譯/莊蕙嘉
Beekeeper Barbie was lonely.
養蜂人芭比孤伶伶的。
On a rainy Sunday afternoon in December, the foot-tall plastic doll stood on a shelf in a Walmart store in Cedar Knolls, New Jersey, perfect smile frozen in place as bustling shoppers breezed by, ignoring her and her white gloves, white hat with netting, hive and bees.
12月一個下著雨的周日午後，這個一呎高的塑膠娃娃站在新澤西州雪松丘一家沃爾瑪門市的貨架上，臉上凍結著完美的笑容，忙碌的顧客魚貫而過，對於她和她的白色手套、有遮面網的白色防蜂帽、蜂巢和蜜蜂，似乎視而不見。
Pizza Chef Barbie and Tractor Barbie weren't faring much better. Animal Rescuer Barbie, at least, had some friends — a baby deer, a fox and some bunnies — to keep her company.
披薩主廚芭比和農耕機芭比也沒好到哪兒去。動物救援芭比至少有些朋友－一隻小鹿、一隻狐狸和幾隻兔子－和她作伴。
For Mattel, the 74-year-old company behind Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price and American Girl, the toy business hasn't been much fun lately.
對美泰兒這家有74年歷史、生產芭比、風火輪小汽車、費雪及美國女孩的公司而言，玩具生意最近可不怎麼有趣。
Dolls, action figures and miniature cars are competing for the attention of children, who are spending hours a day playing games on phones, tablets, computers and consoles. To make matters worse, toymakers lost a key outlet this year when Toys "R" Us shut down or sold all its stores after filing for bankruptcy.
洋娃娃、動作角色公仔和迷你車競相爭取兒童的注意力，他們每天花數小時在手機、平板電腦、桌機和遊戲機上玩遊戲。雪上加霜的是，玩具反斗城今年聲請破產後，關閉或出售所有門市，玩具製造商失去一個主要的通路。
The trouble in toyland is particularly severe for Mattel. Revenue has plunged from $6.5 billion in 2013 to a projected $4.5 billion this year, and a profit of more than $913 million has become an expected loss of $418 million. The company's stock is down 73 percent in that time and near a 10-year low.
玩具界的麻煩對美泰兒來說尤其嚴峻，其2013年達65億美元的營收已經銳減，今年預估僅有45億美元，盈虧則從獲利9億1300萬美元變成預估虧損4億1800萬美元。這家公司的股價跌幅達73%，接近10年來低點。
Ynon Kreiz, Mattel's new chairman and chief executive, its fourth in five years, hopes to turn all that around.Kreiz is yet another risky choice for Mattel.
美泰兒的新任董事長兼執行長伊農．克雷茲，是五年來第四位執行長，他希望能扭轉頹勢。對美泰兒來說，克雷茲甚至是另一個冒險的選擇。
He has significant entertainment and media-distribution experience and some background in licensing and merchandising, but, like many of his recent predecessors, no history in the company's core business: making toys. Nonetheless, he hopes to start Mattel on a new path and will soon announce a live-action Barbie film starring Margot Robbie, the Australian actress nominated for an Oscar for "I, Tonya."
他有娛樂和媒體發行的豐富經驗，也有一些授權和商品銷售背景。但是，如同他最近多位前任執行長一樣，對於這家公司的核心事業「製造玩具」並沒有經驗。雖然如此，他希望為美泰兒開拓新路，且將於近日宣布籌拍一部芭比真人電影，由因演出電影「老娘叫譚雅」獲得奧斯卡提名的澳洲女演員瑪格羅比主演。
Kreiz's plans also include turning many of Mattel's other beloved brands into movies, television series and video games. In September, as part of that push, he created an in-house studio, Mattel Films, led by producer Robbie Brenner, a 2014 Oscar nominee for "Dallas Buyers Club."
克雷茲的計畫還包括將美泰兒其他備受喜受的品牌拍成電影、電視影集和製作遊戲。今年9月，作為推進計畫的一部分，他在公司內創立一家製片廠「美泰兒電影」，由2014年以電影「藥命俱樂部」入圍奧斯卡的製片人羅比．布來納領軍。
"Mattel is doing what should have been done 10 years ago," said Michael Swartz, an analyst at the investment bank SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
太陽信託羅賓森亨福瑞投資銀行的分析師麥可史瓦茲說：「美泰兒正在做早在10年前就該做的事。」
Besides creating media content based on Mattel's brands, Kreiz is slashing $650 million in expenses, laying off workers and planning to sell some manufacturing plants.
除了以美泰兒品牌為基礎打造媒體內容，克雷茲還刪減6億5000萬美元支出，資遣員工，並計畫出售一些製造廠。
He has also shown interest in grabbing back the sparkly-princess licensing business. Mattel, which for years made Snow White, Jasmine, Elsa and every other Disney princess doll, let Hasbro take the lucrative franchise away several years ago.
他也對抓回閃亮的公主授權事業表示興趣。美泰兒曾製造白雪公主、茉莉公主、艾莎和其他所有迪士尼公主娃娃多年，但數年前讓孩之寶搶走這項賺錢業務。
※說文解字看新聞
文/張佑生
兩文均以「老店新開」為主題：74歲的玩具業巨擘與56歲的超級英雄動漫（superhero comics），美泰兒欲重振往日雄風（fashioning a revival）：「民族偉大復興」的英文是national revival。「蜘蛛人」系列票房未嘗敗績，也不願招式用老，努力拍出新意（a fresh take），介系詞用on。
娃娃（公仔）是許多人的兒時玩伴，作者用擬人化（personification）的筆法寫景，以小喻大，凸顯玩具業人氣凋零的窘境，頗具巧思。Web-slinger是蜘蛛人的別名，如同The Caped Crusader之於蝙蝠俠（Batman）。
最後介紹initiation這個字。西洋文學中的initiation story（啟蒙/成長小說），主角在不愉快的經歷後學到教訓，became sadder but wiser（經一事，長一智）為共同特色，代表作包括James Joyce的Araby和John Updike的A&P， 讀者有興趣可找來看。
