblunders.

国内市场如此巨大，却仍未能阻止这三巨头相互厮杀抢夺地盘。这场战斗的结果正迅速明朗。腾讯和阿里巴巴遥遥领先，百度则因自己一连串的乌龙球而远远落后。国内专家最常用来挖苦百度的一个说法就是它正在变成中国的雅虎。雅虎一度是占据市场主导地位的搜索巨头，却因缺乏创新和一系列管理失误而沉沦。

★单词

turf wars: a fight or argument over the areas or things you think belong to you 地盘之争

turf：N-UNCOUNT

1）Someone's turf is the area which is most familiar to them or where they feel most confident. 地盘; 活动范围，比如：

Their turf was St.Louis: its streets, theaters, homes, and parks.

他们的地盘是圣路易斯：它的街道、剧院、住宅和公园。

2）草皮

own goal：

1）a goal that you accidentally score against your own team without intending to in a game of football, hockey etc. 乌龙球（足球、曲棍球等比赛中）

2）an action or remark that has the opposite effect from what you intended （不利于自己的）错事，蠢话，自打嘴巴 ，比如：

The minister’s admission turned out to be a spectacular own goal.

这位部长的招认结果成了引人注目的自打嘴巴。

leave behind：把…落在后面（常用被动），比如：

In class, a child with poor eyesight can soon be left behind.

在课堂上，视力不好的孩子很快就会落在别人的后面。

近义词：lag behind 落后于（与be left behind同义），比如：

Britain is lagging behind the rest of Europe.

英国落后于欧洲其他国家。

blunder：

1）N-COUNT A blunder is a stupid or careless mistake. 愚蠢错误，比如：

I think he made a tactical blunder by announcing it so far ahead of time.

我认为他如此提早宣布消息是犯了战术上的错误。——可以替换mistake

2）V-I If you blunder, you make a stupid or careless mistake. 犯愚蠢错误，比如：

No doubt I had blundered again.

不用说我又犯了个蠢错。

3）V-I If you blunder into a dangerous or difficult situation, you get involved in it by mistake. 误入 (危险境地或困境)，比如：

People wanted to know how they had blundered into war, and how to avoid it in the future.

人们想弄清他们怎么会错误地卷入战争，将来如何才能避免这样的事。

4）V-I If you blunder somewhere, you move there in a clumsy and careless way. 跌跌撞撞地走，比如：

He had blundered into the table, upsetting the flowers.

他撞上了桌子，打翻了花。

★翻译tips

The common jibe about Baidu among local experts is that it is becoming the Yahoo of China, a once-dominant search giant that sank owing to a lack of innovation and a series of management blunders.

1）The common jibe about Baidu among local experts：国内专家最常用来挖苦百度的一个说法——jibe-词性转换，译为动词；增译“一个说法”

2）a once-dominant search giant that sank owing to a lack of innovation and a series of management blunders. 同位语，介绍Yahoo的情况，译文中以“雅虎”为主语重启一句。

Its revenue growth fell to 6.3% in 2016, down from 35% in 2015 and 54% in 2014. The firm gets some nine-tenths of its revenues from online ads, but this income is plunging as marketers redirect spending from search ads on Baidu to social-media networks like WeChat and mobile-commerce platforms run by Alibaba. Meanwhile, Baidu isburning cashtrying to keep its various big bets on artificial intelligence (AI), online video, virtual and augmented-reality technologies, and “online to offline” (O2O) services going. One of China’s most respected business consultants is pessimistic about its future: “There is very little chance they’ll be relevant in five years.”

百度的收入增长率在2016年下降至6.3%，远低于2015年的35%和2014年的54%。公司收入约九成都来自在线广告，但由于商家把花在百度搜索广告的钱转投至微信这样的社交媒体网络以及阿里巴巴运营的移动商务平台，百度的收入大幅下滑。同时，百度还在烧钱维系它的几个大赌注：人工智能（AI）、在线视频、虚拟和增强现实技术，以及“线上到线下”（O2O）服务。中国最受尊敬的商业顾问之一对百度的未来持悲观态度：“五年以后很可能就没百度什么事了。”

★单词

burn cash：花钱，烧钱。跟中文的“烧钱”意思相通。

★翻译tips

There is very little chance they’ll be relevant in five years.

五年以后很可能就没百度什么事了

正说反译，原句中未出现not之类的否定词，而在翻译中则用到了“没”这个中文中的否定词。