Chapter 40 defend the translation

Lowen This year is the year of besieging translators. It may be called "hard translation", or "random translation", or "I heard that there are many translators...translate as soon as they open the first line, let alone understand the original work", so it is interesting to see. "Unintelligible" [2]. This kind of phenomenon is indeed quite common in the translation field, and the root cause of the problem lies in "preemption".The Chinese are people who like to be the first to get on and off the trams, buy train tickets, and send registered letters, and they all like to be the first ones when they arrive.Translators, of course, cannot escape this example.As for bookstores and readers, they really don’t have the generosity and material resources to accommodate two translations of the same original. As long as there is a translated version, no bookstore will accept and publish it. It is said that there is already one, and no one will buy it.Here is an example: Darwin's "Origin of Species" has become a classic. There are two translations in Japan, the first one has many mistakes, and the second one is good.There is only one translation in China by Dr. Ma Junwu [4], but he is based on a bad Japanese translation, so another translation is really necessary.But where will there be bookstores willing to publish?Unless the translator is also a rich man, he will print it himself.But if he is a rich man, he will go to the abacus and never come to get any translation.

There is another layer, which is popular in China, which actually passes too quickly. When a kind of knowledge or literature is introduced to China, it takes as long as a year or as little as half a year, and it usually disappears.If a translator who makes a living by translating works carefully and deliberates, no one in society will care about him by the time he finishes his manuscript.China yelled at Tolstoy, Turgenev, and later Sinclair[5], but they didn't have a single anthology.Last year, although Mr. Guo Moruo[6] was well-known and fortunately published, I am afraid that it is still not enough to restore the laziness in the reading and publishing circles. It is bound to make readers tired, translators tired, and publishers tired. It will not end.

If the translation is not good, most of the responsibility should be on the translator, but the reading and publishing circles, especially the critics, should also bear some responsibility.To cure this bad luck, there must be correct criticism, pointing out the bad and rewarding the good, if not, then better ones will do.But how can this be? It doesn't matter to an unarmed translator who criticizes bad translation. If he offends someone with other backgrounds, he will put a red hat on you and literally kill you.This phenomenon makes the critics have to be dumbfounded. In addition, the most common dissatisfaction with translation nowadays is that I still can't understand after reading dozens of lines.But this should be distinguished.If it is a book like Kant's [7], even if a German reads the original text, if he is not an expert, he still cannot understand it for a while.Naturally, a translator who "translates from the first line" is too irresponsible, but a reader who wants to understand any translation regardless of the first line is too irresponsible .August fourteenth.

[1] This article was first published on August 20, 1933 in "Shenbao·Free Talk". [2] See Lin Yizhi's "Translation" and "Compilation" in "Shenbao·Free Talk" on July 31, 1933. In the article, he said: "Many people who do hard translation work there People, if they change their careers to do editing work with a new face, will they be able to do it?... I heard that there are many translators who don't even have the time to read the original work from beginning to end. It is even more impossible to talk about it.” On August 13th of the same year, “Freedom Talk” contained the Great Sage’s “Words on Translation”, and it said: “Most of the translations in our publishing industry are so bad that it is shocking. No matter what kind of translation, I often read three or four pages and still don’t know what to say.”

[3] Darwin (C.R.Darwin, 1809-1882) British biologist, founder of the theory of evolution.His book (a translation of "The Origin of Species"), published in 1859, is an important work that laid the foundation for the theory of biological evolution. [4] Ma Junwu (1882-1939) Minghe, a native of Guilin, Guangxi.At the beginning, he studied in Japan and participated in the Tongmenghui, and then went to Germany and received a doctorate in engineering from the University of Berlin.He once served as the deputy minister of the Industry Department of Sun Yat-sen's provisional government, and the president of Shanghai China Public School and Guangxi University.His translation of Darwin's "Origin of Species", translated as "Original Species", was published by Zhonghua Book Company in 1920. 〔5〕 Tolstoy (M.N.OGPQRGS, 1* Fu Bo Fu, Paul J. Paul Ai  "砉  Ku Yao  has novels,,, etc.. Turgenef (T. U. TVHWXXY, 1818 —1883), general translator Turgenev, Russian writer, author of the novel "Roting", etc. Sinclair (U. Sinclair, 1878-1968), American writer, author of the novel "Slaughterhouse", " "Carbon King", etc. [6] Guo Moruo (1892-1978) was born in Leshan, Sichuan. The main member of the Creation Society, writer, historian and social activist. He has written a collection of poems, historical drama "Qu Yuan", and a collection of historical essays "The Era of Slavery" ", etc. His translation of Tolstoy was published by Shanghai Literature and Art Book Company from 1931 to 1933, in three volumes (unfinished). [7] Kant (I. Kant, 1724-1804) German philosopher. One of his books, published in 1781.