As the world this weekend recognises the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing, so too will many a Chinese man ponder over the historical significance, but perhaps only when paying a visit to a public toilet.
正如本週末世界正在紀念首次登月50週年，許多中國人也會思考其歷史意義，但也許只有在去公共廁所時才會思考。
The Chinese have a big thing for civilisation. Partly on account of the country being one of the world’s oldest civilisations, but also as a means of instilling preconceived ideas of publicly-acceptable behaviour in her citizens.
中国人对文明情有重。 部分原因是该国是世界上最古老的文明之一，但也是向其公民灌输公众可以接受行为的先入为主的一种手段。
Thus, in the bulk of Chinese public lavatories, above each urinal can be found the following charming and poetic exhortation for men to move a little closer, one that is also a play on words of Neil’s Armstrong’s historic quote, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind”.
因此，在大多数中国公共盥洗车中，每个小便池上方都有以下迷人而诗意的劝告，让男人靠近一点，这也是尼尔·阿姆斯特朗历史名言的双语，“这对[a]人来说是一小步，对人类来说是一个巨大的飞跃”。
Rendered in Chinese as, “这是个人的一小步，却是人类的一大步”, and after a little fiddling around, linguists in the Middle Kingdom’s Bureau of Sanitation came up with, “上前一小步 文明一大步”, which translates as, “One small step forward [for man], one giant leap for civilisation”.
用中文翻译为“这是个人的一小步，却是人类的一大步”，在四处乱缭乱之后，中王国卫生局的语言学家想出了“上前一小步 文明一大步”，翻译为“[人类]向前迈出一小步，文明一大步”。
Of course, there is more than one way to skin a cat, and various other English translations of the phrase are to be found all over China. In-depth research of Chinese public facilities nationwide has revealed the two next most widely employed to be, “Please aim carefully”, together with the inspired and much under appreciated, “A step closer helps keep it cleaner”.
当然，剥猫皮的方法不止一种，中国各地都能找到这句话的其他各种英文翻译。 对中国全国公共设施的深入研究揭示了下一个最广泛使用的两个是“请谨慎瞄准”，以及受启发和被低估的“走近一步有助于保持清洁”。
While it is true that great civilisations are based on access to the urinals; the Romans knew this when they built the aqueducts; on 20 July, 1969, Armstrong himself would have had no clue as to the future impact of his words on the urinary habits of half a billion Chinese men.
虽然伟大的文明确实以使用小便池为基础；但罗马人在建造渡槽时就知道了这一点；1969年7月20日，阿姆斯特朗本人对他的话对5亿中国男性的排尿习惯的未来影响毫无头绪。
