Chapter 44 Postscript: The Book That Changed Your Life

Zhong Huiyuan Yes, this book changed my life.It's not that it inspired my scientific thinking or inspired me to invent any important instrument or any important theory.No, I'm not a scientist, not even a science buff.But if it weren't for this book, I'm afraid I'm just an ordinary office worker, or just a housewife. Let's start with 1998.At that time, I had just changed my job, and I could not die from hunger and hunger. Although my mind was a little empty, I was still happy to hide in a certain institution.One day I suddenly received a call, and the person at the other end said that his name was Ye Lihua.I have really heard of this name before, because I love reading novels so much, I read everything except literary novels, and I have a copy of his "Time and Space Game" at home.

He said that he wanted to promote science fiction when he returned to Taiwan. He said that he was looking for translation talents for Tianxia Culture. He said, would you like to give it a try?We were strangers and didn't even know how he had my number.But anyway, I gladly took it, it's always good to have a chance.Not long after, I received a trial translation from Tianxia, ​​and then we started to jointly translate the first book, which is the tetralogy of "Space Odyssey" that Master Clark had just finished writing, which Tianxia worked very hard to obtain the copyright. The final chapter, "3001: A Space Odyssey".

Of course I know that Clark is a giant in science fiction, and I also know that science fiction will not be an easy task, but Brother Ye gave me all the experience and experience of translating in the United States in the past few years.It is said that he is a joint translator, but he is actually more like a teacher.We meet once a week. I prepare the scheduled chapters in advance and interpret them for him when we meet. If he feels that there is a misunderstanding, mistranslation, or interpretation is not good enough, he can discuss it at any time. When I go home, I will translate the progress of the day into words. , Let him take it home to watch next time we meet, this is how we translate together.

At that time, I just thought that the first book I translated was such a hard book.I hardly have any science background, I was bad at math from a young age, let alone physical chemistry.And this book, in addition to scientific and astronomical terms and theories, also contains Sir Clark's imagination of the current human society that continues to evolve.The quotations throughout the book show Clark's erudition. Fortunately, Brother Ye is a scientist, but we still have to deliberate for a long time on every word and every sentence in the article; the casual discussions of the characters in the book must be checked again and again.There is a chapter about the discussion between Poole and Dr. Khan on art and aesthetics, which contains quotations, and various views and debates. In the era when Google was not invincible, such details took up a lot of my time after get off work. part time.But you can also see Sir Ke's forward-looking.He imagined that in 3001 A.D., humans would no longer eat animal food because of large-scale infectious diseases. Looking at mad cow disease, foot-and-mouth disease, and bird flu, I think humans may really have such a day.Here I will not emphasize the greatness of his works. If you want to read the background reading of the entire "A Space Odyssey" tetralogy, please go to Brother Ye's website http://sf.nctu.edu.tw/yeh/yeh0009.htm.

At that time, Brother Ye hired Zhang Mengyuan, the editor-in-chief of "Science Monthly" in order to make a science fiction series. When "3001" entered the editing stage, I was also pregnant with my eldest child, and the nausea was so serious that I literally vomited from morning to night.At that time, Meng also started to join our "course" and entered the second book of the series together. The meeting place was changed to the small meeting room in Tianxia. It often makes me swallow while interpreting or taking notes.We meet every week, eat together, discuss words and phrases, and gossip.Since then, I have never encountered an editor who has such a close relationship with the translator.In this way, we took Mr. Clark's book as a textbook and took English and translation classes respectfully for more than a year.

I can't say how much I benefited from it at that time, but I only know that I am still benefiting from it today.The various attitudes I learned at that time, such as being careful, diligently checking information, accepting instructions with an open mind, conveying the original intention of the author in detail, carefully recording the translated names and sources of all proper nouns, diligently reading reference books, etc., until now, have not carried out any editing and translation. When working, it is still my principle.Not to mention that because of the translation experience of this book, I have the opportunity to step into the editing job I want to do.

"3001" was published on June 30, 2000, and my son was born 12 days later.They are almost like twins, one of them is growing in my womb while the other is being printed into a book through a series of meticulous work.My son has just entered the first grade of primary school this year, and the brothers "3001" are re-released in Chinese at the same time, which is the beginning of another stage.Rereading "3001" is like revisiting the painful process of pregnancy and childbirth, but the results are still developing.