Chapter 31 talk about translation

Although the topic is "Talking about translation", I don't want to talk about the principles of translation here, and say what is honest and elegant.It's just that I have read countless translations in the past ten years, some from ancient texts, and some from modern texts.But because I don’t have much interest in translation, I don’t want to create a theory, no matter “soft translation” or “hard translation”, and I don’t want to write any introduction to translation studies, so these miscellaneous feelings are just piled up in my mind.Now that I have some feelings, I want to write them out.Because there is no proper title, it is called "Talking about Translation".

Although the topic is there, the miscellaneous feelings are still just miscellaneous feelings.I don't want to and I can't summarize these miscellaneous feelings into one system.Let's talk about it in two aspects. On Retranslation There are so many languages ​​in the world, no one can master all the languages ​​in the world.Even scholars who specialize in comparative linguistics know no more than a few dozen languages.The average person probably only understands one kind, except of course the illiterate.In this case, we have to translate. But let us not forget that translation is only a remedy for helplessness. "Yanzi Chunqiu Nei Pian" said: "Oranges born in Huainan are oranges, and those born in Huaibei are oranges. The leaves are similar, but the taste is different. So what? The water and soil are different." Orange (orange) moved to Huaibei, leaves Can still be similar.If an article, especially a literary work, is translated into another language, it will not even resemble the leaves, let alone taste.

For example, we have all read it.I think there is no one who is not amazed by the delicate and profound charm depicted in it.If we read the English translation now, no matter how good the English is, no one will shake their heads.Because this is just a retelling of the story in another language, but the meaning between the lines in the original language is gone.This is the so-called "in fact, the taste is different". But in China, many people actually moved the tangerine (tangerine) trees that had been moved to Huaibei to become trifoliate, and the fruit tasted bad again.It's a pity that Yanzi didn't tell us what this tree turned into.In fact, with a little imagination, we can imagine what a weird thing it will become.If we have read the Chinese retranslated books and proofread the original text, then a good example will be in front of us, and we don't even need to fantasize.

More than ten years ago, when I was still in middle school, the most popular books at that time were many literary theory books translated from Russian, such as Pulikhanov's Theory of Art, Lunakarsky's "What and What" kind.Not long after these books appeared, some people called them heavenly books, because ordinary mortals are like monk Zhang Er who can't figure it out when they read them.I myself felt a great enthusiasm for these books at the time.For a long time, almost every day, I read these books desperately.The meaning seems to be clear, but it seems not to understand.Reciting a sentence is like reciting the mantra of a Tibetan lama.Use a pencil to draw out which is the subject, which is the verb, and which is the adverb. There seems to be a way to follow at the beginning, but it becomes more and more confused. A sentence that is full of "bottom", "ground" and "of" is read in two or three lines. Halfway through, it was like falling into a fog, and it was difficult to struggle out.As a result, I suffered from insomnia several times.Although the translator has repeatedly stated that he hopes readers will bite the bullet and read on, it is said that there are still good things in it, but I would rather take a look at Baoshan in vain, and not have the courage to go in again.And I suspect that the translator doesn't understand either, unless he's a superhuman.Why are the heavenly scriptures so difficult to understand these days?The reason is very simple. These books, no matter whether the translators write clearly or not, are all translated from Japanese anyway, and the Japanese translators do not seem to understand the original Russian text.

When I write this, some people may protest, thinking that I am aimless; because there are not many such books, and we can only find a few books in bookstores that are retranslated.Most of the rest of the translations, whether translated from Greek, Latin or other languages ​​that few people in China can understand, only write the names of the original authors and translators.Why do I say that many people in China are translating?The reasons for this are complex.I knew a man before, and I knew for sure that he couldn't read a single Russian letter, but he translated a lot of literary and artistic works from Russian.As long as you ask this expert, you will be able to find out the mystery.

People like this are talkative people everywhere.I will now just give one more example.A university scholar in Shanghai became famous for his translations of Russian social science books. He told everyone that he translated directly from the original Russian text.But people who knew him said that he put the Russian version on the desk, but put the Japanese translation in the drawer.In this way, when he is working, of course he bows his head more often and raises his head less often, or he may not raise his head at all.If someone visits him and only sees the Russian text on the table, he will be shocked by the language genius of this great scholar.

We don't want to expose the truth about these great scholars now. Such people also have the right to live.We just oppose all retranslations, no matter whether they are clearly stated or not.We are still opposed to putting the original text on the table and putting the Japanese translation in the drawer.Works of science and philosophy can of course be retranslated as a last resort, but works of literature and art absolutely cannot.Some people may say that we can only learn English or Japanese in China, and translating from English or Japanese is not always a way.Yes, that's a way, I admit.But that's just a lazy man's way.If you are really interested in a foreign poet, dramatist or novelist, you should have the courage to learn the language of that country.If you don't even have the courage to do so, you should go away and go where you should go.Don't act like a fool here.We only need courageous people!

Second author and translator Who uses more power, the author or the translator?You can answer without thinking, of course it is the author.Therefore, in Europe, only the author's name is written on the cover of many translations, and the translator's name is only printed on the reverse side in very small characters, and it takes a lot of effort to find out.In magazines, only the author's name is often seen under the title, and the translator's name is written at the back of the article, which readers can only see after reading the article.What they mean is that the translator and the author dare not contend.

Not so in China.I have seen many books, only the translator's name is printed on the cover, and two or three big gold letters stand there arrogantly. The brilliance of these words may be too great, and the author's name has to escape into the book. to hide in a corner.Sometimes we can only find the name of the translator on the cover of the magazine or in the catalog inside, and even only the name of the translator is printed on the top of the article. The author can only find a place to live and work in a bracket at the back of the article.From a psychological point of view, this is a very interesting phenomenon.The translator was afraid that readers would only pay attention to the author's name, but he didn't have the courage to write off the author. Fortunately, since the article was in his hands, the original author had no right to speak and had to let him dispose of it. The author squeezed desperately into the shadows.I'm not a psychologist, but I can guess that abnormal psychologists must reserve a large place for these people in their books.

I have also seen a few more polite translators who are willing to let the author's name be listed together with their own.But I always feel unwilling, so I typesetting my name in large fonts and the author’s name in small fonts, so that readers will have a sense of bias at a glance, and the method is quite obvious.I immediately thought of Hitler's style during the German election.The German dictator, who is now posthumously called Shimmer, was in high spirits at the time, and the walls of the streets and alleys in various cities were covered with enlarged patterns of electoral votes.On it were the names of himself, Goering, Goebbels, Hess, and Frick, and two circles were printed below, one big and one small, like the sun and the earth.Older or short-sighted people will not see the circle anyway.This of course had its effect, because those who were in favor of Hitler had to put a mark in the big circle, and the small circle was for those who were against him.As a result, Hitler really succeeded, and ninety-eight percent of the Germans elected him.I always suspect that some people didn't see the small circle at all. Since everyone had to make a mark, they had to pick up a pen and smear into the big circle.The psychology of these polite translators in China is probably similar to that of Hitler.As for whether they were as successful as Hitler?I'm a bit speechless about this.

As I said before, some translators do not have the courage to wipe out the author.But here, as elsewhere, there is no shortage of courageous men.A scholar surnamed Ding Shuang and named Fubao "wrote" a Buddhist dictionary thick in dozens of volumes.We knew there was something wrong when we saw it, because this kind of work required years of collection and research.We have never heard of such an expert in China, but now he has such a big book out of thin air, we can't help but doubt it.The preface of the book mentioned the Japanese Oda Denon's Buddhist Dictionary. We brought a pair and realized that it was the translation of this book.But Mr. Dante absolutely denied that it was a "translation" and only admitted that it was a "author" because he added some new things into it.I was a little confused again.To translate a novel with several million words, you can take the book as your own only by adding ten or eight words of new materials. I am afraid that everyone in the world will come to translate the book.Mr. Dan Ding's great "work" is not without merit, and there are many jade photos of Mr. Ding inserted in it, such as Ding Fubao who studied the physiological age and Ding Fubao who studied the medical age, which are quite dazzling.Mr. Ding's appearance is not bad, although he is not as good as Dr. Wanhua.But it finally dawned on me.In the past, some people wanted to publish their jade photos in newspapers, but they had no chance, so they had to write a letter to Dou'an's Pharmacy, and of course attach the jade photos, saying in the letter that after taking such-and-such medicine, their such-and-such disease was cured , thanks.So after a while, my own face can appear in the newspaper like a celebrity, although the place is not quite right, and I don't care about so many.Now Mr. Ding has invented another method, so that people who want to be famous in the future don't have to pretend to have syphilis or addicts to write letters to big pharmacies.What a great merit.Can we not admire Mr. Ding's inventive ability? There was one more courageous man, and certainly a scholar.He translated several Japanese papers on Xianbei and the Huns, and published them under his own name.Later, when someone found out the original text and sent letters to question him, he stated that he had forgotten the author's name due to the rush of time.Of course, there are good reasons for this, because if you have to forget one name between others and your own name, of course you will forget others. Who doesn't love their own name? I just gave two examples above.There are more courageous people like this among us than there are mushrooms after the rain.It’s just that playing this trick in our country doesn’t have much to do with it, because many people know each other tacitly, but occasionally foreign scholars know about it, and it’s embarrassing for us.The dictionary of Ding Fubao I mentioned above, a German sinologist who is now a professor at Cambridge University, compared it with the original Japanese text, and he told me the result, which made me blush and speechless for a long time.This is a legal issue in foreign countries.If a person steals other people's things in his doctoral dissertation without declaring it, and if he finds out later, his doctoral title will be revoked immediately. I hope that Chinese laws will also punish this group of "heroes"! November 14, 1946