印度的钻石抛光机
Hard faces
坚硬的表面
A remarkable cottage industry is under pressure
处于压力之下的一个卓越的家庭手工业
Dec 5th 2015 | SURAT | From the print edition
2015年12月5日|苏拉特|来自印刷版
But will it pay the rental?
但租金何在？
NINE-TENTHS of the world's natural diamonds pass through the Indian state of Gujarat, where in and around the city of Surat they are cut and polished before being sold on through the trading houses of Antwerp and Dubai. Diwali, a Hindu holiday marked by gift-giving, fell in early November. By this time of year, shops around the world are stocked with the gems to last till Christmas. It is when the diamond-polishing workshops of Surat, on the Arabian Sea, shut down for an annual unpaid, month-long break for their workers. Perhaps half a million diamond-cutters head home for the holidays, while shop managers sit down to settle their accounts in homemade chopri, or bank books.
印度的吉拉特邦州包揽了全世界90%的天然钻石出产，在这里以及苏拉特市，安特卫普和迪拜的国际贸易商行将这些钻石进行切割和抛光等一系列精细的加工，最后投入贸易。十一月初的排灯节，是印度人走出家门互赠礼物的节日。每年的这个时候，世界上的各大商店都会将精美绝伦的宝石陈列出来，直到圣诞节到来。这一天，位于阿拉伯海域的钻石抛光车间苏拉特也会关闭门店，结算工钱，给它们的工人放长达一个月的假期。数以百万计的钻石切割员回家度假了，但是店经理却仍在处理他们的账户和银行存折。
A port once notorious for an outbreak of plague in 1994, but since then nicely spruced up, Surat has for generations been home to what may be the world’s biggest cottage industry. Perhaps 2,000 of the 5,000-odd operations that buy diamonds for polishing are reasonably large, employing 300-500 grinders, most of them migrant workers. The rest are small family-owned affairs with maybe a couple of grindstones. Many struggle to afford the rough diamonds in the first place.
印度西部港口城市苏拉特因1994年爆发的一场瘟疫而声名狼藉，而现如今已改头换面，重振旗鼓。经过好几代人的苦心经营，那儿或许已经是全球最大规模的家族手工业了。每五千笔钻石交易中就有两千笔是在这里进行十分复杂的抛光处理，这儿雇佣了300-500名磨工工人，其中多数是打工仔。剩下的就是一些小型的家族业务，一家只有几个磨石的那种。他们大多都买不起原石来加工，于是只好优先考虑利润丰厚的钻石加工了。
The side streets of Varachha bazaar, thick with scooters, give a clue as to how the small fry operate. Peer through the ground-floor windows and you see halogen lights illuminating the bright white stones being worked by hand. Most families here are “Kathis” from the Patidar caste, migrants from Gujarat’s Kathiawar peninsula. Many of them came from its dry, overworked tracts as dispossessed farmers in the 1960s. Other Surtis esteem them grudgingly for their devotion to clan, to long hours and to mawa, the harsh tobacco they chew to stay sharp behind the cutting wheel.
法拉赫集市那堆满了脚踏摩托的街道里，为我们讲述了小作坊的运行流程。透过底层的窗户可以看到工人在卤素灯下手工打磨白色的原石。这里大多数的家庭都是帕提达种姓的喀什人，他们从古吉拉特邦的卡提亚挖半岛移居至此。上世纪六十年代那儿是个干燥、民不聊生、满是剥削的土地。其余的苏提斯人念在他们对宗族、对玛瓦多年以来的忠诚上，对他们勉强算是尊重，所以在工作之余，他们也会在切割轮后面嚼一些粗糙的烟草来提提神。
Last year the bigger polishing outfits distributed eye-watering bonuses to lure their (migrant) workers back. This year some are flirting with bankruptcy. A worldwide glut of polished diamonds and falling prices have hit the Surat business hard. The polishers buy on credit, so even when demand is low they must sell, however sharp the loss. Exports in October were down by 17% year-on-year, driven partly by slowing Chinese demand for luxury goods.
去年大型的抛光公司通过分发让人眼红的奖金来吸引他们的工人(移民)回来。而其中一些产业在今年却濒临破产。全球范围的产能过剩和价格下跌重创了苏拉特的产业。当钻石的需求量降低时，由于抛光设备是贷款买的，所以尽管宝石价格很低，损失很大，生意也必须做下去。期待您的翻译。
At sunset in Varachha, men lounge on pillion seats and handcarts, passing around open packets of rocks worth several years’salary. The trust embodied in this form of community is astounding and essential to their trade. The newcomers are mainly from Bihar, where semi-skilled work and half-decent wages are hard to find. One Bihari expects 20,000 of his countrymen to leave Surat permanently during the current slump. Damji Mavani of the Surat Diamond Association, whose family came from the Kathiawar in 1964, expects Varachha as a whole to survive. Kathi clansmen will lend to clansmen, with every Kathi in these warrens watching out for everyone else. But the bigger houses, with access to bank credit, will fare better. Mr Mavani predicts that the cottage industry will consolidate. Small family firms, unlike the diamonds they polish, are not forever.
在黄昏时分，人们骑着摩托或是推着手推车，随身携带着价值是他们数年薪水的宝石穿行在法拉赫。这种相处方式所表现的互相之间的信任令人惊奇， 不过也是他们能够持续交易的关键。新移民主要来自比哈尔邦，那里半技术工作很少，而且拿不到正常薪水的一半。有个比哈尔人预计在当前经济低迷的形势下，他的同胞中估计会有2万人从苏拉特迁出。苏拉特钻石联合会的Damji Mavani 先生全家1964年从卡提瓦半岛迁到这里，他将法拉赫当作求生之路。卡提瓦过来的移民会借钱给他们的族人，在这些拥挤的小窝里每一个卡提瓦人都会互相留意监督。不过，如果能住在用银行贷款买的大房子里会更加舒适。玛法尼先生预测以后家庭手工厂会联合起来，小家庭作坊不会像他们打磨的钻石一样一直存在下去。
词组：diamond polishers钻石抛光机
cottage industry 家庭手工业
gift-giving赠送礼物
be stocked with 陈列；摆放
shut down 关闭
grindstones n. 磨石
illuminating adj. 照亮的，照明的；启蒙的，有启发性的
v. 照明，阐释（illuminate的现在分词形式）
migrant n. 移民；移居者；候鸟
harsh tobacco 粗糙的烟草
chew n. 咀嚼；咀嚼物
vt. 嚼碎，咀嚼
vi. 细想，深思
distributed adj. 分布式的，分散式的
bankruptcy n. 破产
year-on-year 较上年 同期
luxury goods 奢侈品
permanently adv. 永久地，长期不变地
读者试译：Exports in October were down by 17% year-on-year, driven partly by slowing Chinese demand for luxury goods.
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