Wander around a village for a while, and you’ll see all kinds of interesting things; iron golems patrolling the perimeter, cats sunning themselves, or a wandering trader strolling about aimlessly, without purpose – much like my Minecraft.net editor, Per Landin! If you’re particularly unlucky, you might even see an illager raid.

在村庄里漫游一会儿吧，你就会发现花样繁多的有趣事物；村庄周围尽职尽责巡逻的铁傀儡，晒着太阳的懒洋洋的猫,或是一个漫无目的，悠悠荡荡的流浪商，他也不知道他要去哪里——像极了我们的Minecraft.net编辑，Per Landin！当然，，有时候也不一定是这么一幅欣欣向荣的景象，比如当你特别倒霉时，甚至有机会遇见灾厄村民发动的袭击。

But most of all, you’ll see villagers working hard – as farmers, blacksmiths, armourers, cartographers, butchers, clerics, fishermen, leatherworkers, masons, shepherds, toolsmiths, librarians, weaponsmiths, and fletchers. It’s this last profession that we’re most interested in today, because our block of the month is the fletching table!

言归正传，你主要看到的还是村民们在勤勤恳恳地劳动——无论是农民，铁匠，盔甲匠，制图师，屠夫，牧师，渔夫，还是皮匠，石匠，牧羊人，工具匠，图书管理员，武器匠和制箭师。而所提到的最后一种职业是我们今天最感兴趣的，因为我们的本月方块便是制箭台！

Fletching tables became a part of Minecraft in the Village & Pillage Update, which added the concept of job site blocks that unemployed villagers can use to become specialists of different kinds.

制箭台最早是在村庄与掠夺更新中加入到Minecraft中来的，同时在这一更新中也添加了工作站点方块这一系列新方块，通过使用它们，失业的村民可以拥有各种各样的职业。

The fletching table, to no one’s great surprise, is the block that turns unemployed villagers into fletchers. These specialists sell various ranged weapon-related goods, including flint, bows, crossbows, and even tipped arrows.

不出乎人意料的，制箭台这种方块可以将失业村民变成制箭师。这些制箭专家售卖的商品不外乎是一些远程武器，包括燧石，弓，弩，甚至是药箭。

Fletching tables can also be used as fuel in a furnace, smelting 1.5 items per block, and under note blocks to produce the “bass” sound. For the time being, that’s all – though they might gain additional functionality in the future. When they were added in 2019, Adrian Östergård from our development team wrote:

制箭台也可以当作燃料供熔炉烧制物品，每个制箭台可以熔炼1.5个物品，并且如果它被放置在音符盒之下，可以发出类似于贝斯的声音。暂时就只有这些了。――尽管在将来可能给他们添加更多的功能。把时间拨回村庄更新的2019年，来自开发团队的Adrian Östergård写道:

We've decided not to add the functionality for these blocks for this update as we want to make sure that they're useful for the overall gameplay. We have a great idea for them for the next major themed update...

这次更新，我们暂时不会给这些方块添加更多的功能，主要是因为我们想确保它们在游戏整体游玩中是足够有用的。对于下一次的大版本更新，我们为它们想到了一个很棒的主意……

——

No rush, Adrian. Take your time and don't let me bother you!

别急，Adrian。慢慢来，我是绝对不会打扰你的！

In the real world, people who make arrows are known as fletchers too – and it’s a common last name in English-speaking countries. Fletchers have been around for a very long time – the earliest evidence of arrow-making dates all the way back to Africa in the midst of the Stone Age – about 70,000 years ago.

在现实世界中，制箭师也被称作弗兰彻——在英语国家，这是一个常见的姓。弗兰彻们已经存在很长一段时间了――制造箭矢的化石证据最早可以追溯到石器时代中期的非洲――近似70,000年之久。

Archery was used in hunting and warfare all the way up to the late medieval period, when it was made obsolete by the spread of firearms. However, it’s still practiced today as an Olympic sport and by hunters, and new materials and engineering techniques give modern bows great power with relatively little effort.

直到中世纪晚期，射箭在狩猎与战争中一直都被广泛使用，直到枪械的发明与普及后才被取代。然而，作为一项奥运会比赛项目和猎人常常使用的狩猎利器，它在今天仍有一席用武之地，并且新型材料和武器工程技术再次赋予了现代弓箭强大的生命力，用相对较少的拉力，发挥更大的威力。

In Minecraft, archery remains one of the best ways to take down your foes from a distance. If that’s not a reason to get friendly with your neighborhood fletcher, then what is?

在Minecraft中，射箭是从远处放倒你的敌人的不二之选。如果那都不能让你去跟你的制箭师邻居和平相处，那你就等着吃一箭吧！

【专刀你 译自官网 2022 年 11 月 03 日发布的 Block of the Month: Fletching Table；原作者 Duncan Geere】

【本文排版借助了：SPXX v2.4.13】