Interpreting Speech #2 – Victorian Parliament (English-into-Mandarin)

Briefing

You have been called to interpret for a tour guide at the Parliament of Victoria. The guide is giving a talk to a visiting delegation from China about the history and function of the building.

 

Listen to Dialogue

Interpreting Speech #2 – Victorian Parliament (English-into-Mandarin)

Transcript and reference translation

Hello and welcome to the Parliament of Victoria.
大家好,欢迎来到维多利亚议会。

The Parliament was constructed between 1856 and 1930, during the gold rush period.
维多利亚议会建于1856年到1930年的淘金热时期。

It is a bicameral parliament – in other words, it has two houses, with representatives elected to the Legislative Council – the Upper House – and the Legislative Assembly – the Lower House.
这是一个双院的议会,换一句话说,该议会分为两个议院。由代表选出的人进参议院(也称上议院)和众议院(也称下议院)。

The Assembly has 88 members and the Council 40.
众议院有88个成员,参议院有40个议员。

One of the Parliament’s major roles is to make laws.
议会的主要职能是制定法律。

Bills can be introduced in either House but must be agreed to by both Houses, and the Governor must give royal assent before they become law.
上下院都可以提出法案,但必须同时获得两院通过,此外,还需获得总督的御准才能正式成为法律。

Like all parliaments in Australia and in the Commonwealth, the Victorian parliament is designed according to the Westminster System.
就像在澳大利亚和联邦的所有议会一样,维多利亚议会的设计符合威斯敏斯特系统。

To reflect this, the interior of the Assembly Chamber is decorated green, the Council Chamber, red.
考虑到这些,众议院的内部装潢以绿色为基调,而参议院是红色的。

Today we begin our tour in the Lower House – the Legislative Assembly – and as you can see, everything in this room – the seats, carpet, the books, even my tie! – is green.
今天,我们先从下议院开始我们的参观,众议院,正如你所见,从座位,地毯,书籍,甚至我的领带,所有物件在这个房间都是绿色的。

The function of the Lower House is to review any laws under consideration.
下议院的作用是用来回顾所有涵需审理的法律。

You can see here – in the front row – this is where the government ministers sit.
你可以看到这里,议席的前排,是政府部长坐的。

On the other side is where the opposition and the shadow ministers sit; their job is to hold the government to account on any decisions they make.
而相对的另一排是反对的也就是影子部长坐的。他们的职责是让政府对他们的决定负责。

Both the government and opposition seats are divided into front and back benchers.
政府席和反对者席都分成前排和后排的席位。

The front benches are reserved for members of the cabinet.
前排的席位都预留给内阁成员。

A backbencher may be a new parliamentary member yet to receive high office or even a senior figure who has been dropped from government.
一个后排议员可能是一名还未得到高级职务的新议会成员,或一位不再受到政府重视的高层人物。

They can engage in debates in parliament, and pass on the views of their constituents, but do not wield much influence in the party.
他们可以参与议会中的辩论,提交选民意见,却无法对政党施加太多的影响。

At the front of the house is the Speaker, whose job is to mediate the discussions.
议院的前方是议长,他的工作是斡旋讨论。

Members of the general public can sit in to observe the parliament in the public gallery; as for the press gallery, this is reserved for journalists.
普通公众也可以在公众走廊旁听并考察。同时相对的媒体走廊,是留给与会的记者。

In the centre of the house there are 67 books which make up the bulk of Victoria’s laws.
在议院的中央有67本书,它们组成了维州法律的绝大部分。

At the moment, the numbers in the Parliament are very close – in total there are 88 Members of Parliament: 45 Liberal-Nationals and 43 Labor.
现在,议会中的人数相当接近。总共有88个议员,其中45名联盟党成员,43名工党成员。

Have a look here – this is where the Premier sits, and over here is where the Treasurer sits.
来看看这里吧。这是州长的座位,那里是财长的座位。

Note that the role of the Treasurer is different to that of the Minister of Finance – the former looks after the budget, while the latter checks whether the money is being used reasonably.
需要注意的是,财长的角色和财政部长是不同的。前者需顾及财务预算,而后者则需核实钱是否花在适当的地方。

So what’s been happening in the Victorian Parliament as of late? Let me see…
因此,让我们看看维多利亚议会最近发生了什么?

Just yesterday, MPs were discussing the use of crown land – in particular, a hospital they were proposing to tear down and use for another purpose.
就在昨天,议员们讨论了政府用地问题。特别提到了一个医院。他们提议把它拆毁,挪作它用。

They were also talking about creating a national system for the registration of chemists and whether traditional Chinese herbalists could be considered medical practitioners.
他们还谈论了关于建立一套新的国家药剂师注册系统,但这当中,中国中草药师并不认为是医疗从业者。

All right, now it’s time to go to the Upper House, also known as the Legislative Council.
好了,现在是时候是去上议院(也就是参议院)的时候了。

The first thing you should notice is that this room is much nicer than the previous one; the design here is all in red and looks quite luxurious.
首先你们会发现这个房间比之前那个好很多。整个房间设计成红色而且相当奢华。

The arrangement of the seats in the Upper House is quite similar to that of the Lower House.
上议院的座次安排与下议院相仿。

On the right side is the Government – on the left, the Opposition.
右侧是政府,左侧是反对者。

The President here plays a similar role to that of the Speaker in the Lower House.
上议院议长和下议院议长所扮演的角色也不禁相似。

There are 21 Liberal-National seats, 16 Labor and 3 Greens – all up, that’s 21 seats for the Government and 19 for the Opposition.
这里有21个联盟党坐席,16个工党坐席和三个绿党坐席。它代表着21席属于政府,19席属于它的反对者。

Oh, wait, don’t sit on this chair – it’s meant only for the Queen or the Governor of Victoria!
哦,等一下。这个位子不能坐,只有女王和维多利亚州总督才能坐。

In the past 156 years it’s only been sat on 57 times, and only one time by the Queen, in 1954.
在过去156年中,该座位只被坐了57次,其中女王仅在1954年坐了一次。

As the Queen is 86 years of age, she can’t really fly down from Britain to make a speech here, while the Governor, on the other hand, is only 15 minutes away by car!
因为女王以年届86岁高龄,她真的不能从英国飞来做一次演讲。而另一方面,州总督距此仅15分钟车程。

I heard one of you would like to know a bit about conscience votes – well, first let me say they don’t happen very often.
我听到你们中有一员想知道关于自由投票的事。好,首先我想说的是,这不经常发生。

In the past 17 years, there have only been eight of these kind of votes, and in the past three years none at all.
在过去17年间只发生过8次类似的投票,而过去三年间则一次都没发生过。

They usually only come up if the MPs find they have moral or religious objections to laws being discussed.
它们通常仅在议员们对法律有道德或宗教缘发生反对时才发起。

In general, though, most MPs vote on party lines – so how they will vote is already determined during discussions made before parliament sits.
总的来说,大多数议员都代表党派利益而投票。它们如何投票早在进议会前已经商议得出了。

In fact, only some controversial subjects such as abortion, artificial insemination, same-sex marriage, etc. attract conscience votes.
事实上,只有一些争议的议题比如堕胎,人工受精,同性婚姻等才会采取自由投票。

What you find is that, during a conscience vote, you get to know what the politicians really think, as they have the opportunity to vote according to their personal beliefs, rather than toe the party line.
你会发现在自由投票时,你将知道议员们的真实想法,它们讲有机会按照它们自己的信仰而不是党派利益而投票。

So, at times, Government MPs agree with Opposition MPs, or MPs within the same party may have conflicting views.
因此,当那时,政府的议员们有可能做出与它们的反对派议员做出相同的投票或者即使在同一党派也会发生意见相左的情况。

So conscience votes, though rare, are often the most interesting votes in the parliament.
因此,自由投票是非常罕见的,同时也是在议会中最有趣的投票。

Now, each MP here represents a region within the state, and in Victoria there are eight regions, which are represented by five people.
每一位议员代表了州内的一个地区,而在维州有8个区,由5人代表。

If you get 12% of the vote, you win the seat, which means that minor parties find it easier to win because they only need this small percentage of support, as opposed to a majority vote.
如果你获得百分之十二的选票,你就可以赢得席位,也就是说少数党会更容易获胜,因为他们只需要小的百分比的支持,不同于多票选举。

There are three Greens here, and in the last election the Democratic Labor Party had one seat here.
在这之中有三位绿党党员,而且在上次选举中民主劳工党有过一个席位。

Although he originally only got 2% of the vote, he got through on preferences, and stayed an MP here for four years.
虽然他起初仅获得百分之二的选票, 但最终因为按选择次序投票方法,并在议员的位置上一待就是4年。

Next week, during the first week of May, the state budget will come out, so the parliament has to decide how to spend over $40 billion dollars.
下周,也就是五月的第一周,州预算将会出台,因此议会将会决定如何使用400亿澳元。

They will look at how to allocate funds for areas such as public transport – trains, trams, buses, etc., hospitals, schools, the police, the fire brigade, and so on.
他们会关注于如何分配资金于不同的地方,比如公共交通系统,火车,电车,公交车等等。和医院,学校,警察,救火队等等。

I look forward to meeting you all here at the parliament again, thank you.
我期待着能与你们在议会再次见面,谢谢。

 

 

Content adapted from a tour of the Parliament given in April 2012, and from text in the Parliament brochure.

6 Comments to "Interpreting Speech #2 – Victorian Parliament (English-into-Mandarin)"

  1. sonic's Gravatar sonic
    05/05/2012 - 2:01 am | Permalink

    They were also talking about creating a national system for the registration of chemists and whether traditional Chinese herbalists could be considered medical practitioners.
    他们还谈论了关于建立一套新的国家药剂师注册系统,但这当中,中国中草药师并不认为是医疗从业者。
    但这当中,中国中草药师并不认为是医疗从业者。I don’t think the Chinese part matching English. what do you think?

  2. sonic's Gravatar sonic
    05/05/2012 - 2:03 am | Permalink

    the fire brigade, usually Chinese use 消防队

  3. sonic's Gravatar sonic
    05/05/2012 - 2:09 am | Permalink

    As the Queen is 86 years of age, she can’t really fly down from Britain to make a speech here, while the Governor, on the other hand, is only 15 minutes away by car!
    因为女王以(已)年届86岁高龄,她真的不能从英国飞来做一次演讲。而另一方面,州总督距此仅15分钟车程。
    she can’t really, if you put 真的 in, it sounds awkward, it is better to not to use it, just 她不能从英国飞来做一次讲话。I prefer 讲话here, because usually leader speech taken as 领导讲话

    • Sophia's Gravatar Sophia
      22/11/2013 - 6:06 pm | Permalink

      并不真的会从英国飞来讲一次话,我觉得这样更顺一些。

  4. sonic's Gravatar sonic
    05/05/2012 - 2:15 am | Permalink

    The President here plays a similar role to that of the Speaker in the Lower House.
    上议院议长和下议院议长所扮演的角色也不禁相似。
    similar role, here you translate as角色不禁相似,I just know 不尽相同,which means not exactly same.

  5. sonic's Gravatar sonic
    05/05/2012 - 2:22 am | Permalink

    They usually only come up if the MPs find they have moral or religious objections to laws being discussed.
    它们通常仅在议员们对法律有道德或宗教(有反对意见?)缘发生反对时才发起。

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