近日看到某电视台将“奋斗的青春”与“struggle youth”写在单位墙上，鼓励年轻员工。“struggle youth”这个完全不合语法的表达暴露出了另一个可能并不太明显的问题。在“百度”和“必应”搜索“奋斗 英文”，得到的翻译结果都是将其首选译为struggle。
根据《韦氏词典》，struggle解释有两个：
- to make strenuous or violent efforts in the face of difficulties or opposition.
- to proceed with difficulty or with great effort.
词典中的例句：
- He has been struggling with the problem of how to keep good workers from leaving.
- They struggled for the right to vote.
- She struggled up the hill through the snow.
- She struggled to lift the package by herself, but it was too heavy.
- He struggled to get free of the wreckage.
- He's been struggling in math class for most of the year.
- The team has continued to struggle in recent weeks.
- He was living as a struggling artist in the city.
可见，struggle包含“努力”的意思，但这种努力多暗示逆境与压力，意思上更接近“奋争”、“抗争”或“斗争”。反观“奋斗”则不一定是对困境做出的抗争，顺境之下也可以“奋斗”。比如例句He was living as a struggling artist in the city，这个艺术家虽然在为自己的梦想努力，但“struggling”还有身处困境之意（in the face of difficulties or opposition），这是“奋斗”所没有的。“奋斗”的意思只是为达到一定目的而努力干到最好，不一定要穷困潦倒或四处碰壁。
逆境有时也会占上风，导致struggle的结果失败。比如上面的例句“She struggled to lift the package by herself, but it was too heavy”，struggle就没有成果。《柯林斯词典》中对struggle的释义也有这么一条，说的更直接：If a person or organization is struggling, they are likely to fail in what they are doing, even though they might be trying very hard。
例句包括：
- The company is struggling to find buyers for its new product.
- One in five young adults was struggling with everyday mathematics.
- By the 1960s, many shipyards were struggling.
因此，一个struggling的年轻人确实在努力、在奋斗，但他的努力多半只是为了维持生计，是在与困难和逆境抗争，而且这种抗争的结果很难说，甚至失败的可能要大于成功的可能。 上进的年轻人都愿意为梦想奋斗，但没有人愿意处于struggle的境地。
即使说明struggle的对象不是为了基本的生活，比如struggle for outstanding job performance，struggle给人的感觉也是努力和阻力各占一半，接下来批评单位制度不合理也不意外。
“奋斗”多为积极向上，昂扬拼搏，而struggle虽然也要付出辛劳，但多是为了满足基本的要求，伴随的是愁苦唏嘘、茫然无助。
去掉struggle中“逆境”的部分，可用strive来翻译“奋斗”。 “奋斗的青春”可译为striving youth，但可能引发“奋斗的年轻人”的歧义。为更准确翻译原文，可考虑将其译为Cherish your youth/Don’t squander away your youth之类。
