本周四，新任中共中央总书记比原计划晚了将近一个小时才登台亮相。他承认自己迟到，说了一句“让大家久等了”。初学英文的员工可以告诉你，这句话按字面意思翻译成英文就是“made everybody wait a long time”。但现场口译把它译成了“sorry to have kept you waiting”。

When the new leader of the Chinese Communist Party stepped on stage Thursday nearly an hour later than scheduled, he acknowledged the delay by saying, '让大家久等了' -- which, as a beginning Chinese student can tell you, literally translates to 'made everybody wait a long time.' But in English, the interpreter at the event turned it into 'sorry to have kept you waiting.'

外媒普遍采用了这一翻译，但一些以中文为依据的媒体（比如《华尔街日报》）删掉了“sorry”一词。

While the English translation was widely picked up by the foreign media, some that relied on the Chinese (such as the Journal) left out the 'sorry.'

人们总体上似乎都认为，不管怎么翻，习近平的话都传达了一种温和的歉意。新浪微博上很多操中文的观察人士都为习近平道歉而交口称赞。但在关注中国翻译、政治及文化之间联系的人们中间，这一差别还是引起了一些心平气和的讨论。

People appeared to generally agree that Mr. Xi's comment conveyed a sense of mild regret either way, with many Chinese observers on the Sina Weibo microblogging service praising Mr. Xi for apologizing. Still, the difference sparked good-natured discussion among people who watch the intersection between translation, politics and culture in China.

搜索公司百度(Baidu Inc.)的发言人郭怡广(Kaiser Kuo)经常点评中国时事。他在推特(Twitter)上用英文说，个人来讲，我会直译为“I've kept everyone waiting”，不加“Sorry”，英文同样隐含了歉意。

Personally I'd go for fidelity and say 'I've kept everyone waiting,' without the appended 'Sorry.' Implicit in English too,' wrote Kaiser Kuo, a spokesman for search company Baidu Inc. and frequent commenter on current events in China, on his Twitter account.

北京的一位作家、翻译家Brendan O'Kane赞成加进“sorry”，以反映原话的语境。他在一篇文章里说，习近平的话或多或少地与“sorry to keep everyone waiting”具备同样的功能：通过承认造成不便而象征性地表示一下歉意。

Brendan O'Kane, a Beijing writer and translator, sided with those who would add the 'sorry' as a matter of context. Mr. Xi's comment 'serves more or less the same function as 'sorry to keep everyone waiting': a perfunctory apology by acknowledgement of inconvenience,' he said in a note.